X-100 Lens Flare

[bwcolor]

Here is a discussion and samples of really bad lens flare when shooting lights at night with the X100. There seems to be a real problem and one that has me wondering about my purchase. You might want to take a looks and see what you think.

Lens Flare Thread on DPreview

or are we just looking at photos taken at night with 98% humidity?

 

[Brian Legge]

Any chance the photographer was using a filter in these shots?

Have multiple people confirm this behavior with their cameras?

 

[bwcolor]

I thought about this, but I think that the adapter is in short supply. I was hoping that those with the camera could shoot a few shots with lighting in the image.

 

[Dan States]

Thats a bother....lots of spherical aberration in those images.

 

[former member]

It looks more like reflections, perhaps coming off the sensor, hitting the lens, and coming back as an out of focus circle.

If a filter was used in front of the lens- would also cause this.

 

[gavinlg]

Yeah I hate that type of flare. Seems to happen with small sensor cameras. It's much worse on m4/3 - sometimes shots taken with my 17mm pancake on my e-p1 were unusable because of it.

 

[bwcolor]

Look through images on Flickr. It seems to be a greater problem in the peripheral areas vs. central areas of the image. It isn't subtle and it has to be influencing off center contrast regardless of the lighting conditions. Perhaps this has something to do with the lens and sensor's peripheral micro lenses. /???

 

[former member]

Hard to say what it is without shooting some kind of standardized tests.

Shooting night scenes of oncoming headlights is a worst-case type of image. Very high-contrast, blown highlights, and lost shadows.

Here is a shot with a Canon 50/1.2 on the Leica M8, using a Hot Mirror Filter.



Lens has some coating damage on the surface behind the aperture. Wide-open at F1.2.

NOW: 1939 Zeiss Sonnar "T" 5cm f1.5 on the Canon P.

 

[_larky]

Just popping out, but to test this I pointed my X100 directly at a set of house lights, which now means everything I see has a purple dot in it - I suffer for you lot - and I cannot see this effect at all.

EDIT: Tying shoes laces with no vision is hard...

 

[Ronny]

M2 and Tri-X can do it with more feeling🙂 cheaper🙂 but not faster:-(

 

[Paul T.]

Interesting the Chicken Little reaction on dpreview. Wouldn't bother me much, if it is intrinsic, but of course, we'll have people moaning about this for months if not years.

 

[Darshan]

It's ghosting rather than flare, and it's most likely due to light reflecting off the lens elements or sensor (as Brian said).

 

[Spyro]

eh, so the lens shows coma wide open, big deal.
Very few lenses dont have it, just ask anybody who shoots starry skies.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Gosh! The X100 turns out to be a camera, not the Second Coming! What a surprise!

Looks like a good camera, with faults. Quite unlike any other good camera, then.

Cheers,

R.

 

[user237428934]

Looked through all of the links in the dpreview article and could not find a photo with disturbing lens flare. There are night shots that show a more than good performance for my needs.

 

[sepiareverb]

Gosh! The X100 turns out to be a camera, not the Second Coming! What a surprise!

Looks like a good camera, with faults. Quite unlike any other good camera, then.

Cheers,

R.

+1 Roger. I've been anticipating threads like this almost as much as some have been anticipating the X100.

 

[bigeye]

geez, don't panic. looks like a build flaw in one camera. I'd wait until confirmed by others.

Sometimes I think the web is populated by solely by lemmings and equities traders.

.

 

[J.M.]

That's supposed to be there. It's the "Fuji Glow".

 

[_larky]

Nothing here, as far as I can see. The double cone on the ceiling is actually there, unless the light is reflecting off my eye sensor also 😉

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I see it off to the left of the light source. If the background were black, like outdoors at night, it would be obvious.