I visited Grand Central Station several times during my NYC trip last year. It’s such a wonderful architectural space with the old-world grandness that is rare in the United States. I shot the station as I passed through, but also made dedicated photography trips there. Early on, I was testing the Fujifilm X Half to see how well it might work in comparably dim lighting.

The essence of the Fujifilm X Half is a tiny, go-anywhere camera with fun, accessible film simulations. That’s what Fujifilm is best known for: the different types of film stock it emulates. Unlike the more expensive Fujifilm cameras, which offer the choice of JPEG and/or RAW, the X Half only shoots in JPEG. Everything is baked in, with little post-processing latitude.

Why have I applied the built-in grainy effect? First, it seems more filmic that way, which is one of the key goals of the camera. Equally important, however, is that despite the 1″ sensor, its image quality really isn’t very good. Disappointing actually. Certainly, it’s better than the Camp Snap. Still, I ultimately had to resort to applying a film grain effect to mask the deficiencies in image quality. That’s true of both cameras.

I have a good write-up of my first several days with the X Half on my Substack. It was interesting to re-read it. I still agree with everything I wrote, but it hints at the lurking challenges I had with the camera.

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