The Fujifilm X30

Leaked: The Fujifilm X30

Only days after receiving my X20, I went looking for more info on the X30 and came upon this…

There’s no question, it’s a good looking camera. A little more modern that the X20, but still has that retro-ish feel. Except for one important fact: NO VIEWFINDER!

At least no optical viewfinder, and a groundbreaking one at that for a “rangefinder”. One that has color-coded shooting information right in the finder. After reading the first impressions review on dpreview, I can say without hesitation that I made the right decision to get the last of a dying breed, and save $100.00 at that. (Not that I would have paid the full retail price of $599.99 for the X30, but still.)

The X30 holds no appeal for me over the X20, and I much prefer the X20 over the X10; They actually got it right except for one thing; they shortened the maximum Image Preview from 3.0 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Why? A typical example of throwing usability completely out of the window and getting it blatantly wrong. The 1.5 second timing is so fast, that at first I thought the image preview was not working. The other major error was removing the option to turn the LCD off altogether from the display button and putting it in a dedicated menu item along with eye sensor, OVF and LCD. All of these options should be part of the display button. This is what happens when you don’t do usability testing on cameras which have user interfaces.

Still, I am overjoyed with this camera. Overall, the menus have improved by being more Nikon-like in their overall function and appearance, and the Q-button is simply genius. I can’t wait to take this out shooting.

But, in defense of the X30, many are criticizing it for not having a 1" sensor. But forgive them, for they just don’t understand the physics of optics. In this camera, sensor size, speed, and focal length range are all in perfect, critical balance; increase the sensor size, and the others must change as well, and not for the better. 

And now for the harsh from me; my faith in Fujiflm as a member of the elite three has waned. I’m happy to own this camera, but I don’t think I would invest in a more expensive offering from them. They just don’t seem to have the experience needed to make a near-flawless high-end camera, which I already have in the Nikon D610.

First Impressions: Fujifilm X20

Faux Pas; All camera manufacturers have them. A recent one for Fujfilm was the X10. A great camera with one major flaw; a defectively designed sensor.

Read more >




Review: Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL II

Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL II

There’s just something about “pancake lenses” that many find appealing, and each company has traditionally offered one or two. But Nikon’s offering (the NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8 P) is a lens for collectors and not for shooters. It just falls short in performance at the borders and edges. The logical option to this lens is the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2.0 SL II. It’s fast, sharp and even a bit wider; perfect for full-frame, but still very usable on DX.

That said, Voigtländer (one of two brands by Cosina, the other being…Zeiss!) continues their expertise in pancake lenses with this lens, the Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL II. A bit longer and slower than the Ultron, it fills the gap where a manual-focus DX street lens should be, and though not as fast as Nikon’s considerably larger AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8, it’s considerably sharper at the borders making it ideal for single-shot panoramas.

The sample pictured is the previous version with a rubber focus ring grip. The latest iteration has a fluted all-metal focus ring, very traditional in appearance. If you’re an SLR shooter, but like the idea of a rangefinder, this gets you a little closer to that experience. Beautifully crafted of black-anodized aluminum, it’s light and has a compactness factor of 19, compared with 15 for the Ultron and 7 for the 45mm NIKKOR P.

What’s Missing Infrared focus index.

What’s Included Front and rear lens caps.

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Aperture Ring Yes. Smooth with positive full-stop clicks, except for f/4; hard stop at f/3.5 instead.

Auto Focus No.

Bokeh Not yet evaluated.

Close Focus 8 inches (0.2m).

Color Rendition Excellent.

Compactness 19 on a scale of 1-500, factoring in diameter, length and weight.

Compatibility Nikon F-Mount with CPU. Works flawlessly on any Nikon body since 1977, and meters on cameras without an aperture sensing tab. Does not seem as sharp on other cameras such as Canon using adapters, even if non-optical.

Construction 9 multi-coated elements in 6 groups with one aspherical element. Metal mount, body, aperture ring, focus ring, inner barrel and filter threads.

Country of Origin Japan.

Coverage 135 film, FX and DX.

Diaphragm 9 curved blades.

Distortion Moderate, about 1.9% of complex distortion.

DX Performance On an APS-C body, this lens would be 30mm at f/3.5 with a 71° field of view; good for street photograph in good light.

EXIF Encoding Yes.

Extension Tubes Works fine with both manual and auto extension tubes, but there are better options.

Falloff Gone by f/8, which is where this lens shines.

Filter Thread Metal, 52mm. Does not rotate.

Ghosts and Flare Minimal.

Hood Optional LH-20 metal hood. Does not work with the domed metal hood that comes with the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2.0 SL II

Included Standard side-pinch front lens cap, rear cap.

Lateral Color Fringes Not yet evaluated.

Macro Not the best choice for macro, but unmount it from the camera body, preset the aperture, flip it around and hold the filter threads squarely against the mount, and you can get some incredible macro shots bordering on photomicrography.

Manual Focus Focus ring is silky smooth and well-damped with a hard stop at infinity. Has a very usable depth-of-field scale, but no infrared index.

Maximum Reproduction Ratio Not yet evaluated.

Optional Accessories LH-20 metal hood.

RoHS Compliance Not specified on lens. When the chip dies, this will still function perfectly as a manual focus lens.

Sharpness Super sharp at all apertures. Some coma and falloff at f/1.8, gone by f/2.8. Better performance wide open that the f/1.4.

Size 2.5"dia. x 1.1" (63.7mm x 28.6mm)

Spherochromatism Not yet evaluated.

Sunstars At smaller apertures, makes soft 18 point sunstars..

Teleconverters Not yet evaluated.

Variable Aperture Range None; constant aperture.

Versatility A great lens for panoramic images on FX; Works well for street photography on DX.

Vibration Reduction (VR) None. Use speeds as low as 1/30 s, or use “burst” mode to take several exposures and choose the sharpest.

Vignetting Shoot wide open to f/5.6 for a vignetting effect, which is gone by f/8.

Weight Approximately 7.0 oz (199.5g).

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Build Quality ★★★★★

Optical Quality ★★★★★

Value ★★★★

The Bottom Line So thrilled was I with my Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2.0, That I decided to get this as a companion, especially since at the time I was craving a good 30mm street lens for my Nikon D90. On a the D610 however, it finds new life as sharp, compact ultrawide, which has very distinct advantages.

It’s a little trickier to work with than the Ultron, but the rewards are worth the effort once you get the hang of it. Focusing at infinity is challenging, because at infinity, the borders are actually sharper than the center! you just have to set the lens at the hard stop, and have faith. As with any ultra-wide lens, the depth of field is amazing, and even at f/5.6, it ranges from 10' to infinity at that hard stop. So, No worries. Set the focus at 8' to f/8 on the hyperfocal scale, and enjoy sharp focus from about three feet to infinity. Pretty much makes AF and VR unnecessary.

If you’re planning on using any sort of lens shade (always a challenge with any ultra-wide) it seems that  foregoing a filter is the way to go. The 52mm Vello Snap-On Tulip Lens Shade sans filter is probably the most compact option, and the vignetting is practically invisible. But the minute you extend outward with more than one filter, it’s all over. The other path I’d recommend is a 52-77mm step-up ring with the 72mm Vello Snap-On Tulip Lens Shade, which will work well with other setups. But this is really clumsy, and best for critical tripod work. Voigtländer makes a dedicated aluminum shade for this lens (LH-20), but at $45.00, there are much better options, including none since it has very good flare resistance.

So, this lens make much more sense on a full-frame DSLR, and yields some pretty nice single-shot panoramas. Cropping off the corners improves the performance a bit, while sharpness is consistent edge to edge. It’s my go-to lens for this kind of work.

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Sample Images (FX)

NYC from Hoboken, AM. Shot into the sun with virtually no ghosts and flare.

Jersey City, PM. Vertical composition, corrected for perspective distortion.

NYC from Jersey City, PM. Single-shot panorama.

Sample Images (DX)

Monhegan Island

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay

Monhegan Island, Maine

A Mirrorless for Me

On my way to Home Depot, I stopped in to Best Buy to see if they had a Zing Camera Cover. But I found something even more interesting...

I did a double-take as I passed the Sony display featuring the A7 and the Alpha a6000, and I just couldn’t resist. The thing I was most curious about was the viewfinder. Just how close to “real” could a 2.4MP EVF be? Well, I’m still not crazy about them, but I could definitely live with this camera.

The resolution was fine, the refresh rate adequate. But what was working in its favor for me was the sheer amount of info. Once I figured out how to access Manual Focus (I had to use the C2 button), the viewfinder accommodated me by enlarging the view as soon as I rotated the focus ring. These days, when things actually do what they’re supposed to do, I’m impressed, especially when it comes to cameras. But in addition to this little epiphany, there were all kinds of other information that made the EVF worth the price of a “synthetic” image.

Handling-wise, the camera was light, and felt pretty good in the hand, despite the small size and fairly hefty 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. These OSS lenses are about the same diameter as a traditional 135 manual focus lens, but seem to be overly long. To use Minolta AF lenses, the LA-EA4 adapter is required, which adds additional weight and bulk. Good luck figuring out which lenses work with which camera, as the mount is EF, but who knows if the lenses will cover a full frame or not. This guesswork is avoided with the Nikon system. All the DX and FX lenses work with with either camera body one way or another.

The build quality was excellent, with a metal body (magnesium, not brass) and a gloss-black enameled finish, not quite up to the traditional 70’s spec, but as good as we can expect for the current state of the art. As far as I’m concerned, If this is the direction mirrorless cameras are headed, the future is bright. But, the jury’s still out, because Sony, ironically, is the leader in this respect. These are the cameras Nikon and Canon should be making. But instead, they’re focusing on the 1" sensor, which incidentally, so is Sony. Had I not chosen the AE-1 over the XG-7 back in the 70’s, this camera might have been a foregone conclusion. 

I was also quite impressed with the Alpha a6000 which was right next to the A7. While the A7 harkens back to the Olympus SLRs of the 70’s, the a6000 evokes memories of the equally significant rangefinder. Equipped with an APS-C sensor, this camera is more than adequate, although the focus-by-wire approach, which is just plain silly, does not do it justice as does the A7’s more traditional approach. 

The multi-purpose command dial could have been a dedicated exposure compensation dial, aligning it more closely to the A7, but alas, no. Still, it’s miles ahead of it’s predecessors.

These cameras leave me hopeful that when the time comes to retire the DSLR (which is inevitable, I’m afraid) the viewfinders will be up to snuff.