Big Weekend - Fujifilm X10 & Backcountry Snowboard Photos

[Photo-John]

I had a big weekend. Actually, it was a big Saturday. I went out to shoot a backcountry session with a local Salt Lake snowboard company and then I drove out to the Great Salt Lake to test the Fujifilm X10 high-end compact camera. Sunday I pretty much did nothing

But this feels like the most productive photo weekend I've had in a long time. It was my first real serious chance to shoot any snow sports this winter and we had some fun and got some good photos. I've posted a couple below and there are more in a thread I posted in the Sports Photography Forum: Finally, Some Real Snow Photos

The snow stuff, although I'm a bit out of practice, is pretty straightforward for me. It was shot with my own Canon EOS 7D and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. However, I have never really gone out to the Great Salt Lake to take pictures. It's a shame really. It's only about 40 minutes away and I could have shot out there for hours if I didn't run out of sunlight. Plus, the Fujifilm X10 is an awesome camera (more on the Fujifilm X10). As I started sorting and editing my photos this morning I was amazed at the X10's RAW quality. I don't recall ever using a compact camera that was able to hold detail in the higlights like the X10. I keep catching myself judging the image quality by DSLR standards, which isn't fair. But it's good enough that it's hard not to do that. The third photo below was taken with the Fujifilm X10 at ISO 400. Right out of the box the image had pretty much completely blown out sky but I was able to pull all that sky detail back in with Lightroom. That's amazing for a compact camera!

[Photo-John]

Here are some more photos I took at the Great Salt Lake with the Fujifilm X10. None of these are straight out of the camera. They were all shot RAW and pushed around in Lightroom and Photoshop. The RAW files are very, very flexible - much more than I am used to from other RAW-capable compact cameras. The images have wonderfully subtle tonal ranges and great highlight and shadow detail. I am really, really impressed with this camera and it's making more excited about the new Fujifilm X-Pro1 interchangeable lens rangfinder that was just announced.

[Photo-John]

It's not really a fossil, but it makes me think of fossils. As I walked out near the edge of the lake there were all these little bumps of stuff. After about a minute of walking on and around the bumps I started to realize that they weren't just random bits of dead plant matter - they were dead birds. I suppose they must have landed on the lake and accidentally ingested some of the water - it's way saltier than sea water and the only thing that lives in it is brine shrimp. Too bad for the birds but great for my photography. I tried the photo below both as a black-and-white and a color image. I like both but they have a very different feel. The B&W conversion was done in Photoshop with a Channel Mixer adjustment layer.

[armando_m]

It is outstanding what can be accomplished with a modern compact

[Photo-John]

It is outstanding what can be accomplished with a modern compact

Yes. But I've got all kinds of modern compacts sitting around the office. What I'm saying is, the Fujifulm X10 is something special

[SmartWombat]

You mean a manufacturer aiming for quality instead of just MP ?

I remember the early Fuji "Super CCD" sensor with the hexagonal sites and R & S pixels, and the later version with the R pixels interleaved between the S pixels. They were good.

[starriderrick]

Love the FIRST shot,john. That is Sweet!

I'm looking very closely at this sexy camera...lots of favorable reviews, very few nitpicks. The image quality appears to be fantastic! Thanks for sharing. ;0)

Rick

[Franglais]

You mean a manufacturer aiming for quality instead of just MP ?

I remember the early Fuji "Super CCD" sensor with the hexagonal sites and R & S pixels, and the later version with the R pixels interleaved between the S pixels. They were good.

The X10 has a similar system, unique to Fuji. I'm interested. Please keep shooting. The thing that really put me off about this camera is the lack of information in the viewfinder. I don't know what it's focussing on. I suppose there's always the rear screen..

[Photo-John]

Love the FIRST shot,john. That is Sweet!

I'm looking very closely at this sexy camera...lots of favorable reviews, very few nitpicks. The image quality appears to be fantastic! Thanks for sharing. ;0)

Rick

You mean the sunset photo? Just to make sure it's clear, the two snow photos were taken with my 7D.

[Photo-John]

I've been uploading larger copies of the Fujifilm X10 images to the gallery, if any of you want to do some pixel peeping. The forum really doesn't do them justice. I actually need to print a couple of them to see how they hold up. Here's a link to my member gallery: Photo-John Gallery photos from the PhotographyREVIEW.com Gallery

[starriderrick]

You mean the sunset photo? Just to make sure it's clear, the two snow photos were taken with my 7D.

Yeah, I knew the 7D was the rig... I like that snowboard action shot!!! SWEET.

Rick

[Photo-John]

The X10 has a similar system, unique to Fuji. I'm interested. Please keep shooting. The thing that really put me off about this camera is the lack of information in the viewfinder. I don't know what it's focussing on. I suppose there's always the rear screen..

I confess, I haven't been using the viewfinder. I tried it a couple of times at first and then just went to the LCD display, like I would with any other compact camera. But the optical viewfinder *is* there, if I want it, like for sports photos.

By the way, I posted the X10 studio samples last night and I also added a bunch more X10 photos to the gallery. The X10 studio sample article includes a couple of before and after RAW edits. I am really impressed with the amount and quality of info in the X10's RAW files.

Fujifilm X10 Studio Sample Photos >>

Now - what I want is a pocket-sized camera with the same sensor and image quality