nianys
Veteran
After a pretty chaotic journey, my X10 showed up this morning.
I will try to give my impressions, while realizing they might not be of much interest to anyone, since the camera is about to be replaced by the much anticipated X20 (and also anticipated by me now !!).
Keep in mind the cameras I have shot these past two years (digicams and I go back all the way to 2001 with... a Fuji little compact, but I'm trying to compare with relevant technology generations). So, a boatload of various APS-C DSLR's (the last one still sleeping in my photo closet being the excellent D90), several APS-H (yes, that's Canon former 1D series, with a X1.3 crop factor) and FF bodies (1D MkII, 5D and D700, namely). And from early 2012, the beautiful Panny GX-1 (my, what a camera), a few m4/3 Olys I failed to bond with, and 3 NEX bodies (5N, 6, and 7).
I'm seriously lusting at the Fuji X guys, and treated myself to the littlest of them, the X10, as a complement (not replacement, my husband made me swear never ever to sell that camera) an old Canon S90.
I won't surprise anybody stating the obvious, the X10 looks absolutely gorgeous, and feels very solid and qualitative in the hand. It's just a lovely camera to hold. It's definitely vintage in appearance, as my husband reaction illustrates ("it's seriously old school").
The ring operated on/off switch is as good as everybody says it is. The OVF is a small, plain glass window devoid of any information, and it shows only 85% of the frame. But it's certainly useful to have in bright light, so I'm glad it's there.
My unit is pre-owned but brand new (the original owner won it as a challenge prize, and he tried it out once and sold it). The dials are firm, the exposure compensation wheel is even way to firm for comfort. The up side is that it won't be knocked by accident, and I hope it will loosen up a bit with use.
The little thumb wheel, otoh, has some unwanted vertical play and turns very loosely. The back wheel is as flimsy as every little dingy wheel I ever experienced.
Even with some serious menu digging, I've been unable to locate the firmware version of the camera, and at first totally ignore the RAW button (as I'm a STRICT jpeg shooter). It's only hours later that I pressed it, nearly by accident, and was overjoyed to discover the wonderfully useful quick menu. Wow, what a time saver.
The dial mode is also very firm/stiff, which is a pain because my two favorite modes sit at the exact opposites of this dial, so a lot of turning. Hopeful it will loosen a bit with time.
I wish th AEL button would be configurable since, AFAIC, it's totally useless. Shame to lose an external control opportunity.
Once I turned the camera on, I was immediately overwhelmed by the (IMO very excessive) choice of modes and conflicting options, namely in the DR department. I started systematically setting up every menu item, but to my dismay a lot of them were greyed out or limited. I discovered that many, many features are mutually exclusive, which is pretty hair pulling. To be honest, only extensive trial and error and experimenting with as many combinations as possible, will help you sort out what inhibits what.
Once you do that, things become a little clearer, and you start seeing your way out of the tunnel. I'm still extremely confused with all the DR options, and have chosen to just use 200% as default and be done with it. I've set C1 for natural light and C2 for manual mode and external flash. I wish I'd have twice as many custom modes, to have native B&W as well, and why not some in camera 1:1 ratio (which I had set on my GX-1), but two custom modes is much better than nothing, after all, I didn't have that luxury on my much more expensive (and capable) NEX 7.
One huge disappointment for me is how the exposure simulation (full time live view) is rather approximative, and not available in Manual mode (which, truly, sucks. Other cameras do that, and offer the option to boost the LCD to override the chose settings if they make the screen too dark/bright).
The menus are thankfully short, so there's a bunch of menu digging involved, but the scrolling is reasonably fast, and the Quick menu pretty much solves that issue.
So, how does it perform ? Well, ya all know that. It works great. It works better than it has any right to. Today was ugly dark, and I shot exclusively in my very dim home. The results are excellent, given the sensor size. AND, the lens is just long/bright enough to allow for SOME subject isolation, which is unheard of in a compact (Yes I'm aware of the Oly ZX-1, and it doesn't come close to the Fuji). PLUS, I was very, very curious to test the Pro Focus mode. I know nobody here gave it much thought as you guys are all serious enthusiasts, RAW shooters, etc. But my main gripe with smaller sensors has always been lack of DOF control (and only that, I use flash so don't so much need high ISO), so that fake, software generated background blur had me on my toes.
Well, I'm pleased to report it's pretty kick@ss ! Of course, it needs certain conditions to work, namely that there is a sufficient distance between subject and background. I'm unable to post samples today as I dropped my Macbook last night and it won't turn on (bummer) but I'm really pleasantly surprised at how reasonably nice and natural the OOF areas and transitions work. Being able to throw your background slightly out of focus and isolate your subject with a *compact* camera is just insanely cool !! There are 3 available settings in this feature, and IMO 2 is the sweet spot. 1 doesn't yield much result, and 3 is overkill and unnatural. 2 works really pretty well. The downside of such feature is that it robs you from many choices like WB and a few others, and won't work with an external flash (not even sure it works with the built-in unit). But used in a pinch it gives the ability to create a much more flattering and better looking portrait, given that you have a little control over your subject to background distance.
So, all in all, how do I like the X10 ??
About 5 minutes after unboxing it I wanted to list it right back, list it and be rid with it. It drove me nuts. But sticking with it and shooting it throughout the day, I'm discovering more and more cool things about this camera, and tonight, paired with my faithful SB-600, it gave me pretty astonishing results. The ability to get some subject isolation (even without the gimmicky faux bokeh mode) is the clincher for me, I'm keeping it. It should do Venice very nicely in March
I will try to give my impressions, while realizing they might not be of much interest to anyone, since the camera is about to be replaced by the much anticipated X20 (and also anticipated by me now !!).
Keep in mind the cameras I have shot these past two years (digicams and I go back all the way to 2001 with... a Fuji little compact, but I'm trying to compare with relevant technology generations). So, a boatload of various APS-C DSLR's (the last one still sleeping in my photo closet being the excellent D90), several APS-H (yes, that's Canon former 1D series, with a X1.3 crop factor) and FF bodies (1D MkII, 5D and D700, namely). And from early 2012, the beautiful Panny GX-1 (my, what a camera), a few m4/3 Olys I failed to bond with, and 3 NEX bodies (5N, 6, and 7).
I'm seriously lusting at the Fuji X guys, and treated myself to the littlest of them, the X10, as a complement (not replacement, my husband made me swear never ever to sell that camera) an old Canon S90.
I won't surprise anybody stating the obvious, the X10 looks absolutely gorgeous, and feels very solid and qualitative in the hand. It's just a lovely camera to hold. It's definitely vintage in appearance, as my husband reaction illustrates ("it's seriously old school").
The ring operated on/off switch is as good as everybody says it is. The OVF is a small, plain glass window devoid of any information, and it shows only 85% of the frame. But it's certainly useful to have in bright light, so I'm glad it's there.
My unit is pre-owned but brand new (the original owner won it as a challenge prize, and he tried it out once and sold it). The dials are firm, the exposure compensation wheel is even way to firm for comfort. The up side is that it won't be knocked by accident, and I hope it will loosen up a bit with use.
The little thumb wheel, otoh, has some unwanted vertical play and turns very loosely. The back wheel is as flimsy as every little dingy wheel I ever experienced.
Even with some serious menu digging, I've been unable to locate the firmware version of the camera, and at first totally ignore the RAW button (as I'm a STRICT jpeg shooter). It's only hours later that I pressed it, nearly by accident, and was overjoyed to discover the wonderfully useful quick menu. Wow, what a time saver.
The dial mode is also very firm/stiff, which is a pain because my two favorite modes sit at the exact opposites of this dial, so a lot of turning. Hopeful it will loosen a bit with time.
I wish th AEL button would be configurable since, AFAIC, it's totally useless. Shame to lose an external control opportunity.
Once I turned the camera on, I was immediately overwhelmed by the (IMO very excessive) choice of modes and conflicting options, namely in the DR department. I started systematically setting up every menu item, but to my dismay a lot of them were greyed out or limited. I discovered that many, many features are mutually exclusive, which is pretty hair pulling. To be honest, only extensive trial and error and experimenting with as many combinations as possible, will help you sort out what inhibits what.
Once you do that, things become a little clearer, and you start seeing your way out of the tunnel. I'm still extremely confused with all the DR options, and have chosen to just use 200% as default and be done with it. I've set C1 for natural light and C2 for manual mode and external flash. I wish I'd have twice as many custom modes, to have native B&W as well, and why not some in camera 1:1 ratio (which I had set on my GX-1), but two custom modes is much better than nothing, after all, I didn't have that luxury on my much more expensive (and capable) NEX 7.
One huge disappointment for me is how the exposure simulation (full time live view) is rather approximative, and not available in Manual mode (which, truly, sucks. Other cameras do that, and offer the option to boost the LCD to override the chose settings if they make the screen too dark/bright).
The menus are thankfully short, so there's a bunch of menu digging involved, but the scrolling is reasonably fast, and the Quick menu pretty much solves that issue.
So, how does it perform ? Well, ya all know that. It works great. It works better than it has any right to. Today was ugly dark, and I shot exclusively in my very dim home. The results are excellent, given the sensor size. AND, the lens is just long/bright enough to allow for SOME subject isolation, which is unheard of in a compact (Yes I'm aware of the Oly ZX-1, and it doesn't come close to the Fuji). PLUS, I was very, very curious to test the Pro Focus mode. I know nobody here gave it much thought as you guys are all serious enthusiasts, RAW shooters, etc. But my main gripe with smaller sensors has always been lack of DOF control (and only that, I use flash so don't so much need high ISO), so that fake, software generated background blur had me on my toes.
Well, I'm pleased to report it's pretty kick@ss ! Of course, it needs certain conditions to work, namely that there is a sufficient distance between subject and background. I'm unable to post samples today as I dropped my Macbook last night and it won't turn on (bummer) but I'm really pleasantly surprised at how reasonably nice and natural the OOF areas and transitions work. Being able to throw your background slightly out of focus and isolate your subject with a *compact* camera is just insanely cool !! There are 3 available settings in this feature, and IMO 2 is the sweet spot. 1 doesn't yield much result, and 3 is overkill and unnatural. 2 works really pretty well. The downside of such feature is that it robs you from many choices like WB and a few others, and won't work with an external flash (not even sure it works with the built-in unit). But used in a pinch it gives the ability to create a much more flattering and better looking portrait, given that you have a little control over your subject to background distance.
So, all in all, how do I like the X10 ??
About 5 minutes after unboxing it I wanted to list it right back, list it and be rid with it. It drove me nuts. But sticking with it and shooting it throughout the day, I'm discovering more and more cool things about this camera, and tonight, paired with my faithful SB-600, it gave me pretty astonishing results. The ability to get some subject isolation (even without the gimmicky faux bokeh mode) is the clincher for me, I'm keeping it. It should do Venice very nicely in March