Since Christine asked, here are a few words about the X10. Nicely built with a decent control layout. I would have put some things in different places, but it's easy to get used to it. It's more naturally used as an LCD-VF camera. The optical VF is not great and only gives about 80% coverage, but it's a godsend in the bright daylight conditions when the LCD is hard to use. No information in the OVF; it's a simple (zooming) sighting tool although you can pick up the AF confirm beep easily enough. The lens is beautiful piece of optics: 28-112, f2-2.8 sharp and well designed for a digital sensor. Of course, the smaller 2/3 sensor makes the compact size of such a lens possible. AF is OK but this is not a football camera. The new "orb-free" sensor is very, very nice, although in all ways inferior to having a top end end APS-C sensor like the K5. This is not a criticism, just some perspective since so many folks on the PDML will have a K5 IQ as a standard. It gives nice detail at 12 MP and can switch to a 6 MP mode that will oversample the pixels to compensate for low light and DR issues.
A real question is size. It's small and nice in the hand but at best coat-pockeatble. In that sense, it gets real competition from mu43 cameras like the Olympus E-PM1/2 with a sensor twice as large. (I have an E-PM1 I picked up for $180; I love refurbished stuff.) The newer 16 mp mu43 sensors in the E-PM2 seriously competes with the entry level APS-C DSLRs in terms of IQ. An equivalent zoom would be huge on the Oly, but with the smaller primes it's the same size as the x-10. Of course, there are lots of compacts out there if you want a snap shooter (XZ-1, LX-7) and the RX100 gives great IQ albeit with reportedly stone-age handling. Of course, the Q is out there really cheap right now with that tiny body and sensor. Nice in decent light. On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 7:46 AM, Derby Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Doug, > > Everything Bob says about the X100, I'd confirm. It certainly is a quirky > machine. I'd also add, if you were buying second hand, make sure it is one > of the later versions (serial number starting with "2"). > > I bought one of the early ones. Fine for a few months, then I got the > dreaded sticky aperture problem (the leaf shutter not stopping down when > shooting lower that full open). Luckily I had my fellow ebayer's purchase > receipt, so in it went to Fuji Australia > > It came back with the lens assembly replaced, but the sensor had gone wonky > - every shot had a magenta cast. The RAW files are such that it could be > corrected in LR, but life's too short. So back for a second time. > > It came back with the sensor adjusted, but then the OVF was completely > psycho - looked like a Peter Fonda movie. After some calls, they took it > back again, and I got a brand new, in the box, unit in return. Been happy > ever since. > > Why perservere? The sensor and lens combination are amazing. So much dynamic > range and beautiful high ISO. One of the nice features is the auto-DR. In > bright light, it will select a high ISO and deliberately underexpose to keep > the highlights. The high ISO brings up the shadows, and to no real detriment > to noise. Freaked me out the first time I used it, but the results speak for > themselves. > > Other things I love about it... > > * Silent > * Live histogram, even with the optical viewfinder > * Aperture, shutter speed and exposure comp right where they should be. But > Bob is right, the dials, especially the exposure comp are a bit easy to > nudge accidentally. I have to say, the new X100 has the dial a little > tighter. I still check it once in a while. > * Fantastic with the wide-angle converter (making it an equivalent 28mm > fov). > > If I had to grab one camera if someone gave me 5 min to pack for a world > trip, that's the one I'd take. > > >> I'm still intrigued by this camera, because to my eye, it fits well with >> much of what I do and would make a good walking around camera. >> >> Bob W? Cotty? Anyone else? I've read that it's frustrating. Is it more >> trouble than its worth? >> >> Thanks. > > > > > -- > > [email protected] > http://members.iinet.net.au/~derbyc > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- Steve Desjardins -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
