Fuji X10, orbs and me

I am puzzled with popularity of my posts on orbs, or white discs, appearing in some pictures from Fuji X10. Fuji X10 with the original sensor was / is prone to spectacular highlights clipping resulting in appearance of white discs. The issue is fairly common in some situations, e.g. on shiny cars at bright light, but I have not seen any orbs in my photos of plants or animals. Anyway, under pressure from the owners of the camera the company replaced the sensor in Fuji X10. Current X10 cameras should not have such problem., however the company never made any statement regarding the sensor upgrade in latest cameras. Another Fuji camera with the same 2/3" sensor, XF1, does not produce orbs.

Why people are still searching for orbs?

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.

No orbs in X10 anymore: new sensor from Fuji

Several days ago guys at dpreview have tested new modified sensor for Fuji X10. The results are very promising: no orbs / white discs.

New sensor for Fuji X10

Fujifilm indicated that the company is developing a new sensor for Fuji X10 and X-S1 to address the blooming / white discs / orbs issue. The release of the sensor is scheduled for the end of the May. It seems that the repair will be done at no cost at servicing centers. The company had suggested to contact the servicing centers. I guess they just want to know how the numbers :)

Stats on orbs

The Old Museum building at Bowen Hill | Fuji X10 | March 7, 2012 | flickr

The photo above has a couple orbs in it. The picture was shot at 12 MP resolution and resized. I took several pictures of this building using Fuji X10, and some images got orbs, and others were orb-free. I posted an average example of orbs. Personally I don't think that this image is "ruined" by orbs but I do understand that other people may have quite different standards. Fuji X10 is somewhat unique camera because some owners are very happy with it while other are very upset. I am curious to see any stats for happy/unhappy owners of the X10. Unfortunately, many happy owners do not google for "orbs" or "white discs", so simple approach (counting comments or something like this) would not give a reliable estimation.

Anyway, next week we can expect announcement from Fujifilm regarding the orbs issue.

A 'definitive solution' for orbs

Light rain at night | Toowong | Fuji X10 | February 8, 2012
iso 640, F2.5, 1/58 sec, EXR mode

A representative of the Fujifilm said that the company will provide a 'definitive solution' for the orbs issue in Fuji X10. According to dpreview the details will be announced in March. While orbs do not bother me I am curious to see how the company will deal with this issue. The first attempt (reduce orbs by firmware update) was quite remarkable because apparently the firmware 1.03 had very little if any impact on appearance of white discs.

Both images were taken with Fuji X10 and the JPEGs were resized in GIMP.

At train station | Fuji X10 | February 8, 2012
iso 100, F4.5, 1/42 sec, Aperture priority at 12MP

Conspiracy theory behind the orbs issue of Fuji X10

White disc on white car with white house in background | Fuji X10 |  Herston, December 19, 2011

I have confession to make. In the past I ignored the white discs, or orbs in my photos. The photo on the top illustrates my blindness. Discovery of the orbs in the photo above had provoked me on detailed examination of all my images taken in orb-prone conditions. I went for "orb hunting" in my photos. It turned out that some of my photos from Fuji X10 do have the orbs that were escaped my attention earlier. Moreover, I also identified the white discs in my photos taken with Olympus E-30 in 2010(!). Mind you, these white discs are smaller than famous orbs from the Fuji X10 but they are 1) white 2) round 3) have sharp border (see the 100% crop below). And I have not noticed these white discs. Isn't it strange? This need to be explained. 
 

 Three black cars at Drunken Admiral | Olympus E-30 | Hobart, September 2010

 100% crop from the original image

My first explanation was quite simple. At that time (2010) the orbs were not part of my tonal, so it was nearly impossible for me to identify these white discs as orbs. In other words, where I see a grass, a botanist would identify many different species with distinct names in Latin. It is hard to see something without prior knowledge. But that was very simple explanation, and while I like Castaneda's books, I don't like the explanation because it means that I do not pay attention to small details in my photos. 

Next I came with a conspiracy theory that explains everything about orbs. Let's look into the real facts. First, apparently there are quite a few small white discs, or "baby orbs" in my early photos taken with Olympus E-30. Second, I was doomed to buy Fuji X10 since I saw pictures of the Fuji X10 and read the spec of the camera. It felt as a camera I want to have all my life despite the fact that I newer used any Fuji camera. I bought it as soon it became available in Australia. So, the orbs in my photos became bigger but I was in the state of orb-denial and made a lot pictures with the Fuji X10. And these images sometimes have big orbs...

I can explain this bizarre situation. Imagine that the orbs are living creatures, extraterrestrials that can control our brains. Yes, I watched They Live, and I like this movie. But this theory does explain everything. The small "baby orbs" from Olympus E-30 convinced my to buy Fuji X10, the famous orb-generator. I am blindfolded by these orbs and take so many pictures with the X10, just to increase the number of orbs on the planet. I skip my lunch and go out to take picture with this camera. Instead of consuming calories myself I facilitate propagation of the orbs  Look, there are people who bought the X10 being fully aware about the orbs issue. Guess what? They also increase amount of orbs. While these people may come with different explanations why they bought such camera, it might be just a mask. I suspect all Fuji X10 owners are controlled by the orbs. They also post images with the orbs on the web, and the orbs spread through the web as a forest fire conquering brains and consciousness of new people.
#############################################
PS
I had terrible week working 12 hours a day, so don't take it too seriously.


PSS
White discs or disks? It seems that people on the dpreview forum use both.

Are all Fuji X10 cameras created equal?

The dpreview have published interesting analysis of the orbs issue in the Fuji X10. They confirmed that the firmware update 1.03 does not prevent or reduce the orbs appearance (but that's old news). However, they discovered that the orbs size varies a lot between different X10 cameras (check the second page of the dpreview test). So, it seems that not all X10s are equal (at least in term of the orbs). The difference in orbs size between cameras is very pronounced. The guys at dpreview are very pedantic with their tests.

The "batch effect" can explain at least partially why some people so upset with the X10 while other are quite happy. It is hard to say for sure what kind of the X10 camera I have, Mother of All Orbs, or its modest sibling. I generally do not shoot in conditions favorable for appearance of the white discs, so the orbs are not a problem for me. I just don't have orbs in vast majority of my images from the X10.

I doubt that anyone outside of the Fujifilm company can say what's going on with the X10. Is it assembly/quality control problem or some chips/hardware was replaced to address the orbs? Are the orbs smaller in current batch of cameras? What is the range of difference?

While this "batch" issue did not change my attitude towards the X10 (I love this camera) I became more suspicious about the company. The situation around the orbs issue in X10 cameras looks increasingly similar to the shatter/sticky blades issue in the X100. It is unclear how the company resolved this problem. According to rumors the lens/shutter design was changed some time ago but I do not recollect any official message from the company. Yes, the company had fixed cameras with sticky blades but what would happen after the warranty?

The tragedy is that both cameras, the X10 and X100, produce very good images.

I hope that the company will eventually overcome such technical problems. There is always a light at the end of a tunnel. Unless it is a night time :)

 Fuji X10, cropped | February 24, 2012 | flickr

on orbs and psychology, again

Casino Tower, Brisbane | January 20, 2012 | flickr

 I decided to write one more post on Fuji X10, orbs and human psychology. I am not an expert in cameras or psychology but it does not prevent me from expressing my personal opinion. I can say that the X10 is the best compact camera I ever used. But I have not used compact cameras for several years, so the same can be said about any other advanced compact. I cannot compare the X10 to other cameras. I mean practical tests, handling, and stuff like that. But I can share my experience and opinion about the X10. I like handling and control of the camera, and the manual zoom on lens is just very pleasant. The most important parameters (for me) can be accessed by pressing a button, so the control is very fast. The camera is very small and very light compared to my DSLR, so the DSLR very often stays home just because of it's size and weight. The photos from X10 are very good (keep in mind that we are talking about compact camera with small sensor) and the colors are very pleasant. It seems that now it is impossible to say a word about images from Fuji X10 without mentioned the orbs. There are so much interest in the orbs that I would not exclude the possibility that Merriam-Webster at some point will include "orbs" to official English vocabulary.

I stated many times that for me the orbs are rather irrelevant. The orbs are quite common in images taken at night but the orbs I got are small compared to the whole image. I doubt that the orbs in that image will be noticeable in this image displayed on screen. Moreover, shooting in ERT mode suppresses appearance of the white discs with sharp border. It does not resolve the issue completely but it does help. The orbs are clearly visible in my pictures of cars taken at bright day. I suspect that for street photographers this might be an issue, and one reader of this blog have confirmed that the orbs do appear quite often in his images. I may do some test shooting in the city but at the moment I am under severe time constrains. Also, my interest in this is rather limited because the orbs do not appear in my "nature" photos including pictures of very glossy leaves under bright sun.

So, the orbs do appear in my images (see the 100% unedited crop from the original JPEG below), but I do not consider it as a problem. Isn't it amazing psychological phenomena? Or may be I am just arrogant person and do not care about anyone else? I came with several explanations. First, I think that my job has a very strong effect on my psycho. I should explain about my job. I solve problems. Just in case: my problems are quite different from the problems of Winston 'The Wolf' Wolfe. But I got used to idea that i) nothing works as advertised ii) I need to make it work. So, I am always looking for a solution for a problem. In case of the Fuji X10 I may not shoot in orbs-prone conditions, or change the composition, or switch to EXR mode. I will try to overcome the white discs problem. Second, the orbs are absent in majority of my (nature-oriented) photos. In my night photos the orbs are relatively small and do not show up in images displayed on screen. So, why should I bother? I learned about the orbs problem on the dpreview forum, examined my night photo, and found the orbs. I have not noticed these white discs earlier, and I was happy with these images. This reminds me a joke about an old lady who said to her husband after her visit to a doctor: "Darling, it seems that what we thought was an orgasm for last thirty yeas is in fact called asthma". Do I really want to know the truth?   

One more remark on my psychology. I like to image "what if" things. I asked myself: will I buy the X10 now based only on opinion of other people (no personal experience with the camera)? The answer is: most probably not. I will be scared by the orbs problem. I have not bought the Fuji X100 because I was scared (and I am still scared) by problems with the lens/shutter. And I am very happy with the X10 now. So, I am glad that I bought it before I learned about orbs.

Get me right: I do understand that for some people the orbs represent the serious problem. I guess I am lucky that in conditions I use the camera the orbs do not appear. Do not consider this post as an advertisement for the camera. I cannot give any advise: all people have different needs. For some people the X10 might be very lovely camera (I am in that boat), and for someone it might be better to wait for the next model or buy something else. At the price of the X10 it is possible to buy a nice camera. It seems that this sensor blooming issue cannot be resolved by firmware update because the orbs do present in images taken with the latest firmware 1.03.

Firmware update for Fuji X10

The Fujifilm had released a firmware update 1.03 for Fuji X10 camera. The company statement says "Blooming (White disk) phenomena, which can be observed in EXR AUTO mode, is reduced." I have an impression that in the EXR AUTO mode the blooming (orbs, white disks) was quite well controlled with previous version of firmware compared to standard 12 megapixel mode at iso 100, at least in images taken at night. Anyway, I updated the firmware (my Fuji X10 came with version 1.02) and did a quick test at iso 100, 12 megapixel, Aperture priority mode. The light was harsh. I am talking about sunny Australia here. It was hard to look at cars even through sunglasses. Top picture has a couple very nasty orbs, and none were visible on another image at the bottom of this post. I have not tested EXR mode, it might be better. Make your own conclusion.

I probably should voice my opinion on the orbs issue. These are test pictures. Generally I do not take pictures of cars in bright sun. I am posting/doing this test because of traffic on this blog: post on orbs got the highest number of visitors. The orbs are irrelevant for my photography which is nature-oriented. I took some pictures of Brisbane at night, to see the orbs "first hand". Indeed, the white disks were appeared in some photos, but the images were acceptable for my taste. In these night images the white disks were quite small, and switching to EXR mode helped to some extend, too.

I understand that people have different standards, and for some the orbs are totally unacceptable. If you in this category be aware that the firmware 1.03 did not fix the orbs issue for 12 megapixel mode. To balance this statement I would like to remind that the X10 is not prone to blooming/white disks on natural objects such as glossy leaves in bight sun. IMHO, the orbs issue is grossly exaggerated (unless someone insists on taking pictures of cars in direct sunlight). I took over 3000 pictures with the X10, and the orbs issue is probably the last in my list of complains about this camera. I don't know how big is this issue for street photographers.  

The firmware adds several other useful things including customization of RAW button (~ten option to chose from). Kudos to Fuji. Unfortunately it is impossible to set it for the control of image stabilization but there are other useful options.  

Fuji X10 at night

Reminiscence | January 20, 2012 | flickr

Shot with Fuji X10, iso 200, F4.5, 1/1.4 sec, exposure compensation -2.0, at 12 megapixels in aperture priority mode. I like "ghost" pair walking along the river. The image made up a story in my mind, and it somehow associates with Amarcord.

And yes, the orbs do present in this photo :-) The whole image was ruined by nasty white discs.

Just in case: I bet similar photo can be made with many other cameras including compacts. Do not consider it as "an advertising" for the camera. In these days the cameras are so good compared to what was available just a few years ago. Thom Hogan wrote a nice text on quality of modern mirror-less cameras which also can be extrapolated to some degree on advanced compacts.

Fuji X10 at night: how to deal with the orbs

Brisbane at night. January 20, 2012 | flickr

I think the best title for the photo above is "Watching the orbs" or something like this :-) And yes, the photo has orbs in it, but I would not call the orbs obtrusive in the image of that size. Actually, I like the picture. The colors might be too yellow, but it turned out that I like these OOC colors. The image was rotated ~2 degree, and I cloned a tiny strip in one corner to fill in the background. 

I went to the city this Friday night to take some pictures with the Fuji X10. Generally I do not do a night photography, but I was curious about orbs, or white discs, appeared in photos taken at night as  a result of sensor blooming around overexposed areas. I wrote a few posts on the orbs issue, but till now I had just a few snapshots taken at dusk in my first days out with the camera.

It seems that the orbs do not appear at twilight but only present in photos taken at night, with bigger contrast between lights and background. I am talking about subtropical night in Brisbane, so it is very dark. The photo below was taken at iso 200, dynamic range 200%, F4.5, exposure 0.77 sec, exposure compensation -2.0, 12 megapixels. The photo was resized, and the 100% crop is provided below. 

test for orbs at iso 200

100% crop from the image above

The same scene was taken in EXR mode. I think I used high sensitivity/low noise option for the photo below.  In this mode the pictures are recoded at 6 megapixels.  The tech: iso 1600, F2.8, 1/27 sec, exposure compensation -2.0. With such exposure time it might be possible to take this shot without a tripod. Moreover, the highlight clipping areas do not have sharp borders anymore!

test for orbs: EXR mode, iso 1600

100% crop from the image above

So, it seems that it is possible to get rid of orbs in night shots by using EXR mode (high iso/low noise). It comes at price of  reduced resolution and visible noise at high iso. On positive side: it is possible to take such shot without tripod. Usually I use the lowest level of noise reduction in the camera, so the results can be better. I guess it is an interplay between contrast and the camera's ability to handle it, so it it possible that in harsh conditions even EXR mode would not be able to combat the orbs.

I have not tried to shoot the same scene with iso 1600 in standard Aperture priority mode at 12 megapixels. I suspect the noise will be very high but the orbs might be still there. I tried iso 400 with dynamic range 400% and the orbs were still visible.

Orbs in Fuji X10: Q&A for newbies

Posts on orbs now are the main source of traffic on my blog. I suspect people search for orbs because they want to buy Fuji X10 camera, or they already got the camera and looking for additional info on this issue. So, I decided to summarize what I know about the orbs for people who don't have a personal experience with the X10.

I have bought the X10 as a family camera, and we took over 2000 pictures with it. The X10 is the first Fujifilm camera I use. The photography is my recreational hobby, as well as this blog.

Q: What are the orbs?
A: Orb(s) is a nickname for white discs appeared in some images from the Fuji X10 as a result of highlight clipping. In some situations the clipped areas appeared as white discs with very sharp border.

Q: What is the highlight clipping?
A: Sometimes amount of light coming into a camera exceeds the capacity of censors in some areas. This results in appearance of completely white spots in photographs. The scenes with very big difference in brightness, such as clouds in landscapes shoots on sunny days very often produce clipped highlights. The highlight clipping occur in all cameras you can buy. Generally compact cameras with small sensors and high pixel count are very prone to highlight clipping.

Q: Does the Fuji X10 always produce orbs in highlight clipping?
A: No. Orbs appear in certain situations such as shiny surfaces in bright sunlight or in some night pictures, and even in such situations only some areas with highlight clipping appear as white discs. In different conditions the camera clips highlights quite well. 

Q: Is it batch issue or design flaw? Is is common issue for all Fuji X10 cameras?
A: Hard to say, but it looks like a design flaw resulting in such unusual "sensor blooming". So, the orbs are expected to be in images from any X10 camera with current software/hardware.
Update February 28, 2012: recent test by dpreview team indicates that the size of the white discs varies between different cameras.

Q: How often orbs appear in images from the Fuji X10.
A: It depends on what you shoot and the light. For example, the orbs are very common in night shots but (essentially) absent in pictures taken in nature. The shiny objects under bright light also produce the white discs, e.g., cars in bright sun.

Q: How bad are the orbs? 
A: It depends on the type of pictures and individual perception. In some pictures the orbs are quite pronounces, in some you need to know about the white discs problem in order to find them. In extreme cases the orbs are quite unnatural. Some people say the camera is faulty and does not work, the others enjoy it a lot. Once I learned about orbs existence and examined my photos at 100% resolution, I found about a dozen pictures with white discs from about 2,000, but only in one photo the orbs were quite big and clearly visible.
Update February 28, 2012: careful pixel-peeping had revealed orbs in other images including ones from the Olympus E-30.

Q: Is it possible to minimize the orbs problem during shooting? 
A: Yes, to some extend. Shooting at higher iso (iso 400) and with high dynamic range (400%) enabled will reduce orbs size and eliminate some of them. However, it would not solve all problems with the orbs. It seems that with the current camera firmware the white discs will appear in some situations, so you might need to adjust your shooting style, or just live with it.

Q: Is it possible to reduce orbs by shooting RAW?
A: I have not tried it yet. I don't like the SILKYPIX raw converter from Fuji, and at the moment the X10 is not supported by UFRaw /GIMP.

Q: Can Fujifilm fix the orb issue somehow?
A: The company have promised to release the firmware update addressing the orbs issue at the beginning of the February but it is hard to say to what extend the issue can be fixed through the software.The quote from the dpreview: "The firmware update ... will reduce but not completely remove the effect".
Update February 28, 2012: the orbs issue is not fixed by  firmware 1.03. 

Q: Do orbs occur only in Fuji X10?
A: It seems so. However, another Fujifilm camera with the same/similar sensor, X-S1, is the next thing to watch for the orbs. But all cameras from any manufacturer do clip highlights.
Update February 28, 2012: shooting shiny chrome motorbike with Fuji X-S1 will produce orbs in images.

Q: I want to buy the camera but I am scared by the orbs problem. Can you help me to decide?
A: No. It seems that the orbs are unacceptable to some people but quite irrelevant to other folk. The X10 camera can take beautiful pictures in one situation and produce (quite nasty) orbs in another. Some people including myself would not bother about orbs in their pictures at all, but for others even small white discs visible only at 100% magnification in very noisy 12 megapixel picture without any details and ridiculous color shift is a major issue.

Shooting shiny metal objects with Fuji X10, again

iso 100, F4.5 1/1.7 sec

I did a few boring test shots with the Fuji X10 yesterday. The motivation for this activity was very simple: after seeing some pictures of very nasty orbs on metal service (musical instruments) on the web I decided to check if it possible to fix this problem considering that shooting inside a building allows a greater control over the light. So, I put a red T-shirt on our dining table and used available light (fluorescent lamp mounted on the wall). The X10 was attached to the old Manfrotto 785B "digital" tripod and mounted on the table. The pictures were shot as JPEG with Auto white balance. The images displayed here were shot at medium resolution (2816 x 2112 pixels). Another set of pictures were posted earlier. 

I tested several objects, and changed some parameters during shooting. I took a couple dozens photos, and have not observed the monstrous white orbs in any image. There were regions of very harsh highlight clipping, with sharp border, and there were several baby orbs as on the silver earring in the image above. The 100% crop is provided. Dialing down the exposure compensation to -1.0 has very little / no effect on the orbs. Some highlights were clipped quite well, for example on the watch. Keep in mind that the Fujifilm X10 is a compact camera.

 Crop from the iso 100 image

Crop from the iso 100 image

The photo of the same scene taken at iso 400 and dynamic range 400% has no baby orb on the earring. Harsh highlight clipping on the spoon is almost gone. The same true for the 50 cent coin. I am not sure if the difference in the white balance is linked to high iso/high dynamic range but the colors in iso 400 shot are somewhat better (compare the watch).

It seems to me that in situation of controlled light Fuji X10 can take orb-free pictures of shiny metal objects. I guess I can get obrs in similar test photos using a stronger light but I am not interested in that. I already saw pictures of metal objects with enormous white orbs. My point is that in some cases it is quite easy not to have the white orbs on shiny surface in images from the X10. It is also very easy to get some.

Obviously, in a situation with a limited control over the light it would be harder to control the white discs, so shooting of cars in bright sun can be problematic. As far as I am aware, there is no obvious solution for this issue so far. Fujifilm has confirmed to dpreview that the firmware update aimed on fixing the orbs issue will be released soon (early February, according to dpreview).

Fuji X10, iso 400, dynamic range 400%, F4.5, 1/4 sec

 Crop from the iso 400 image

Crop from the iso 400 image

Shooting shiny metal objects with Fuji X10

Fuji X10, iso 100, dynamic range 100%, 1/1.7 sec, F4.5

It  seems that the orbs will eventually ruin my life because now I am taking mainly different test images with the Fuji X10. It is well known that the X10 can produce so called white discs with sharp border, or orbs, on shiny surfaces and in photos taken at night. I have posted some examples in one of my early posts. Today I made several pictures under artificial light (fluorescent lamp through something that looks like a frosted glass). The photos were taken as JPEGs, with auto white balance.

The photo on the top was taken at iso 100, the best conditions for orbs. As you can see, the highlights on the watch and paperclips are clipped. The highlights were clipped even with exposure compensation below -1.0. Below I posted 100% crops from this image saved at high quality in Olympus Master. As you can see, the clipping is very strong but there are no white orbs. 

 Crop from the iso 100 image

 Crop from the iso 100 image

Next, the same scene was taken at iso 400, dynamic range 400% (see image below). As expected, the clipping was less pronounced and the borders of blown highlights were not so abrupt. I have not used compact cameras for several years, and I must say that I am quite amazed with the quality of iso 400/dynamic range 400% shot from the X10.

I tookmore photos using different setting. It seems that in such conditions the orbs do not pose a (significant) problem. There were some round clipped highlights on shiny plastic toy but I can see white dot on this object with my eyes. But for me these images are quite acceptable, if we are talking about highlights. This is a compact camera, not Nikon D700 :)

I am not trying to prove that the orbs do not exist in images from Fuji X10. I am trying to figure out in what conditions the X10 can be used safely. To be honest, I have expected to see orbs in these images at least on the paperclips. Maybe the light was not very harsh. Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise. Be aware that the orbs do appear at bright sun on cars or in night shots.

Fuji X10, iso 400, dynamic range 400%, 1/6 sec, F4.5

Crop from the iso 400 image

Crop from the iso 400 image

Update: I posted a couple other images from this test.

Fuji X10 at night

Royal Exchange pub in Toowong. December 12, 2012.

This picture was taken on one of my first outings with the Fuji X10. The Royal Exchange Hotel / pub is very popular among students from the University of Queensland and local folk. The picture was shot as a high quality JPEG at iso 1250, 12 megapixels, 11.3 mm, F3.2, 1/43 sec, handheld, with standard noise reduction, aperture priority mode. The image was resized and saved at standard quality in Olympus Master software. The 100% crop is below.

I have checked my pictures taken with Fuji X10 at night for orbs, or white discs. To be fair, I have very few photos taken at night with the X10, and all were taken in my early days with the camera, generally at default settings. These were snapshots. It turned out that some images are orb-free (see above) while other do have orbs, for example the car lights on the picture below do look like orbs, especially if you check the image at pixel level. I have not done any post-processing for these images except resizing and cropping. You need to click in image to see the bigger size.

 Sherwood road, Toowong. December 12, 2011.

 100% crop from the image above

IMHO these images have several other acute quality issues such as high noise and loss of details, and for me the orbs in the latter image are just one of the many issues, and definitely not the biggest problem. I noticed the orbs on this image only after I searched for these abnormalities. On computer screen these white discs look OK to my eyes. May be I need a bigger screen:-)

I would really appreciate if the readers of this blog can answer some questions for me.
First, how would you estimate the impact of the orbs on the last photo?
(e.g., the image is bad anyway, the orbs had ruined the image, the picture is acceptable at low resolution etc)
Second: do the white discs look unnatural on the resized/smaller photo of Sherwood road?

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.

Fuji X10, orbs, and human psychology

Photo: December 22, 2011 | flickr

It seems that Fuji X10’s orbs story is still going up judging from threads in the dpreview forum. I have the X10 for more than one month now, and we took nearly 2,000 pictures during this time. I found these white disks in one image, and wrote an ironic post about it. Well, I hope people would consider it as ironic. May be some other photos also have orbs, but I have not seen anything that would make me worry about it. Again, I do not shoot shiny chromo Harley Davidson motorbikes (or something similar) in bright sun.

I have not seen white disks in shots taken with flash, even on Cane toad skin. The photos of silicon bricks do have white spots but the same true for pictures from Olympus DSLR camera. But why anyone wants to shoot silicon bricks with flash?

Here is a picture of Hardy Tapioca on cloudy day. The exposure compensation was set to +1.7 in order to overexpose the sky. I have not checked this image extensively but at first glance the overexposure does not produce any orbs in such situation. IMHO, the camera handled the shot extremely well, without any prominent chromatic aberrations (see the 100% crop below).

I guess I can make obrs, too, but why? It is more or less obvious that in some situations (e.g., shiny surface in direct light) people need to be more careful. I doubt that orbs will be the limiting factor for me, even in "big prints". The mushy areas in shady parts of images are the bigger concern for me. But X10 is an advanced compact camera with small sensor, not DSLR.

What I don’t understand: why the orbs issue was blown out of proportion and so many people post orbs instead of explaining how to avoid appearance of white discs?

Orbs that ruined my images and life

Photo: December 19, 2011

Shortly after the release of the Fuji X10 camera early adopters became aware about so called "white disc" problem, or orbs. It seems that the sensor in the X10 can bloom under intensive light and produce white discs or spheres. There are insane number of discussions on various Fuji forums dedicated to this topic. For me it is not a big issue, but for other people it might be. I bet that in the photo above even at A4 size the orbs wouldn't be visible. Shooting at high iso (400) and with high dynamic range (400%) will reduce orbs, and Fuji will address this issue by firmware upgrade.