New M.Angeloni (riflessifotografici) review! X-E1 vs X-PRO1

Fujifilm X-E1 – Fujinon XR 35mm f/1.4 R – 4 sec, f/16, Iso 200

image courtesy: www.riflessifotografici.com

A few days ago I posted the review of the X-PRO1, X-100 and X-10 of riflessifotografici. I have to say that I liked them a lot. So this time I waited for the X-E1 review. And now it’s here, it’s online. (translated version)

Angeloni begins so: You want to know how the image quality of the X-E1 is? You wanna know about the RAW-conversion with adobe? The autofocus? Writing speed? Well, same as X-PRO1, so stop reading, and good bye!

So I continued to read! ;)

Massimiliano Angeloni tested the new X-E1 with the 35mm lens and the 18-55mm zoom lens. And regarding the 18-55 lens, don’t expect over-hasty conclusions, that’s not his style, as you know. He wants to go deep inside the qualities of this lens. Therefore we still have to wait for a study in greater depth of this lens. So be patient, read this (translated) review and wait for more.

Also here the main question is: X-E1 or X-PRO1? Is the smaller size really a PRO of this camera? The smaller size of the body required to rearrange for example the picture review button and the focus-assist light. No problem with the picture review button, but the new position of the focus-assist light isn’t the best. Of course it depends on how you hold your camera, but it’s quite easy to cover this important light with the middle finger of your right hand.

It’s not just a matter of size, of weight, EVF or OVF. It’s a different philosophy. The question is, what kind of photographer you are! So, there is no better or worse choice between X-PRO1 or X-E1. It depends on you. Do you need a compact package [with the future 27mm f2.8 pancake-type lens on Fuji’s road-map] that takes advantage of the potential of the 16 MP X-Trans sensor? Do you need a flash, or the OVF? A small or a (maybe?) more solid camera? It’s up to you.

So, read the review and let’s wait for the 18-55mm review! I’ll keep you up to date.

X-E1 in stock status check: ebay US / ebay Noth America / ebay Europe / Amazon US / Amazon GER / Amazon UK / Adorama /B&H / WexPhotgraphic

Fujifilm X-E1, Fujinon XF 35 f/1.4 R a f/1.4

 

 

Feedback: Lightroom 4.3 and interactive comparison

 

chromasoft

chromasoft wrote about his work with X-Trans files. He makes a deep analyze of the RAW conversion for the Fuji X-trans sensor.

But let’s begin with his first impression about the newest version of Lightroom (4.3). chromasoft.blogspot.it is very disappointed and the whole review consists in one laconic sentence: “In short, same chroma smearing problem as the previous versions. Oh dear. Again(!)”

So his hope when he tested the 4.2 version was not fulfilled: “And no, really, you shouldn’t be blaming Adobe for this. They have limited resources, and you can’t expect Adobe to throw huge amounts of R&D time at solving a problem that Fuji created and have taken no action to resolve.  The situation may yet improve in LR 4.3; the issue may still get to the top of Adobe’s priority list. But don’t count on it.”

But his analyze is very detailed. Here there are the part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 of his “demosaicing the X-PRO1” tetralogy.

frontallobbings

frontallobbings posted a nice overview of some current options of RAF RAW-conversion. He created an interesting mousover table. Mouse over the links to swap among the others between DCRAW 9.16, Lightroom 4.3, SilkPix Developer Pro 5, In Camera JPG, Raw Photo Processor (RPP 4.7)… He noticed that Lightroom 4.3 has “low amounts of chroma noise, but very heavy detail smearing. Loss of details but no aliasing artifacts. Even at 100% it’s hard to see the ‘Watercolour’ effect if you don’t know what to look for. I suspect a very heavy pre-demosaic median filter and bicubic interpolation algorithm is the cause of the issues. However it’s still one of the easiest to use, and if you can handle some of the image quality loss, most likely won’t notice the detail loss.” DCRAW 9.16: “Gives the highest details, however has aliasing artifacts. Some chroma noise (even after filtering). Command line prompt only. Requires some technical know how. I use VNG interpolation and 15 pass median filtering.” SilkPix Developer Pro 5: “The current version is very clean however does show some chroma smearing. Shows very little chroma noise and no real aliasing errors.” Raw Photo Processor (RPP 4.7): “Utilizes DCRAW and acts as front end. Works very well for details, but aliasing and chroma noise is high.“ Read more in his post here.

qimago.de

Silkypix VS lightroom. Also qimago confirms… silkypix is often better than lightroom. But with silkypix you have to be patient, it’s slow. Lightroom is faster! He dreams of a mix between silkypix and lightroom. Look at the comparison images and read the review here (translated version). You can download the 30 days trial version of silkypix here.

Also $300 XPRO1 bundle rebate coming (you save a total of $600)

As I told you yesterday on Sunday Fuji will launch a $300 rebate on the X PRO 1. There is also another good news. Fuji will bring back the special that when you purchase an X-Pro1 together with either an 18mm or a 35mm & save $300.00 . It means you save a total of $600!

Reminder: Keep an eye on all daily changin deals here: Amazon (cameras), Amazon (all stuff), Adorama, Bhphoto, J&R, TigerDirect, Bestbuy and eBay.

X-PRO1: firmware 1.11 vs firmware 2.0 video comparison + vote your wish list

You still remember the long wish-list of Pedro Kok, about bugs he would like to have resolved, and features he would like to have added on the X-PRO1. There is always much hope that firmware upgrades could fix all the issues related to the software of a camera.

And indeed, this comparison of two X-PRO1 (firmware 1.11 vs firmware 2.0) shows how much can be done, added and fixed with upgrades. As you can see in this video (click here), the 2.0 firmware upgrade really brings faster autofocus, improved manual focus, better start up time, 3x magnification, added the auto-ISO 6400 option, better writing speed to the memory card…

The camera got faster, yes, but some users wrote us that the faster autofocus also leads to high percentage of mis-focussing. Tell me in the comments if you also noticed this. And did the new firmware 2.01 bring more auto focus accuracy?

Nevertheless, much can be done thanks to firmware updates. And some of them prove that Fuji is really listening to the feedback they receive from photographers. So Fuji, keep it up! And, Fuji, it’s not that far to Christmas. So take a look at the wish list of fujirumors followers in this post… ;-).

Leave a comment and extend the wish list! Here are just 12 improvements I’ve picked out from the comments. Choose three of them!

The Best Locations for Landscape Photography are... (max. 2 selections)

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...