An Erratic Tale - the effects on the X100 of the sticky blades syndrome.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 1:51 PM 
As I wait on Fujifilm Canada for a waybill to send in my X100, I thought I’d show you guys the effects of the now infamous sticky blades syndrome. This is a hardware defect that causes the aperture blades to stick, essentially not closing down to the correct value. The results? Wildly chaotic exposures baby.
The easiest way to see it in action is to do a simple test, as I did here:
- Choose a room with controlled lighting.
- Place the X100 on a tripod.
- Set the aperture to f16, the ISO at 200 (no AUTO) and the shutter speed to whatever value will give you a usable exposure. Set dynamic range to 100 as well.
- Disable the flash.
With this setup everything is in manual mode, which means every single frame should look the same right? Here’s what happens when I try it:
Notice the EXIF and time stamp. I can recreate this over and over. Sometimes it takes longer to kick in but it always does at some point. Needless to say this can seriously mess with consistency and how you expect the camera to react at given settings. It makes exposure compensation highly erratic.
The effect is also visible if you look into the lens as shown in this video.
So my X100 will be taking a little trip to the mothership. Fujifilm Canada promises a two day turnaround. Hopefully there won’t be the type of mixup I went through with our emails… They somehow “lost” the replies (plural) I sent with my info, resulting in 8 days of radio silence. But… Bygones.
As long as this gets fixed, I’ll be a happy shooter.
X100, X100 bugs, aperture, fujifilm, sticky blades, syndrome in fujifilm X100, gear, photography | Tweet
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Reader Comments (6)
That's a bit scary.
I wonder if this is a common fault with the X100? I've noticed a lot of cases on the net of people having to get their X100 repaired. I'm not sure if it's more than other camera models or just because I'm more conscious of it???
Good luck with it Patrick, I hope you get a quick turnaround.
Derek.
Mine is at the Fuji doctor atm too.
Sent Tuesday, received by them first thing Wed. Still no word so pacing outside operating room continues :(
@Derek: It IS a hardware fault but apparently it affects earlier production units and can manifest itself anytime between 1000 to 5000 clicks. According to the Fuji technician I spoke with this morning, they've since corrected the issue. He also told me they'd be replacing the entire lens assembly, including the sensor! Huge job. Means I'll be getting something close to an entirely new camera if you think about it…
@Nick: Sending my best wishes ;)
We're told there's a two day turnaround on that repair over here.
They told me 48hrs also
Mine was bought Dec 26th last year so not sure about the "early model" syndrome tbh
Nick
Was it? Hmm... Here's hoping they're actually fixing something and not simply postponing the inevitable.
I haven't noticed this problem, but this would really suck if it occurred after the 12-month warranty. I'll do a test tomorrow to double-check. Thanks for the info.