In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong

Photography field reports by Richard Wong. Richard’s work has been published in magazines, books, advertising, and offers fine art prints of his work. Images may be licensed as rights-managed stock photos by contacting Richard directly at Richard@rwongphoto.com or (626) 422-6151. California stock photography, fine art prints, photo blog: www.rwongphoto.com

Fuji X10 Camera Review

Posted on | December 10, 2011 | 7 Comments

Fuji X10 Compact Digital Camera

Fuji X10 Compact Digital Camera

I’ve been looking to get a smaller camera for general use for a few years now but none suited my needs. While pocket cameras (or smart phones) are appealing in the sense that you can carry them everywhere and use them spontaneously, the image quality of those devices would never cut it for professional use. Image quality isn’t that important for family pictures or vacationing with friends, and serious photographers want that too but it would kill us to find a great photo op only to not be able to do anything with the photo afterward due to camera limitations. So what I have been looking for is a camera that is compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket if necessary, yet be able to make publishable photos and at least medium-sized prints from RAW files.

The Canon G12 fits some of the criteria that I was looking for but the times that I’ve tried the camera, I wasn’t impressed with the way it handled. It also seemed a bit too bulky to carry around inconspicuously. Plus, I haven’t read too many favorable reviews when it comes to the camera’s ISO 800 and above capabilities. To be fair though, it seems to be the compact camera of choice for a lot of nature / travel photographers when they want to go light. I’ve also used my mom’s $150 Canon point and shoot camera for vacation snapshots but the files are unusable for professional use.

Then last month, I met someone in Las Vegas who happened to be carrying a Fuji X100 and that immediately caught my eye. It reminded me of an old manual film camera. I didn’t know much about it but I spent some time later that night researching it on the internet. The X100 was out of my price range and though the image quality is considered to be awesome, the camera seemed to have too many design flaws for that price range. But then I found out it’s sister camera, the Fuji X10, was about the come out and many of the things I was looking for in a compact camera seemed to be in this camera so I bought it online earlier this week and it arrived on Thursday.

Portability

I’ve been playing around with the X10 for the past two days and have found it to be really fun to use. I was able to walk around the street and the Huntington without drawing any of the usual attention or remarks that I’d get with my DSLR / lens combination. The Fuji X10 looks really low-tech when compared to most other modern cameras. Heck it doesn’t even have a logo on the front of the camera. The body is very reminiscent of a Leica, which has long been favored by street photographers.

Functionality

More importantly, the camera has aperture priority and manual modes available, which are the only two exposure modes that I use on my cameras. I was able to shoot my pictures in RAW mode without any problems; another must-have feature. Since the X10 is a mirrorless camera, there is no mirror slapping when tripping the shutter that can cause unwanted vibrations in DLSR’s during long exposures. That also means the camera can operate in a near-silent manner.

Bamboo at The Huntington Botanical Gardens

Bamboo at The Huntington Botanical Gardens - Converted straight from the RAW file with no adjustments.

Detail

Now I’m sure you are wondering what the image quality is like. I shot the following image handheld at f6.4, 1/250 sec at ISO 100. Click on the detail crop on the 2nd image below to see the tree limbs up close.

Fallen Tree on Power Line in Pasadena - Fuji X10 Test

Fallen Tree on Power Line in Pasadena - Fuji X10 Test

Fuji X10 Image Test Crop

Fuji X10 Image Test Crop

It’s not the sharpest image I’ve ever seen just straight out of camera but when I added some smart sharpen in Photoshop, the detail looked pretty good. (not shown here.) Keep in mind that I am judging this from the perspective of someone accustomed to looking at files from full-frame and APS-C digital cameras every day. I’d certainly take the files from a Fuji X100 over 35mm film scans any day though so the quality is somewhere in-between the two in my opinion. Keep in mind that I’m not scientist nor a camera-junkie. Other sites can tell you all the technical info about the camera. I’m just a photographer with real-life needs, and that is how I judge my equipment. I’d rate the image quality as above-average.

Viewfinder

I think Fuji has been headed in the right direction with the X100 and now with the X10, but neither is a perfect camera. The X10 has what is described as a “optical rangefinder-style viewfinder”, meaning that what you see through the viewfinder might not accurately reflect what you are actually photographing. It covers about 80% of the frame and you can’t see any of the meter readings through the viewfinder because it is analog. I read that the X100 has a great electronic viewfinder however and that would solve the X10′s issue in my opinion. That would also allow us to meter for manual exposure without having to use the LCD screen; thus conserving the batteries. Another problem is that it’s hard to know if your photo is focused properly. The best thing about the viewfinder? It’s pretty big for a compact camera and easy to see through unlike other cameras in this category. You can shoot with the Fuji X10 like you would with a DSLR in other words, and not have to use the LCD screen in most situations. The lack of a viewfinder is what turned me off about the high-end Panasonic and Olympus compact cameras so that is one of the reasons why I decided to purchase the X10. It is difficult to do serious photography if you are holding the camera a foot away from your eyes in my opinion.

Dynamic Range and Color

The dynamic range isn’t as good as what you would get from a SLR. It was obvious to me when photographing in the vicinity of the sun. But when not photographing in super-contrasty situations, the images look good. The auto white balance works surprisingly well on the X10. It blows my 5D Mark II out of the water both outdoors and indoors when it comes to picking up the proper white balance. I’ve never had a camera was good at white balancing the indoor lighting but I had no complaints about this at all when I took some snapshots in my house during the night. The bamboo photo above was taken on auto white balance as well but outdoors in the shade.

Overall Impressions

The Fuji X10 is a keeper and I intend to use it in situations where I don’t want to have a bulky DSLR hanging from around my neck. I won’t be using it for landscape photography but it’s something to consider for travel photography, and in social situations definitely. If Fuji would fix the quirky things that are not photography-friendly about the X10 then they would have a truly game-changing camera. As it is, the Fuji X10 is an innovative camera that is sure to gain a big following. I like it a lot.

Category: Opinion
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Comments

7 Responses to “Fuji X10 Camera Review”

  1. Carl D
    December 10th, 2011 @ 5:05 pm

    Hey Richard,

    Nice, thanks for that, especially so promptly.

    Have you shot any video with it?

    Cheers

    Carl

  2. Richard Wong
    December 10th, 2011 @ 5:52 pm

    Thanks Carl. Figured that I’d post it while people are still doing holiday shopping.

    I haven’t done any serious video work with it yet so I can’t speak about that. The specs say it is 1080 @30FPS so it sounds good on paper at least.

  3. Mark
    December 11th, 2011 @ 8:16 am

    Good writeup Richard, and timely for me. I have been looking for a small portable camera, and it is probably between this one and the Canon S100.

    Have you done any low light shooting with it? I am mainly interested in low light levels for concerts and such with no flash.

  4. Richard Wong
    December 11th, 2011 @ 11:29 am

    Thanks Mark. As for the low light levels, I took a few family pictures yesterday at a restaurant, and cranked the ISO up to 1600 with no flash. There’s quite a bit of chroma noise but the detail is there. I can send you a full-rez jpeg if you want to take a look. Let me know.

  5. Baadier Sydow
    December 15th, 2011 @ 9:40 pm

    A comprehensive review Richard. I would be interested in seeing a follow up post a bit further down the line when you have had significantly more time to play with the x10.

  6. Richard Wong
    December 18th, 2011 @ 3:03 pm

    Thanks Baadier. I’m sure I’ll have some more feedback in time.

  7. ric
    December 18th, 2011 @ 8:25 pm

    thanks for the review.

    i was hoping you could post pics that looked sharper than original using pp.

    there were important things like 100%-cropped and sharpening-result pics you could have posted for all of us to see but you chose to simply narrate them.

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