The Official Fuji X10/X20/X30/XF1/XQ1 Thread

After weeks of intimidation from this thread I've finally pulled the trigger on an X10, it will be here on Thursday. Reasonable price too at £430 including postage.
 
Strewth - that's a good price!

I took the X10 prints down the club last night.
People were pretty astonished they came from a compact camera, especially the panorama which looks really impressive printed.

They were sufficiently shocked that nobody asked me the obvious question.
Why was I using JPEG when I've been banging on at them for years about the benefits of RAW.

For me, a lot of the time using RAW is about the extended DR and extra bit-depth to recover highlight and shadow detail; but the X10 already does that!
Now the X10 RAW converter has finally arrived in LR3 I'm going to have to give some serious thought as to what benefits I get.
All I can think of so far is noise reduction and white balance decided in PP.
Once I've done some testing I'll report back!
 
well, based on the strength of this thread, ive just ordered one from Amazon. My trusty old LX3 is going to be retired off. White blobs be damned, theres just too many exceptional images ive seen from this to be that worried and Fuji are looking into it anyway so expect a firmware update soon. Cant wait! Its going to get a good run for its money over xmas down in cornwall, up against my Nikon D300, bronica medium format and this :)
 
Now the X10 RAW converter has finally arrived in LR3 I'm going to have to give some serious thought as to what benefits I get.

Do you mean LR3 now knows how to handle the x10 raws to get the best out of them? I was struggling with the raws from my x100 when I was using 200% or 400% DR so now I'm just shooting at 100%.
 
Do you mean LR3 now knows how to handle the x10 raws to get the best out of them? I was struggling with the raws from my x100 when I was using 200% or 400% DR so now I'm just shooting at 100%.

Yup - Lightroom 3.6 was made publicly available yesterday.

However... There's a thread over on Luminous Landscape reporting mixed results. Some saying they are getting better results than in camera JPEGs or Silkypix, while others (the majority) are saying the in camera JPEGs are significantly better and Adobe don't understand how to get the best from the X10 sensor. I guess Adobe will be playing catch-up and we will see improvements filtering down in due course.

I guess the real issue is whether I think I will get any benefit using X10 RAW....
And that's got to be done with my own testing.....
 
well, based on the strength of this thread, ive just ordered one from Amazon. My trusty old LX3 is going to be retired off. White blobs be damned, theres just too many exceptional images ive seen from this to be that worried and Fuji are looking into it anyway so expect a firmware update soon. Cant wait! Its going to get a good run for its money over xmas down in cornwall, up against my Nikon D300, bronica medium format and this :)

It is definitely a massive step up from the LX3!
Hope it lives up to expectations :thinking:

At least coming from the LX3 you won't be fighting with the lens cap :bonk:
By comparison, the X10 lens cap is a pleasure to use, but I have occasionally had to have a bit of a hunt to find which bag/coat pocket I've hidden it in.

I've found the best practice for quick snapshots is to take the camera out the pouch, grip X10 body with the left hand, take lens cap off with the right hand and place between little finger and one of the fingers next to it, then grip the X10 body normally. The lens cap doesn't get in the way of operating the camera and doesn't need to be put down.
You will find if you take the lens cap off with your left hand (the natural way to hold the camera and take the cap off), there is no way to hold the lens cap without badly getting in the way and it is tricky to pass over to the right hand, so end up putting the cap down somewhere :nono:

For anything more than a quick snapshot, I now place the lens cap back in the pouch. Then I always know where it is :)
 
Just had a nice bit of luck, the X10 uses the NP50 battery the same as my F100fd and F50fd, and I already had a couple of spares so I will have 3 chargers and 6 batteries when the new camera arrives tomorrow.

2 charging now, hopefully put another 2 on overnight.
 
Just had my first play with X10 RAW in LR3 :)
Close up shots of my old cat (lots of fine texture) under room light - shot JPEG + RAW.
X10 went for 1/25s, ISO 800, DR400.
Comments based on pixel peeping in LR3.

There is lots of good news :thumbs:

Dynamic Range...
I lifted the shadows 2.5 stops before noise and false colours started to become intrusive amongst the shadow detail.
I recovered 2 stops of detail from the highlights.
That's pretty blimmin good for ISO 800!

Also important (to me), the noise is far more natural looking - yay :D
I'm already using the post-processing friendly JPEG settings I found in another forum which are noticeably better than the factory settings at ISO 800. This a definite plus for using RAW.

Another observation that is quite striking is that the colours are different!
Several threads elsewhere on the web have commented that the reds can look a little odd sometimes; reds have been reported looking pink, whereas I've seen pink looking red. The reds in LR3 RAWare hugely different and far more subtle. The blues are slightly different, but nothing like the reds; I've no green in my scene.
Also, it's not just the full-on colours, the deep shadows have colour in X10 JPEG but fade to black in the LR3 RAW.
In summary, the RAW colours are flatter but may prove more life-like.

Something that makes comparison quite difficult - I can't reproduce the DR400 look in LR3!
I think the DR400 JPEG has been constructed using light tone mapping.
There is no way whole image modifications in LR3 can achieve the same result.
It's a lot of work in LR3 to get a RAW image looking as rich in texture as the JPEG straight out the camera.
That's a big plus for X10 JPEG! I think this indicates that taking RAW + JPEG is the way forward; RAW for the ultimate original plus the JPEG to show how much rich texture is available within the tones.

Finally - there are very different algorithms at work at the pixel level.
In one of the shots is part of my monitor, the pixel structure is slightly out of focus. The X10 JPEG clearly shows the pixel matrix as slanted vertical lines. LR3 RAW shows these no where as clearly (phasing in and out), but the weird thing is that the actual display content (star ratings in the LR3 bottom bar) look far more like stars in LR3 RAW than the X10 JPEG. Just for perspective, the screen is slightly out of focus and I'm looking at 100%; it's quite subjective and both are acceptable.
I have a slightly out of focus cable with writing on the side deep in the image shadows. The text is narrower than the noise structure at ISO 800. The LR3 text looks crisp compared to the X10 JPEG!
Again - a reminder - both renditions are actually pretty good - but I prefer the LR3 RAW as it seems to bring out the 'real' detail.

These findings are only indicative of my initial testing in low light.
I've not enough time to illustrate my points with images; but if there is enough demand I'll come back to it.
As always - use my opinions as a guide on what to look for, but do your own tests and make your own conclusions :)

I'm really looking to forward to seeing what LR3 RAW can do with a decent landscape image :D
 
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I've had an X10 for a couple of weeks now and mighty impressed with everything about the camera. We need an X10 thread for everyone to post their pics.

I agree, but will defer to opinions from people like EdBray who have been around the forum far longer than me and have had a very respectable amount of shiny new kit to post about.

One thing we definitely want to avoid is the thread degenerating into White Blob rants or Adobe X10 RAW rants - those two topics have virtually obscured all the good stuff about the X10 in two other forums I frequent.

So far, Talk Photography has remained calm and is one of the few refuges where people like me who are impressed by the X10 can post without getting shot at.

There's an awful lot Fuji have got right with this camera.
 
Also important (to me), the noise is far more natural looking - yay

its clearly grain then and not noise at all ;)

Thanks for the Raw review, did you have any of your landscape shots in raw to set aside for lightroom or did you just stick with jpegs on them all?

Mine is out on the van at the moment so will be in my hands tonight! quite excited. What in camera settings do you use for various iso's?
 
Morning!
I stuck with factory JPEG settings until I knew the X10 well enough to start fiddling. They do an excellent job.

I'd also recommend using P mode unless you have reason not to. I use Aperture priority on the DSLR and tried in on the X10, but outdoors I kept getting caught out exceeding the shutter speed limits. The reason is that in 12Mp mode, DR400 uses a minimum of ISO 400 which in contrasty sunlight means the aperture has to be closed down to keep the shutter speed in 'normal' ranges.
Like I said, I got caught out enough times that I now just leave the X10 in P unless I have a reason not to.

Sadly, no.... I only took JPEG until last night.
I'm quite happy that by only taking JPEG, I did my bit to push Adobe into sneaking X10 support into the LR3 update.
If I'd taken RAW in anticipation of an LR3 update then there is no way X10 RAW support would have made it into v3.6 (it wasn't in 3.6 beta); life's like that :shrug:
 
Mines arrived, 1st impressions are it's smaller than expected (good thing), and it feels reassuringly well built.

I have to pop to the hospital so will take it with me and take a few shots.
 
I can see a new love affair developing (pun intended).

Very understated camera, but a joy to use. I took Duncan's advice and put it on program with all other settings as it came out of the box.

Very pleased with the initial images, although nothing too difficult for it to start. Amazing how a few seconds can make all the difference to the light.

short end

shortend.jpg


long end

Longend-1.jpg


100% crop of long end

100crop-1.jpg
 
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Now go and look at a crop of both from the edges of the frame - still impressed ?
Having been used to the LX3, I was flat out astonished :D

Yes Duncan they are very good, a combination of lens and sensor working well together: :thumbs:

Left edge 100% crop

100cropleftedge.jpg


Right edge 100% crop

100croprightedge.jpg


Now I have just got to go to the beginning of this thread, read all the posts and work out the best settings to begin with. :thinking:
 
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ok got it today and pretty happy with it, however.. what is it with the image stabalisation setting? there seems to be one setting if you put the camera in EXR mode which seems to work reasonab but is unavailable in any other mode and then you have 4 modes that you can set "continuous + motion" "continuous" "shooting+motion" and "shooting only" which frankly dont seem to do squat.

Im just a bit dubious how it will behave shooting people indoors over xmas.
 
ok got it today and pretty happy with it, however.. what is it with the image stabalisation setting? there seems to be one setting if you put the camera in EXR mode which seems to work reasonab but is unavailable in any other mode and then you have 4 modes that you can set "continuous + motion" "continuous" "shooting+motion" and "shooting only" which frankly dont seem to do squat.

Im just a bit dubious how it will behave shooting people indoors over xmas.

The manual is no help at all about IS!
However - I think I've read a few posts on this subject and in summary...

Continuous means while the shutter is half pressed.
Shooting means only when actually taking the shot.
Motion tells the camera to opt for a faster shutter speed.

I have mine set to Continuous

Last night I used the X10 for the first time in a low light social situation (office Christmas party) and the results were seriously impressive!
I was taking shots in a situation so dark people couldn't read the menu without passing round a candle.
I'll share some images later in the day.
 
This morning has brought a special X10 treat :)
I'm an avid reader of The Online Photographer (TOP), a blog style website with incisive features written by a number of well informed authors.

This morning TOP published a feature about the X10 !

As well as the usual words, it has a number of very useful links to other X10 resources.
I recognise some of the links; they go to well informed and useful website. If the rest are as good then they will be well worth reading.
 
Went for a quick walk round Chelmsford cathedral this morning before town to get a few shots out of it.

RAW & JPEG - image sizes are the same for the x & y pixels but there is a definite bit of stretching going on with the raw. You can see here, jpeg on left, raw on right, the top of the headstone is at the top of the frame on the raw and there is a small patch of moss in the bottom right of the plinth on the jpeg which isnt there in the raw. No biggy as unless you were looking for it you wouldnt notice it. Ignore the colour difference as i tweaked things in lightroom on the raw.


Stretch1

It looks like it stretches along the long edge of the photo only but only sometimes as ive one shot where there is no stretching/clipping going on at all and some where its quite pronounced when doing a side by side. But to be honest i dont think youd notice in general unless you were shooting perfect geometric shapes and they ended up a little off.

There was some talk of keeping it in 6m pixel mode in order for the in camera engine to do its stuff so i shot a load in 12 and 6 mega pixels and tbh cant see much of a difference between the two.

The only other niggle ive noticed is that you have to take the camera out of silent mode for the flash to work? Daft! i dont like getting beeped at every time i change things around so generaly leave everything quiet, having to turn that off just to get the flash working seems a crazy design decision.

But loving it so far, not getting nearly the best out of it yet but its got buckets of potential, heres one from inside the cathedral, had to do some recovery on the stained glass window but i dont think theres a camera alive that could of exposed it properly! Quite a dim church and hand held.


Church
 
All images in this post were taken at a Christmas party last night.
Straight out the camera, no PP. Taken in JPEG, Auto WB, P mode.

I had the X10 in stealth mode (a much better name for Silent Mode as it turns off everything that might give away the cameras presence).
This meant the focus assist light was turned off and I've got to admit that getting focus in the bar after the meal was a struggle. But it was worth it was so dark they could barely see me, these are genuine candids!

First three are taken in typical restaurant lighting (not good), but the X10 coped extremely well. These make it look better lit than it really was.

ISO 3200, 16.7mm, f2.5, 1/25s
i-J5FCLhT-S.jpg


ISO 3200, 14.2mm, f2.5, 1/20s
i-5g673Kr-S.jpg


ISO 3200, 11.3mm, f2.2, 1/25s
i-4WSdXrr-S.jpg


Next two are taken after the meal in a bar. It was so dark that people were holding the candles up to the drinks menu to read it!
The group shot was so dark that although the screen looked fine, looking over the top of the camera I couldn't see well enough to check who was in our group and who wasn't !!!!

ISO 12800 worked really well. Before I upped the ISO I got almost no keepers, exposures at ISO 3200 were typically 1/4s.

ISO 12800, 7.1mm, f2, 1/9s
i-TBm64Sw-S.jpg


ISO 12800, 9.6mm, f2.2, 1/13s
i-849WT3j-S.jpg


In summary...
ISO 12800 is not good enough to print very big, but it is VERY effective and I couldn't have got these images any other way!
The focussing was often sluggish, but that was my fault (focus assistance light tuned off).
 
I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread (apologies if it has), this could well be my contribution to inform users and prospective purchasers.

Due to the CMOS sensor, you can flash sync all the way up to 1/4000 sec if you want :thumbs:

Exif intact, 1/4000 sec @ f2 External flash (Metz 54MZ4i) bounced from ceiling

X100flash4000thsec.jpg
 
I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread (apologies if it has), this could well be my contribution to inform users and prospective purchasers.

Due to the CMOS sensor, you can flash sync all the way up to 1/4000 sec if you want :thumbs:

Exif intact, 1/4000 sec @ f2 External flash (Metz 54MZ4i) bounced from ceiling

YIKES :gag:

Every day is a school day :)
 
Yeah the take it out of silent to use the flash is a really weird one. I just have all the noises turned off but not in silent mode incase I ever need to use flash.
 
I've finally produced a shot that has undeniably got a White Blob in it!
Does it detract from the image? I don't think so, but it is definitely there.

Sunrise on the top of Pen-y-Fan :gag:
ISO 100, 7.1mm, f2, 1/55s; brightness increased in LR3 as I forgot to overexpose the image.
i-QxLb6cf-L.jpg


100% crop from the original.
i-dX2RhdM-L.jpg
 
This was the second weekend on the run that the X10 case has been saturated with water.
When I've got home, I've had to take the battery out, extend the lens and leave the X10 somewhere warm and dry.
It's quite a lot of abuse for any camera, and so far the X10 hasn't missed a beat.

ISO 12800, 7.1mm, f2, 1/4s - straight out the camera. Quality is rubbish, but the group was astonished anything came out at all!
i-TS8LPdP-M.jpg


ISO 100, 8.9mm,f3.2, 1/400s - exposure increased by 1.3 stops in LR3 as I didn't dial in enough compensation at the time. There was lots of water on the lens, but this image seems to have got away with it. They all have their hands up to protect themselves from the snow which was painfully sand-blasting our faces.
i-WzzrMSP-M.jpg


More images from this set over in one of my galleries.
 
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Hi,
Can someone tell me if you use the panorama feature on the X10, does it work holding the camera in the "portrait" position rather than the usual "landscape" position ?
Thanks,
Andy
 
Hi,
Can someone tell me if you use the panorama feature on the X10, does it work holding the camera in the "portrait" position rather than the usual "landscape" position ?
Thanks,
Andy

I can answer that - yes!
The trick is to change the direction (right button) to either up or down depending on how you like holding the camera in portrait and which way you want to sweep the camera.
Works a treat!

This 180deg panorama is shot in portrait.
20111201-123457-DSCF2201-M.jpg
 
Hi Duncan,
Thanks for the quick reply.
You should be working for Fuji !
Having followed this thread with great interest, I have now ordered an X10 as a wee pressie to myself for being a good boy and not big spending money on L glass !
Thanks for a realistic report on the X10 and everyone else who has contributed to this thread.
Merry Crimbo,
Andy
 
I can answer that - yes!
The trick is to change the direction (right button) to either up or down depending on how you like holding the camera in portrait and which way you want to sweep the camera.
Works a treat!

This 180deg panorama is shot in portrait.
20111201-123457-DSCF2201-M.jpg

Nice one! So many people forget that this can be done. I much prefer panoramas done in this way.
 
Cheers both for the feedback :thumbs:

I guess this thread is a reaction my my surprise about just how much I love this camera; I haven't felt this way about a bit of kit for many many years.
- The LX3 never lived up to my expectations, it got the shots where space/weight was a premium, but there was too much of a compromise in image quality compared to a properly used DSLR.
- The 5DII was disappointing as it wasn't a quantum leap in image quality from the 20D. That was a combination of inadequate technique and poor glass, both now sorted, but the initial let-down was immense.
- 60D bought as an affordable crop sensor body for festivals working along side the 5DII. It is exactly what I expected - a competent camera, but image quality at 100% is a whole league down from the 5DII (I do pixel peep :shake:).

I must admit I'm getting annoyed by some of the X10 reviews.
For example, the X10 looks pretty rubbish in the latest dpreview enthusiast compact group test. They have very few positive paragraphs and lots of gripes (including about the X100 :thinking:), but most seriously, the image comparison tool doesn't reflect my image quality experiences and they haven't quoted what settings they have used. :nono: It's as though the X10 was in DR400 and the noise settings were turned to minimum; resulting in horrible noise. Even what they claim is ISO 100 looks bad enough to be ISO 400! Also, the bottom right corner is soft which just wouldn't happen on my X10 or on many of the other samples I've seen around the web. Perhaps they used f2 and focussed half way into the scene? Impossible to check without the settings.

But there are some good reviews out there..
My favourites being Luminous Landscape and The Online Photographer who have reported their findings based on the overall experience using the camera in realistic situations, not just pixel peeping.
Both those forums are more aligned with the medium format crowd and they take their image quality very seriously.
A quote from TOP - "Image Quality - In brief, very good to excellent. The X10's oversized 2/3-inch EXR CMOS 12-MP sensor really seems to shine. Details are held nicely in all but the most extreme frames and, when given the mandate to do so, the X10 can nicely stretch its dynamic range, either through using the "EXR" mode or by using the automated bracketing in "Adv"anced mode."
I'm usually a fan of dpreview tests, but you'd never believe TOP reviewed the same camera!

Lightening the mood....... :cool:
During the last 12 months I have normally carried two DSLRs, with the LX3 only being used when space has been at a premium.
Since I got the Fuji X10 I've only carried one DSLR :thinking:
For example: A week ago I had the 60D + 70-200, and the X10 for all the wide shots. Yesterday I had the 5DII plus 24TSE, and the X10 for all the long shots. In both uses the X10 did me proud.
Not sure I'm ready to sell the 60D, but at the next festival I cover it is going to be so tempting to use just one DLSR on the long lens, plus the X10.
 
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I had to reset my X10 yesterday as nothing to do with the flash would work. I think it happened after I set super macro mode but it didn't clear when I unset it and the only thing left was a reset.
 
I had to reset my X10 yesterday as nothing to do with the flash would work. I think it happened after I set super macro mode but it didn't clear when I unset it and the only thing left was a reset.

Before you spend too much time setting the X10 back just the way you like...
Can you reproduce the problem ????
If you can, then I bet Fuji can fix it.
I write web applications for a living. Typically, any problem that can be reproduced is easy to track down and fix. Whereas something that can't be reproduced kinda gets filed under something to keep an eye out for in the future in case it happens again.
 
I've taken it in and out of super macro a couple of times and the problem didn't re-occur. I did, however, discover that auto-flash isn't available in A mode which isn't unreasonable but I don't think is documented.

I was initially a software developer then spent over 20 years in IT support so I know exactly what you mean about repeatable problems.
 
I've taken it in and out of super macro a couple of times and the problem didn't re-occur. I did, however, discover that auto-flash isn't available in A mode which isn't unreasonable but I don't think is documented.

I was initially a software developer then spent over 20 years in IT support so I know exactly what you mean about repeatable problems.

Grandmother - Sucking Eggs - etc - etc :bonk:
Sorry :D

Was it you who was battling silent mode and/or external flash ?
Probably some magic sequence / combination that cannot be unpicked trivially.
 
No problem. ;)

No, not me. I haven't bothered with silent mode and the EF-20 works just fine (as long as flash is working at all).

Here's a few shots from Legoland Windsor on 3rd December. It's closed for the winter which is why there's no water around the models. We had a private tour and were able to get right onto the models. Poor framing due to using the OVF....

DSCF1009.JPG


DSCF1010.JPG

There's a dalek halfway up that skyscraper!

DSCF1012.JPG
 
How does the x10 compare to a DSLR? Having a smaller sensor I realise it won't compare to the likes of full frame dslrs like the 5dmk2 and d3, but how does this compare to the likes of crop cameras and in comparison, where does it sit in terms of image quality and colour rendition? I realise this camera wouldn't be used by the sports or wildlife enthusiast, but I wondered how it fares in general purpose and landscape photography. I have read through the thread and I like keeping tabs on seeing what people think of this little gem of a compact :).
 
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