I’ve owned my X100S for a couple months now, and decided to get a case for some upcoming traveling. I wanted something well made that would suit the aesthetics of the camera, so I decided on the Kaza case.
These cases are all hand made, so it was about a month from when I ordered it to when it arrived at my door. I opted for the vintage brown color because it looks great, and it’s a nice contrast against the black body of the camera.
Included in the package are a neck strap, half case, full enclosure, and a clip to hold the full case together.
The leather quality on the strap feels great, and here you can see an embossed Kaza logo on the back of it.
They also have these wrapped bits on the ends to give it a bit of contrast. You’ll notice they really like to include their logo everywhere though.
The hardware seems decent enough, nothing too out of the ordinary.
The case itself feels very substantial, as the leather is surprisingly thick.
The leather already looks like it’s aging, which I’m a big fan of. Again, they’ve decided to put their logo on the bottom and the inside of the case.
They say they have a special technique in which they hand paint the leather to give it a slightly shiny texture and a “vintage feeling”.
Here is the other half of the case that goes around the rest of the camera.
This to me, is strange. They’ve included this loop on the newest design to allow you to attach a carabineer to it, which would attach to your belt loop. Do people actually do this?
The inside of the case has the same contrasting dark leather that they are using throughout.
Here is the camera sitting inside the half case. I love the color combination, and think this is how I’ll be using the case most of the time.
They’ve added a button clasp to easily allow you to access the strap loop.
Here it is on the other side.
You can really see how thick the leather is on the bottom of the case.
The camera fits pretty snug inside the case. It doesn’t look like I’ll have to worry about it falling out, as it takes a little bit of tugging to get it out in the first place.
The case really gets out of the way when you look at it from the back.
There is a little bit of wiggle room on the front of the case, but I’m thinking it will decrease over time when the leather loosens up a bit.
They include a good amount of room to switch between focusing modes, although the case can cover up the text a bit depending on its position.
To attach the full case, you just slide it in through the back and clasp it shut with the single button.
It does add a considerable amount of size to the camera, but keep in the mind the case will also fit over a lens hood. I wish they had an option to order a smaller case for those that don’t require it.
I don’t think I’ll be using the full case too often, but it’s nice to have if it’s bouncing around in a bag while travelling.
While I was doing some research into this case, I found a review saying it wouldn’t fit on the camera if it was fitted with a thumbs up. You can see mine poking out of the top right here.
While it’s not the greatest fit if you have a thumbs up installed, it still closes no problem. It does make the leather distort around the edges a bit slightly though.
Here is a straight on shot to show how much the thumbs up gets in the way. It’s still doable, and since I won’t be using the full case all the time, I’ll be keeping the grip on.
These will give you a better sense of size that the case adds to the camera.
This is where things get a little bit tricky. If the full case is on, the memory card and battery are still accessible, although you might have to slide the casing over a bit to actually open it up.
That is, if you can open it up. Here you can see the door getting stuck on the case, not allowing it to open.
After some more prying, I’ve managed to get it mostly open.
And finally with the help of a guitar pick, I’ve managed to get the door all the way open. If the design allowed for an extra 2mm of space all the way around, opening this door would no longer be a pain. For a handmade product, I would at least expect them to test it on the camera before shipping it out.
Update: After a few weeks of use, the leather stretched out a bit and the door is easy to open.
Final thoughts
Overall I’m pretty happy with the case because of the design and the quality of the material. If I were to wish for anything, it would be a slightly larger opening on the bottom for the door, a smaller option for those without needing the room for a lens hood, a revised design to accommodate a thumbs up and to ditch the loop on the back of the case to attach to your belt loop.
