Better isn't always better

D

dixeyk

Guest
Fuji X10, f2.2, ISO1600 1/40th
8396404683_e251fb62b8_b.jpg

Say Wha? by dixeyk, on Flickr


NEX 5n with Sigma 30/2.8, f2.8, ISO2000 1/60th
8396405803_92db195cf8_b.jpg

I Accept You by dixeyk, on Flickr


Here are two quick and dirty JPEG shots of my dog Roscoe. The top with the Fuji X10 set to MF and the bottom with my NEX5n and Sigma 30/2.8 and then both were processed in Silver Efex Pro 2. I will be the first to say that my NEX is "better" camera than my X10, and the NEX image is sharper and has more detail and has better OOF area, but in all fairness the Fuji image is a lot better than I would have expected (it's also cropped) relative to the NEX. To be honest I would be perfectly happy with either of these images. I will say the faster AF, zoom lens and close focus ability were an advantage on the Fuji.

I love my NEX and I think it is capable of some jaw dropping images but I also have a great deal of respect for what the Fuji can do.
 
Agreed. The later generations of compacts are certainly working well, to produce some excellent images. I submitted a shot taken with my XZ-1, to my camera club's monthly EDI competition. It gained an "Honours" and "Judges Choice". I am quite certain nobody realised it was taken with a compact (even though the information is in the EXIF data... hardly anyone uses an EXIF browser plugin). I would be quite happy to submit shots from any of the current crop, Fuji X10 included, if I owned one. Your shots of Roscoe are evidence of the decreasing need to have "better", unless you want to have it.
 
Agreed. The later generations of compacts are certainly working well, to produce some excellent images. I submitted a shot taken with my XZ-1, to my camera club's monthly EDI competition. It gained an "Honours" and "Judges Choice". I am quite certain nobody realised it was taken with a compact (even though the information is in the EXIF data... hardly anyone uses an EXIF browser plugin). I would be quite happy to submit shots from any of the current crop, Fuji X10 included, if I owned one. Your shots of Roscoe are evidence of the decreasing need to have "better", unless you want to have it.

I agree, I think that there is still a stigma about small sensor cameras (although changing with the likes of cameras like the XZ-1, X10 and RX100). The more I use the X10 the more I realize that what defines a great camera for me has less and less to do wit measurable benchmarks like sharpness, and resolution and more to do with intangibles like feel and fun.
 
Roscoe is a sweetie. My guess is that any picture of Roscoe is going to be good. He's the real star. The Nex and the X-10 are just trying hard to keep up.

Nice shots!

Well...yes, I take no credit for my subject's innate ability to pose for the camera.
 
What a couple of sweet-hearts! Very nice work you're doing, too; I just get all ga-ga about cute dogs. I can be a pretty prickly S.O.B., but dogs just get me all soupy and sentimental. What can I say? Your dogs are very, very cute, and extremely photogenic.
 
What a couple of sweet-hearts! Very nice work you're doing, too; I just get all ga-ga about cute dogs. I can be a pretty prickly S.O.B., but dogs just get me all soupy and sentimental. What can I say? Your dogs are very, very cute, and extremely photogenic.

Thank you sir...I will go give them a hug on your behalf. :D
 
Also agreed. This is a theme I keep hitting again and again. The quality of today's small sensor cameras is astonishing to me.

I use a G12 and FZ150 professionally (and before that, for years, a 3-megapixel D0550). I am a fulltime freelance writer, and I shoot photos to illustrate my stuff. I don't think I have ever been paid solely for shooting photos, but photos are part of what I provide and get paid for.

Not once has an editor complained about the technical quality of my photos. I think the reason is evident: most magazines do not print exceptionally large photographs, and the images produced by small-sensor cameras are adequate to the task.

This is a long-winded way of getting to the point: I really like both of your photos, and I do not perceive, just a looking at the screen, a dramatic difference in quality between them.

Well done. Maybe if better isn't always better, perhaps sometimes when it is not broken, we shouldn't fix it, no?
 
In the past few years it's been a parade of m43 bodies and recently NEX. I can say that IMHO the Fuji X10 is easily on par with any of the m43 bodies I have had. That's not to say the IQ is better (although I think it is really closer than folks might think) but to me a camera is so much more than IQ. It is about usability, comfort, creative options and even fun. If I had all my m43 bodies and lenses sitting in front of me (everything from an E-P1 to GX1) The Fuji X10 would rank somewhere near the top of my favorites (possibly behind the GX1 and PL45/2.8).

8320048579_d033dec441_b.jpg

Cirque by dixeyk, on Flickr

8339627204_28f9700524_b.jpg

Dew by dixeyk, on Flickr

8391651972_08b2dce0be_b.jpg

Taylor Dock by dixeyk, on Flickr

As a creative tool it is superb.
 
That first B&W shot is pretty jaw dropping ! (not to say the other ones are not beautiful)...

Thank you my friend not too shabby for a little sensor equipped point and shoot (albeit a nice one). Specifications and such are an interesting read and I find them helpful when I am first thinking about a camera but ultimately I think the images it can create are more telling. Right now I would say that the value of the Fuji X10 is greater than the sum of its parts.
 
OMG Kevin the Two Peas is very serious art gallery stuff !!! I'd enlarge and print and hang it big where everybody can see it !!! It's really the kind of shot that grabs my gut. Wow.
 
Kevin lovely shots all of them.
I quite agree that now the IQ differences are smaller than many will admit.
Truth be told it is more about the images any way. A 'perfect' IQ shot of a resolution chart is boring.
 
Back
Top