Fujifilm’s X100 series is a highlight of their range, an iconic design and in hot demand these days. It’s small enough to fit in most coat pockets and any small bag, and the 35mm-equivalent field of view is great for everything from street photography to environmental portraits. The X100S got me hooked on Fujifilm and I’ve been using them all professionally for over ten years now. So here’s what I consider some of the best, if not essential accessories for the Fujifilm X100VI, and the X100V as it shares the same design where it counts.

Hold onto your X100VI tighter with a thumbgrip

The X100VI is a small camera and can be a little uncomfortable to grip securely for long periods of time. Adding a hot-shoe mounted thumb grip instantly makes the camera so much more comfortable, for me anyway.

There’s a ton of these things on Amazon – mostly the same two rebranded designs over and over – but I use a Lensmate Thumbgrip. It’s actually for the X100V but works fine on the X100VI too. It’s nicely designed and very well made, the grip part falls just where my thumb wants to be, it’s deep enough to catch my thumb comfortably, and has a soft rubber pad where the thumb lies for comfort. It’s also very discrete with no logos or anything painted onto it, just the model number engraved in the top panel.

Because the design slightly obscures access to one of the buttons and the back dial, there’s a fold in the arm so you can easily push it out of the way when you need to. That sounds like it might be annoying but I barely use those two controls when shooting so I don’t mind, and it folds back and forth with a satisfying springy click. There’s a Lensmate thumbgrip specifically for the X100VI but I think the only real difference compared to the previous version is a change to the engraved model number.

 

Lensmate thumb grips are fairly expensive, but you get what you pay for. However, they’re also quite hard to get hold of here in the UK. The cheaper mass-produced grips for the X100VI aren’t bad though although you’ll quickly realise everyone on Amazon is selling one of a few rebranded AliExpress specials.

I picked up Smallrig thumbgrip for X100VI to try. It does keep all the controls exposed without the need for a hinge. However it’s also thinner and longer, with a much shallower scoop to catch your thumb, and a slightly annoying logo and pattern in white paint. It’s fine though. And if you’ve never used a thumbgrip on the X100VI before it’ll be much better than not having one. But I find the slightly shorter and much deeper Lensmate thumbgrip feels more comfortable and much more secure, and there’s no ugly logo.

A ‘soft release’ button allows for gentler snapping

A ‘soft release’ button makes the shutter release button more prominent, and to a degree a bit easier to control with confidence and comfort. The Fujifilm X100VI (and all its predecessors, and the X-T series too) has a screw thread in the shutter release button so you can screw in a remote release mechanism, or a soft release button. These are typically convex or concave buttons with a pin and thread underneath that screws into the shutter release. Sometimes there’s a little rubber washer that helps tighten the button into different shutter releases.

I’ve got the deep red convex soft release button from JJC. I prefer convex buttons as they allow my finger to kind of curl over the button rather than having to position my fingertip in the dip of a concave button. I find it’s easier to gently squeeze the shutter release this way. The Smallrig thumbgrip actually comes with a soft release button, but it’s a bright red concave button.

Weather sealing the Fujifilm X100VI

The X100VI, and X100V before it are not fully weather sealed, annoyingly. But you can pay Fujifilm the princely sum of £100 for what really amounts to a simple screw-on filter, plus an adaptor. You unscrew the current end-piece of the built-in lens, screw on the adaptor, then screw on the filter. A hundred quid!

Or you could get one of the many third party options for half the price, if not better. I went with the catchily-named Haoge LUVX54B in black from Amazon. Once attached it adds just under a centimetre onto the front of the lens with a nice chunky grippable ‘hood’, although it’s not really deep enough to do the job of a hood. So it ever so slightly reduces the ‘pocketability’ of the camera, but keeps it dust and water resistant and means I can leave the lens cap behind.

By the way the Amazon product photos make it look like the filter on the Haoge LUVX54B isn’t perfectly clear. Don’t worry, it is!

Shoulder strap, wrist strap, no strap?

essential accessories fujifilm x100vi 21 - Essential accessories for the Fujifilm X100VI and X100V

I have to be honest, I don’t like using straps if I can avoid it. They help keep the camera secure walking around with it, for sure, but I find they just get in the way when it comes to making photos. So with my X100V I went completely strap-less, using the Lensmate thumbgrip to keep a good hold of the camera when I’m using it.

But sometimes I do want to add a strap, and the easiest solution is to attach a pair of Peak Design’s ‘anchors’ to the two strap eyelets. Then you can easily attach whatever anchor-compatible straps you want. I have their lightweight Leash shoulder strap which is perfect for the diminutive X100VI, but if you prefer a wider shoulder strap you could go with the Slide, or the Slide Lite. And I’ve got their Cuff wrist-strap which again is ideal for the X100VI, and like the Leash is easily stuffed in a pocket when you don’t need it.

By the way, I find the Peak Design anchors work best with the triangular eyelet connectors by double-looping them. There’s just enough slack left to still be able to attach the anchors easily, and the slightly bulkier double looping keeps the triangle from scratching the X100VI’s metal as much, without needing the connector padding that comes with the camera.

Finally, there’s cheap knock-offs of the Peak Design anchors available, of course. Personally I don’t like to take the risk as you could damage your camera quite badly if they fail, and Peak Design has never let me down. But they have decent reviews on Amazon – you pays yer money, you takes yer choice.

Protecting the X100VI screen

I keep a case on my phone, and I put screen protectors on my camera LCD screens. It’s just too expensive and essential a component to risk serious damage to it, and in my professional work my X-T5 screens do get whacked a fair bit over the course of a year. My X100VI doesn’t get thrown around as much but a protector means one less thing to worry about when you throw it in a bag.

There’s two kinds of screen protector – the ‘floppy’ kind that’s a sort of slightly rubbery layer, and the more rigid ‘glass’ type. I have more success applying the glass ones, and they look pretty much invisible once applied. If your camera screen takes a very sharp knock the glass protector may crack but the screen will be fine – unless you REALLY whacked it! It’s easy enough to peel off even a cracked protector but there’s no danger of it falling off in use though.

For years Expert Shield were my go-to brand, but I recently tried JJC’s tempered glass screen protectors and they seem fine too. You get two in a pack, so if you’re careful you could use one pack for two cameras but the real reason they include two is in case you mess up applying it. Each pack comes with two each of the glass protector layer, and an application kit with a wet-wipe, dry-wipe, and a cloth to collect any final flecks of dust before you apply the protector.

 

Do you need an extra battery for the X100VI?

The Fujifilm X100VI takes their official NP-W126S battery, the same battery the X-T3 used. That was my workhorse for years so I’ve got loads of spares, official and third party. How fast you burn through it depends on a few things, but if you’re likely to use the camera all day, or even for a few hours intensively, especially with boost mode on or the screen brightness turned up, then you’ll be glad of a spare. Otherwise you could get by charging it off a power pack via USB-C when you’re out, and plugging into the wall when you’re home.

Should you get official Fujifilm batteries, or third party copies? For years I went third party as they tend to be at least half the price and who doesn’t like saving money? In the end I had no major issues but several of my well-used third party copies started swelling, which is a very bad sign so I’d replace that battery straight away. If one swells inside the camera to the point where you can’t get it out then you’re in trouble. I’ve yet to have a Fuji battery swell – at worst they’ll starting losing their charge capacity after a couple of years and a few hundred cycles.

Bear in mind that if you leave a third party battery in your camera all the time and always charge by USB you may not notice a swollen battery until it’s too late. So if you do use them go for ones with a lot of reliable reviews (maybe search the brand names on Reddit etc), and take them out every few weeks to keep an eye on them.

As for charging, the X100VI only comes with a USB cable for charging the battery inside the camera. That’s fine until you have two dead batteries to charge. In that case I recommend the FX1 by Nitecore. Unlike the plague of no-name brands on Amazon, Nitecore is a reputable brand that makes a bunch of excellent chargers and other tech tools. And unlike Fuji’s own official charger it can do two at once!

What memory card works best in the Fujifilm X100VI?

The X100VI requires an SD card, and I recommend an SDXC card up to 512GB. The jump in pixel density from the X100V effectively halves the number of files you can fit per card compared to previous generations so larger is better.

I use a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-II card and that’s plenty for me to use the camera for months without needing to prune unwanted files from the card, or dump it all off to a computer and start over. Here’s roughly how many photos you get in different sizes with 128GB:

  • Lossless Compressed raw: 2750
  • Large Fine 3:2 JPGs: 5280 / with LC raw: 1800
  • Large Normal 3:2 JPGs: 7900 / 2050
  • Medium Fine 3:2 JPGs: 9999+ / 2175

Other reputable brands include Lexar and the Sony Tough SD cards. I’ve used Sandisk Extreme Pro in my professional and personal photography for over a decade and never had any issues.

 

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