Some samples from my new Fujifilm X10 digital camera.

Scroll down for the pictures. A mini review follows here:

Initial impressions

I am not going to spout spec sheets for you here. Please head over to dpreview or fuji's own website and read what they have to say about that part of the camera. What I will do instead is tell you what I think of the camera based on where I am coming from.

For starters, I am not a professional reviewer of anything. What I am is an avid user of cameras. I started off with a Canon Powershot S3IS, moved to an Olympus E520, and then to an Olympus E-3 with a trio of HG lenses (pro spec stuff similar to Canon's f4 L class lenses.) The fuji was purchased to fill the role of travel camera. I do a lot of cycling, and wanted something with good picture quality, good external control, and light weight. The fuji fits that set of requirements.

What I did not want, after much consideration, was another system camera. The cost of starting that up again, coupled with the cost of gathering up more lenses, would be too much to justify. Plus, I would be trading in some of that portability which was a key factor in my decision to buy this camera. Thus, I eliminated the micro 4/3 and Sony Nex 5n cameras (the Sony with some reluctance, because it is a very fine camera.)

I considered the Nikon P7100 briefly, as well as the Canon G12, Olympus XZ-1 and Lumix LX5 but settled instead on the fuji largely because of a combination of the lens, build quality, and image quality. All cameras in this class produce excellent results for the kind of cameras that they are (see my archives galleries for one where I tried out my father's G11 - a great little camera.) For me though, the fuji made the cut.

Here is why.

Camera handling and build quality:

This camera is a little metal brick. It feels very solid in the hand. I like metal cameras and prefer something with some substance to it and this little thing meets my requirements in that department.
I very much like the handling of this camera - it is quite small though. Initially, when I saw it, it was struck by how good looking it was and by how much it reminded me of old range finder style cameras. I was not prepared for how small it really was to hold though, even though I had seen pictures of people holding it in adverts. That said, it is not too small, and there is plenty to hold on to. The grip on the front is very minimal, but the faux leather is grippy enough that it is quite comfortable. There is a nice thumb rest in the upper right hand corner that is just about perfect for the way I hold this camera - incidentally, it is also nice to "hook" the camera on when walking about using a wrist strap.
Speaking of straps, for me, this camera is too small and too light to use a normal camera strap with. I find that it gets in the way. So you understand where I am coming from, I carry it around in a small over the shoulder bag that I bought from MEC in Burlington, Ontario which is not meant to be used as a camera bag. This does not mean that it is not good as a camera bag, but I found that with the spot I picked to put the camera in that the strap gets in the way. I also feel it is not quite heavy enough to warrant a conventional strap. A wrist strap works very very well though. It also fits very nicely into a jacket pocket and does not weight it down. I would not put it into the pocket of a pair of jeans though or any other pants. I have been carrying it over the shoulder in its bag on the bike off and on for a while now and can hardly tell I have it with me. This is especially true when I compare it to the weight of my E-3 and either of the two smaller lenses I own for that camera.
The on / off switch located on the lens and integrated into the manual zoom is a real treat. Occasionally, I find myself turning the camera off when I try to zoom - oops - but I mark that down not as a design flaw, but as operator trouble. This shall pass. The on /off switch and manual zoom is nicely stiff and feels very very smooth in operation. For my taste, it is infinitely preferable to the motor driven zooms of other cameras in this class.
The shutter button has a nice resistance to it and also accepts a screw in manual shutter release.
Good luck turning the control dials (yay for metal!) on the top of the camera by mistake - they are quite stiff.
One thing about the lens is that it has focal length (not the real focal length, but 35mm equivalents) for 28, 35, 50, 85, and 112 mm printed on the top of the lens. I very much appreciate this as dialing in the equivalent of my four favourite prime lens focal lengths is very easy because of this.
The viewfinder is big, bright, and very easy to use but could really use some sort of paralax correction lines. DSLR users take note - there is no information in the viewfinder. It is for framing only. That said, it is getting easier to use and I am missplacing my targets in the pictures less with practice and am learning to ignore the lack of information in the finder. The camera is easy enough to hold steady when using like an arms length cell phone like compact camera and can be used for framing well enough that way when conditions merit it.
I am not a fan thus far of the lens cap - I really hope I don't ever lose it. It is very stiff, and sits quite far onto the lens, but it is not a design that I have used much, and so far, it is not my favourite cap. I would have preferred a metal screw on one to be honest with a standard thread size (I mean really fuji, could you not have used a standard thread size? Next time, do it!)

Image Quality:

I think this gallery speaks for itself. I think that the image quality is very good for a camera in this class. Of course, it has a small sensor but fuji manages to get a lot out of it. I am simply amazed at how well it does with out of the camera jpegs particularly in low light. It does not work miracles, but the results are surprising for a compact camera. When the light is good, I find noise to be a non issue and just let the iso float up to as high as iso3200. It seems to select the iso very well for any given situation. When there is noise, and the iso is not through the roof, the noise looks more like grain. I am not seeing any huge issues with its texture. Even the jpegs clean up well in lightroom.
Incidentally, be careful of flare. Note my picture in this gallery which shows how bad it can get in harsh mid day light. Avoid shooting in the sun's direction, and it should be good. On my hitlist for this camera is the hood which will be used when flare may be an issue or when I have it out for a while (that lens cap is a real issue for bagging the camera with the hood attached as it clearly won't go on the camera when the hood is on).
The bundled silkypics software is pretty wretched and naturally, fuji does what every other camera maker but Leica does and uses proprietory raws making their early customers wait until Adobe or some other third party gets their raw converter in line before the full potential of raws can be explored. That said, the fact that it shoots raw makes me very happy. Colour rendition seems ok - my wife and daughter have not complained, and the jpegs seem fairly robust in pp in lightroom thus far (I have used jpegs in the past which simply would not process much without coming to pieces - these seem much easier to work with.)
Both my wife and I have noticed though that compared with the Olympus cameras, the fuji occasionally misses the white balance quite spectacularly. I may have to start carrying around my grey target and actually using it. The E-3 simply does not miss much in this regard in my experience. No big deal, but be aware of it and shoot raw (either now, or when the converters catch up).

Here are some suggested camera settings:
C1 - RAW, Dynamic range at 100% to avoid getting into software lifting of highlights, Aperture priority, film simulation standard.
C2 - Jpeg, Size M, DR at 400% (allows for the trick exr tech to kick in with no software boost), Aperture priority, film simulation your choice (I use a punched up black and white).

Some strangeness:

1) Shutter speed hard cap.
I have not figured out why yet, and perhaps someone here knows, but there are hard caps to the shutter speed at any given f-stop. Where I bang into a wall with this is that at f2, you can only get 1/1000 second shutterspeed (the camera maxes at 1/4000). This is fine most of the time, but is an issue when shooting wide open in bright light. I got into the habit of doing that with my E-3/50mmf2 combination which would let the shutter speed float up to as high as 1/8000 of a second. Be careful. Remember to stop down. Then things will be ok. It caught me off guard though the first time.

2) Clipped highlight blob of doom.
I have finally had the "white blob of doom" appear in one of my photos. Check this one out: http://www.pbase.com/image/140023716 Look around the lights under the arch. Two of them have "blobs". Here is a bit of the description of the photo for you to look at:

"The camera did a great job with rendering detail in the dark areas and under that lit archway but the candle lights, which one would expect to be blown, have in fact produced perfect spheres of blown out area. Speculation on the forums has it that this is fixable with a firmware update, and fuji has been notified of the concern. Fuji seems quicker off the mark with fixing bugs in their cameras (much better than Olympus anyway) and actually listens to its user base regarding what fixes people want. I hope this gets fixed.
A deal breaker? No. Not at all. In fact, judging by the flare accompanying this, I wonder if the hood (I don't have it yet) would help with the flare and with making the blown extreme highlights be less of an issue? Since I expect that spot to blow out, if it blew out with a more gradual gradient like my E-3 would, I would be happy. I also wonder if I had remembered to do what I usually do in low light when there are light sources in the picture and dial in at least one stop of negative exposure compensation if that would fix it or at least reduce the effect? I will have to check and on another night."

I made a black and white version where the blobs are less obvious. If you care to, hunt for it! :)

Actually, a very very careful look at the rest of the gallery shows it appearing a couple more times too, but it was less obvious (and to be frank, it is not that obvious here except that there was some flare which draws the eye to the "blob" in the middle of the light source). Not a huge deal to me in the grand scheme of things. I only make a fairly large mention of it here because every single forum about this camera seems to have suddenly discovered this phenomena and has devoted countless threads to it and I figured that I would mention that yes, it is there, and yes, it can be noticeable. Also, every compact and most non-compact cameras clip light sources in situations like this one. The x10 does it a might strangely, sort of, but I have learned to embrace the weaknesses of camera systems before and use them to my advantage. Just something to be aware of and work with if this camera is to be used - for example here, a slight shift to one side would have removed the bulb from the picture and left only the illumination it provided and would have eliminated the problem. Consider the problem, and work with it. A new way of taking the picture might just appear to you.


You can see some video from the camera here: http://www.pbase.com/christopheru/at_the_movies
There are some really good tips and tricks with this camera from a user base on flickr which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1773207@N23/discuss/72157628141376759/

Worth looking at.


UPDATE January 3, 2012: I have finally settled on my personal favourite settings for this camera - Raw +jpeg, Size M, DR400%, native 4/3 format. This gives you a very very clean high dynamic range half size (based on 6mpx) raw with a huge (HUGE) amount of headroom for processing. Almost no headroom for cropping, so get that right in camera, but the detail is astonishing.

UPDATE February 10, 2012: Some more will be added to test the new firmware (1.03) for the camera. Part of what it does is attempt to moderate the effects of the "orbs" that people have been complaining about. My goal is to try and photograph a bit in the next little while subject matter that I would normally shoot which might induce blooming and see if the new firmware and good processing can deal better with it. My initial impression is that it does ok if you do :)

For me, the following is more important than the blooming fix (from Fujifilm's webpage - don't blame me for the grammar!):

1.New function for "RAW" button can be applied by customer's preference
By holding down RAW button for approx. 2 second or more, RAW button can be applied into new function similar to "Fn" button setting. (Yay, a new function button!)
2.Each value set on ISO sensitivity and Dynamic range can be maintained even if aperture setting mode (P / A / S / M) is changed. (Good - having those two features change just because you changed shooting modes was, well, dumb).
3.Face detection function is upgraded to keep tracking face by means of face-tracking AF function. As this function is activated even in movie recording mode, AF on detected face in the movie becomes more effective. (This could be down right handly).

UPDATE February 11, 2012: Sad to report that the firmware seems to try and "flare" away some of the orb/blooming effects but that it is still easy enough to create them. The software fix does not work in all circumstances but does appear to moderate things in others. I think they have a hardware issue on their hands. The real question is would this be enough to stop me from buying and using this camera a lot? That depends and is a decision that really will vary from person to person. Some people (many actually) have returned their x10 in disgust over this issue. But for me, and the kind of shooting I do the most, it is not much of an issue. I would of course prefer that it not be there, and will not likely be an early adopter of any camera again (burn me once...) but I remain overwhelmingly satisfied with what I am getting out of this camera. I think this gallery speaks for itself really. Just don't try and use it for urban street type shooting with specualar highlights at night and expect orb free results.

Is it perfect? No. Will it reward you with very good output if you take the time to learn its quirks and work within its design limitations? Yes. So the approach then is really up to the individual. Work with it, or don't bother. And really, is that not true for everything from iphones to medium format digital cameras?

Update March 15, 2012: It would appear that Fuji is giving up (so to speak) - In case you have not heard, the cameras can be sent back to Fuji after contacting them for a sensor replacement. They are in the process of developing a new sensor which will be shipped to repair centers sometime in May. Replacements will be free of charge and will happen sometime after or at the end of May. This is good news for people plauged by the sensor blooming (which I am in low light situations). I am currently in the process of setting all this up with Fuji Canada and will update this gallery when I have more to say on the issue and some samples from the new sensor to share with you early this summer. Officially, Fuji Canada is still working out their precise strategy, but if other areas are anything to go by, sensors will be replaced asap. Good on you Fuji. Not all companies with product concern do this much for their customer base.

Here is the text of their official statement found here: http://www.myfinepix.ca/news/statement-regarding-the-fujifilm-X10-and-X-S1-digital-camera-blooming-effect

The FUJIFILM X10 and X-S1 digital cameras were made available by Fujifilm late last year, and have been generally very well received by customers, who admire the excellent picture quality, manual zoom lens and viewfinder.
However, we did receive some inquiries concerning the so-called ‘white disc’ or ‘blooming’ occurrence, where exceptional highlights in the picture can appear as strongly delineated rounded shapes. This ‘blooming’ effect can occur with all digital cameras which use CMOS sensors, to varying degrees. It can also occur with the X10 and X-S1 when shooting in certain conditions, e.g. cars with front lights shining in dark night scene. The X10 and X-S1 are fitted with a very advanced sensor, which gives excellent picture quality and low noise, but which does give a different ‘blooming’ effect from other cameras.
Fujifilm has a long-standing history of delivering top quality products to the market. In response to our customers’ comments, we have worked hard to find an improvement to reduce the ‘blooming’ effect of the X10 and X-S1. Below are the actions we have undertaken.
In February, we announced a firmware upgrade for the X10 (version 1.03) which does reduce the white disc occurrence specifically in EXR mode. It works by identifying scenes that are likely to get ‘white disc’ blooming. When the camera recognizes such a scene, it automatically increases the ISO and optimizes DR (dynamic range). As the ISO increases, the white discs are less evident. * New firmware for the X-S1 will be available from March 21, 2012.
We will also develop a modified sensor, which will more universally resolve the ‘white disc’ blooming effect in all modes. We are working hard to make this new sensor available from late May 2012.
We encourage any customer with an X10 and X-S1 who has experienced the ‘white disc’ phenomenon to call their local authorized Fujifilm service centre.
Fujifilm is committed to delivering the highest quality products to the photographic community, and is happy to provide this improvement.