Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai.
In this video I'll be going over this
Fittest LB-X100F grip.
I went on Amazon and I looked for one of the cheapest ones I could find that looked relatively
decent for under $30 shipped.
It seemed pretty appealing according to the pictures and description.
I got the grip just recently and it turns out everything was spot-on.
So with this grip, I'm going to go over the negatives and then also the positives, of
course.
Let's start with the negatives.
It adds bulk to the camera, but then you can easily remove it when you don't want to use it.
So I don't really see that as a negative.
Between f2.8 and f8, the aperture ring with the little nubs on the sides to help you adjust it
and this larger grip, will give you less room for your fingers.
It really depends on how you hold the camera.
And how big fingers are and different things like that.
I did notice there was a little bit of flex with the grip if you hold it tight enough.
I might put some adhesive backed foam between the grip and the camera, just for added protection.
I mean I don't think it's going to wear down the camera, but something to keep in mind.
That's pretty much it for the negatives I've seen so far.
Let's get to the positives.
This is a pretty cheap add-on.
You get a lot of extra functionality.
You get a larger grip that gives you more assurance with holding the camera.
The X100 grip is pretty decent, but this adds more to hold onto.
You do get some extra protection from bumps, drops, scrapes... whatever.
It doesn't cover the entire camera, but it covers a lot of the left side of the camera
from the back.
And of course all of the bottom.
I have scrapes up my camera a little bit on the bottom, which I regret, of course.
I wish I had the grip in those situations where I had set the camera on rocks or something.
I don't remember what it was exactly.
But with a grip you wouldn't have had that issue of messing up the paint on your camera.
The X100F battery door latch is pretty easy to accidentally open.
With this grip on the camera it's almost impossible to accidentally hit that latch, which is a
nice benefit for me.
Because I've had the latch come open a few times in the past.
So the X100F's tripod hole is offset from the lens.
But in this case, the grip has a tripod hole that is in-line with the lens.
That's a big benefit for doing panoramas, doing panning videos...
I really like that feature.
Another issue with the X100F is that if you attach a quick-release plate to the camera,
there is a very likely chance you won't be able to access the battery or the SD card.
In this case, it gives you at least more possibility to access both of those things with a quick
release plate on the grip itself.
I have two different quick release plates.
The smaller one actually lets me pull out the battery, which is very nice.
The larger one does not, but you also have the option to use these rails on the bottom
and the side of the grip.
They mention complete Arca Swiss Kirk Siri... whatever compatibility.
I don't know the details of what type of system that is, but I'll be looking up all of that
and seeing if I can find a relatively cheap tripod head for that system.
Even without using a tripod, this grip lets you set it on a flat surface with a lot more
stability.
Especially horizontally, but you can also set it vertically.
And it is pretty solid even in that case.
You could do some nice vertical shots on a table or something.
Every button and feature of the camera is not blocked by this grip, so there is really
no negative that I've seen so far.
You can actually remove the side piece, or the grip itself from the main section.
It does include two little wrenches to take those off.
So the screw that holds the grip to the camera allows you to use the included wrench, or
you can use some type of coin.
So that's a nice benefit out in the field.
So that's pretty much it for this grip so far.
Very solid nice and cheap.
I paid around $30 shipped.
I'm sure the prices will fluctuate, but very solid feeling in the hands.
Materials are metal and the paint job is very nice.
Anyways, that was the Fittest LB-X100F grip for the Fujifilm X100F camera.
I hope you found this interesting.
I'm Scott from Photography Banzai.
Thanks!