Best Fujifilm X100VI Settings for Beginners: Change These First

The best Fujifilm X100VI settings for a beginner start with the dials on top: leave shutter speed and ISO on their auto settings, choose your aperture with the lens ring, and let the camera handle the rest while you learn. After that, set your focus mode, file type, film simulation, viewfinder and Q Menu so the camera helps you instead of surprising you.

The settings to change first, in order

You don't have to change everything on day one. Work down this list, one row at a time, and take photos between each change so you can see what it does.

Setting	Where you find it	A beginner starting point
Shooting mode	Shutter speed dial, ISO (lift and twist), aperture ring on the lens	Shutter speed and ISO on auto, aperture chosen by you
Focus mode	Focus Mode selector on the left side	AF-C for people and moving subjects
Focus area	Q Menu, rear command dial	Single Point for still subjects
Face or Subject Detection	AF/MF SETTING menu	On when you photograph people or pets
File type	Image quality settings	HEIC or JPEG plus RAW
Film Simulation	Film Simulation setting	Pick one look and keep it for a week
Viewfinder	Viewfinder selector switch on the front	Electronic mode while you learn
Q Menu and Fn buttons	Customizable in the menus	Put the settings you change most within one press

First, meet the three settings that make every photo

Every photo comes from three settings working together. Think of them like three people carrying one table: if one lifts less, the others have to lift more.

• Aperture is like the pupil of your eye. A big opening lets in lots of light. A small opening lets in a little.
• Shutter speed is like a door opening and closing. A quick door freezes a running dog. A slow door lets the dog smear into a blur.
• ISO is like a volume knob for light. Turning it up makes a dark scene brighter, but it can add a grainy look.

The aperture ring

Aperture is set with the ring on the lens, which has two raised, textured handles. Digital Camera World's reviewer found it easy to turn with one finger and noted the clicks at each stop are audible, which helps if you don't want to take your eye off the viewfinder.

The shutter speed dial, with ISO hiding inside

Shutter speed has its own dial on top of the camera. That same dial has a trick: you lift it and twist it to change ISO. Picture a cake with two layers. The top layer is shutter speed, and lifting it lets you turn the ISO layer underneath.

The exposure compensation dial

The second dial on top handles exposure compensation. For example, if the camera makes a snowy scene look gray, you turn this dial toward plus to tell it, "a little brighter, please."

Setting 1: Choose your mode with the dials

Every dial has an auto setting, and you can mix manual and auto to shoot in aperture priority or shutter priority.

Aperture ring	Shutter speed dial	What you get
Auto	Auto	Point and shoot: the camera decides
Set by you	Auto	Aperture priority: you choose the opening, the camera picks the shutter speed
Auto	Set by you	Shutter priority: you choose the shutter speed, the camera picks the opening

A good first step is aperture priority. Leave ISO on auto too, so you only have one thing to think about. Turn the aperture ring, take the same photo a few times, and watch how the background changes.

If you grew up on cameras with thumb wheels, you can set the X100VI to cycle through aperture and shutter speed with its command wheels instead of the dials. Either way works. The dials just make your settings easy to read at a glance.

Setting 2: Focus mode and focus area

Blurry or soft photos often come from the camera focusing on the wrong thing, not from a broken camera. That's good news, because it's a setting you can fix.

Pick a focus mode

The Focus Mode selector sits on the left side of the camera. In AF-C, the camera keeps adjusting focus as your subject moves, tracking people around the frame when Face Detection or Subject Detection is on. For people who move, kids and pets, AF-C is the setting to try first.

Fujifilm's quick start guide also points to AF-C CUSTOM SETTINGS in the AF/MF SETTING menu, where you choose a preset from 1 to 5 based on the action you're photographing. You can leave this alone while you learn and come back to it once AF-C feels natural.

Pick a focus area

The focus area tells the camera where to look. You choose it in the Q Menu with the rear command dial, and you can change its size and move it around the frame.

Focus area	What it does	Try it for
Single Point	Highly selective, one small spot	A still portrait, a cup of coffee, a doorway
Zone	A larger box for erratically moving subjects	A toddler or a dog that won't sit still
Wide/Tracking	Uses the whole frame	Subjects that wander across the scene

The X100VI has no autofocus joystick, so moving the point uses other controls. Fujifilm's quick start guide walks through how to move the point or zone and change its size.

Turn on Face or Subject Detection

The X100VI's autofocus can recognize and track faces, eyes, animals, birds and vehicles. You turn Face Detection or Subject Detection on in the AF/MF SETTING menu, and you can also assign it to the Q Menu. If your subject is a person, turn it on and let the camera find the eye for you.

Setting 3: File type (HEIC, JPEG and RAW)

A RAW file is like the raw ingredients for a meal. A finished photo file is the cooked meal. The X100VI added support for HEIC files, a finished format. PetaPixel's reviewer shot mostly HEIC + RAW for the richer data compared to JPEG.

Shooting a finished file plus RAW is a kind safety net for a beginner. If a photo comes out too dark or the colors look off, the RAW file gives you more room to fix it later. Mistakes become practice instead of lost pictures.

One practical note from that review: in Photoshop for Mac, you have to choose to open HEIC files as RAW to edit them, because dragging them straight in gave an error.

Setting 4: Choose a film simulation

A film simulation is a ready-made look for your photos, like choosing a filter before you take the picture. Digital Camera World counts 20 film simulations on the X100VI, including Reala Ace, which is new to the X-Series. You can also change color and contrast to build picture settings that suit your taste.

PetaPixel's reviewer liked using simulations to preview an edit while shooting, even when not planning to publish the camera's JPEGs. That reviewer ended up using Provia, Acros and Velvia most, describing Velvia as ideal for scenes with lots of green and blue. The same reviewer felt Reala Ace lacked the color punch and contrast they personally like, while PetaPixel's hands-on described it as giving natural-looking saturation and contrast. Taste differs, and that's fine.

Try this: pick one simulation and shoot only with it for a week. You'll learn what it does far faster than switching every ten minutes.

Setting 5: Optical or electronic viewfinder

The X100VI's viewfinder switches between optical and electronic modes with the selector switch on the front of the camera. The optical view shows the world as it is, with menus and gridlines laid over it.

PetaPixel's reviewer preferred the electronic viewfinder to see exactly what the camera sees and preview the chosen film simulation. They also noted that stabilization and autofocus performance are slightly worse in optical mode.

While you're learning exposure, the electronic view is the friendlier choice. You see a photo too dark or too bright before you press the button, so you can fix it right away.

Setting 6: Make the Q Menu and Fn buttons yours

The Q Menu shows information at a glance and gives quick access to settings, and you can change what's on it to suit your way of working. The Fn buttons and other controls, including touch gestures on the rear screen, can also be changed from their default behaviour.

Start small. Put the things you change most, like focus area and Face or Subject Detection, where one press reaches them. Leave the rest until you notice yourself hunting for something.

Setting 7: The control ring and Digital Teleconverter

The X100VI has a fixed 23mm f/2 lens, and two Digital Teleconverter modes give you longer effective focal lengths by using part of the 40.2-megapixel sensor. By default, the control ring on the lens runs the digital zoom. Digital Camera World lists the 50mm crop at 20MP and the 70mm crop at 10MP.

This is cropping, not optical zoom, so each step gives you a smaller file. You can set the control ring to other functions in the settings if you'd rather use it for something else.

Fixing blur: stabilization, slow shutter and the ND filter

The X100VI has in-body image stabilization rated at six stops. In PetaPixel's review, the reviewer hand-held the camera for half a second and got sharp backgrounds with blurred movement in the foreground, finding about a quarter second the sweet spot.

Notice what that means: stabilization steadies your hands, not a moving subject. If people in your photo are blurry but the building behind them is sharp, your shutter speed was slow. That isn't a failure. You just learned the trick behind those dreamy street photos, and you can use it on purpose later.

To shoot slow shutter speeds in bright daylight, the PetaPixel reviewer regularly turned on the built-in neutral density (ND) filter. Think of it as sunglasses for your camera.

For fast action, PetaPixel lists 11 frames per second with the mechanical shutter and 20 with the electronic shutter.

Battery, memory card and phone connection

PetaPixel's review says battery life isn't great, and the reviewer guessed they used less battery than a teammate by turning the camera off whenever they weren't shooting. Carrying a spare battery is a sensible habit to start with.

The X100VI uses a UHS-I SD card slot. Fujifilm asks you to check its website for memory card compatibility.

The camera connects to your phone or tablet over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to transfer pictures, and you can control it remotely with a live view. In remote mode, you tap the image to change focus and select the S.S., F and ISO icons to adjust exposure.

Where to go next

Once these settings feel comfortable, the beginner settings guide for Fujifilm cameras goes wider across the brand, and these ten beginner photography tips help with composition and light. If you'd like a short lesson in your inbox each week, the thecamera.school newsletter is a gentle way to keep going.