Here at Phototuition photography courses we’re noticing an increasing number of people, people who want to become seriously good at taking pictures, turn up with lighter, more compact equipment. Up to now the compact system cameras from Panasonic and Olympus have been the most popular choice for those wishing to avoid the bulk and weight of the DSLR but now, for the first time, there is perhaps a truly compact option for serious photographers working in certain areas.
Once I’ve mastered the X10 I’ll offer it as a loan camera for advanced compact training.
I’ve read so much about this darned camera over the last 6 weeks that when I finally picked it up today and switched it on it felt like an old friend. I just knew how to use it! There’s loads on the web about this newest and most exiting arrival in the compact(ish) area of recent years so I’m going to do little more than make a few comments and post a few full-size pictures I snapped in the hour or so after collecting the camera.
These pictures are just snapshots, unedited full size jpegs fresh from the camera with sharpness set to default. I’ve not yet had time to experiment with dynamic range, background blur or panorama settings, all of which are getting good reports elsewhere.
200 iso at f2.2 with a close subject and background blur. Double click for full size.
Overall I’m honestly rather pleased. In the X10 Fuji have truly struck the perfect balance between portability, Image quality and performance. It’s a little bulky because the lens protrudes a fair bit even when retracted but is fine in a baggy jacket pocket. Build quality appears to be first class, proper knurled aluminium control wheels on the top plate unlike the nasty plastic one on the Panny LX5 – do they put that plastic knob on the Leica version?
Performance, after a fast start-up (in quick mode) is almost consumer DSLR speed, autofocus is near instant even in lower light and shutter lag is not noticeable – I even managed to crack off a couple of panning shots (using the smallish but optically excellent optical viewfinder) something I’ve never found possible with a compact in the past – apart from the Canon G12 with its awful little plasticky optics viewfinder.
Fast enough perhaps, but the zoom is inevitably limited.
As for image quality, I’m shooting jpegs at the moment until Adobe update the raw converter – wish the Fuji used DNG for raw, so much simpler. Sharpness is corner to corner even at full aperture (f2 to f2.8 at full telephoto). Colour appears great, which is what you expect from Fuji, and metering, white balance and dynamic range are all par for the course.
The slightly larger than normal sensor and slightly longer lens focal lengths does enable a little background blur with close subjects, this is, of course helped by the large aperture optics. I’m looking forward to trying the X10 for Daylight portraits, I suspect it might do the job rather well.
Panning is possible with the viewfinder, not perfect but with practice.... 1/60 at f2 100 iso
A few initial minor negative observations – Risk of metal lens cap damaging lens front element if used clumsily. Lens cap cannot be used while powered up and lens extended. Thumb wheel turns too easily by accident changing aperture or shutter speed setting. 40mm multicoated UV filter would be ideal but appears to be unobtainable.
I noticed the occasional imperfect focus on distance shots. This one is spot on, great dynamic range and a touch of flare which I missed due to using viewfinder.
All in all the X10 appears to be a well balanced camera with it’s fast performance, optical viewfinder, 28-112mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens (24mm would be nice but a great challenge to Fuji to achieve the same quality /aperture combination). The X10 might just turn out to be to be the ideal camera for my personal photography. If travel, street, family, landscape, or fine art is your style of shooting you may well find that in many instances the immediacy and portability of the x10 will keep the DSLR in the cupboard in many instances.
Everything was shot and written immediately after picking up the camera and without reading the instructions so please excuse any E and Os!!
John's Photography Notes 
Hello,
Thanks for posting this test. The pictures look great with this camera. Just a question now, have you tried some portraits ?
Thanks
Hi Rob, Not yet, though this is an area I’m interested in because it’s the kind of camera which can be carried a lot of the time and who knows when you are going to meet someone interesting.
I hope to try some daylight portraits, probably at full aperture and near full zoom, over the next few days.
I’ll post any results asap.
Hi John,
Yes, I’m very interested in this area as well. If this compact camera could take relative good portraits so It is very competitive for its range, and we could consider it as a replacement of a SLR in certain conditions. That’s a very interesting point.
Rob