It's a bad idea but... Rigging the Fujifilm X100V for Video Production

I had some spare time this evening and the thought had hit me that the Fujifilm X100V can output a 4:2:2 10-bit signal in 4K from the HDMI port. The camera essentially has the same sensor as Fujifilm’s higher end stills cameras, and those produce a great image, so why wouldn’t this camera be able to do the same? Better yet, it has a built-in 35mm f/2 lens that has been purpose built around the sensor. The camera also has decent continuous autofocus. And did I mention all of the film profiles it has?

If I could get the X100V to output 4:2:2 10-bit 4K in either F Log or a cinema film profile and get it all with continuous autofocus at f/2, I would be having a lot of fun.

I wanted to test this out.

The X100V, though, isn’t designed for this. There are no ¼-20s anywhere on it. So I had to rig something up.

What I ending up putting together actually feels neat and tidy. The core structural elements are the Kondor Blue baseplate and the SmallRig V Mount battery adapter. The aluminum parts of these two pieces form the L shape that wraps around the camera. Beyond that, it was a matter of spare parts, a few rails, and some creative thinking.

It is a somewhat annoying that the mounting hole on the bottom of the X100V is not centered beneath the lens. It’s off to the side. For this reason, I had to offset the matte box.

This whole rig is totally unnecessary. I could have mounted the Blackmagic Design Video Assist 12G right above it with a shoe adapter and called it a day. But that wouldn’t have been as much fun, right?

All that’s left to do is give it a test.

That will have to wait. I did not have any micro HDMI cables, so had to order one.