Feedback: Lightroom 4.3 and interactive comparison

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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.

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

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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!

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X-E1 vs Nex-6: CameraStoreTV video comparison and quesabesde comparison

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TheCameraStoreTV compared this two brand new cameras, the Fuji X-E1 and the Sony NEX-6.

The X-E1 is a really tough rival for the NEX-6. In fact the X-E1 has a better dynamic range, better low light performance, better sharpness and lenses. The EVF of the X-E1 lagging behind when you move it around, but once you focus the camera, the EVF works great. On the other hand the NEX-6 makes better videos, better and flippable screen, faster focus, cheaper…

Who’s the winner? Just look at the video, and tell me in the comments if you agree with the CameraStore verdict or who is the winner for you!

There is Spanish review on quesabesde making the same comparison, and coming to the same conclusions. Read it here (translated version)

Have a great day!

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

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the “sexy-one” at night in Vancouver: X-E1 review

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image courtesy: mikemander.blogspot.fr

The X-E1 just hit the market, and now the number of reviews is increasing. Not everything can be posted, but I decided to dedicate to this interesting and accurate review an own post. Of course, this is just a short summary. Click here to go directly to the review. You can take a look at a lot of images. Here is the gallery to the night shots, taken on a tripod, except the last two, taken handheld with ISO3200 [take a look for example at this nightshoot: 35mm lens, handheld, 3200 ISO, 1/50 sec at f / 2.5! Now, what do you think? Leave a comment!]. Each image has EXIF data attached. Every image was shot in RAW and processed in Lightroom 4.3.

mikemander wrote a long review about the X-E1 here. He misses the hybrid-VF! But he likes “the accuracy of the exposure preview in the new EVF”. The dynamic range of the X-E1 is “indeed even better than most DSLRs I have tested.” The sharpness is “outstanding, especially with the 35mm and 60mm lenses, but the sensor helps a lot here too.” He also talks about the RAW conversion with Adobe. You already know about the native X-Trans RAW-files support problem “… Amazingly, out-of-camera JPEGs actually look far better in some ways than Adobe’s conversions.” A great camera, but not a perfect one. He makes a list of bugs he noticed. I’ll report here just a some of them:

1) When you lock either exposure, focus or both (depending on your settings) with the rear AE-L/AF-L button, the exposure dials are totally locked out. In other words, say you are f/4 and you press the rear-button to lock focus. Then you realize you want to be at f/8 so you turn the f-stop ring to f/8… well the camera frustratingly stays at f/4!.. Not only should locking focus have absolutely no effect on your exposure of course, but even if you were in, for example, aperture priority mode at f/4 and locked your exposure, the camera should still honour your settings changes. Let’s say you’re at f/4 and the camera has chosen a 1/125 shutter speed and you’ve locked focus or exposure. If you then set the aperture ring to f/5.6, the camera should then simply change the metered shutter speed to 1/60, keeping the same exposure value….. “You want to lock the exposure-value and not lock yourself out of making f-stop or shutter speed changes!”

2) When you are in manual focus mode, playing back an image causes the attached lens to be retracted to its off-state position. Then, when you resume shooting it immediately extends back to its manually focused position. On the 18mm, 35mm and 18-55mm zoom, this seems to work perfectly, but on the 60mm macro I tested, the focus position is shifted slightly.

3) He also has some suggestions, and one of them is to “implement a changeable minimum shutter speed for auto-ISO.”

But none of the niggles, quirks, and bugs he noticed is a deal-breaker, and he really enjoys the X-E1. Also the the 35mm and 60mm lenses “are about as perfect optically as one could possibly expect, especially at their extremely reasonable price points!”

He concludes saying that “naturally I’ll keep shooting with my big, heavy and wonderful Nikon D800 (click here)  kit when I want the utmost in image quality, but the little X-E1 comes surprisingly close in many ways and as a compact, lightweight walk-around camera it is very nearly perfect for my still photography needs…”

Read much more in the whole article here, and look at the sample images here. There are some macro shots with the 60mm lens here.

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