Yeah, the funny thing is that the Sony was shot at a higher ISO, but DXO's noise reduction is so amazing. For comparison, below is the Fuji shot processed in DXO from raw. I also cooled down the white balance to better match the Sony, as I had shot the Sony with white priority and the Fuji with ambience priority white balance. This brings things closer in terms of detail recovery, though I think the Fuji 18mm shot wide open is still at a disadvantage to the Samyang 35mm stopped down to F/2.8. You can notice this when zooming in on the eyes, but at 100% on my laptop, the eyes look pretty nice with both, so maybe this is just gratuitous pixel-peeping.
I think I land here:
1. Fuji OOC is certainly good enough for social sharing, probably even printing in moderate sizes. It's tough to beat this workflow for instant gratification - shoot, upload to phone with USB dongle, tweak lighting and unsharp mask in Lightroom Mobile for less than a minute, post.
2. Taking the time to process RAW in DXO from either camera yields noticeable improvements in acuity, with the difference being more pronounced here because of the relatively low light/high ISO conditions benefiting from DXO's noise reduction. So even on the Fuji, it's worth shooting JPEG+RAW, if for no other reason than peace of mind.
3. A Sony A7 III with a Samyang 35mm F1.8 can ultimately capture more detail than the XT30 II with a Fuji 18mm F2. Things might look different with Fuji's 18mm F1.4, but that spoils the compact package that I enjoy with the XT30. The question is, when/how does this detail matter? I'll keep thinking on that.
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