March112012
オーストリアのチョコ (Taken with instagram)

オーストリアのチョコ (Taken with instagram)
March32012
久しぶり火鍋 (Taken with instagram)

久しぶり火鍋 (Taken with instagram)
February272012

A second with the X-Pro 1

Today at Bic Camera I quickly checked out the X-Pro 1 and did some minor comparison with my X100.

As you can see, both cameras are about the same size. The X-Pro 1 is a bit bigger, but the weight is about the same. The 35mm is a bit bigger, the 18mm is about the same size as the X100 lens and 65mm is of course longer

So what is different:

  • Quick access button, which is really awesome to quickly access a grid like menu where you can really change all the important things. No longer is it needed to go into sub menus to do some simple changes like ISO
  • No more idiot RAW button, button is all gone (or replaced by the Quick access one)
  • In general buttons are a bit shuffled around, the play button is on the right of the display, the View mode on top of the display and the AFL/AEL moved to the right side on the mini grip for a bit better access. The Fn button on top is at the same place. The AF motor mode moved to the front from the left side. The view mode change is at the same position.
  • All the Buttons are not any more extruding from the body, so it is much less likely that you will accidentally press one. Like it happens to me with the RAW button. The shutter speed button as a lock knob in the middle and the Exposure compensate dial is sunk into the body, so less likely to change it accidentally.
  • The back display looked almost the same, perhaps a bit bigger.
  • Menu is completely redone. Looks more clean, logical and easy to navigate. Especially thanks to the quick menu. I didn’t spend much time looking through it.
  • INSTANT ON. Yes, INSTANT. There is no lag. Turn the camera on, and you can shoot immediately. This was just the biggest wow and I had to try it out several times to actually believe it. So I am sure instant on is also from the sleep mode. But I couldn’t test that.
  • AF seems to be much faster, but I didn’t really test that in detail, but it felt that I could focus much faster than the X100.
  • And then the big WTF: The viewfinder is smaller and much darker than the X100 one. I mean this is a very visible difference. The X100 one is really big and bright, while the X-Pro1 is quite dark and smaller. I have really no idea why. But this is really quite a WTF here. No idea why the butchered the viewfinder so much. Thought the inside in the OVF is as awesome as on the X100, nothing changed here. The only thing I could spot is the Exposure compensation, this changed and looked a bit more easy visible to me, no more bar.
  • The lenses felt very light, it seems they have a plastic cover, but I really can’t say if this is true, but they felt much lighter than my Cosina lenses which are about the same size. Still solid build, OTOH, those have been touched by so many people and mishandles, I wouldn’t take them as real examples

I didn’t do any test shots on my SD card, I actually forgot about it, plus inside there with Neon light, it wouldn’t have made much sense anyway. For that I want some outside real life test shots.

Overall, a big step up, the AF seems faster, the camera turns on instantly. The second point is especially a wow, and one thing that makes me wish the X100 would have that one.

The big negative point is the less good viewfinder, no idea why. Perhaps because there is some additional glass inside? It didn’t change when I put on the 65mm, which I thought it would do, so perhaps this model has some issues anyway.

Still, very amazing camera, if I wouldn’t own the X100, I would buy that one right now.

January242012

Fuji X100 - a rough diamond

I own the X100 for about a month now and it is a pretty amazing camera, but at the end it is a rough diamond. This not a review or anything like this, for this you rather read the one on luminous landscape or dpreview, or just do a google run, there are many of them.
 
This is just a list of good and bad points, just to have a clear view of what this camera can do and cannot do.
Morning Sleep (ISO 200)
The Good
  1. The camera is small and light and therefor the ideal camera to always carry with you and this point alone makes it a very valuable camera, because what good is a camera if you do not carry it with you.
  2. It is a very solid built, very well made. Especially the fact that it does not have a retractable lens. This makes any camera a little bit fragile looking, like the X-1 from Leica
  3. The very good view finder. It is the only small camera with AF and this build style that has this style of view finder and it is essential for me and the way I shoot. I especially love electronic overlay inside it, I personally think this is one thing that will appear more in future DSLRs and I hope in future pure range finder cameras, eg Leica or lesser a future Epson one (personally very unlikely)
  4. A very big sensor, APC-S size and this is one essential thing, especially if you want to shoot at night, this cameras high ISO is really amazing. I haven’t seen any other camera that can take ISO 6400 images, in color, that are pretty much noise free. This is another thing that shows how much sensor technology has advanced nowadays and we will see ISO numbers as normal where the older (film) photographers have only dreamed about.
  5. The lens is very well made, even wide open it has a very good resolution. Furthermore there is just a little distortion, actually almost not visible. And there is no vignetting at all. At f2 it might be a bit soft with slight CA, but from f4 on there is really no problem at all.
  6. Silent leaf shutter. So this camera can take photos at almost no noise at all. Very nice thing. Plus you can flash sync at any speed, very nice thing.
  7. Old type cable release connector, so you do not need to buy some expensive extra remote trigger, you can use your normal cable release.
  8. A full hot shoe, that seems to be canon compatible with the pins, so you can use any canon trigger cable for a flash. If you use a Fuji flash it will automatically turn off the internal flash. If not, you need to activate the hot shoe, this is the dark part (I have not tried that yet as I am very happy with the Fuji Flash I have)
  9. You can shoot even if the AF couldn’t be set, this is an amazing feature and I really love it, especially because it sticks then at a certain distance (about 3m) and you know where the focus will be if there is no AF lock. Personally this is the first camera I know that does this, you have to get used to, but when you know it, it is really happy. Rather get lucky out of focus, than not getting anything at all.

Night crawler (ISO 6400)

The middle

  1. It has a Macro mode, but somehow I often have the biggest AF problems in there. And manual focusing is not fun with this camera. But at least there is a macro mode, because the closest normal focus is about one meter, which is normal for a rangefinder type camera.
  2. AF is pretty OK, but not stellar. On the other hand I might be a bit spoiled by using DSLR cameras all the time, where the AF, even if it is not so stellar like on the Canon 5D MkII, but still faster. You will get moments where you have to focus twice to get it, but most the time it works. Plus it has a lamp, that can help a lot (if it turns on, which falls in bugs or strange functionality)

At the bar (ISO 3200)

The bad

  1. The usage of the Jog dial is a disgrace. It is only used for some minor things, eg setting ISO when you are looking through the viewfinder, going to some info windows in the view mode, activating the close up for manual focus. But why is it not used for a custom menu like on the Ricoh GR?
  2. The select wheel and OK button. While the wheel is a nice idea, it it is just too flaky and to easy to press and then go from one setting to another. So is the OK button, with big fingers you will very often press the wheel instead of the OK button and then end up with different settings. Lucky some of the important settings can be OKed with the shutter button, for example the ISO selection.
  3. The manual focus is sort of a joke, I could life with the fact that is by wire and not direct, but it is so slow that it is actually unusable to use. The most you could do is focus with AF and then try to do some adjustments. I wished you could set it to a way faster speed or even better, if you move the ring faster it moves the focus much faster. Be prepared to a lot of hand movement when you want to focus from eg 5m down to 1m or less. A real lot. This is not a manual focus camera. Bear that in mind.
  4. The menu system is a bit of a mess. Why do I have to go into sub menus to change from normal AF (one point) to multi point AF. Why is the custom save points so useless with saving only a view things, mostly JPEG related. Why can’t I customize the drive menu or have a custom menu with often used settings. Why is there only one button assignable as a custom button. Most of the above written complaints could be solved with a big software update anyway
  5. Battery can be inserted the wrong way. I have no idea why they cannot design a battery like they do for SLRS, where you really can’t put it in the wrong way.
  6. Slow wake up from sleep. And another thing I really don’t understand why this still exists today. Every dirt cheap DSLR has instant wake up from sleep, but why can’t this camera. I really cannot explain this, what could need so much time to wake up? I hope the next Fuji one, the X-Pro 1 will be much better, because this is a major negative point for people who need quick turn on time, eg street shooters (who hate this camera, or at least I heard that)
  7. Lenscap cannot be used with the sunshade on. This is a big design miss a really big one, this shouldn’t be that way.
  8. Bugs or just strange things. Like why does the AF lamp no fire sometimes, does this depend on the light or not. No idea, but sometimes it doesn’t even thought it is quite dark and it can’t really get an AF lock. Also I had twice that the battery display disappeared from the back LCD, no idea why. Minor things, but I haven’t seen that on any other camera before.
  9. Design and position of the build in flash. While the flash is ok, its position is horrible. It sits right above the lens, so unless you remove the sun shade AND the additional mount ring for the sunshade, you will get nasty shadows. And additional flash on top is highly recommended. Also that you cannot control the time when the flash shoots, either when the shutter opens or closes is a bit weired, at the end this is just software that controls it.
  10. The position of the exposure compensation dial, it can easily happen that it moves to +1 or -1 and if you do not check before you shoot you will have an over or under exposed shot. Lucky no other buttons turn or change that easy.

At night, everything is bright (ISO 6400)

The Ugly
  1. RAW button. Why this button is there, why it exists and who really uses it are all mysteries that will never be solved. I do not know any photographer that changes between RAW and jpeg on a shot bases. Furthermore this button just changes the settings for the next shot. And why this is not an ISO button or cannot be custom set is another mystery.

The hard life (ISO 3200)

January232012

あけましておめでとう

Better late than never.

October272011

the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

understatementblog:

The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…

July62011

みつばち（Mitsubachi）in自由が丘

If there is an awesome delicious restaurant it is Mitsubachi. It also has the most awesome name. Three 八 so it becomes みつ (Mitsu) ばち (bachi). Isn’t that awesome? 

Anyway, without much ado, I just post some pictures of the shop, because this is way more interesting than boring writing.

Free or reserved tables each have a little mascot. Ours got the shops Mascot :D

Free floating monkey included

女子会〜and sorts

But this time there were a lot of couples … I didn’t feel so “lonely man”

The whole thing is just pretty stylish.

Non functional lanterns and functional lights. In the background the Awesome triangle of 8.

We have some hammock, but for decoration only ;)

Bigger tables are there too, and the shop has a Macbook with some Ghibli :D Of course the kids are Oshare too.

But now to the most important thing, the super delicious food there.

はるさめ。ちょ〜うまい！

本日のポテトーサラダ　カレー風味「もぐもぐもぐもぐ！」

ポテトフライとアンチョビソース。あのポテフライはすげ〜〜

アンチョビソース！すごいうまい！

チキンクリームドリア　カレー風味。最高！本当すごいうまかった！

いわい地鶏の岩塩焼き　柚子胡椒添え。これはNr.1。一番うまい！すごい！！！！

うますぎ！

ピクルス

自家製ラー油のピリ辛おぼろ豆腐やっこ

明太マヨれんこん揚げ。これもすごいうまい！

最終は日本酒。色々なある、焼酎も！本当すごい！

皆さん、是非ミツバチ行こよ！

June72011

Remove the haze

So one thing I recently found on the awesome Phase One Blog is how to remove haze from a photograph. If you take a landscape picture and expose it as usual you often end with blank spaces on both sides of your curve (visible in the Level display).

Lets take this picture I took from Osanbashi in Yokohama:

Canon 5D MkII and Canon EF 50/f1.2L @f4

It is darker because I underexposed it at -1/3EV to have more data in the dark area, which is easier to recover and there is a lot of haze because that day was quite cloudy and humid anyway. Furthermore the colors are all very mushy and the brown of the sea is not really visible. But not fear, this is all fixable.

Before you do any adjustments on the levels, all other things have to set into place. Fixing expores, brightness, highlight and shadow recovery, contrast and saturation, etc.

I increased the overall brightness a bit, added some shadow recovery (for the dark areas in the pictures) and added some clarity because this is a landscape shot. After this changes the picture already looks much better:

It comes to a point where it is much usable, but we can do better.

So in the final step we crop away all the unused parts in the three levels for red, green and blue:

Gone with all the not needed data.

After this change the result will look like this:

If all the levels are adjusted correctly the picture will not have any strong color casts. If there are any strong off casts the right side of of level for this color has to be adjusted and any other to get a good neutral color hast. Optional and better is to shoot with a color/white balance card and adjust at this level.

When both pictures are compared, it is very easy to see what you can do with this tool.

Here are two more examples shot from the Tokyo Government building and in the area around there from the Sanpo Japan Tower.

Left is before (unaltered, thats why it is not straight), right is the final edit.

It is clear how easy it is to get some more punch out of some dull pictures. Furthermore it is another reason why the only way to shoot is shooting with RAW.

7AM

Pure Symmetry

I love symmetry, whenever I am unable to hold my camera straight or fail to get the ultimate symmetry without post cropping I feel really bad. So when I got this shot, I really felt very happy. It is a homage to this guy, who always makes the perfect symmetrical shot.

清水寺、京都 (Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto). Canon 5D MkII / EF35/f1.4L

Can’t get better than this :D

May32011

Radioactivity in Tokyo, not

At least according to the Tokyo Government. But I am sure people will say this is all lies or so. Or probably a conspiracy by all the evil atomic nuclear plant producers around the world. Or Humpti Dumpty, or the Reenters or I really don’t know …

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

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