Thread: The X10 has landed

Originally Posted by Lawrence A.

I like my XZ-1 but I haven't been this engaged in a compact camera since I sold my D-lux 4. I've been hunting for the perfect take anywhere camera ever since. The X-10 may be too quirky to be objectively perfect, but it's my kind of quirky, and it is the closest thing I've used to the ideal I've had in mind for this type of camera.

I agree, it's certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea but I am finding that it really works for me.

Caldera by dixeyk, on Flickr

Still experimenting...super macro

I finally have some time to really test the camera out. I'm impressed with the pro-low light setting in the Advanced mode. It's auto everything, and takes three rapid exposures and combines them, and really does reduce noise significantly. I further reduced chroma noise (100%) in Lightroom, then tweaked the picture in Photoshop. but that's my normal way of working, so it does tell me what I can expect to get out of the camera.



Here's the same image straight out of the camera jpeg:


Here's a 100% crop from my post processed version of the jpeg -- you only get a 6MP jpeg on this setting, but the technology gives you an awfully good file.

For full resolution shooting outside without having too think too much about changing modes, I figure iso 200 with DR at either 200 or auto, should work fine. There are not too many situations where one will need the 400% DR, but auto mode would give it. Both were processed from raw files into 16 bit tiffs and the jpegs taken from there. It's how I work when I want to extract the most from a file, or when I am going to make a print of it. In the latter case I leave it as a tiff of course.

Well, I have to say that we're not getting results from RAW files like that here in Philly. I've tried everything and can't find my way with the raw files.
The jpegs are great in either L or M but that's it.
If you don't mind....what are ya doing.....?
I'm on LR4 and or PS6 etc.....
don

Not doing too much. LR4.3 and I import the files, apply a little bit of noise reduction in LR the RAW files clean up really well and lose very little sharpness) and then I move them out to Silver Efex Pro 2 for processing to BW. Like so...


Waiting Game by dixeyk, on Flickr

Auto1600
NR -1
DR Auto
Film Simulation: Velvia

I'm using LR 4.3 and Photoshop 7 (wish I could get a later version, but it does what I need it to do). The following three images were shot raw at iso 100, DR100, imported into Lightroom with a medium contrast curve and developed from there. I tweaked color and contrast and sharpening. I think I raised the sharpening to 40% but lower the strength from 1 to .8 in order to then apply about 30% luminance noise reduction. I often like crunchier looking images and so don't use the luminance slider very often, but I want a smoother look on the lock and light in this instance. Then into Photoshop for fine tuning, including almost always a very slight high pass sharpening, usually at .5 to 1. I'm pretty impressed with the possibilities from this "small sensor" camera, once again proving that sensor size is only one of many variables, important but not enough in itself to judge a camera from its specs as I see done in so many forums - which (DPReview) shall remain nameless. Oops! Clicking on the image will let you see much larger versions at SmugMug.







If the colors on these are cold and weird, please let me know. I edited them on my laptop, which always matched my desktop pretty closely, but this time they seem cold on the desktop monitor, which, granted, is on its way out.

All I can say is... I'm proud to know you and Kevin as the guys who can get a raw file to work in LR4. I can't give up on the camera because it was given to me by a fellow Nam Vet. I have given up on Raw because I can't get the files to do what they are supposed to do. I think Roger gave me the camera to get my head crazy.

Youse both speak like it was just second nature to process raw but believe me...it surely ain't. Check out DaPhotoRumble forum and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for the info and responses....
don

Originally Posted by Streetshooter

All I can say is... I'm proud to know you and Kevin as the guys who can get a raw file to work in LR4. I can't give up on the camera because it was given to me by a fellow Nam Vet. I have given up on Raw because I can't get the files to do what they are supposed to do. I think Roger gave me the camera to get my head crazy.

Youse both speak like it was just second nature to process raw but believe me...it surely ain't. Check out DaPhotoRumble forum and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for the info and responses....
don

I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to using RAW. I do most of the heavy lifting in Silver Efex Pro for my BW. Let me go back and look at the process and see if there is something I'm forgetting. Do you import directly into LR? I use a Mac an import into a folder I have setup using Image Capture then synchronize the folder in LR. Not that I think that would make a difference. What is it about the RAW that you are using that doesn't work?

What version of ACR are you running?

Originally Posted by Streetshooter

All I can say is... I'm proud to know you and Kevin as the guys who can get a raw file to work in LR4. I can't give up on the camera because it was given to me by a fellow Nam Vet. I have given up on Raw because I can't get the files to do what they are supposed to do. I think Roger gave me the camera to get my head crazy.

Youse both speak like it was just second nature to process raw but believe me...it surely ain't. Check out DaPhotoRumble forum and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for the info and responses....
don

Well I spent 30 years earning my daily bread in conventional darkrooms in custom photo labs, so I actually still feel like I'm floundering a little in the digital world. Many reviews suggest that it's not worth shooting full resolution raw files on the X10 because the jpegs are so good. I agree that the jpegs are wonderful, and for the little bit extra I can squeeze out of a raw file with this camera, maybe I'm wasting my time. But I'm a photo control freak, so it's time spent doing something I enjoy.

Here's a shot, already included above, but in a black and white version(which is how I imagined it) made with B&W Effects, which I just now downloaded and installed.