Fujifilm X10 review

In the last few years, there have been more and more enthusiast cameras coming out on the market and now Fuji joined other manufacturers as well. They did it with X10 and X100, and now with X-Pro 1.

First thing worth mentioning on X10 is the magnesium alloy body, which I love. X10 comes with 12MP sensor (twice as large as sensors on compact cameras).

The lens

This is one of the features of this camera that prompted me to buy one – equivalent of 28-112mm on 35mm with aperture of F2.0-2.8! And the lens is retracting as well as it is image-stabilised. This means you get more control over the depth of field than you get with kit lenses with DSLR cameras (kit lenses on DSLR cameras are F3.5-5.6), so especially on the long end, telephoto, you get much more here with F2.8.

Review

There are many websites where you can read about all the technical specifications of the camera, so I’m going to focus on what I think about this camera. It’s a great little camera with good lens range and great aperture. I love that it shoots raw and it’s so compact. I can take it with me anywhere I go and just put it in my pocket.

However, there are a few things I don’t like so keep these in mind before you commit to buying it. Maybe they won’t bother you.

When you shoot Raw, because of the size and dimensions of the sensor, the images are 4×3 ratio, not 3×2 as on DLSR cameras and on film cameras, what bothers me a bit. What this means is that when you print the images, when you print them 4×6, the images will be cropped. To avoid cropping, you’ll need to print them as 4×5.5 or crop them in Photoshop.

Noise is quite distinct starting from ISO 800 or even a bit lower (ISO 640). Not a big issue, can be removed in Lightroom or Photoshop, but it would be nice to have less noise at ISO 800 or even 640. I guess that’s probably what you get with camera with this size sensor.

Here’s an example of an image shot with X10:

Other than that, great camera.