I've done a crazy thing with the X100!

David_Manning

David_Manning

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I shot some .jpgs and took the card out of the camera, inserted it into a kiosk at Walmart, and made 4x6 prints.

I've honestly NEVER done this...I've always done some kind of post processing.

I'm astounded by how good the prints are! My most recent gold standard was good film processed and printed from my Contax T3...but these prints right out of the camera blow them away by their fidelity, natural contrast, and natural color.

I photographed my daughter with all three color profiles (Astia/Standard, Velvia, and Provia). True to the back LCD, the Astia/Standard looked the most like film Provia, the Velvia was contrasty and saturated, and the Provia profile was lower-contrast, but still realistic (not washed out...made her skin look nice).

Before anyone tries to correct my post, I DO think they got the Astia and Provia settings backwards in the camera...

Another confidence booster for making happy .jpg snaps very easy and quick.
 
My expectations were extremely low, but I honestly did it to test the process...and I was pleasantly surprised.

I so rarely print 4x6 these days, it's nice to know I could just go on a weekend trip, print off the card, and put the prints in an old-stlye album.

As a side note, the two Walmarts nearest my house both have huge HP printers which seem to make any intervention by the poorly-trained photo people in the store unnecessary. That's good news. The X100 did all the hard work, and very well at that.
 
Care to show us a sample photo you have printed? I'm starting to like the X100 samples more and more, but I can't afford it. I have high hopes for X10 🙂
 
I KNEW someone would ask that!

The few test shots never made it to my computer...just the memory card and then to print. I reformatted the card this morning to upgrade the firmware to 1.11.

Oops...
 
Don't want to chill your excitement, but you can get very good 6x4 prints this way from pretty much any digital camera. Even my old 2mp Oly 2000Z back in 1999 gave great results when printed straight 6x4.
 
I usually shoot RAW only, but I've been tweaking settings in my X100 and Canon to get decent B&W JPGs out of the camera.
For personal work, I'll always go RAW and then into Silver Efex, but it's nice to have the JPGs for a kind of contact sheet, and for quick uploading if it's something I think friends would want to see (such as the wedding I officiated this weekend).
 
IK13...

It's not really the printed size or resolution that I'm impressed with...the color and contrast curves that the X100 chooses in-camera are what I'm impressed with.

I have seen 4x6 digital photos printed straight from camera, and even though they are not pixellated, their contrast in color is usually terrible...from flat and lifeless all the way to circus colors. The one thing in common is that they didn't look like came from a good analog camera...just a digital snapper.

So to be clear, I'm amazed at how film-like the color and contrast curves are out-of-camera in the Fuji.
 
David,

I understand what you're trying to say, but I do stand by my opinion that it is not accurate to judge camera quality this way. Don't know what you have seen as far as prints from other digital cameras, but I can assure you that even the PS digital cameras, I've had over the years would stand the test when printed 6x4 against my DSLR and any 35mm I've owned. Do most people get good prints - heck no, but it ain't the technology's fault. Most people were getting even worst prints back with 35mm...and it wasn't the film's fault either.

It is great that you've found a combination, that works for you, requires very little effort and gives you results you like.
With the digital printing though, about the only objective thing in the process is the resolution (and even this is not right as your picture gets re-sized before printing). Everything else can and it is manipulated - contrast, saturation, color rendition, white balance etc. By the camera, but also by the printer. You can lower the impact of the printer by postprocessing on a machine with a calibrated monitor and soft proofing, using the current printer profile for the particular printer you'll be printing on.
 
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