I have heard other people sing the praise of the Fujis, and I did look
at them briefly, but was completely turned off by the absence of a RAW
mode. According to the specs, the new 40 has JPEG only. This is simply
unacceptable to me.
Nathan
Moose wrote:
> Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>
>> ...... It is especially unfortunate that
>> the compact camera makes are using the megapixel count as the most
>> important product attribute to emphasize, and so we get all those
>> cameras with fingernail-sized sensors onto which 8 or more megapixels
>> have been crammed. As a result, performance at ISO speeds above 200
>> suffers from image noise, and anything above 400 is virtually useless.
>>
>>
> This is the second time you've made such a statement. While generally
> true, it is not entirely true. The exceptions that prove/test the rule
> are a handful of Fujis.
>
> The F10, 11, 20, 30 and 31fd all share a 1/1.7" sensor with roughly
> twice the surface area of the 1/2.5" sensor in most small digicams.
> Combined with Fuji's unique, hexagonal pixel layout and whatever they do
> in their processing engine, these cameras outperform the other little
> guys in noise by a very significant margin, generally at least two stops.
>
> The F10/11 were amazing and the F30 is even better. It appears that the
> F31fd is simply an F30 with face detection added, which might actually
> be a plus for street photography. The newest, the F40, finally ups the
> pixel count from 6 to 8 mp, with an only very slightly, if at all,
> larger, 1/1/6" sensor, so the jury is out on whether it will be better
> or worse.
>
> Unfortunately, Fuji doesn't have IS, so for static subjects, these
> cameras aren't much ahead of the better smaller sensor cameras that have
> good IS, although I think they may still have cleaner shadows at
> equivalent shutter speed/iso combos.
>
> With non-stationary subjects, like people, they are unmatched short of a
> DSLR. Fuji also made a couple of superzooms using this sensor, but the
> extra size and weight of a 12x zoom to cover the larger sensor and the
> lack of IS make them less successful vs the competition, from my
> perspective. Once you get to a certain size and weight, might as well
> just go with a DSLR.
>
> These cameras do, however, require some modest photographic smarts to
> use to best advantage. The aren't quite the fool-proof outdoor, bright
> light snap-shooters that many Can*n's, for example are. It's important
> to "shoot to the right" to avoid blown highlights. The payoff is that
> they don't chop off the shadows, only compress them at the bottom of the
> histogram. And with the exceptionally low noise at low isos, the shadows
> may be recovered quite nicely. With manual control in the F11 and 30,
> this is easy.
>
> I've posted these shots with the F30 here more than once, but... On the
> first shot, I just over compensated, as you can see from the histogram,
> but was able to recover. Most other shots in this little gallery used
> negative exposure compensation to hold highlights, then PP to bring up
> shadow detail. #13 also has a roll over to show the original.
> http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Summita/
>
> I'm not sure to what extent this little rant is a sell job for the
> F30/31fd and to what extent it is about how, lost in among the endless
> parade of me too digicams, there is often something to meet one's
> specific needs that may be found with a little research.
>
> I have a tele sort of eye, so the limited zoom range of the F30 is a
> drawback for me. My latest project has been to find something with more
> zoom range, not too much bigger and with a combination of IS and noise
> performance to get me results I like. The Panny TZ3 looks like a
> natural, but comparison of the studio shots from dpreview shows that its
> smeary NR obscures fine detail compared to other brands to an extent I'm
> not willing to deal with.
>
> The current experiment is a Canyon A710 IS. Relatively small and light,
> 6x zoom, excellent IS and about the best balance I've found in this
> class between inherent sensor noise and NR in capturing detail without
> too much apparent noise.
>
> Also, there is free 'hack' or add-on firmware that adds live RGB
> histogram, flashing out of gamut, RAW output and many other goodies to
> DIGIC II processor cameras, including the A710. I'm fairly pleased so
> far, especially with the added features of the add-on firmware. I do
> wish it went wider, like the TZ3, but if I continue to like it, I can
> add a WA adapter.
>
> Moose
>
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--
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands
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