Any love left for the X10?

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Lawrence Sheperd

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After salivating over the X100, then the X-Pro 1, and THEN the XE-1, I've finally come to the conclusion that I can afford none of the above. Life just will not allow me to put any monies aside, and I usually rely upon my Christmas bonus (after deductions for pressing bills, wife and kids' presents, etc.) to purchase a little something for myself.

Question is, will I be satisfied with the X10? I've been impressed with the photos I've seen on the 'net (have not seen any prints first-hand) and would probably use the camera as a day-to-day shooter that stays with me. My current always on me camera is a Canon G9, and my dslr camera for wildlife and such is a Canon 20d (you can see I'm seriously behind the times in the digital domain!)

I can't imagine that I would not be impressed by the camera's IQ and build quality, and since Fuji has tackled the "orb" issue and has also offered several firmware updates I think the form, function and output would be better than I am currently used to.

Perhaps I've answered my own question, but would love the warm, fuzzy feeling of others' input.

Happy Holidays to All!
 
That's why companies produce so many damn cameras, one for each segment.

Rank your purchase in order of care; apparently the more you spend the more you care.
If you know the results are going to be what you want, no problem trying it out, thats the benefit of being the photographer, you can tell if you like it rather shortly.
 
This article describes the peer group. There is the RX100 and pretty much everything else.

(I don't know if I could stand to operate it. I've tried a lot of them, but Sony hasn't made a product I've liked since the TCS 300.)

The LX7 came out a month or 2 ago and I saw it over Thanksgiving for $259. Wow.

The velocity of change is really rapid right now.

.
 
larry, ive had/have ep2, 5d, x100, gxr m mount. i also have the x10. i really like it alot, build is great for its size. i find it pocketable. results are very good for what it is, a p&s. yes, you can play around with manual settings, but really, its best shot with as open an aperture as possible in most all situations-- because of the extreme crop factor, its like shooting at f8 anyway, and thats one of the drawbacks. but remember, its the only p&s with an ovf, and that was a big deal for me.

i bought mine used and paid much less than the new price. even though i like and enjoy it, i think anything much over $400 usd is not worth it. just my opinion. and i think theyre plentiful enough where you can get a nice copy for that price.
tony
 
My current always on me camera is a Canon G9
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Came across your thread and this is what I thought:

1) The X10 is getting a bit long in the tooth, so if you can wait untill its succesor is announced, do so and take the discount. Next spring perhaps?

2) I haven't used the X10, so I can't compare, but is your G9 really that bad? And no, this is no contradiction with what I said above; that was just marketing speak.

3) But here's what's most important! My G7 gave up working perhaps 2 months ago. Not because the sensor or the electronics died, but because of bad mechanical design. Underneath the ISO switch, inside the top plate, there are 2 screws that eventually come loose and will bounce around happily until producing a short, usually on the powerboard under the shutter, because that's where there's most free space inside.
The G9 has the same problem. Spares are non existent (only second hand on ebay, probably from canibalized G's). Canon fixed it on later models.

Nescio
 
Good to know about those 2 screws, Nescio. I have enjoyed my G9. It's been dragged around a good bit and is beginning to show it's age. Live view will wash out occasionally, as if the sensor had been overloaded, but beyond that, I've had no real complaints. I have developed my post-processing workflow to eke out the most from the files it produces and played around with the expanded capabilities of the CHDK semi-firmware. All-in-all a positive experience.

Still, the photos I've been seeing from the Fuji Xs really blow me away!
 
Possibly the X10 will be "better" than your G9, but $400 better? Here in Spain the X10 only went down from €450 to 400 recently, but then Spain is expensive for consumer goods.

If you feel like fixing the screws of your G9, it's easy enough if you're not afraid to open the body with a precision screwdriver. You can find video's on youtube on how to do it. If I remember well, I found some info under "G7/9 timebomb". Didn't try to fix it with a 2nd hand spare, as I only could trace 1 screw, but one of these days, I'll try again.

Good luck with it (and don't sell or give away your G9 without fixing it, please...)

Nescio
 
I bought the wife an X10 a few months ago, and I really like it. Correctly exposed images are amazingly detailed. And they have that Fuji je ne sais quoi. Nice colours, nice detail and a not so digital feel to them.

Build quality is very, very good. I would say it´s better than the X-E1 in that respect. My main gripe is the same as for the X-E1, the exposure compensation dial gets knocked out of position too easily.
 
On a recent airline trip, I took my D-Lux 4; an X100; and an X10. I took the most pictures with the X10, and the fewest with the X100. The D-Lux 4 was in the middle, of course.

The X10 is small enough for a little travel camera, yet has excellent IQ and high-ISO performance. The most important functions are accessible with buttons. You don't have to dig through menus. Apple Aperture has no RAW converter for the X10; however, the JPEGs are very good. Weaknesses (for Me): The optical finder is a disappointment, and the widest zoom position is 28mm. I had to bring the D-Lux 4 just for 24mm.
 
I bought an X10 with great hopes for it, and returned it two days later. Didn't like the controls, the menus, and the raw files simply didn't process as well as I expected at all, due to the Fuji EXR sensor design. For me, it was a major disappointment.

I think the Sony RX100 is a better bet for this class of camera, despite it missing an optical viewfinder. The X10's optical viewfinder is the only semi-unique nicety of the camera I liked ..

I'd also look at the Nikon 1 cameras for this class of pocketable.

(Personally, I've moved to using the Leica X2 or Ricoh GXR (the latter fitted with A12 Camera Mount and Color Skopar 28mm f/3.5 lens) with a Voigtländer 35mm optical viewfinder fitted as my solution to the coat-pocketable digicam. Unfortunately, they're both as expensive as the Xpro1 or XE-1 that you already identified as somewhat over the top for your budget.)

G
 
1) The X10 is getting a bit long in the tooth, so if you can wait untill its succesor is announced, do so and take the discount. Next spring perhaps?

This is what makes me nuts about digital.
 
Nescio, I've delved into a number of my inoperable film cameras, with about a 70% success rate. I'd be game to give it a try on the G9.

Thanks for the input, Ezzie. And a BIG thanks to you and your compatriots for the "Caffenol Cookbook!" It's bookmarked on my browser.

Rob-F, glad for your feedback. I can't imagine the OVF being any worse than the one on the G9...now THAT'S a totally worthless viewfinder!

Godfrey, it seems as though people either love the X10 or they don't. Not much middle ground and it shows how much ergonomics plays in deciding on a camera.

Maggieo, high praise indeed for the little X10!

KoNickon, right there with you, Friend...;-) !
 
The X10 just fits with my workflow or maybe just the way I shoot. But I can't argue with its JPEGs, that's for sure. Oh, and it fits this gal's hands great. Which might have a lot to do with it, too.
 
On my last 3 week vacation my Canon 5D decided to throw away its mirror on day 6. The X10 stepped in and I was glad to have such a capable camera as backup.
Overall I missed a few pictures because switching on the X10 take much longer than the instanteneous wake up from sleep of the 5D. AF is also much slower (compared to 5D). OTOH i took photos (and videos) because the camera simply "was there" due to its portability and the f2 lens.
What makes the X10 special for me is the UI, esp. the manual zoom ring. Motor zoom is simply a nogo for me on "serious" cameras.

Regarding "long in the tooth": the camera was roughly introduced 1 year ago. There is a firmware update which implements the quick menue, which is really good. I don't think there will be a successor in the forseeable future. Maybe a competitor which is better.

The X10 goes for 389€ in germany.
 
Nescio said:
1) The X10 is getting a bit long in the tooth, so if you can wait untill its succesor is announced, do so and take the discount. Next spring perhaps?
Click to expand...

How so? It still has one of the largest sensors in a P&S camera.

2) I haven't used the X10, so I can't compare, but is your G9 really that bad? And no, this is no contradiction with what I said above; that was just marketing speak.
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If you haven't used it, then how do you know it is long in the tooth?
 
EDIT: UPS...I WAS WRONG ON SAYING THE VIDEO'S WERE FROM MAY 2011... AS SAID BEFORE, IT'S FOR SALE JUST OVER 1 YEAR OR SOMETHING... NOW THAT TURNS MY ARGUMENT INTO BS...

SORRY... Perhaps because of its retro look, I thought it to be around much longer...


jsrockit said:
How so? It still has one of the largest sensors in a P&S camera.

If you haven't used it, then how do you know it is long in the tooth?
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Well, as some of you didn't like my way of expressing, sorry for that, but I tried to say that it's long in the tooth by market standards. Fuji isn't Canon of course, but still a very big company. On youtube there are hands on video's from as early as May 2011, so the camera was probably announced a few months before. That was what made me think it isn't too far off to expect a new X11 or X20 or whatever to be announced during the spring of next year, two years after its original launch and before the holiday season.

And no I don't have a crystal ball, as my nick tries to point out, but since the OP already owns a relatively good P&S, albeit on the edge of tooth decay, and because of the budget limitations he mentioned he doesn't seem to be a dentist either, I just suggested what to me seems to be more than a mere possibility.

Sin acritud,

Nescio
 
I love this assumption that if a digital camera is over a year out of the gate, it's "long in the tooth" ... Spoken on the same forum and often by the same people who hunt up a fifty year old film camera and swoon over the fact that it's still working. I don't like the X10 for various reasons, but to dis it because it's a year old is absurd. Every time I hear this kind of nonsense, I think to myself, "Bravo, marketing trolls! You've done your work well."

My E-1 is almost a decade old and it's well obsolete on the technical front with its 5Mpixel resolution, limited sensitivity, slow write speed, etc. You can dis it on the technical front all you want. It's still a very fine camera, however, and I've kept it in lieu of all the other DSLRs I've owned despite its age because I find it makes photos I really like as well as being a camera I really like to use. Same reason I have a Balda Baldix, a Nikon F, a Rollei 35S ... All 'long in the tooth' junk that just happen to be fine cameras available cheap.
 
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