Orbs are coming!

Yes, orbs are coming! See it yourself on the photo above. Don't be scared with the picture: it was made through the R72 infrared filter. It is first my image from the Fuji X10 in which white orbs are clearly visible.

Anyway, I decided to examine the white discs / orb issue on my own and took some pictures with the X10 in orbs-prone conditions. First, I made several shots in the room with the lamp turned on, at night time. There were no orbs. The highlights were blown as expected but there were no white disks with sharp border. The pictures were made at iso 100, at 12 megapixels.

Next, I went for car shooting in bright Australian sun. And the sun was very bright that day, and I was lucky. The picture below was taken at iso 100, at full resolution (4000x3000 pixels). You can click on it to see the resized version. The orbs are visible on the black car but the gray car looks fine. The white dot on the screen of the gray car probably can be the orb, too, but I would not bother about it. It looks more or less natural. Anyway, in such conditions the orbs present in nearly all photos of shiny (black) car.

Orbs shot at iso 100

In high iso shots with high dynamic range the orbs are smaller but still visible. It seems that it is possible to get somewhat better results with the smaller resolution (six megapixel mode).

Orbs shot at iso 400

100% crop from the iso 400 shot (above)

What can I say? I am glad that I bought the camera before emergence of the orbs story because now I can take pictures instead of weighting all pros and cons. For the photography I am doing the orbs are irrelevant. I have not seen orbs in any of my "nature" shots. The white discs "ruined" only one my photo out of more than 2,000. You can do a math :). The photography is my hobby, so a ruined image would not affect my livelihood. I practically do not print my photos. IMHO, in order to find the orbs in the iso 400 image displayed on a computer screen you need to know what to look for. The chromatic aberration (?) at the top of the windscreen is more pronounced than the white discs. Just show this picture to someone who has no knowledge of the white disc problem and ask what is wrong with the image. You might be surprised with the answer :-)

However, it is a real problem in certain circumstances. It does limit the camera usability for some people. It is a pity that the camera positioned (and priced) as a premium compact has such annoying issue.