Example of severe sensor blooming on Fuji X10

Generally I don't have problems with orbs in my photos from Fuji X10 but occasionally the camera would produce really spectacular white discs as on the image above. Granted, I do not take many street photos. Probably the word "unpredictable" would be the most suitable for appearance of orbs in the Fuji X10. It does not change my opinion on camera but I hope that the company will eventually replace the sensor.

The photo above was taken at 12MP and resized to 1000x750 pixels. It was not cropped. I post it as an extreme example of orbs in Fuji X10 appeared in my photos. I can post other street photos without sensor blooming or with very small white discs.

Fuji X10 in bright sun

 

 Typical Queenslander in Toowong | Fuji X10 | May 22, 2012

The image was shot as JPEG with Fuji X10, with exposure compensation -0.7 to keep the highlights. Other parameters: iso 100, 1/2000 sec, F4.5. The image was edited in GIMP, and middle indicator in LEVEL was shifted for ~30 units to the left to lift the details in shadows.

This type of houses is very popular in Brisbane and Queensland. 

Usability of Fuji X10

Shooting brick walls: the Old Museum building in Bowen Hill, Brisbane. Taken with Fuji X10 at 12MP, iso100, 1/1500 sec, F4.0, f 13mm. The dynamic range is not very bad for point-and-shoot camera. There are some clipped highlights on the left side but it is not obtrusive. I can leave with such clipping.

Fuji X10 have solved one major issue for me: weight and size. While the camera is not pocketable, it is very small and light compared to DSLR, so it can stay in my bag. It can produce very fine images. I do enjoy big depth of field, especially in macro. For me the Fuji X10 is a semi-pocketable replacement of DSLR :-)

It reminds me early days with Olympus E-500. Prior to the E-500 I used superzoom camera with a tiny sensor, so the highlights clipping was a real (and frequent) problem. While the E-500 was not famous for the dynamic range, it was significant improvement over my previous camera, and not only in dynamic range. It was joy to use. The camera was traveled through the desert and rainforest, worked under snow and covered with salt at sea, survived nearly 100% humidity during wet season in Queensland and sub-zero temperature in Northern hemisphere. After several years of heavy use it started to fell apart (literally). It was replaced with Olympus E-30 but despite all features I was not happy with the new camera. I still use it but the whole setup is big and heavy, and hence very often would stay home...

On other hand, taking pictures with the Fuji X10 is just a joy. I hope it does not sound very pathetic. I am not a photographer, just a hobbyist, and there are very little external constrains on my images. In many aspects (including image quality) Fuji X10 holds well against my current DSLR, Olympus E-30. Get me right: there might be some measurable difference in favor of the DSLR but in real it is not so obvious.I am talking about my personal experience here. Basically, photos from the Fuji X10 make me happy more often than photos from the E-30.

Lotus

Nelumbo nucifera | Wat Yansangwararam, Thailand | March 4, 2004 | Olympus C-2020

I've bought my first digital camera, Olympus C-2020, in year 2000. I went through my pictures from this camera recently. Obviously, it is very sentimental. What strikes me: even now I am happy with these 2MP images but I do regret the missed opportunities.

Infrared with Olympus C-2020

Olympus C-2020, March 4, 2004 | flickr

Both pictures were taken with Olympus C-2020 in Sepia mode and R72 filter. Wat Yansangwararam, near Pattaya, Thailand. The photo on the top was rotated and cropped in GIMP. I've posted couple other IR photos on flickr.

The camera had 2MP sensor and maximum iso was 400 or something like that. I used it with 32 Mb SM card which can store about 100 JPEG files. That's equal to three film rolls!  

Olympus C-2020, March 4, 2004 | flickr

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-35mm F2.8

Good. Very good. The lens can compete in nomination "the best m4/3 zoom lens".

The lens is wider but shorter(!) than the Olympus 12-50mm. I wish the Olympus lens would be a little bit wider and one or two stops faster on long end....

It seems that the Panasonic mimics the Olympus by announcing the lens with a environmental sealing before releasing a camera with a similar protection.

The rumored price is slightly over 1k (in Europe). The Olympus 14-54mm F2.8-3.5 cost me twice less.

UPDATE: In US the lens is listed for 1.3k US$. 

Samsung NX20: pricing and marketing

In US price of Samsung NX20 kit is identical to Olympus O-MD E-M5. That's vary brave move. I hope Sasung have tweaked the jpegs/high iso performance in NX20 compared to NX200. However, prices on Samsung cameras are very dynamic, and tend to go down as time goes by. 

Guys from the dpreview indicated that the Samsung have not send the NX20 for review yet. The dpreview is arguably the most popular site dedicated to digital cameras, and it is hard to understand the logic of Samsung marketing department. 

And in meantime the rumors are up for Canon to release mirrorless cameras in nearby future. But both Canon and Nikon are heavily invested in DSLRs, and apparently are not very interested in development of mirrorless cameras. Anyway, I am curious to see how Canon would compete with current players in this segment.

Fuji X10: highlights

Willie Wagtail | Fuji X10 | Roma street parkland, Brisbane, April 10, 2012 | flickr

I noticed that the orb discussions are not very popular anymore. At least number of threads dedicated to the white discs on dpreview is much smaller now. Probably people wait for the sensor replacement or just got tired.

The picture above was taken on  cloudy day. The highlights were blown quite nicely here. The bigger version of the photo is posted on flickr. I cropped the image and shifted middle point (levels) in GIMP a little bit.

OM-D E-M5 and X-Pro1: handling

Australia is very remarkable country. You can walk into major shop and handle Olympus OM-D E-M5 or Fuji X-Pro1 while in most places around the globe these cameras are available only for pre-orders. Anyway, I went to Ted's today and played with both cameras for some time. The Olympus E-M5 is amazingly small and light-weight. My hands are not small, and it was not really comfortable to use the camera as a standard DSLR (using EVF). I have impression that shooting with rear screen might be more comfortable. By the way, the rear screen is gorgeous and tilting is really useful feature. The E-M5 viewfinder is very bright. The eyecup is indeed relatively short(?) and probably may not be very protective in bright sun (this is pure speculation, I used the camera inside the shop). The focus is very fast. There might be some measurable difference in focusing between the E-M5 and some mid-range DSLRs but for me it probably would be unnoticeable.

Fuji X-Pro1 is bigger and heavier than the E-M5. It is amazingly comfortable to handle it despite its weight. It is even more comfortable than Fuji X100. Then, the viewfinder. There might be some difference between X100 and X-Pro1 but for person who comes from entry- and mid-range 4/3 camera it is just different world. I would say both the X100 and X-Pro1 are designed for shooting "through viewfinder".

The shop also had Pentax K-01 with 18-55mm lens on display. It is huge and very strange-looking thing. It is similar to DSLR in size.

Obviously, it is very hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from such brief experience.

Then there are rumors about new Olympus camera. Can it be OM-D E-M5 without the viewfinder? Just keep all buttons and tilting screen. Probably it will cannibalize the E-P3 sales, and the price gap between the E-P3 and E-M5 is not big but it probably will be extremely popular. More buttons, better IBIS, no hump... It does look very attractive. The cost of design and production probably will be relatively small because of the shared components with the another camera. This is just my speculations, I have no information regarding specs of the rumored Olympus camera.

There were some rumors in the last several month about Samsung planning a version of the NX20 camera without the viewfinder. The NX300 name is periodically leaking from the Samsung...

I must to say these cameras are very tempting. In these days before going to sleep I repeat "I don't need new camera" mantra at least five times :)

More photos from Samsung cameras

Astrid Watson posts hi-res photos from Samsung cameras including NX200 on flickr. Here is an example of 60mm lens on NX11. It seems that the "originals" went through the photoshop lightroom (process from raw by ACR? - don't know). I expect to see her photos from NX20 two weeks or even sooner unless the problems with kit lenses turned out to be serious or some other farce majeure.

problems with the latest Samsung kit lens

Couple days ago I came across a post on the dpreview about apparent issues with the latest version of kit lens (18-55mm F3.5-5.6 III) bundled with NX20. It looks like a quality control issue. Several links were posted to pictures on slrclub.com site to illustrate non-uniform sharpens across the frame. Actually Samsung has pretty good record in quality and reliability. I cannot recollect any major issue with their DSLR or mirrorless cameras.

Also, according to photorumors Samsung plan to cease the production of compact cameras and focus on mirrorless where the company want to be the dominant player. Samsung mirrorless cameras are good but sometimes it is very hard to find information about their projects. None of the three latest announced cameras are listed on their Australian site, so the local price is unknown. The same for 60mm Macro, 16mm F2.4 or 85mm F1.4.

Nikon D800 as an ultimate DSLR

Nikon has tripled the number of pixels in transition from D700 to D800 but as guys at the dpreview pointed out people need the best lenses to get the most from the D800. It means that next step in resolution/number of pixels will be limited by lenses. It is possible to have 24 megapixels on APS-C sensor and get some gain in resolution with prime lens at low iso over 16 mp sensor but the difference is not huge. The D3200 might be a smart move for Nikon to sell the camera based on megapixel and logical replacement for 14 mp sensor but I don't see any reason to change 16 mp camera (D5100) for 24 mp unless the resolution is really the top priority.

It seems that the camera makers essentially made ultimate cameras with APS-C and full frame sensors. At this stage the upgrades probably will be minor. Even now not every D700 owner want to go for D800, and I doubt that there will be mass exodus of Canon users to Nikon because of higher resolution of D800 over the 5DMkIII. I suspect that in couple years there will be a drop in DSLR sales just because people will change the cameras less frequent.

In meantime, the mirrorless system cameras are on the rise...

photos taken with Samsung NX20

The images are here. Apparently were taken with Samsung NX20 and kit lens. There are several pages with photographs. Clicking on the icon in the left right lower corner of image displays exif info.

invest in lenses not in bodies (SI)

Pentax is the only company that made mirrorless camera directly compatible with SLR lenses but at least now their mirrorless are not really popular. Fuji, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony - all come with new mount. Obviously, it is possible to use essentially any lens on any mirrorless camera with adapter but this combination generally is bulkier than the proprietary lens. Just compare standard zooms for Nikon DLSR and Nikon 1. Why anyone would "invest" in (D)SLR lenses now? No doubt DSLRs from Nikon and Canon are superior to mirrorless cameras but mirrorless segment is growing fast. It is also very innovative: Samsung added WiFi, Fuji came with new color filter, Panasonic made arguably the best mirrorless camera for video, GH2, Olympus just released their best mirrorless camera so far. For people like me the mirrorless cameras are more attractive than DSLR: I don't need super-fast autofocus but would prefer to have small and light camera. 

I suspect Olympus OM-D E-M5 is better than the Olympus E-30 at least for image quality, and it is definitely cheaper, at least in Australia, even not counting for free MMF-3 (current promotion in Australia).

on mirrorless cameras

Besides of small size the mirrorless cameras have another major advantage over DSLR: less or no moving parts. Lack of mirror (and may be shatter) should reduce manufacturing cost. The only benefits DSLR cameras I can think about are fast focusing and good viewfinder on some cameras (such as full-frame).

The transition probably will take some time unless someone come with new type of products. Right now essentially all manufacturers produce digital cameras that are very similar to film cameras in shape and design. There are some minor variations, as a periscopic lenses on Minolta Dimage X or some rugged cameras.  At the lower end digital cameras have very serious competition from cell phones. Some people say the low end compacts are doomed because of cell phones but right now cell phones cannot compete in quality even  with high-end compacts. However, it is quite possible to create lensor (lens with sensor) in a shape of small torch that controlled by mobile or tablet using WiFi, bluetouth or something similar. It even can be made with interchangeable lenses. Just put any mount, sensor, battery, SM card and WiFi in very small body, something like 60x60x40 mm for m4/3 standard.

Supermacro with Fuji X10

Fuji X10, f4, iso 200, 1/160 sec | Toowong, May 5, 2012

The plant resembles a cultivar of Cordyline fruticosa, Ti Plant, from Asparagaceae family. I've posted another macro on the flickr. The levels were adjusted, the image was cropped and resized in GIMP, plus local unsharpen mask. The whole processing took a couple minutes. At the bottom is unmodified 100% crop from the original JPEG.

Our Fuji X10 had over 4,500 activations now. For comparison, on Olympus E-30 I made just over 10k activations since 2009. The E-30 is capable camera but I just don't like it. It is big and heavy. I can leave Fuji X10 in my backpack and wouldn't even notice it. It is really handy to have a camera with you. The image quality of pictures from Fuji X10 is sufficient for my needs. The only camera I'll buy immediately would be "updated" Fuji X10 with tiltable (not fixed) screen and supermacro implemented on long end of the zoom. I don't care about a viewfinder but would prefer EVF over OVF. If the lens will get an extra reach (e.g. 140mm) I would not mind to get a bulkier body. 

Unedited crop from the original image

More rumors on Samsung and Olympus

Supermacro on Fuji X10 | iso 100, F5.6, 1/80 sec + GIMP | Toowong, April 17, 2012

I came across several interesting rumors about Olympus and Samsung. First, it seems that the new Zuiko m4/3 lens, ED 75mm f1.8, is available for testing. Than, there are very ambiguous rumors on new camera from Olympus. I hope this camera would be able to handle 4/3 lenses... Considering that Olympus E-M5 is available only for pre-order in big markets like US, it is unlikely that the company will release another m3/4 in nearby future unless it is produced independently from the E-M5.

It is expected that Samsung will announce/release two lenses in September (time for Photokina). But the most interesting rumor for me was about a new sensor from Samsung. It was mentioned that the company is working on new sensor with smaller pixel count than their current APS-C sensor. That is really great news for me. Personally I am more than happy with 12 MP sensors in my cameras. The images I post online are less than 1 MP. I would rather prefer to have sensor with low noise and good per pixel sharpness that would be able to handle low contrast areas. I love the Fuji X-Pro1 but it is expensive and heavy.  Hopefully, Samsung will create a camera with less pixels but better dynamic range. I don't know what are the odds for that to happen. I probably will bet on a new (cheaper and lighter) camera from Fuji :)))

--------------------
The flowers on the photo belongs to very popular cultivar of Cordyline fruticosa, or something similar.

just bits and pieces

Several days ago dpreview have published their opinion on the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Arguably, it is the best m4/3 camera from Olympus. The price of the E-M5 in Australia is similar to the US price, if you shop around. After all, it is Australia, and here big shops give discounts when you ask to match the price and pay cash. This is very welcome change because most cameras in Down Under are priced significantly higher.

Recently Samsung finally had announced three new mirrorless cameras aimed on different users. The pricing in Australia is unknown, but in the US the NX20 is priced similar to Olympus OM-D E-M5. The NX is very attractive system, especially considering available lenses.

On other hand, it is amazing that two giants of the camera world are essentially in hibernation in area of mirrirless cameras. OK, last year Nikon had released two Nikon 1 cameras with very limited external controls, and Canon recently had announced G1X with very slow lens. Compare Nikon to Samsung/Olympus/Panasonic, and Canon to Fuji. Both Nikon and Canon invested heavily into DSLR cameras and lenses. I bet both companies can create very capable mirrorless cameras but this will affect their DSLRs business. While both companies do enjoy a loyalty of photographers (invest in lenses not cameras :)) it might last until development of fast focus on mirrorless cameras. Ten years ago Kodak was a big company... Ironically, Kodak developed (one of) the first digital camera and shelved it. It didn't help.