Tony Northrup launched a poll, where people voted which images they considered had the best colors.
He starts off analysing, if we just think a certain camera has the best colors because of brand loyalty.
So what he did is the following: sometimes he labeled pictures with numbers, and sometimes he put the fake brand names on the same images that don’t even match up to the pictures.
The results:
Canon has the highest brand loyalty. Canon users picked an image 3.1 times more likely if marked with “Canon” than with a number, even though it was not a Canon image
Sony 2.2x
Nikon 1.5x
Fujifilm 1.4x – the lowest brand loyalty. Tony says “maybe Fujifilm users are the most rational people“
92% of people picked a different image when numbered or marked with brand name, showing that there was no consistency.
Interestingly, the most popular image when it was numbered (the Nr.1) suddenly became the least popular, when Tony wrote “Fujifilm” on it, even though it was exactly the same picture. It seems there is a lot of hate for Fujifilm by Sony, Canon and Nikon users out there.
Tony speculates that this is because Fujifilm users tend to be the meanest of all and can be very hostile, and kind of give “the whole brand a bad name“.
On the contrary, Fujifilm users downvoted only Sony, and not Canon and Nikon, which tells us about the brand rivalry.
Then back to the colors. He says “fake colors” are ok. People don’t upvote the most realistic colors, which is normal. In one example, the Nikon got the colors completely wrong, much to warm, and people voted it the best.
Color science is overblown, because if you see pictures individually, they are just fine. But photographers tend to compare.
White balance is more important than color science. When he adjusted white balance in post, results where much more balanced.
Tony says he adjusts colors in post anyway, so he never really cared much about “color science”.
The results for the best colors:
Sony (1,336)
Fujifilm (227)
Nikon (-518)
Canon (-605)
Read also
fujirumors.com – Sony A9 Vs. Fujifilm X-T2: Who Has Better Colors?
fujirumors.com – Fujifilm X-T2 vs Nikon D500 Shootout: Fujifilm X-T2 Wins Overall… and The Fuji Colors Rock Again (at Least For Me)
fujirumors.com – The Great JPEG Shootout by TheCameraStoreTV
NOTE – Film Simulations Anyone?
I hope I will not pass for hostile and mean if I point this out, but what about film simulations?
Fujifilm is renown and loved for its color science, not because they created the universal profile that is best for everything, but because they offer the film simulations, which are created to give the best results in different shooting situations or to create a certain mood. Velvia for landscapes, Astia for skin tones, Acros for black and white, Classic Chrome for a vintage touch and when the story should stand out more than the colors, Sepia for nothing ;) etc…
And while I get the point that you can change colors in post, if the camera itself offers you a great starting point, then you simply have less work to do in post, which can save you a lot of time. We should not underestimate the value of passing less time on the computer editing images ;).
The Spanish site Fujistas was at the Fujifilm GFX 50R launch event. They wrote about it on their blog here (translation), and amongst the others, they shared the following tidbits:
Fujifilm claims to be worldwide Nr.2 mirrorless camera manufacturer
they demonstrated the crop capabilities of the Fujifilm GFX 100 Megapixel camera and they were extremely impressed
If Fujifilm’s statement is correct, then Fuji surpassed Panasonic and Olympus, and, considering also DSLRs, they are now 4th behind Sony, Nikon and Canon.
Also, a few days ago we shared some Chinese Fujifilm media slides that showed us the details of the upcoming firmware update for Fujifilm GFX 50S. However, we struggled a bit with the translation.
Now Fujistas shared the English version of the slide (see above). The firmware update for Fujifilm GFX50S will bring the following new functions:
35mm Format Mode with GF lens and Fujinon HC lenses
Recently a Fujifilm manager said here, that the sensor inside the Fujifilm X-T3 is not a Samsung sensor.
And yet, some people were still sceptical, especially considering that Sony does not offer any 26 megapixel BSI sensor.
Well, this argument seems to be gone now, since, as spotted by mirrorlessrumors, Sony updated its sensor page and we can now find the IMX571 26 megapixel BSI sensor listed on their website here.
Comparing it to the sensor of the upcoming Fujifilm GFX 100 (also listed at Sony) we can see both, the APS-C and MF sensor, have the same pixel size (3.76).
Keep in mind that Fujifilm officially said the GFX 100 will have 102 MP. This indicates that the GFX 100 has the same X-T3 sensor technology (except for X-Trans CFA), just about 4 times bigger.
We have already documented in this article, that sensor stitching happens already with the Fujifilm GFX 50S.
You can check out Kai’s hands on video here, but I’d like to highlight on curious sentence the Kipon manager said, while Kai was trying to figure out if he’d like to test the Sony APS-C or the Fujifilm APS-C version of the lens. Kipon says:
“The performance of Ibelux 40mm F0.85 is better on Fujifilm cameras than on Sony, we don’t know why.”
Kai’s impressions when shot at F0.85 on the Fujifilm X-T3:
lot’s of color fringing
soft
nice smooth bokeh
You can find another Kipon IBELUX 40mm F0.85 review at alikgriffin here (with lots of sample images). His Pros and Cons:
Pros: Extremely shallow DOF, very creamy puffy bokeh, nice corner and edge performance when stopped down, sharp in the center, great bokeh at all apertures.
Cons: CA wide open, tendency for highlights to bloom wide open, vignetting at f0.85-f1, big, heavy.
