First winner of the Fujifilm Student Awards 2013

Some of you strongly criticized the last winner (see my post here). Now the winner of the first Fujifilm Student Awards 2013 has been announced. “The theme for this year’s Award is ‘The Colour Of….’ with students being briefed to capture an image that illustrates how colour lights up their world.

The winner is Jade Danielle Smith.

“Jade’s image, a self-portrait laying amongst shadows, impressed judges with its beautiful tone and use of natural light. Together with her entry, Jade provided a commentary that caught the eye of the judges, forcing viewers to question what ‘colour’ ‘means to them… On how she took her image, she said: “Using [shoplink 7829]Fujifilm’s Superia 800[/shoplink] film, I placed my [shoplink 7827 ebay]Canon AE-1[/shoplink] with a 50mm lens and positioned it on a tripod with a ten second timer and naturally placed myself into the direction of where I wanted the light to fall.”

via ephotozine

winner of the Fujifilm Student Awards 2013
winner photo Jade-Danielle-Smith-Jan-Winner_zps48079a1d.jpg

Part 2: Fuji X-E1 vs Canon 5D Mark III comparison (with 14mm and 35mm lenses)

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Do you remember the very good X-E1 review (with 5D Mark III comparison) of Martin, posted on Fujirumors here?

Now Martin posted his second test. Again, the Fuji [shoplink 7756]X-E1[/shoplink] has to compete with the [shoplink 7748]Canon 5D Mark III[/shoplink]! But in addition to the 5D he compared the X-E1 also with the [shoplink 7759]Canon EOS 600D[/shoplink] (APS-C sensor). This time the leses tested are the [shoplink 7764]XF 14mm[/shoplink] and [shoplink 7766]XF 35mm[/shoplink].

And also this time the review of Martin is well worth a read. (click here to read the whole review). I’ll post just an extract of his detailed review.

XF 35mm

The manual focus of the 35mm is tedious (the behaviour of the focus ring is not intuitive). The 35mm offers, compared to the 18-55, just a slightly increased resolution. He suggests you to buy the XF 18-55mm rather than with the XF 35/1.4, “provided you can do without the larger apertures. In particular since the zoom lens also offers an effective image stabilizer.” And more:

“The resolution of the full-frame EOS 5D Mark III can not be matched by the Fuji with neither lens, which was to be expected. […]

I was surprised by the good performance of the EOS 600D with its rather simple kit zoom lens (Canon EF-S 18-55 IS II). In the aperture range from f/5.6 onward, this combination gives at least as good resolution as the Fuji X-E1 with XF 35 mm fixed focal length optics. You can even see the minimal pixel count advantage of the Canon (18 MPixel versus 16 MPixel) in the resolution charts.”

And what about chromatic abberation?

“It is striking to see the Fuji prime lens XF 35mm deliver somewhat worse results ​​than the XF zoom 18-55. One can assume that Fuji performs electronic corrections in camera, which also have an effect on RAW data.”

XF 14mm

This is an excellent lens.

“The autofocus has little to do at this focal length (21mm equivalent to full frame) and it works quickly and flawlessly… A most unique feature of this auto-focus lens is the ability to switch to a mechanically coupled manual focus. After pulling the focus ring towards the camera body the focus can be set directly, i.e. without a remote controlled servo motor. To achieve the coupling the focus motor firstly drives the optics to the mechanically preset focal length. After that, the coupling is automatically engaged. No operation of the small M-C-S rotary switch is required. […]

[…]Ultimately, the XF 14mm is the first and only XF series lens, which constitutes an excellent manual focus that is a real alternative to autofocus. I very much hope that Fuji will bring more optics with this design to the market in the future.”

The optical performance is “outstanding“, and the chromatic abberation test results are even lower than the Canon 5D Mark III (with 16-35 zoom lens).

from the conclusions

“One can ask the question why the X-E1 delivers a rock-solid performance in my tests, but is not the celebrated stellar performer as in some other reviews. The reason might be that I was analyzing RAW files and not the JPEGs out of the camera. Fuji’s software department has obviously done a great job and the X-E1 produces excellent JPEGs. But a comparison of raw sensor data is more revealing, since resolution measurements can be manipulated by JPEG sharpening almost arbitrarily. Only RAW files show the real performance of the optical system under similar conditions.

It turns out the X-E1 provides a very good image quality, but ultimately, it is on a par with other top APS-C cameras of similar resolution. Even with the two excellent prime lenses the X-E1 does not reach the resolving power of a full frame camera.”

Read it all, see the resolution and chromatic abberation charts and sample shots here at Martin’s webiste.

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Fuji X-E1 info and price at [shopcountry 7756]

Canon 5D Mark III info and price at [shopcountry 7748]

Bags for your X

FR-reader Martin searched in the internet especially for vintage bags for his retro syled X-series camera. It must have taken him a lot of time to look for all these bags and I’m glad to share his findings here. Thanks Martin. Here is his list. [as some of you noticed in the comments, the Billingham Hadley Small [shoplink 7724](click here)[/shoplink] is missing in this list. Last week we posted David’s review about this little-great bag. Read it here]

Think Tank Retrospective 20
retrospective 20
Kalahari L-21 at [shoplink 43855 ebay]your ebay[/shoplink].
[shoplink 43855 ebay]Kalahari[/shoplink]

Rollei DSLR Vintage bag

rollei

National Geografic NG A2540 / [shoplink 43856 ebay]your ebay[/shoplink]

national geografic bag

Montgomery Street Courier / [shoplink 43857 ebay]your ebay[/shoplink] montgomery

 

 

 

 

 

Ona Bag The Brooklyn
ona bag b

 

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

miXed Zone: XF14mm review by Mike Kobal… and more

XF 14mm

Mike Kobal just received his XF14mm. After a couple of days shooting with it he says that:

“… I found AF speed to be right in between the 18mm and the 35mm. It sometimes struggles in extreme low light, just like the 35mm (latest firmware installed for all lenses and body)…. Capable of achieving insane depth of field when zone focusing: This is where this lens really shines, incredible depth of field already at f4 and it is possible to get everything “in focus” from 5 feet to infinity, the hyperfocal distance extends with smaller apertures. At f8, everything will appear “in focus” from infinity to about 2.5 feet.”

You can read it all (and I’m sure you’ll like some of his beautiful shots too) at his website here.

XF14mm in stock status check: AmazonUS/ B&H / Adorama / Amazon GERMANY / Amazon ITALY / or on ebay worldwide via slidoo

X-E1

Read the review of tech.blogsvoice.com: They liked  “the improved autofocus speeds that Fuji’s new firmware brings, coupled with the 18-55mm kit lens, make this a fantastic camera to easily take on its DSLR rivals” and  “there’s not many things to dislike about the camera, with just a few small niggles keeping it from perfection. It would be nice to have seen a touchscreen, while the autofocus speed when using other lenses could do with being improved.

For the detailed digitalcamerainfo review click here.

X-PRO1

After six weeks with the X-PRO1, Rodney makes his considerations about it: “I know I had a few gripes, and most of them were things I knew going into this, but none of them are show-stoppers. None of them make me regret my purchase. At all. In fact, I absolutely love this camera and I want to use it as much as possible. It just makes me long for the day when these short comings don’t exist any longer and I can seriously consider delegating the DSLR for niche stuff (like shooting my kid’s soccer game, something I don’t think a mirrorless is going to handle for a long time).Read it all and see his shots here.

The styling is great, the handling is great, the autofocus is decent for a contrast detection based system, the sensor is relatively huge for such a small body and in my opinion packs just the right number of megapixels (16).  Crucially, the lenses are excellent (aherm, Sony) which makes the XF system such a great one.  To me, great lenses are the foundation of any system because they’re the pieces of equipment you carry over from one body to the next.  The JPG processing in-camera is good, but I’m still going to continue shooting raw because that leaves me the option of processing in-camera afterwards and because I believe raw support will improve.” Read it all and see the sunrise shots in Liverpool here at digitalrelish.

Read Tobias’ way to the X-PRO1 and his PROS and CONS in German here (translated version)

The winter in Montreal captured with the X-PRO1 at laroquephoto

XF1

Read the review of thephoblographer here.

online storage with bitcasa

Sylvain wrote me an email. He told me about bitcasa, a new online storage service. Bitcasa has no limit in space or number of files and no limits with file size. And if you subscribe in February you pay $69/year instead of $99/year. They have a free 10Gb limited account if one want to try. Take a look at the introduction video here or go to the bitcasa website here.

VSCO FILM 03 for Adobe Lightroom 4 and ACR

film03 photo film03_zps18c42a4a.png
Product description:

“Revolutionary presets and camera profiles to streamline your workflow and produce beautiful post-processing results. VSCO Film 03 introduces the beautiful tones and magical tints of instant film to the digital realm. Built from the ground up, VSCO Film™ 03 for Lightroom [and ACR] 4 utilizes Lightroom’s [and ACR’s] new 2012 process, as well as RGB curves resulting in even greater realism in film emulation. Improved control of color tones and contrast mirror the subtle nuances of analogue film. VSCO Film 03 also includes new custom camera profiles for Fuji, Canon and Nikon, as well as custom tools like Clarity Down, Sharpness Down, Old Lens and various Toning looks tailored to achieve an accurate & authentic Instant film look.”

You can download version 03 at the price of $119 (£75/ €90) here. If you buy it until February 26th you save 25%. Those who already own VSCO Film 01 or 02 will save 50%. If you don’t own it, you can buy version 01 or 02 for the full price and then save 50% on the purchase of VSCO Film 03. So hurry, offer expires on February 26th!

via dpreview

A tutorial video here. First impressions and samples at jeremy cowart here and laroquephoto here