Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 for 300$

Ted's cameras shops have Fuji X-E1 in stock. I don't know if Ted's got the zoom kit or body only. I know that in other camera shops in Brisbane X-E1 body is available but the zoom kit or Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 lens are not. It looks like a very interesting business model to me: the zoom kit will save ~500$ over the separate purchase (based on prices in Ted's cameras). So, people not interested in zoom lens can make a couple hundred dollars from buying the kit instead of body only. Guess what would happen? Easy: the zoom kit is not yet available but the X-E1 bodies are on the display in Australian camera shops.

In other shops such as Digital Camera Warehouse, the difference is smaller (~350-400$) but still significant to stop me from buying the camera with the 60mm macro lens now and getting the XF 18-55mm OIS zoom later. I would rather save the money for XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 OIS expected to be released in the first half of 2013.

In meantime I am exploiting the Vivid (Velvia) mode on Fuji X10. The images are punchier (obviously), and generally very pleasant. The other thing I enjoy is Panorama option. It is possible to make a better panorame with a dedicated software and full-res images but for the web - the output from the camera is more than sufficient. 

Great Court, the University of Queensland | Fuji X10 (panorama mode), GIMP (levels)

Panorama with Fuji X10

Jacarandas at the UQ lakes | Fuji X10, in camera panorama | October 30, 2012

Not bad for the hand-held camera. The image at the original resolution is available on my flickr page. The levels were changed in GIMP, and the image was saved at a lesser quality.

I am still amazed with features in Fuji X10. Most of these things are new for me. Olympus cameras have auto panorama mode in the supplied software but it did not work well for me. I am talking here about my old compact cameras. Yes, I lived in a cave all that time :-)

10,000 frames with Fuji X10, and counting

Jacarandas in bloom at the UQ lake | Fuji X10, Panorama mode, GIMP: levels

One year with Fuji X10. More than 10,000 frames. It turned out to be an amazing camera, with manual zoom, excellent handling, famous Fuji colors, low noise. 

I discovered that it is possible to take pictures without looking through the viewfinder. Moreover, it turned out that I can get sharp pictures with Fuji X10 at very low shutter speed, much lower than on my DSLR camera with sensor-based image stabilization. Lack of mirror (slap), good in-lens image stabilization, short focal length, neck strap used to stabilize the camera - probably all these factors contribute to sharp images. Next came in-camera panorama mode. I have not used compact cameras for years before acquisition of the Fujifilm X10. This is a big leap forward from old days. Sometimes the image stitching creates artifacts but it is still very impressive for panoramas taken with hand-held camera. The autofocus assist lamp works amazingly good and camera can focus in complete darkness.On-board flash works very well. I got used to Supermacro mode at 28mm (eqv) and the big depth of field very handy for macro shooters. Surprisingly, some presets, such as Sunset mode, are turned out to be very useful. I also returned to JPEG shooting. The image quality is very good in JPEGs, and I don't have time for RAW processing. 

My favorite settings: low noise reduction, Aperture priority mode, Auto white balance, Provia, iso 100 or 200, 200% dynamic range for iso 200. Except for the Supermacro mode, I try to keep the aperture open.

Things that I do not like in Fuji X10:
Viewfinder. It is ironic because the presence of a viewfinder in a camera was considered as nearly compulsory requirement for me. Why I don't like the viewfinder on Fuji X10? It is small, even for person used to 4/3 DSLRs. There is no information whatsoever, none. It is useless for polarizing filter or at close distance. Even in bright sun I generally use the monitor.  

The proprietary things: filter thread and the camera cable. I've bought a step-up ring and now can use standard filters. The cable is as precious as a lifeline. For some reasons the SD card used in Fuji X10 does not communicate with our computer through a card reader, and the images from the camera can be transferred only through the proprietary USB cable (proprietary universal serial bus cable - isn't it ironic?). On top of it, the camera cannot be powered through the USB cable and requires battery for image transfer.

Menu. Q button in firmware 2.0 helps to some extend but it is still hard to access some options such as image stabilization. I wish it would be possible to customize options in the Q menu. Erase or Format options are also buried deep in the menu but can be accessed relatively fast through the preview: when camera switched off, pressing green preview button will activate the preview mode, and pressing OK will give an option to delete all files.

Shutter speed at open aperture is limited to 1/1000 sec. Build-in neutral density filter can solve the problem. I don't know at what aperture the diffraction will kick in.

The battery. I got one spare battery but it is not enough for long trips.

None of these "don't like" this are serious. The viewfinder is useless, there are ways around the proprietary things, and the menu is compensated by really good user interface. 

Fountain | Fuji X10, OOC JPEG

Panorama shot with Fuji X10

Brisbane river | Fuji X10, in camera panorama

One of my friends persuades me to buy a Nikon DSLR. He has one, a really good camera, plus several lenses. His processing of Nikon RAW files is just amazing. I argue that Fuji X10 produces quite satisfactory images, and it is very light and compact. I do minimal processing of images from Fuji X10, and the JPEGs from the camera look very good for me. For example, the panorama above was taken with Fuji X10 and resized in GIMP with subsequent local sharpening (hint: the camera can take panoramas at different focal lens but in this case it does not cover the whole angle specified in the settings). 

I do agree that now some DSLRs have better value for the money if size and weight do not matter much. However, Fuji X10 satisfies nearly all my photographic needs, and I just don't see any point of getting an additional (heavy) camera.