X-E1 bundle offer at Adorama

XKIT
Adorama has the following X-E1 kit offers:

Kit offer 1: X-E1 with zoom lens, bag, spare battery, SD card and more with $112 price drop ($1401)

kit offer 2: X-E1 body only kit offer with $120 rebate ($1049)

kit offer 3: X-E1 with zoom lens and spare battery, SD card, USB and more with $120 rebate ($1449)

See them all here at Adorama.

A review and a few thoughts about the X-E1 can be read at iansheh.com. “The Fujifilm X-E1 is a fantastic little camera, at least for me. The size and weight make it great for travelling. I don’t shoot much, if any, high-speed action so the AF speed isn’t an issue for me. Moreover, AF accuracy is high on my priority list which is camera excels at. And the image quality is astounding. You do have to remember that the X-E1 is a mirrorless camera not a SLR. If this is your first venture into a mirrorless system, get ready for a bit of a learning curve. The X-E1, like most mirrorless cameras, operates a bit slower than SLRs, and the EVF is great but still isn’t a prism viewfinder.”

Mike Kobals model of the week is the “black Raven girl Sanna” (click here). All shots taken with the X-E1 and 35mm prime

 

Comparison: APS-C with Speed Booster VS Full Frame

sb test

image courtesy: eoshd

“Both of these shots were taken with the same lens at 24mm. One is not a full frame camera! ” (NEX-7 top / Canon 5D Mark III bottom. Lens: Sigma 24mm F1.8)

So, eoshd started his Speed Booster testings. Almost identical field of view! “The Speed Boost effect on aperture is highly evident too. On the NEX 7 the camera reports the maximum aperture as F1.3 and it is certainly brighter.” Also the “depth of field is as shallow on the NEX 7 as the 5D Mark III despite the difference in sensor size.”

Do we really need a Fuji Full Frame now? At the end of his post eoshd says: “This is a groundbreaking product for photographers and cinematographers alike.” Just click here (eoshd website) to read much more and see more comparison pics!

In another post he explained how the Speed Booster works: “If your sensor is smaller than full frame, shrink the image that the lens throws to fit over it. That is the principal behind the Metabones Speed Booster which essentially gives you the full frame look and a brighter image all at once…” He says, among the others, that with this adapter:

  • A 24mm wide angle like the Canon 24mm F1.4L becomes a 24mm wide angle on the FS100, with the same shallow DOF and field of view as on the 5D Mark III
  • A F1.2 aperture on a Canon lens becomes F0.90, a significant 1 stop brighter image in low light
  • Depth of field becomes shallower – the same as it would be on full frame

Read the whole text here.

Metabones Press Release:

Petersburg, VA, USA, January 14, 2013 – Metabones® and Caldwell Photographic jointly announce a revolutionary accessory called Speed Booster™, which mounts between a mirrorless camera and a SLR lens. It increases maximum aperture by 1 stop (hence its name), increases MTF and has a focal length multiplier of 0.71x. For example, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II lens becomes a 59mm f/0.9 lens on a Sony NEX camera, with increased sharpness. The faster F-stop allows for shallow depth-of-field and a lower ISO setting for decreased noise.

Speed Booster is also particularly pertinent to ultra-wide-angle SLR lenses. The combined focal length multiplier of Speed Booster and an APS-C mirrorless camera is approximately 1.09x, making the combination almost “full-frame”. Full-frame ultra-wide-angle SLR lenses largely retain their angle-of-view on an APS-C mirrorless camera when Speed Booster is used.

The optics of Speed Booster is designed by Brian Caldwell, PhD, a veteran of highly-corrected lens designs such as the Coastal Optics 60mm f/4 UV-VIS-IR APO Macro lens with exemplary MTF performance (focusing done with visible light requires no correction whatsoever for the full spectrum from UV to IR).

Speed Booster serves double-duty as a lens mount adapter, from Canon EF lens (but not EF-S) to Sony NEX, with auto-aperture, image stablization, EXIF and (slow) autofocus support for late-model (post-2006) Canon-brand lenses. It will be available in January 2013 from Metabones’ web site and its worldwide dealer network for US$599 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Other mount combinations will follow shortly afterwards. Leica R, ALPA, Contarex, Contax C/Y and Nikon F (with aperture control for G lenses) will be supported, as will Micro 4/3 and Fuji X-mount cameras. Support for other mounts will be added in the future.

Comparing RAW converters: JPEG vs. Lightroom, Capture One, Silkypix & RPP

by Rico Pfirstinger

NOTE: This article has been edited to add Raw Photo Processor (RPP) and Lightroom 4.4RC to the comparison.

Yesterday, Richard Butler of DPREVIEW fame published an article comparing several X-Trans compatible RAW converters. You can download the RAW file of this demo shot yourself by following the link above. Just scroll down to the end of the DPREVIEW article.

This is an X-Pro1 in-camera JPEG of the original demo shot that was used in the article.

DPR Tram DR200% Astia (in-camera JPEG)

You can click on the image for larger views including full-size. Strangely enough, Richard used a DR200% shot (= a RAW that is underexposed by 1 EV) and film simulation mode Astia. Since Astia offers a different color gradation and more shadow contrast than the camera’s standard (default) Provia setting, this version of the demo image is actually not very suitable for comparing external RAW converters with their respective default settings, which will typically try to mimic the camera’s default settings and look. So let’s do a better job, shall we?

This is the same file as before, now developed in-camera with the X-Pro1’s Provia film simulation mode, using the camera’s default JPEG settings:

DPR Tram DR200% Provia (in-camera JPEG)

Again, click on the image to get to larger views on Flickr. As the demo shot was taken in DR200%, the camera’s internal RAW converter automatically adjusted shadow tones and darker midtones to compensate for the RAW’s -1 EV underexposure, while leaving the highlight tones intact (click here for a more elaborate discussion of how to extend dynamic range). As you can see, Provia offers less shadow contrast than Astia, so the shot looks a bit flatter and also “less sharp”, because increased contrast will give a (false) impression of increased sharpness. So let’s forget about the Astia JPEG shown in the DPREVIEW article. Let’s instead make this Provia JPEG our reference image and compare it with the results of three external RAW converters: Lightroom 4.3, Capture One 7.0.2 (release version) and Silkypix 5.

Here’s a screenshot showing a 100% crop of this Provia JPEG. Click on it to go to Flickr for a full-size viewing option:

DPR Tram DR200% Provia detail screenshot

Now that our benchmark image is established, let’s have a look at its Lightroom 4.3 version. Lightroom/ACR recognizes the camera’s DR settings (stored as metadata in the RAW file) and automatically compensates (at least partially) for it in its default import settings. Again, click on the pic for larger views:

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

Faster, Wider, Sharper: Speed Booster for your X-series

speed booster

Just came back from work, checked my emails and saw that many readers linked me the same news (thanks guys!).

Faster, wider and sharper, and it’s no April Fool’s, as Philip Bloom says here in his review about the Speed Booster! Take a look also at www.metabones.com and take your time to read the PDF about it here… how to turn your APS-C into a Full Frame ;-). To every early adapter out there, send your first impressions to Fujirumors and tell us if it keeps what it promises.

It will be available soon for US$599 / £372 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Capture One 7.0.2 officially released today at 14.00 CET

Capture One X-Trans Support

Here is the email I received yesterday from Lionel of the C1 team: Let’s see what the final version of C1 can get out of the X-Trans RAF files.

“Dear Beta Customer.

The beta of Capture One 7.0.2 [download page] has now ended. The terms of the beta will terminate on Monday Jan 14, 2013, at 14.00 CET, where Capture One 7.0.2 will be officially released. Thank you all very much for the participation in making Capture One an even better piece of software. In particular I want to thank all who contributed with comments and raw images.

Regards,
Lionel Kuhlmann Ph.D.
Phase One”
C1 offers the possibility to download a 60 days free trial version, for all those who prefer to try it out first.
P.S. Here is codyhatch’s  lightroom vs capture one beta comparison.