X-Pert Corner XF 23mm first look on Friday, September 13
Rico is adding daily some images taken with the XF 23mm in his Flickr account here. Be sure to check it out in the next days, and be prepared for the X-Pert Corner about the XF 23mm lens. And on September 13 you will read Rico’s first look about the XF 23mm here on Fujirumors… so stay tuned!
XF 23mm pre-orders: USA: AmazonUS / BHphoto / Adorama / Pictureline EUROPE: PCHstore / wexcamerasDE / wexphotographicUK
Rico’s 23mm pictures at flickr
RAW converter shootout! Last days to vote the poll. The winner will be announced Thursday
You are the judge! Which RAW converter is the best? Check out the XPC Ultimate RAW Converter Shootout post here. To get directly to Rico’s Flickr account click here. The poll will be closed Wednesday evening, and the winner will be announced on Thursday.
Poll for DSCF0544-1 to DSCF0544-8:
[poll id=”20″]
Poll for DSCF0998-A to DSCF0998-H:
[poll id=”21″]
16 Responses
Hm.. Price of 23/1.4 increased from 849 to 899. I missed something?
No, you are correct. I pre-ordered at $849. Just went back and checked the invoice.
I payed it 800 €, a pre-made model
I ordered the 23mm lens from B&H yesterday at $849. After I saw the price increase I called the sales department and was told that although the price went up, my invoice price of $849 will be honored when the lens ships in early October. Sweet!
The colours in the night photos aren’t very ‘punchy’ – I wonder if if Rico can/will add some with a bit more bite.
Yeah, i don’t like the colors of those night shots either, but that has little to do with the lens performance. Definitely looks like they’re edited, the day shots too (not a good thing at all when it comes to samples), so i’ll just try and look past it the best i can.
Plenty of the samples are OOC JPEGs, including many nightshots. Every single shot is clearly marked in the description. If you don’t like the colors of the JPEG engine (shots marked with “JPEG” or “SOOC JPEG”), that’s a good thing, because you know you might have to look elsewhere or make sure to change the colors of the camera or RAW converter to suit your needs.
Hmm. When I click on the link to Rico’s Flickr account, to see his shots, I get this:
“This page is private.
Oops! You don’t have permission to view this page.”
Can we fix the link?
You have to use the link provided in the article, Patrick posted one that does not work.
should work now
Hmm. I downloaded the full rez versions and took a good look, but seeing the results, most people apparently don’t agree with me.
I chose 1 (runners up 2 and 4) and A (runners up B and F). I found C to be one of the worst? Yes, the color is nicely saturated, but the grass on top of the hill is one big blur.
Most people seem to like a softer rendering, but that makes it hard to point to weaknesses. In any case, my resolution will include full-size files of converters C and A with quite closely matching sharpness, contrast and color.
Yeah, I also found it quite hard to compare just sharpness since factors like color rendering, contrast and exposure have a much bigger (initial) impact on how you perceive a certain image.
Yep, more micro-contrast can go a long way communicating sharpness.
Sorry, I meant to say “compare maximum detail”. But the images that respond better to sharpening do (or at least, appear to) reveal more detail.
Hmmm, not much to say about those samples. Most of them come with just under 4MP, so not possible to judge the real resolution power of the lens. I guess it is good and sharp, but at that point only a friendly assumption…
What bothers me more are the unhealthy/ coolish skin tones of the young women with horses, plus the vast areas of blown out highlights. I’ve seen them in my X-E1 as well, if shot in JPEG a result of the too harsh tone curves of the JPEG engine, or also a result of the limited DR of the Fuji sensor. I never understood why everybody praises it, because it’s ability to keep highlights is average at best. Nex-7 and the 8 year old Fuji S3pro much better in this respect.
Generally the 16MP sensor (same as the Sony version) is quite contrasty which produces – in my eyes – files that often are not very smooth and a bit unnatural/ overcooked. The lack of an AA certainly also doesn’t lead to “smoothness”…