Fuji Fuji X10 - Settings to start with?

Hyubie

Top Veteran
Location
Massachusetts
Good news: Yes, I finally received my X10. :yahoo:
Bad news: It's already dark and really cold outside. :(

BUT - I love the feel of it. Flashes of my childhood and my dad's earlier cameras came in a rush. :D

I've been playing with it a little - but as usual my first shots are of my kids. :) I also switched it to Velvia film mode, as I love that extra punch of colors.

I am not sure if there already has been a thread with this same request (if there is my apologies but I cannot find it). Can you Fuji X10 Xperts share your settings, as I plan to use this camera primarily with its JPEG output? I can probably do minor tweaks in Lightroom, but prefer not to, and definitely not with every image.

Thank you very much!
 
I rarely if ever tweak the in camera settings. But this is what I do:

(1) The easiest thing to do for me is to leave the camera on the EXR auto mode via the top dial. You will be limited to M (6 mp) sized files, which may affect your ability to crop, if you are a cropper. The X10 does a pretty darn good job of utilizing the right EXR mode for the right situation. The X10 also combines different "Scene" modes with the EXR settings, when you are using EXR via the dial.

(2) If I want control of the exposure and DOF, I use Aperture Priority. I generally leave it on M also, because some of the more experienced folks here said that EXR is triggered if you set the camera to M sized photos, and set the DR to auto. DR being the dynamic range. I'm not 100% convinced that's the case. I think this might trigger the EXR as to only the EXR-DR mode. But I don't think it does anything in relation to the EXR-NR (noise reduction) mode. Some may beg to differ though.

I highly recommend that you try out the Pro modes. These might be my favorites modes in the camera. The Pro Focus mode creates a fake bokeh. But there needs to be enough separation and contrast between the subject and the background. You can control the level of blur from a scale of 1 - 3. The Pro Low Light mode combines four exposures taken at high ISO, but slightly underexposes them to yield a faster shutter speed (less camera shake), then increases exposure again, and the result is a low noise photo even in a low light setting. This works REALLY good for static subjects. It's better than the EXR-NR mode. Both the Pro Focus and Pro Low Light mode will result in 6 mp photos. Last but not least, the sweep panorama (the last of the Pro modes) is a piece of cake to use. Easier to keep it steady than the NEX3 that I used to have.

Hope this gets you started. Have fun!!!
 
I would set the quality internally, i.e., via the menu, to L. When you shoot on EXR, it will revert automatically to M, but you only have to flip the switch to P to get full resolution in good light.
 
Just looking through the Amateur Photographer Magazine test on the X1.
It makes no mention of the blobs but talks highly of the camera's resolution. That surprised me a little as the EXR sensor by its very nature shouldn't resolve as well as the normal bayer array of pixels.
AP says " Against the competition this places the X10 with the best of them."
However , in reality resolution is not as good as my LX5 so perhaps the much respected AP has got it wrong.

EXR really does mean more DR or less noise when light is difficult and lower resolution when times are good!
I'll live with that.
 
I view the EXR as the alternative to "my picture would be lousy because of noise or blown out highlights". I give up half the resolution to get a better looking shot, which amounts to giving up cropping room and large printing capability. In my cased, it's mostly the former since I rarely make prints and never make big ones. It's funny to me that I fret over a 6 MP image when that as the resolution of my first DSLR, the unfortunately named *ist D.
 
I highly recommend that you try out the Pro modes. These might be my favorites modes in the camera. The Pro Focus mode creates a fake bokeh. But there needs to be enough separation and contrast between the subject and the background. You can control the level of blur from a scale of 1 - 3.

I'm a newb so maybe this is a dumb question but how can you actually adjust the softness when hitting the shutter button resets the softness level to auto? I'm able to select a softness level using the dial but it's always re-selcted after hitting the shutter. This is confusing considering the manual also says "The amount of softening can be adjusted before shooting..."
 
If you're shooting jpegs, the recommendation is to set the camera to Medium size, Fine, and lock it at DR400. I also set the Shadows and Highlights to medium hard to further bring out detail in those areas, and saturation and contrast to medium hard. If you set the X10 to Large size and DR400, the camera will raise the ISO automatically to match the DR, making everything ISO 400 including bright daylight images.

I am still working out raw-only shooting. Even though I have it set to Medium, the camera still raises the ISO to 400 for DR400 shots in bright daylight, which is perplexing. I'm working out whether it can shoot at DR400 at ISO 100 in bright light.
 
Thanks all for your replies. I've read somewhere (getdpi?) that setting it to DR200 and then the others (like the Shadows and Highlights) from medium soft to medium tends to give you a much larger allowance for post-processing.

Here's the quote I saved in a text file:
If you use camera JPEG images the in camera Picture Style settings are crucial.
Here are our Picture Style settings (for JPEGs):
Image Size: Large
Dynamic Range: 200%
Film Simulation: STD
Color: MID
Sharpness: M-SOFT (to avoid over sharpening with halos)
Highlight Tone: M-SOFT
Shadow Tone: SOFT (shows more open shadows)
Noise Reduction: LOW
These settings are made to allow the most options in your post processing. Blocked shadows and clipped highlights cannot be undone later.

My apologies to the original poster of this settings if I cannot properly attribute it to you anymore. :) So far, I'm happy with the results. Right now, I'm trying to play with the EXR mode, see how the results work for me. I also have not switched to raw even after the Camera Raw update from Adobe, as I intend to use this camera's JPEG output.
 
I'm a newb so maybe this is a dumb question but how can you actually adjust the softness when hitting the shutter button resets the softness level to auto? I'm able to select a softness level using the dial but it's always re-selcted after hitting the shutter. This is confusing considering the manual also says "The amount of softening can be adjusted before shooting..."

Sorry for the delay in replying! I can't replicate what you have described. I can control the level of "softness" with the control dial, and it stays on that level after I press the shutter. I do not believe there's an "auto" softness mode.

Welcome to the forum Gasoline! Hope you stay around the forum as it's a great resource.
 
I came here to post this exact same question, so I hope I can tag along to this thread without hijacking it.

I haven't received my X10 yet, but I've been researching the settings a lot. I'm still somewhat confused about the EXR modes and how they function.

My plan was to use M Fine, Aperture priority, ISO Auto-3200, either auto DR or DR400, Raw+JPEG, Provia, and AF Mode Area.

How do I use the EXR modes in Aperture priority (or P, S, M)? That's what I'm not clear on.

Thanks!
 
I haven't received my X10 yet, but I've been researching the settings a lot. I'm still somewhat confused about the EXR modes and how they function.

My plan was to use M Fine, Aperture priority, ISO Auto-3200, either auto DR or DR400, Raw+JPEG, Provia, and AF Mode Area.

How do I use the EXR modes in Aperture priority (or P, S, M)? That's what I'm not clear on.
I think you've answered your own question. If you use the mode dial options that are LABELLED "EXR", the camera basically takes control of all variables and you can't control anything, including aperture or shutter speed. But as long as you set the camera to medium resolution, rather than high resolution, you're enabling the EXR functionality. I use settings very much like you've described - aperture priority, ISO Auto-3200, auto DR. And then I control the aperture to get the right tradeoffs between shutter speed and aperture. Or you could do the same with shutter priority or manual settings. I've read of folks recommending setting the DR to 400% rather than auto, but I don't get that because in low light it seems the best setting is high ISO with low DR and if you force the DR to 400%, you might not be getting optimal results.

I really like the results the camera gives me with auto-EXR mode turned on, but I don't like relinquishing control of the aperture and shutter speed also. So I did quite a few back to back shots in various conditions with auto-EXR and then with my settings, as above. And basically the camera chose the same combination of ISO and DR in both auto-EXR and with my settings pretty much every time, so its essentially using the full EXR function but leaving you control of at least a couple of key settings. The only time it chose differently was when it didn't see any need for either higher DR or SN and just left it in full resolution or "resolution priority" which essentially isn't EXR at all. My settings don't allow that to happen, but that's OK - I don't think that gains you anything EXCEPT resolution and I've pretty much decided that the X10 is a 6mp camera for most intents and purposes.

I have another set of settings I use when I specifically want higher resolution and am less concerned about the finer points of image quality. When I'm street shooting, for example, I'm often shooting from the hip, not framing precisely, and sometimes end up cropping my images. I'm not terribly concerned about blown highlights in these images, but I do want the latitude to crop these shots, so I shoot them at the camera's full resolution. But for everything else, I shoot it at 6mp and let that EXR brain do its thing because it always seems to get it about right.

-Ray
 
flysurfer, if you're reading, I meant to thank you for being so thoughtful as to include your detailed in camera settings for each of those photographs over on the X10 Sample Image thread. You've written before about using the in camera controls, and this is something I really am fairly ignorant about.

To all who are using this great little camera, I often find that I need to up the contrast on my OOC jpegs and almost always pp via Color Efex. I could get away with Lightroom's clarity, contrast, curves...but I guess I like the "darkroom work". That said, if I had a whole bunch of photographs from a trip, or an event, I'd much prefer to have to feel I didn't need to. I'm not sure if I'm making myself as clear as I'd like to.

My eyes are very light sensitive and when I am outside and there is any sun, I have to wear my polarized sunglasses. I realize that this changes the appearance of what I see on my LCD screen, and I try to use the histogram to be more of a help. I often find that I need to use the EV compensation in much more of a negative setting than I would have on say, the X100. It's been a while since I've used any other camera to compare.

I'm wondering what you and others find? Perhaps my exposure methods aren't as accurate as they should be? Or perhaps, I should set some of the in camera settings a bit differently than "standard"? I have tried the Velvia and Astia a few times...

Ray, am I correct that those fantastic photos of yours from the Mummer's Parade have been post processed a fair amount?
 
BB, good morning. I'm sure you know this, but I'll mention it anyway: if you have a group of images that all need about the same adjustment (e.g., increase contrast), it's easy in Lightroom to make the adjustments in one image then batch paste them to a group of images. I might do that first, then do your post-processing in Color Efex with that one chore out of the way. Lots of different ways to approach the situation!
 
Thank you, Chuck. I do know this. I am thinking that this would be a good thing to remember if the photos were all taken in similar lighting situations...and, yes, at an event. It's true that I don't often remember this tip, so I thank you for jogging my old memory banks!

I will have to pay more attention to my pictures from a given day... Lately, with the Single In January, I've been concentrating on one photo...and have some others I plan on returning to.

I'm really thinking more about whether or not it might pay for me to up the contrast or other such things "in camera". I need a pondering smiley.
kaffeetrinker_2.gif
 
BB, maybe a little experimentation is in order with those in-camera settings. Up the contrast, take a few pics, and see if you like the results.

However, there's a downside to increasing the contrast in-camera: it will directionally drive some portion of the shadows to black, with the potential of losing - permanently - some of the details. If you take the photo with "flat" settings, you can adjust in post-processing and decide how much trade-off between contrast and details you're willing to tolerate. Much more precision available in post-processing, which I believe you said you enjoy anyway..?
 
BB - I don't know much, but always wiling to share!

One more suggestion/reminder: when you're experimenting with in-camera contrast settings, switch on RAW+JPEG. That will give you an insurance policy, in case you take the image of the century with the contrast set too high....:D The in-camera settings only apply to the JPEGs, so the RAW images remain....raw...
 
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