Fujibashing

I’ve been following the Fujifilm X10 Orb issue for a while now, and what it’s really all about is becoming clearer by the moment.

These “orbs”, which some say are a myth, are quite real I assure you. But they’re being blown way out of proportion. Even though I had read about them before I bought the X10, as I’ve been using it, I forgot all about them. I had to go back and look closely to find them. Even then it was often difficult to differentiate them from other “normal” specular highlights.

Then, I went about trying to reproduce them on demand. It’s not difficult, just do the one thing you’re not supposed to do with any camera…shoot directly into a light source. Overexposing helps too. Then, for the heck of it, I decided to see what my other four digital cameras do.

Well, they ain’t pretty either. Every camera handles these specular highlights a little differently, ranging from big white flares to enlarged patches of white surrounded by a soft edge with color banding. None of them rendered the highlight as the naked eye, with its enormous dynamic range, sees it. and none of them improved dramatically on the X10. Ironically, the only camera I’ve used that, out of the box, deals with spectral highlights well is the iPhone 4S with its HDR feature.

Sometimes, I would see orbs in my X10 photos only to discover, after pixel peeping, that they’re just plain ol’ overexposed, distorted blobs of light.

Then it occurred to me that there might be some in the sample photos posted on the Fujifilm website. Yep, sure enough, they’re there. I scrutinized those photos quite a bite before buying the camera. I even compared them with sample photos from the aging M9, and was pleasantly surprised. But I never took notice of the orbs.

Now, I’m beginning to see orbs everywhere I go. Conspicuous blobs of light in the distance that are too small for my eye to resolve. So, I try to photograph them to see what they really look like. They frequently look just like they do from a distance in real life, even on the X10. Only with harder edges.

The interesting thing is, up until the hard edge of these “orbs”, the X10 does an amazing job of resolving the image detail aroundthe light source. This is usually veiled in flare with other cameras. Perhaps the X10 resolves this detail a little too clearly. The orbs are frequently surrounded by distinct, multi-point sunstars which can be quite dramatic.

To be honest, regardless of what camera I’m using, I find the way all digital cameras render specular highlights to be pretty dismal. The only way to even come close to making them look like the human eye sees them is through bracketing and HDR processing. What I find more annoying about the X10 than the orb issue is its dismal battery life. It’s really cutting down on my orb capture rate. But that’s easily solved with better planning and a spare battery. I just put in an order for a high-capacity third-party battery.

The fact that everyone’s talking about how irresponsible Fujifilm was in releasing this camera, and not about the wonderful pictures it takes otherwise is clear evidence that there’s more to this than meets the orb. Apparently lots of people have it in for Fujifilm, probably because they seem to be able to do what Kodak can’t; remain a profitable manufacturer of film and cameras.

Fujifilm has committed to manufacturing a modified sensor and offering it as a no-cost upgrade. Whether this will significantly resolve the issue without degrading the otherwise excellent image quality of this camera remains to be seen. it might be a trade-off. But at least they’re doing the right thing. So let’s let sleeping orbs lie for now.

Meanwhile, here’s what you can do to avoid the orbs:

Shoot at a slightly higher ISO. The X10 likes to be shot at ISO 400 because this happens to be where you have your choice of either 100, 200 or 400% dynamic range. But shooting at ISO 1600-3200 virtually eliminates any orbs.

Don’t overexpose your images. Regardless of the camera, all digital images benefit from being slightly underexposed. As the exposure is reduced so is the number and size of the orbs.

Where possible, use EXR mode in dynamic range priority. This allows the camera to capture more detail in the highlights, and reduces or eliminates orbs.

How to Fix the Orbs
They’d be easy enough to retouch out, except that there’s really NOTHING THERE to begin with. You can soften the edges a bit, but that’s about it. They’re not really that different from other cameras spectral highlights, just a little harder around the edges.

I find that the smudge tool works perfectly. Set to about 35% opacity and lightly brush inward, smoothing the transition and reducing the size of the flare. If you follow the shape of the sunstar, the circular "orb" appearance disappears, and it looks even better than other cameras.

Another tool that works well, and is even faster is the pinch tool in liquify. Set the brush size to about twice the diameter of the orb and click on it a few times to shrink and blend it.

I must admit, it’s been pretty amusing reading all this Fujibashing, but it’s time for me to put my orbs to bed and go out shooting.