X-10 and X-20 - A Small Trap For the Unwary

A day of discoveries.

I use the Fuji X-10 and am delighted with it - should I lose it under a steam roller or over a waterfall I would replace it with the Fuji X-20. Same ease of handling and compact size - improved sensor action and in-bult cutoff for the back screen when you bring it to your eye. Same bottle - new wine - great flavour either way.

BUT.

The Fuji X20 flash unit is another thing. It is a small external flash unit that claps onto the Fuji shoe and locks there. It is necessary for the Fuji X-Pro1 as that camera does not have an on-board flash tube. But it can also be used on the X-10 easily. You just find the menu setting to enable external flash and set it on and blaze away.

When I tried to demonstrate this ease of use to a customer I could not get the external flash setting to appear - it was greyed out. The customer was frustrated and so was I. He wandered away to find another salesman who was younger, smarter, and faster ( fortunately he did find one...) and I was left to puzzle it out by myself. Eventually I did so.

If you mistakenly put the X-20 camera into the Automatic mode rather than Aperture priority or Program, the external flash option is denied to you. The Fuji people leave you to use the pop-up flash and that is that - I suspect it allows them to integrate the flash output with a pre-flash, but don't quote me on it. Suffice it to say that if you want to use the hot shoe, use it on Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Program or Manual.If yo select  EXR, Sp, Adv. and Auto, it don't let you do it.

There. I didn't get younger, faster, or richer, richer... but I did get smarter...