A Chai

A chai with steamed milk. Taken at Pastiche, in Providence, RI. As with every image exported in AdobeRGB, this one doesn't display well in Google Chrome or Picasa. The reds are all desaturated.

Nikon Says Something Good

Nikon has come out and said something that I appreciate enormously. Basically, they see video and photo converging, with many pros doing both. They have now said what I inferred, that their philosophy is one of growth and advancement, while Canon's philosophy is one of stagnation.

“We make cameras for photographers – but also for videographers because this sector is growing and the two are merging.” - Jeremy Gilbert, Nikon Marketing UK

I'm so happy to hear this. I still don't think that it is enough, the Nikon 1-series showed Nikon to be depressingly conservative in many ways, but it's more than market-leader Canon.

More Reviews Of The X Pro 1 Pour In

The Fuji X Pro 1 appear to be marching toward the same unenviable state as the X100 did, namely, it's amazing in some ways and laughably bad in others. Much like the X100, I imagine that when DPReview posts its review, they will write a special page near the end, listing all of the odd quirks and problems with the camera. To my knowledge, the X100 is still the only camera to ever deserve this "honor."

Luminous Landscape continues their rolling review with Part Deux, and the two big points in this review are that, not only does the autofocus suck, but there are tons of bizarre aspects to the camera that defy all logic. For example, you cannot change your focus point. What? This isn't a Canon EOS from 1988. Fuji's implementation of Auto ISO is incomprehensible, as well. Without going into detail, it is rendered useless.

The other point is that disappointment with the 18mm continues unabated. After the first few shots from the lens seemed to show something exceptionally good, it has been revealed to be rather sub-par. Its sharpness is similar to some kit-zooms, and for a prime lens, that is a shocking indictment. The 60mm and 35mm are sharp as hell, but, yet again, their autofocus is terrible. And without any form of focus peaking, I cannot bring myself to use manual focus lenses for any sort of demanding application.

The reviewer focuses, so to speak, on the 35mm and picks it out for exceptional performance. He compares it to his Leica, because, duh, he owns Leica gear. This gives the X cameras their go-to lens. The 60mm is a bit too long and slow to be that. With an effective focal-length that makes the camera Fuji's "fast fifty," it's the lens everyone will buy. It also appears to make it the sharpest fast-fifty lens on the market. Because, lord knows, the fifties from Canon and Nikon are soft as hell when wide-open.

Finally, as we are starting to get accustomed to hearing, they can't sing the praises of the sensor enough. I hope Fuji patches up the issues with the camera, soon, because I'm starting to drool.

EOS HD Compares the new D800 with the 5D Mark III

I said that the new Nikon cameras revealed a philosophy that is better and less likely to collapse than Canon's super-conservative direction. EOS HD, a well-known videography website, just had this to say about the comparison of the D800 with the 5D Mark III.

"Right now it feels like things are turning upside down and I will end up being a Nikon user! Canon must respond with the 4K EOS or even a 5D X if they are to not completely fall behind the competition."

They also compare the new Nikon very favorably to the Panasonic GH2, which, when hacked, is still world-class in its performance/price ratio. Panasonic should be very happy with its GH2, since it is the only thing keeping me in the Micro 4/3 fold. The E-M5 may prove exciting, but not until I see a test that controls for ISO variation vis-a-vis noise performance.

As it stands, I have never been more tempted to really lay down the cash and buy Full Format like I am with the D800. I'm definitely waiting, though, because I want to see what Sony has.

One Camera To Rule Them All

Gasp!

I'm not happy with Canon. They are being depressing conservative in everything they are doing, only advancing as far as the market absolutely demands. Nikon isn't doing much better, but they are at least doing better. And holy crap on a cracker, the new Nikon D800 appears ready to knock some socks off.

DxOMark has posted its review of the new Sony-sensored, 36Mp supercamera, and it does amazingly. It scores a 95(!) on DxO's normalized scoring system, putting it within spitting distance of the top cameras. Its pixel quality is noticeably below the newly released D4, but that would be expected with over twice the resolution. Canon has quite a rift to fill with the upcoming EOS 1DX and 5D Mark III. And considering that both cameras are significantly more expensive than this camera, I think that Nikon will make inroads with those in the market for a new system.

Again, I'm not much happy with either Nikon or Canon and am not tempted to buy this camera. What has me excited is that the sensor is a Sony-made Exmor sensor, which means that it will very likely find its way into a future Sony camera. That camera has me very excited. Although, truth be told, my recent chance to play with the 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikon lens is making me want a Nikon. It is a mind-blowing lens.

Sony Working on 1:1 Sensor

Larger than the A900?

I told Olympus to do it, but it appears that Sony might beat them to it. I'm not surprised. Again, Sony has shown a desire to innovate, Olympus and Panasonic have not. Is it any surprise that one of the boldest yet most obvious ideas comes out of the House That Walkman Built.

Why is a 1:1 sensor so cool, you may ask? Because with it, framing becomes a non-issue. No matter which way you are holding the camera, it can be portrait or landscape. It is a stunningly liberating experience to be able to use the full scope of a sensor and crop the image however you please.

Importantly, in the digital age, sensor size correlates with noise performance. The larger the sensor, the better the noise. There is simply more light hitting the sensor. So you can understand why I wanted Micro 4/3 to adopt this; their primary disadvantage is noise. A square sensor does not extend outside of the image circle produced by the lens, meaning that systems remains compatible. And since I am not a psycho purist, I don't care about post-production and I love to crop!

I don't understand Panasonic most of all. The GH1 and GH2 have the multi-aspect sensor which was legitimately innovative. Why on God's green Earth they failed to capitalize on that and innovate further is beyond me.

I'm not the biggest fan of the SLT technology. I actually prefer a good, old-fashioned mirror and prism setup, and really dislike the slight drop in sharpness and noise performance caused by the light loss of the ST mirror. Still, if Sony produced a 1:1 camera... I don't know. That's the kind of thing for which you toss caution to the wind.

Fuji X-Mount Lenses Get Reviewed

The 35mm f/1.4. Sharp as a tack.

ePhotozine has posted reviews of the three Fuji X-mount lenses and assumptions from the most recent test photos have been borne out in the lab.

All three lenses perform very well. Center sharpness in the 35mm is incredible, shooting well off the top of their charts. The 60mm actually performs a bit worse than I expected, but that's to say it performs well as opposed to amazingly well. The evenness across the frame on the macro is excellent, but macro lenses are frequently like that. So what I'm saying is, there are no surprises with it.

The 18mm and 35mm both perform similarly, with the center of frame much sharper than the edges. With the 35mm, that's not much of an issue since the edges are still very good, but on the 18mm, the edges are a bit disappointing. It only achieves a "good" rating on ePhotozine's charts at f/5.6 and doesn't go much further than that. If this test is confirmed by other tests, I don't think the 18mm is worth the premium.

This is disappointing, I was impressed with early test images of the 18mm, and as more and more images came out, the less impressive the lens became. Ah well. The other two lenses are very good and an excellent start for Fuji's nascent system.