Macro with Fuji X10

Damselfly Ischnura sp? Victoria park, Herston | January 31, 2012 | flickr

F4.0, 1/280 sec, iso 100

Finally I figured out how to make money with photography: I go to a small local park with the camera during lunch time instead of spending cash at canteen :-) Today the weather was very good, without bright sun, and I captured several images on Fuji X10. I used Macro mode at maximal focal length, or Supermacro mode, handheld. The first and third images were cropped, and second and fourth just resized. The Unsharpen mask was applied for all images after resizing.

Long-jawed Spider, Tetragnatha sp, Victoria park, Herston | January 31, 2012

F5.6, 1/320 sec, iso 200, supermacro

It can be T. bituberculata, T. demissa, Brown Long-jawed Spider, T. nitens.

 

Not identified yet, and it is not a macro :(

F4.5, 1/640 sec, iso 200

Exuvia, Victoria park, Herston | January 31, 2012 | flickr

F5.6, 1/250 sec, iso 200, exposure compensation -0.7 

The exuvia above apparently belongs to cicada but there are several cicada species in Brisbane. The 100% crop from the original JPEG is below. 

I wish the X10 had an additional supermacro mode on the long end of the zoom. The supermacro at wide end is rather limited in use, especially if you want to take pictures on dragonflies or spiders.

Samsung NX20 is coming...

Yesterday I visited a site (forum?) outside of English blogosphere dedicated to Samsung cameras and noticed that it got a new thread for upcoming NX20. It seems that the site is maintained/moderated by people somehow linked to Samsung, so I see it as a very promising sign. There are some bits and pieces of various rumors, mainly from "general public". It seems that the NX20 will have a build-in WiFi, the sensor will be the same as on NX200, non-fixed AMOLED (I translated it as tilted but am not sure if it is correct). There are some info on buffer but it was unclear if "10 images buffer" is for raw or JPEGs. It seems that the processor will be better? faster? than in NX200. Unfortunately, no specs for EVF. It seems that Samsung will have it ready for sale in May but the announcement is expected in February. Obviously, it is just a rumor.

Fuji X10 at night

Photographers | Brisbane, January 20, 2012 | flickr

A few more night shots from the Fuji X10. First two pictures were taken at medium resolution and high sensitivity / low noise mode. The picture above was taken at iso 1600, F2.2, 1/50 sec, and the photo of the pub below was made at iso 800, F2.2, 1/80 sec. The noise filter was set to low. I used a spot metering and auto white balance. It was pitch dark, so the photos are noisy. As I wrote earlier, the orbs / white discs are quite rare in images shot in the high sensitivity (EXR) mode.

I don't have any other high end compact cameras such as the Olympus XZ-1, so I cannot compare the X10 to other compacts "head-to-head". For me the night photos are noisy but still usable at small size. The orbs do present in some images taken in Aperture priority mode, at high resolution, but I don't feel that it is a major issue for me. Obviously I would prefer not to have the highlights clipping in shape of the white discs, especially in photos taken at low iso / long exposure, but the orbs are rather irrelevant to me. Again, it depends on personal perception, and I do understand that for some people the white discs are not acceptable.

Royal Exchange pub | Toowong, January 20, 2012 | flickr

The image below is shot at high resolution, aperture priority mode, iso 400, F2.8, 1/40 sec. The image was cropped and resized in GIMP. It seems to me that in this image the highlights clipping is quite acceptable.

 Performing Arts Center, South Bank | Brisbane, January 20, 2012