Making Syrup 2012
Some of the shot I took while at Mt Riga making syrup last weekend.
I recently stumbled upon the Fuji X10 and was simply stunned by it's styling (think rangefinder if you're old enough to know what that means).You don't have to look for long before you discover the X100 and the very recently announced and not quite yet released X Pro 1.
But with the X10 going for $600, the x100 is ~$1,100 and the X Pro 1 will set you back ~$2k with one lens (35mm prime for me please!). Both the X100 and X Pro 1 feature an APS-C sized sensor while the X10 is a 2/3", bigger than most *small* sensors but not the new micro 4/3's many enthusiast camera's are coming out with. Given my serious inability to let something go I had to do research to see which camera I would buy today *if* I were in the market, which I'm not. Still, it's the sort of thing people will approach me for advice on so it's fun to dream while I do the homework ;-)
Again, I'll be upfront in that I am an absolute sucker for these rangefinder-esque Fuji offerings. Throw on a leather case and anyone over the age of 50 or so will be freaking out when you put one of these up to your eye to snap a shot. These are the real deal, magnesium framed, very well built camera's that make no bones about trying to look like a Leica. with things like manual zoom rings, something I still love to this day about my Fuji S6000, and even manual aperture rings. None of this fly-by-wire nonsense that takes consciensely selecting a focal range off the table for most folks. The only fly-by-wire camera I've had that I actually liked in this respect is my wife's Panasonic DMC-ZS5. Why? Because they had the good sense to have it start out the equivalent of 25mm for wide which made it easy for me to hit focal lengths I tend to choose, like 25 (ok, wide is what ever they give you but at least 25 is wider than most) which is then easy to do the multiplication in my head with. So 2x is 50, another favorite of mine, 75, or 3x, for that little bit of oomph to pull it in more than what 50 is doing and then 100, or 4x, for portraits. Above 100 or so it is just about zooming in.
Anyway, back to these camera's and what I'd buy today. I'm pretty sure that if money wasn't an issue I'd get the X Pro 1. The styling and controls are simply too much for me to look away from and I am intrigued by their new APS-C sensor. They have come up with a new 6x6 pixel grid instead of the traditional 2x2 everyone else is using as a way to introduce more than one pixel pattern. The idea is to better simulate the randomness of film. Why? because the evenly spaced repeating pattern of traditional sensor has meant that the manufacturers have felt compelled to use an anti-aliasing filter to prevent moire. Anti-aliasing filters are basically *blurring* filters so any pattern in your image doesn't start resonating with the pattern on your sensor to start making all kinds of new patterns in your image! The key point here is *blurring*. Testing of the X100 have shown that it's 12MP sensor can compete with DSLR's with pixel counts up to 20MP since it doesn't require this blurring filter allowing to just capture great detail!
Which brings me back to the X10. At $600 with a 27-112 and remarkable good low light (high ISO) performance for a camera of this class it is a very good deal. this sensor uses Fuji's EXR processor and achieves it high DR by splitting the 12MP sensor in half so you only get a 6MP out of the camera. In my opinion, 6MP is good enough for the enthusiast/hobbiest as my S6000 has shown me over the years. But if I were pressed, it would be hard not to recommend the Sony NEX-5n over the X10. For ~$700 you can get it with a 18-55mm lens (~27-75-ish in 35mm terms). You'd get an even better performing sensor in a APS-C size and a camera with interchangeable lenses. It competes with the X100 for the Doxmark scores and for the same one you can have ~27-300mm focal length coverage if you added the 55-210 lens for the extra $350. The X10 is ultimately limited by it's small sensors inability to produce any bokeh effect out of the camera, not a real show stopper for me but despite all of the rest of it's great performance abilities this is the one hard stumbling block. The NEX-5n is a very good camera but lacks any real styling and is much bulkier.
The X100 is an intersting camera in that I feel it's appeal is really limited to the Pro's. This is the camare a photogragpher can carry around when the don't want to lug a bunch of camera gear and won't feel contrained by the single focal length. It's got more that it's share of quirks in the ergononics adn interface category but it takes undeniably great pictures. The good news for the X Pro 1 is that they incorporated a lot of lessons learned from teh X100 into the it making it more refined from day one. I think I would love an X100, warts and all if I had the extra dough to spend on it.
The only category not really covered here is the truly *pocketable* camera. The X10 is a touch too big to be considered pocketable but it is only in the medium size class, it's not a large camera by any means. There is plenty to choose from in that class and I'm sure both Fuji and Panasonic have some great camera's to choose from and we haven't even begun to talk about the Canon's or anyone else. Once your in this class it's about how much zoom or just how small you really want. I'd look for something that sacrifices some zoom for something wider as it will come in handy for those everyday indoor shots.
It's nice to see what camera manufacturers are doing now that the pixel wars are long since over, in this case, a return to style and a willingness to make a high quality camera in a mirror-less, medium body format.
Pup 'up for this weekend. Seems really good so far. #ECAD
Throw'n the ball with the boy.
Couldn't get enough...
The results come in ...
Suspicion around the judging
Nicolai's haul...
We had great weather all weekend and finally got to really the town in the summer after our earlier visits in Nov and Apr. Everything we wanted to do was within easy walking or biking distance. The people were super friendly and polite plus we ate like kings with one amazing meal after another. Even the french fries at the snack bar on the beach were really good, made fresh from a real potato.
When Martin Fowlers talks, I listen. After I listen to this I'll add some analysis.
