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FrankF asked if I could write up something about processing X-Trans raw files, noting that his usual adjustments for NEF files didn’t work with RAF files. Straight off, and despite much dismissive hand waving by those who would use Adobe Lightroom or Camera Raw to process their files regardless of any opinion as to the quality of the end result for X-Trans files, I can only say that I’ve tried ACR at every update until CC Rent-a Shop came into play and the results, while tinkered with substantially about the edge, were still nowhere near as good as processors using Dave Coffin’s dcraw algorithms for the X-Trans demosaic. So the following will not be for Adobe users as I don’t use LR/ACR for X-Trans. Ever. As Frank uses Photo Ninja (as do I), I’ll run through what I do to convert X-Trans raw files using that program. This is just how I use it, I'm not suggesting it is gospel. I really like the results I get this way, so I guess that's what really matters to me - your needs might vary. For whatever reason the folk at PN did individualise their program by assigning names to sliders that are not common in their effect to more conventionally consistent names in other makers’ programs. This isn’t really a problem once familiarity is gained, but can be confusing at first. Here’s the image I used as Photo Ninja presented it straight from the demosaic. I used this image because it has fine detail, the highlights are overexposed, and there are many fine and small colour gradations - plus the folder was open on the computer anyway . As a photograph it isn’t anything much, but as a taxing of the demosaic it perhaps is. The following is how I have found it best to use the controls - this might differ from any “official” instructions, but hey, whatever works.... Note that when you're working in any panel, clicking on the ◄► icon under the sliders (highlighted in screen grab below)will show the unprocessed image, releasing will show the processed image concerning that panel. After exiting one of the control panels for the overall menu, clicking on them will show the unprocessed image, releasing will show the processed image including all panels adjusted so far. So at any time you can flick back and forward between processed states without having to hunt all over the screen for a preview box to tick or un-tick. Here’s a screen grab at 100% of the image as opened, along with clipped highlight indicators: So here’s the PN controls panel as it has opened an un-worked image with default settings: Starting at the top, and the first hurdle which had me stumped for a long time when I first used this current version of PN (and which took an email to PN support to get an answer) is the “Color correction” menu. Misleading, because in it is the slider that controls what everyone else calls "Highlight recovery" but has been called “Color recovery” in PN. Further confusion is caused by the fact that its default setting is strength 100. At this setting PN will fill any blown highlights with an aggregate colour from the surrounding un-blown area, which can sometimes look awful, even taking on a solarised appearance. The Color correction panel: I have changed that default number to 50 in my prefs, which I find a better overall beginning setting for my files, but that might vary according to your shooting style. Whatever, it is something to be aware of. On the whole PN and Fuji together seem to do a good job on colour balance, but if there’s a lot of green in shot you’ll probably have to do a custom WB and knock excessive magenta compensation out of the default. I didn't mess with WB in this case, though, although it could be improved a bit I suppose. For comparison purposes I also thought a constant WB might be more useful. I would have warmed it up, although in this case the cool tone serves to locate the scene on the cusp of winter during a cold (6°C) day rather effectively. Next in the main panel is the primary adjustment menu - “Exposure and detail”. These are the settings it opened the sample image with: As can be seen, there’s a bit going on at the right of the histogram that’ll need hauling into line (clipped highlights indicated with the red line). The first thing to keep in mind is to try to work from the top down in this panel. The Illumination and Exposure offset sliders directly affect one another and should be worked in concert, keeping an eye on the highlight clipping indication in the preview image as well as watching the histogram. In this case in order to haul the highlights back it will be necessary to further reduce Exposure, then return the image to its original overall brightness with the Illumination slider. (If the image is underexposed to the left of the histogram, then the opposite movements of these two sliders will be required, and contrast increases in that case). As can be seen, the image no longer spills to the right, and the histogram light tones are a bit more centralised and the clipped highlights are recovered. The visual effect will be to have slightly flattened the contrast of the image, and as there is no need to adjust shadows as they are are not falling off the left of the histogram the Shadows and the Black sliders can be skipped and the Contrast slider gently bumped up until the shadows just start to block, and then backed off a bit. In this case enough punch was added back by shifting Contrast to +7. The final slider in this panel is the Detail slider and this must be approached with the utmost caution with X-Trans files. With Bayer files it is relatively gentle but with Fuji X it is vicious and some real artefacting can occur. I’ve found that maximum setting of +4 is all I can use before things get choppy. This slider can be used to the negative side with great effect to reduce grain noise, however, and sometimes works better than third party NR programs, or Noise Ninja itself, for that matter. Next comes the Color enhancement window. This has three presets in a drop-down menu - “Plain" (obvious as to effect), “Portrait” (which darkens/dulls green and blue but lightens/accentuates yellows and reds) and “Scenic” which saturates all colours. My default opening settings for this image: I have set my prefs to open this in Portrait mode as above, and will then use the fine-tuning sliders to alter the depth and saturation of individual colours as indicated in the colour boxes above the sliders. Select a box (green in this case) and adjust the Hue and Hue affinity sliders to bring back the brightness to the greens that the “Portrait” preset had killed a bit much. The rest of the control panels are more targeted and to be honest I rarely use them as I have other programs that do the job better. Occasionally I'll use the vignette for effect or the Chromatic aberration if processing a file taken with an older Nikon AI-s wide-angle, but the Fuji lenses really don't have any aberrations to worry about - at least none of mine do. Even the little Samyang 8mm fisheye is amazingly free or fringing. For sharpening I use Helicon Filter as a Photoshop plug-in, specifically the “sharpen fine details” slider in the sharpening panel, which usually gets best results between +15 & +25, and it has the least halo effect of any sharpener I have used. So here’s the finished processed shot And here’s a set of 100% sections of the before, the after, and one final one with +15 Helicon Filter sharpening as well. Default: Processed: Processed and Helicon Sharpen Fine Details +15: The final version here might be a bit over-sharpened for screen, but is about what I find prints best on my Epson 7800 using Innova Smooth Cotton High White and Ilford Gallerie Gold Fibre Silk. Once familiar with the program, running through these adjustments takes only a few seconds, and from that point of view it is much quicker than other dcraw-based processors I've tried (Windows - I don't use Mac). But getting quick at it does take practice, as with anything. Postscript: As always we'll be compromised by the ancient web colour space of sRGB and jpeg compression. Of course this image was processed in 16-bit Pro Photo colour space, and saved so tagged as an uncompressed TIFF, which means it probably looks a whole lot different to what you may be seeing on your monitor. One day the Web will catch up, maybe after it is done trying to be a phone app and gets back to being something worthwhile. View full article
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.
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I needed something wider than 18mm for the X-E1 to take pictures whilst doing safety inspections of heavy machinery. The choices were my superb Sigma 12-24mm in a Nikon mount, the Fuji 14mm and the Samyang 12mm f/2.0. The Sigma is slow at f/4.5 and quite large, and the Samyang is half the price of the Fuji. The loaner Samyang arrived today, and after an hour's use my first impressions are quite positive: Nicely packaged; not luxurious but not the bare minimum either. Nice looking lens. Smaller and more compact than I expected for a relatively fast lens. With hood reversed the camera with lens attached will fit in a Lowepro AW50 on my belt. Well made; not quite the Fuji XF, but good finishing, well polished and feels substantial. However the plastic lens-hood and focus collar feel like hard plastic of a type I've known to break on other types of equipment, but this is a subjective observation. Printed lettering, not engraved. Substantial metal mount with three screws The aperture ring clicks are audible and feel positive, with two clicks per stop. The aperture stops are clearly marked on the top of the lens. The focus ring is fairly tight on a warm day (mid twenty deg C), with no chance of creep. From near-to-far involves just over a 90 degree twist, and the focus mechanism is internal and rear elements do move. Distance scale is on the top of the lens in feet and metres, and is quite legible but printed on. There are no depth of field scales on the barrel. The hood is large and reversible, and does obscure the popup flash so much of the bottom half of the image will be in shadow. Clicking into place is positive, but it may become quite loose over time. The camera rests almost flat with the hood attached The front element does not protrude past the body of the lens, so you could stand the camera face down without the hood on a flat surface like a desk (not that I'd recommend it). Optics are coated, with a purple sheen on the front element and amber-purple at the rear. First impressions on performance are also good: I haven't taken any images of brick walls, but distortion seems managed and not fish-eye. Lines through the middle of the image are straight, and along the edges the distortion seems to be a simple curve and not complex moustache. Colour is neutral and not yellow as some Sigma lenses can be. Bokeh is smooth, but I haven't tested it on point sources yet. There is minor purple fringing on the edges of the frame in high contrast areas (i.e. twigs against white cloud). This seems better to the centre of the image. Drawing is pleasant and neutral. There is some vignetting, but it's not particularly obvious. Depth of field ranges is enormous at narrower apertures and at the long end, but it does have a narrow depth of field at the other end. Close up at f/2 took me by surprise. Maybe 15mm of depth is usably sharp at closest focus, 15cm of depth at 1m away. Resolution appears good and sharpness too. And the lens is very easy to use: It is manual focus only. For snaps just use focus peaking and hyperfocal distance and the X-E1 gets it every time. Use the camera zoom function for close work and wide apertures. It is much easier to focus than the Sigma 12-24, because one had to be careful with such a wide field to focus carefully or the lens would hunt a bit (also to do with aperture). Small enough to be convenient, but not too small for my hands (not the biggest, but not small either) My verdict is that this is a keeper. I will take some interesting images over the next few days and add them to my impressions.
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I needed something wider than 18mm for the X-E1 to take pictures whilst doing safety inspections of heavy machinery. The choices were my superb Sigma 12-24mm in a Nikon mount, the Fuji 14mm and the Samyang 12mm f/2.0. The Sigma is slow at f/4.5 and quite large, and the Samyang is half the price of the Fuji. The loaner Samyang arrived today, and after an hour's use my first impressions are quite positive: Nicely packaged; not luxurious but not the bare minimum either. Nice looking lens. Smaller and more compact than I expected for a relatively fast lens. With hood reversed the camera with lens attached will fit in a Lowepro AW50 on my belt. Well made; not quite the Fuji XF, but good finishing, well polished and feels substantial. However the plastic lens-hood and focus collar feel like hard plastic of a type I've known to break on other types of equipment, but this is a subjective observation. Printed lettering, not engraved. Substantial metal mount with three screws The aperture ring clicks are audible and feel positive, with two clicks per stop. The aperture stops are clearly marked on the top of the lens. The focus ring is fairly tight on a warm day (mid twenty deg C), with no chance of creep. From near-to-far involves just over a 90 degree twist, and the focus mechanism is internal and rear elements do move. Distance scale is on the top of the lens in feet and metres, and is quite legible but printed on. There are no depth of field scales on the barrel. The hood is large and reversible, and does obscure the popup flash so much of the bottom half of the image will be in shadow. Clicking into place is positive, but it may become quite loose over time. The camera rests almost flat with the hood attached The front element does not protrude past the body of the lens, so you could stand the camera face down without the hood on a flat surface like a desk (not that I'd recommend it). Optics are coated, with a purple sheen on the front element and amber-purple at the rear. First impressions on performance are also good: I haven't taken any images of brick walls, but distortion seems managed and not fish-eye. Lines through the middle of the image are straight, and along the edges the distortion seems to be a simple curve and not complex moustache. Colour is neutral and not yellow as some Sigma lenses can be. Bokeh is smooth, but I haven't tested it on point sources yet. There is minor purple fringing on the edges of the frame in high contrast areas (i.e. twigs against white cloud). This seems better to the centre of the image. Drawing is pleasant and neutral. There is some vignetting, but it's not particularly obvious. Depth of field ranges is enormous at narrower apertures and at the long end, but it does have a narrow depth of field at the other end. Close up at f/2 took me by surprise. Maybe 15mm of depth is usably sharp at closest focus, 15cm of depth at 1m away. Resolution appears good and sharpness too. And the lens is very easy to use: It is manual focus only. For snaps just use focus peaking and hyperfocal distance and the X-E1 gets it every time. Use the camera zoom function for close work and wide apertures. It is much easier to focus than the Sigma 12-24, because one had to be careful with such a wide field to focus carefully or the lens would hunt a bit (also to do with aperture). Small enough to be convenient, but not too small for my hands (not the biggest, but not small either) My verdict is that this is a keeper. I will take some interesting images over the next few days and add them to my impressions. View full article
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On Sunday the Forests issue got traction yet again in protest to the current Federal government's attempt to have half of the recently declared (by UNESCO, at the previous Government's request) as extensions to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with an on-location protest rally in the forest. Considering it was a cold day, and that there is only one road into the area and no facilities at all out there, some 2,000 people turning up from all over the State was indeed telling as to the public mood concerning the situation. The main road was parked on both sides for over 4km, which meant some had a decent return walk to accomplish, with the rally itself being held on a contentious forestry logging road. I had been contracted specifically to photograph 13 people standing in a line holding large cut-out letters in the form of a slogan whilst standing in the old growth forest. Now this may sound easy, but the room to do that simply doesn't exist in that forest, however a combination of the X-T1 & 14mm lens on a Nodal Ninja pano head, with the people standing in a part circle each 3 metres from the camera solved the problem just fine, 9 shots left to right. When stitched they appear to be in a roughly straight line . (Yes, I anticipated that & did it deliberately this way). Click on for 1920px HD size. I also covered the shot with the X-Pro1 and Samyang 8mm fisheye with the camera on a 60° tilt, and while this allowed more foreground & height it was nowhere near the IQ of the Fuji 14mm on the X-T1 above: I love the kid in the left background who got bored and went to look at the fungi The forest was dark as it was raining lightly, so I shot the thing @ 1/15 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1600 for each frame to avoid as much subject movement as possible without losing DOF, and despite taking 5 separate sequences on two separate setups I only had one fidgety bloke who managed to move his head each time, but slightly enough that it made no difference. I then switched to "coverage mode", shooting a series of speakers at the mic under a green marquis at 3200 ISO with the 55-200 lens and OIS engaged and only had to cull two shots out of the lot for movement. The IQ was better than acceptable, and I would have struggled for that keeper rate with the D3s (and for which I certainly didn't have a lens that could have gotten in so close with). Celebrity TV actress Lisa Gormley getting a bit emotional (Home & Away TV soap drama) Activist & Tasmanian forest tree-sitter (457 continuous days) Miranda Gibson Lastly I attached the X-Pro1 & fisheye to my fully extended RRS monopod and held it up at full arm's stretch after triggering the self timer @ 2secs delay for an "overhead" of everyone turned to wave at the "official" aerial photographer who had climbed onto a platform 20 metres up the tree to take his shot... (I say "official" inasmuch as several photographers had each been allocated their particular tasks - this was primarily an event for publicising via the media). So yes, I don't regret for one second switching to the Fuji - I was still fresh at the end of the day, no backache or shoulder pain, and my load including the tripod was around 6kg instead of over double that, all contained in four pouches on my Lowepro Technical vest and in my RRS Tripod bag.
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On Sunday the Forests issue got traction yet again in protest to the current Federal government's attempt to have half of the recently declared (by UNESCO, at the previous Government's request) as extensions to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with an on-location protest rally in the forest. Considering it was a cold day, and that there is only one road into the area and no facilities at all out there, some 2,000 people turning up from all over the State was indeed telling as to the public mood concerning the situation. The main road was parked on both sides for over 4km, which meant some had a decent return walk to accomplish, with the rally itself being held on a contentious forestry logging road. I had been contracted specifically to photograph 13 people standing in a line holding large cut-out letters in the form of a slogan whilst standing in the old growth forest. Now this may sound easy, but the room to do that simply doesn't exist in that forest, however a combination of the X-T1 & 14mm lens on a Nodal Ninja pano head, with the people standing in a part circle each 3 metres from the camera solved the problem just fine, 9 shots left to right. When stitched they appear to be in a roughly straight line . (Yes, I anticipated that & did it deliberately this way). Click on for 1920px HD size. I also covered the shot with the X-Pro1 and Samyang 8mm fisheye with the camera on a 60° tilt, and while this allowed more foreground & height it was nowhere near the IQ of the Fuji 14mm on the X-T1 above: I love the kid in the left background who got bored and went to look at the fungi The forest was dark as it was raining lightly, so I shot the thing @ 1/15 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1600 for each frame to avoid as much subject movement as possible without losing DOF, and despite taking 5 separate sequences on two separate setups I only had one fidgety bloke who managed to move his head each time, but slightly enough that it made no difference. I then switched to "coverage mode", shooting a series of speakers at the mic under a green marquis at 3200 ISO with the 55-200 lens and OIS engaged and only had to cull two shots out of the lot for movement. The IQ was better than acceptable, and I would have struggled for that keeper rate with the D3s (and for which I certainly didn't have a lens that could have gotten in so close with). Celebrity TV actress Lisa Gormley getting a bit emotional (Home & Away TV soap drama) Activist & Tasmanian forest tree-sitter (457 continuous days) Miranda Gibson Lastly I attached the X-Pro1 & fisheye to my fully extended RRS monopod and held it up at full arm's stretch after triggering the self timer @ 2secs delay for an "overhead" of everyone turned to wave at the "official" aerial photographer who had climbed onto a platform 20 metres up the tree to take his shot... (I say "official" inasmuch as several photographers had each been allocated their particular tasks - this was primarily an event for publicising via the media). So yes, I don't regret for one second switching to the Fuji - I was still fresh at the end of the day, no backache or shoulder pain, and my load including the tripod was around 6kg instead of over double that, all contained in four pouches on my Lowepro Technical vest and in my RRS Tripod bag. View full article
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Comparison: Fuji X100s, Fuji X-T1, Olympus OM-D
Andrew L (gryphon1911) posted an article in Gear Zone
You may have read that we sold off all our Fuji X cameras and got the Nikon Df. We are happy to report that we are still very much pleased with the Nikon Df and use it whenever we can. The Df is my daily carry camera – it is with me 95% of the time. So what about the other 5%. Those are usually those times when having the Df is not practical. I’ve been wanting/lusting after what the Fuji X100s has to offer. I’ve only passingly handled the X100 and thought with all the improvements the X100s had to offer, it would be that much better. Walking into my favorite camera store this recently, I had every intention of leaving with the X100s. However, my friends there gave me the opportunity to use and handle the following cameras: Fuji X100s, Fuji X-T1, Olympus OM-D-EM-5 and the Olympus OM-D E-M1. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about all these cameras and I could not pass up the opportunity to work with them all head to head. I do not have sample images from all of the cameras, as this report is not as much about image quality as it is handling and performance speed. If we are honest, I think we know that the Fuji will have the IQ edge, especially in the realm of the hi ISO. We will concede to that right now. One of my main issues with the Fuji system has always been the speed at which the camera performs. This includes powering up, waking from sleep, accessing menu items and AF speed and acquisition. Let us have a quick rundown of the positives. Image © Fujifilm Fuji X100s Feels great in the hand. Solid build. OVF is nice, clear and bright. EVF is a great alternative to have. Upgraded MF(compared to the X100) is much better to use. Great 23mm f/2 lens Image © Fujifilm Fuji X-T1 Solid build. Fit my hands like it was custom made for me. EVF was comprehensive and responded quickly to orientation changes. The top dials were solid and had a nice click to them. I did not think that I would accidentally knock any of them out of their position by accident. It seems to be the fastest responsive Fuji X camera to date(accessing menus, powering up, waking from sleep). Very quick AF in comparison to the other X cameras. Great prime and zoom lenses. Image © Olympus Olympus OM-D EM5 and EM1 Very quick AF. Solid build quality. Good EVF. Nice feel in the hand. Great prime lenses. Now let’s talk about what everyone wants to know – which is, when compared to each other, what do I think? We need to level set/full disclosure and let you know what the shooting conditions were. When using an ILC, the kit zooms were used(The ones that claim “world’s fastest AF” in the ads…lol). For the Fuji, it was the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS…the Olympus used the 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3. Images were taken/AF performance tested inside the camera shop, which had fluorescent lights. It was dim, but probably a little brighter than your average indoor environment. Also, this is not a scientific test. It is my learned observation and experiences that I am reporting on. We are going to start with the Fuji cameras since the X100s was what I thought I wanted the most and the X-T1 is what everyone is currently talking about. The AF speed on the X100s was still about the same as the X100, maybe a little faster. It did seem a little more sure, but it did have quite a bit of front to back shuffle before locking into focus. Once it got focus, it was almost always 100% accurate. Unfortunately, the X-T1 suffered from the same front/back shuffle before locking focus. Yes, it is very fast – probably the fastest AF I’ve seen in any X camera to date….but Fuji still seems to have a way to go on getting the AF to something great and not just adequate. I was disappointed in this behavior…which is sad because I so much wanted Fuji to be better than what it was. On the plus side, it is nice that the X-T1 can track focus in a continuous shooting mode. One of my biggest handling issues with the Fuji X cameras are AF point selection. I’ve gotten so used to my DSLRs and the 4 way pad being dedicated to picking the AF point – it was one of the reasons I had for deciding to drop my X-E1. This still is an issue here for both the X100s and the X-T1. Both the X100s and X-T1 felt good in the hand, albeit they have different ways of gripping them. The X-T1 is beefier and felt very natural to hold, especially coming from using a DSLR. Moving on to the Olympus offerings of the OM-D EM-5 and the OM-D EM1. I want to begin by saying that I was never a fan of m43 in the past. I always had a preconceived bias against it because of the smaller sensor size. That has all changed now that I was able to handle one and see what it is all about. Yes, we cannot get around physics and there are just some things that a smaller sensor just cannot do. I’ve noticed that there does not seem to be as large a dynamic range as the Nikon or Fuji cameras I’ve shot in the past. I will say that I was impressed at just how useable the files were from the Olympus cameras up to ISO 2000. It starts getting a little rougher around ISO 3200/6400…but if you nail exposure and don’t have a lot of pitch black areas….you can still have a good JPG to work with. Now… getting to what really impressed me on the EM5/EM1. The AF performance was almost instantaneous. I mean…I could not believe what I was seeing here. Same lighting conditions and with a slower (aperture wise) kit zoom lens, the Olympus nailed focus immediately and without any back/front dance as was seen in the Fuji offerings. I bounced all over the place grabbing focus at different distances and at different focal lengths. It did not seem like I could trip up the Olympus AF. Even with the contrast detect only AF of the Olympus OM-D EM-5 it was direct, to the point and accurate. I was surprised here…but in a very good way. I heard people before praising the AF performance, but I did not think it to be this good. The speed also moves over into the menu usage and boot up times as well. The menu systems run very quick and smooth. They are a bit deep, lots of options and they are not in any way similar to what I’m used to with my Nikon or Fuji menus. Startup from power off to on was very quick. Not DSLR instant, but way better than the Fuji cameras – not including the X-T1. Fuji listened and boosted the start up time for the X-T1. Good job on that. At the end of the day, what does all this mean?? It means that I walked out of the camera store with anOlympus OM-D EM-5 and 12-50mm kit. Image © Olympus Do I still want a Fuji X100s? Well, yeah...maybe in the future. However, by the time I am ready for that - Fuji may very well have a full frame X200 to replace the X100s....at least I'm hoping that is the inevitable direction. E-M5 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/30, f/5.3, ISO 2000 Want more information? OK…lets talk about it. When comparing the above systems, the Olympus was the most DSLR like in looks and control. The only thing that the Fuji X offerings had a resounding lead on over the Olympus was in sensor size and hi ISO image quality. The Olympus was better in almost every respect beyond that. And at base ISO - the Olympus m43 sensor is doing just fine. The image examples on this page should let you see that. E-M5, 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/20, f/6.3, ISO 2000 Add to this, the fast prime lenses for the Olympus system are way smaller, and can be found cheaper never hurts. I even preferred the EVF of the Olympus over that of the Fuji X-T1. Yes, the Fuji has more unique features, but I thought the smearing of the Olympus was not as pronounced in the low light shooting conditions as the Fuji. Honestly, I still prefer an OVF…but those seems to be looking more and more like a feature we will see less of as we progress into the future. In my mind, and for my way of shooting, if I need extreme low light, super high ISO performance, I’ve got my Nikon Df/D700 to choose from. The Olympus gives me a very responsive performance machine in a smaller package. E-M5, 17/1.8 1/640, f/2.8, ISO 100 I was honestly surprised I walked out of there with an m43 camera. I’ve shot with it for only a few days, but I am so happy with this cameras performance at this point. I did have a slight moment of regret at first, when I ran through an initial set of images. For some reason, I was not getting that "pop" or "wow factor" that I expected from the images. I thought that I was perhaps missing something as this is a new camera system to me. After a few days of research, I did realize 2 things: 1 - optics on the OM-D matter. The kit 12-50/3.5-6.3, while convenient and weather sealed is not the sharpest or most contrasty lens. I noticed an immediate increase in IQ when I put on the 17/1.8 or the 45/1.8 prime lenses. 2 - for some unknown reason, Olympus gives you the OM-D cameras setup as base as possible. I mean, they have a higher jpg compression on by default and the default noise reduction is a bit much as well. E-M5, 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 1600 Keep an eye out for a future post where I discuss how I setup the OMD EM5 to be optimized for the way I shoot. There are quite a few steps, but once its done, you never have to do it again. EM5, 17/1.8 1/60, f/4, ISO 640 And to end this all out - here is a random thought from me about mirrorless and the US market. This is just my theory and is in no way scientific. When I look at the mirrorless camera offerings, the majority of them looked a lot like the point and shoot style cameras we have been seeing for years. I think this hurts their perception because for years "professionals" used DSLRs and they have a certain look to them. Now that entry level DSLRs are sometimes less expensive than some point and shoots, no one wants to have their "pro" camera mistaken for a point and shoot...thus the mirrorless cameras don't get the marketing credibility that the DSLR still has here. EM5, 17/1.8 1/1250, f/4, ISO 100 I think Olympus saw this and when they went from the PEN design to the OM-D design, they will get a lot more of the casual users accepting it a "pro" level body because of the design. I think Fuji has understood this too and thus the look of the X-T1 will make it a more attractive option. Once the everyday folk understand that the mirrorless camera can come in many shapes and sizes, they will be more widely adopted. Again...just a theory, and a fraction of the reason that mirrorless is having a rough go of it here in the states. Visit Andrew's blog here -
You may have read that we sold off all our Fuji X cameras and got the Nikon Df. We are happy to report that we are still very much pleased with the Nikon Df and use it whenever we can. The Df is my daily carry camera – it is with me 95% of the time. So what about the other 5%. Those are usually those times when having the Df is not practical. I’ve been wanting/lusting after what the Fuji X100s has to offer. I’ve only passingly handled the X100 and thought with all the improvements the X100s had to offer, it would be that much better. Walking into my favorite camera store this recently, I had every intention of leaving with the X100s. However, my friends there gave me the opportunity to use and handle the following cameras: Fuji X100s, Fuji X-T1, Olympus OM-D-EM-5 and the Olympus OM-D E-M1. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about all these cameras and I could not pass up the opportunity to work with them all head to head. I do not have sample images from all of the cameras, as this report is not as much about image quality as it is handling and performance speed. If we are honest, I think we know that the Fuji will have the IQ edge, especially in the realm of the hi ISO. We will concede to that right now. One of my main issues with the Fuji system has always been the speed at which the camera performs. This includes powering up, waking from sleep, accessing menu items and AF speed and acquisition. Let us have a quick rundown of the positives. Image © Fujifilm Fuji X100s Feels great in the hand. Solid build. OVF is nice, clear and bright. EVF is a great alternative to have. Upgraded MF(compared to the X100) is much better to use. Great 23mm f/2 lens Image © Fujifilm Fuji X-T1 Solid build. Fit my hands like it was custom made for me. EVF was comprehensive and responded quickly to orientation changes. The top dials were solid and had a nice click to them. I did not think that I would accidentally knock any of them out of their position by accident. It seems to be the fastest responsive Fuji X camera to date(accessing menus, powering up, waking from sleep). Very quick AF in comparison to the other X cameras. Great prime and zoom lenses. Image © Olympus Olympus OM-D EM5 and EM1 Very quick AF. Solid build quality. Good EVF. Nice feel in the hand. Great prime lenses. Now let’s talk about what everyone wants to know – which is, when compared to each other, what do I think? We need to level set/full disclosure and let you know what the shooting conditions were. When using an ILC, the kit zooms were used(The ones that claim “world’s fastest AF” in the ads…lol). For the Fuji, it was the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS…the Olympus used the 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3. Images were taken/AF performance tested inside the camera shop, which had fluorescent lights. It was dim, but probably a little brighter than your average indoor environment. Also, this is not a scientific test. It is my learned observation and experiences that I am reporting on. We are going to start with the Fuji cameras since the X100s was what I thought I wanted the most and the X-T1 is what everyone is currently talking about. The AF speed on the X100s was still about the same as the X100, maybe a little faster. It did seem a little more sure, but it did have quite a bit of front to back shuffle before locking into focus. Once it got focus, it was almost always 100% accurate. Unfortunately, the X-T1 suffered from the same front/back shuffle before locking focus. Yes, it is very fast – probably the fastest AF I’ve seen in any X camera to date….but Fuji still seems to have a way to go on getting the AF to something great and not just adequate. I was disappointed in this behavior…which is sad because I so much wanted Fuji to be better than what it was. On the plus side, it is nice that the X-T1 can track focus in a continuous shooting mode. One of my biggest handling issues with the Fuji X cameras are AF point selection. I’ve gotten so used to my DSLRs and the 4 way pad being dedicated to picking the AF point – it was one of the reasons I had for deciding to drop my X-E1. This still is an issue here for both the X100s and the X-T1. Both the X100s and X-T1 felt good in the hand, albeit they have different ways of gripping them. The X-T1 is beefier and felt very natural to hold, especially coming from using a DSLR. Moving on to the Olympus offerings of the OM-D EM-5 and the OM-D EM1. I want to begin by saying that I was never a fan of m43 in the past. I always had a preconceived bias against it because of the smaller sensor size. That has all changed now that I was able to handle one and see what it is all about. Yes, we cannot get around physics and there are just some things that a smaller sensor just cannot do. I’ve noticed that there does not seem to be as large a dynamic range as the Nikon or Fuji cameras I’ve shot in the past. I will say that I was impressed at just how useable the files were from the Olympus cameras up to ISO 2000. It starts getting a little rougher around ISO 3200/6400…but if you nail exposure and don’t have a lot of pitch black areas….you can still have a good JPG to work with. Now… getting to what really impressed me on the EM5/EM1. The AF performance was almost instantaneous. I mean…I could not believe what I was seeing here. Same lighting conditions and with a slower (aperture wise) kit zoom lens, the Olympus nailed focus immediately and without any back/front dance as was seen in the Fuji offerings. I bounced all over the place grabbing focus at different distances and at different focal lengths. It did not seem like I could trip up the Olympus AF. Even with the contrast detect only AF of the Olympus OM-D EM-5 it was direct, to the point and accurate. I was surprised here…but in a very good way. I heard people before praising the AF performance, but I did not think it to be this good. The speed also moves over into the menu usage and boot up times as well. The menu systems run very quick and smooth. They are a bit deep, lots of options and they are not in any way similar to what I’m used to with my Nikon or Fuji menus. Startup from power off to on was very quick. Not DSLR instant, but way better than the Fuji cameras – not including the X-T1. Fuji listened and boosted the start up time for the X-T1. Good job on that. At the end of the day, what does all this mean?? It means that I walked out of the camera store with anOlympus OM-D EM-5 and 12-50mm kit. Image © Olympus Do I still want a Fuji X100s? Well, yeah...maybe in the future. However, by the time I am ready for that - Fuji may very well have a full frame X200 to replace the X100s....at least I'm hoping that is the inevitable direction. E-M5 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/30, f/5.3, ISO 2000 Want more information? OK…lets talk about it. When comparing the above systems, the Olympus was the most DSLR like in looks and control. The only thing that the Fuji X offerings had a resounding lead on over the Olympus was in sensor size and hi ISO image quality. The Olympus was better in almost every respect beyond that. And at base ISO - the Olympus m43 sensor is doing just fine. The image examples on this page should let you see that. E-M5, 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/20, f/6.3, ISO 2000 Add to this, the fast prime lenses for the Olympus system are way smaller, and can be found cheaper never hurts. I even preferred the EVF of the Olympus over that of the Fuji X-T1. Yes, the Fuji has more unique features, but I thought the smearing of the Olympus was not as pronounced in the low light shooting conditions as the Fuji. Honestly, I still prefer an OVF…but those seems to be looking more and more like a feature we will see less of as we progress into the future. In my mind, and for my way of shooting, if I need extreme low light, super high ISO performance, I’ve got my Nikon Df/D700 to choose from. The Olympus gives me a very responsive performance machine in a smaller package. E-M5, 17/1.8 1/640, f/2.8, ISO 100 I was honestly surprised I walked out of there with an m43 camera. I’ve shot with it for only a few days, but I am so happy with this cameras performance at this point. I did have a slight moment of regret at first, when I ran through an initial set of images. For some reason, I was not getting that "pop" or "wow factor" that I expected from the images. I thought that I was perhaps missing something as this is a new camera system to me. After a few days of research, I did realize 2 things: 1 - optics on the OM-D matter. The kit 12-50/3.5-6.3, while convenient and weather sealed is not the sharpest or most contrasty lens. I noticed an immediate increase in IQ when I put on the 17/1.8 or the 45/1.8 prime lenses. 2 - for some unknown reason, Olympus gives you the OM-D cameras setup as base as possible. I mean, they have a higher jpg compression on by default and the default noise reduction is a bit much as well. E-M5, 12-50/3.5-6.3 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 1600 Keep an eye out for a future post where I discuss how I setup the OMD EM5 to be optimized for the way I shoot. There are quite a few steps, but once its done, you never have to do it again. EM5, 17/1.8 1/60, f/4, ISO 640 And to end this all out - here is a random thought from me about mirrorless and the US market. This is just my theory and is in no way scientific. When I look at the mirrorless camera offerings, the majority of them looked a lot like the point and shoot style cameras we have been seeing for years. I think this hurts their perception because for years "professionals" used DSLRs and they have a certain look to them. Now that entry level DSLRs are sometimes less expensive than some point and shoots, no one wants to have their "pro" camera mistaken for a point and shoot...thus the mirrorless cameras don't get the marketing credibility that the DSLR still has here. EM5, 17/1.8 1/1250, f/4, ISO 100 I think Olympus saw this and when they went from the PEN design to the OM-D design, they will get a lot more of the casual users accepting it a "pro" level body because of the design. I think Fuji has understood this too and thus the look of the X-T1 will make it a more attractive option. Once the everyday folk understand that the mirrorless camera can come in many shapes and sizes, they will be more widely adopted. Again...just a theory, and a fraction of the reason that mirrorless is having a rough go of it here in the states. Visit Andrew's blog here View full article
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-T1 please give it a rating by voting in the poll and share your thoughts and images taken with the camera in this thread so that other members of the community can make an informed decision if they are considering buying this item.
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I live in a small city that have evolved around a 12'th century monastery. Every year the city celebrates an old tradition called Kyndelmisse (in Danish) which originates from the latin Missa Candelarum. It dates back to the middle ages and today it's a celebration of light and mid winter. As part of the celebration the city decorates buildings, public areas etc. with light. Here it is the 12'th century church decorated both inside and outside along with some trees. And the marketplace.
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-E2 please let us know what you thought of it in this thread. We might split off any off-topic stuff so as to keep the thread relevant to the product.
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-Pro1 camera, let us know what you thought of it in this thread. We'd like to keep this thread as relevant as possible, so off-topic posts may be split off to other parts of fotozones.com.
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-A1 please let us know how you got on with it. Share images here too if you like, this is our official thread for this camera.
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-M1, please let us know how you got along with it in this thread. Feel free to share images here too.
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Fujifilm X100 Firmware v.2.0 Fuji has released an unheardof postmortem firmware update for a discontinued camera - great news for those of us still slinging the vernerable, if slightly-quarrelsome, Fuji X100 - pre-S version, circa 2010-12. Précis: - 20% faster AF speed - enhanced focus distance - 30% improved close-up non-macro focusing distance - adds Manual Focus Peaking assist - Improved EVF or LCD MF wide open - 0.2 second faster start-up - toggleable AF selection area The new firmware won't yield the sensor improvements of the X100S, but the camera makes fine captures - and it just got a whole lot sweeter in some of its most previously annoying aspects... Happy Sunday, all - LINKIES Fujifilm Press Release / Announcement http://www.fujifilm.ca/press/news/display_news?newsID=178 Fujifilm X100 Firmware v.2.0 Update Link http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/firmware/x/finepix_x100/download.html No new .pdf Manual yet, but wil add to the thread if I become aware of one. Fujifilm X100 Site http://www.finepix-x100.com/
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If you have used the Fujifilm X-E1 mirrorless camera body please rate it on our poll and/or leave your thoughts in this thread. We will keep this thread relevant by moving off topic posts to other part of fotozones.com.
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I'll have to admit that the images being shown by members on here who are using the X-series cameras have caused me to look at the brand and its offerings with an eye to perhaps moving in that direction in the future. I have a question for users though: why would anyone pay the same amount for an X100s as a X-E1 body?
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.
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X-Trans sensors: Adobe Camera Raw 7.4 vs. Silkypix Raw Converter
Guest posted a topic in Forum Archives
So I am still learning to know the X20... After DPReview's review I decided to see if there is truth to the smudging results when using ACR. Yes there is! Here's a sample where I massaged the ACR sliders for at least 1/2 hour to squeeze out the best sharpness I could. ACR is easy to manouver around, Silkypix Raw Converter is NOT! But it does provide me with the best results so I guess I will have to bite the sour grape. As far as I can tell ACR only beats SRC wrt. noise suppression.- 21 replies
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.
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Last two weeks I was taking the new Fuji X100s with me whenever possible and now I'm starting to get accustomed to it more and more. My normal street setup for the last 4 years was the D3 with a 50, but when I started in photography I had only one lens—35/2.8, so this is sort of back to the roots for me. For now I use the new Fuji mostly in A priority with ISO auto 200-3200 and minimum shutter of 1/125. I sought to post here few photos that I took while trying to "understand" the new camera.
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.
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If you have used this lens, let others know what you thought of it by rating (and/or) reviewing it in this thread. We will keep the thread as relevant as we can, so expect off-topic entries to be removed.