Well after spending the last three days trawling through this thread I have finally reached the end and I suppose I should post some pictures!
I am really glad I found this forum, I just can't deal with the people over at DPR and there isn't any quality discussion about the X10 without someone going 'ORBS!
' which just ruins that place for me.
I've had the X10 for about three weeks now and before that I was primarily using a Canon AE-1p 35mm and a lubitel 166b 120mm. My interest was sparked a year ago when I really found a lot of enjoyment from the photography section of my media course at college. Coming from manual film cameras I was always put off by the lack of 'instant control' in digital cameras, especially in more compact cameras. What I mean by that is a million different sub-menus just to change the aperture and shutter in full manual, for example. I can't even remember where I first saw the X10 but I immediately fell in love with it. It has so many features that as a film-camera user I was just going 'why the heck don't they put that on a digital camera? Do people really not take control of their photographs anymore?'.
I really love the X10. The orbs are a bit of an issue for me as I love taking long exposures, particularly of buildings at night so I am really looking forward to the sensor replacement (although I am going to wait for first reports from other people as to whether there are any downsides to the upgraded sensor) but other than that it is just a really really fun camera to use. It seems everyone who has owned one (who has enough common sense to go: ok, this is a problem, but its being fixed) just really LOVES to use the thing; no matter its quirky nature. Besides, that is part of the fun, learning the quirks of something and discovering for yourself how to get around them and why those quirks are there.
Time for some pictures. I've never shot colour film before, only black and white so I feel much more comfortable in post with black and white images. Most if not all of my colour images are hardly edited with the exception of contrast and shadows/highlights in photoshop. My black and white photographs are converted using Silver Efex pro and have a fair amount of editing done with that program. The thing that I really like to use is structure which can really transform a photograph. Silver efex is a really lovely program to use!
My ethos when editing is: I'll make a good photograph great, but I won't make a bad photograph good. I'll try to use as little as possible.
I know a lot of people are against editing in post but please respect my way of doing things, as I respect yours.
On with the photos eh? :bonk:
Taken from the car as we were driving along near Redruth, Cornwall.
This is a HDR picture converted to black and white. The leaves on the left of the tree stand out a bit too much for me but I like the rest of the picture.
The structure control in silver efex really made this picture. It really brought out the veins in the leaves. I also had to remove some weird texture I was getting from the white blown-out parts on the left which were ruining an otherwise lovely picture (in my eyes).
Couldn't decide which I preferred out of these two so I usually show them together!
Generic serene-looking swan shot
Lastly, trying out the full 360 panorama in St ives, cornwall. I was really quite impressed with how well it worked!
And I know all about the senior moments 
and do remember that the X10 loves batteries!!!
