Fuji x20 v Sony rx100

marike6 wrote:

I've owned both the RX100 and X10 as well, and I agree. The X10 is just a nicer camera to shoot with. The X10 has all the modern gimmicks like seep panorama, but also has a VF, making it much easier to shoot with in bright light, and it has more dedicated buttons and dials for important controls like EV compensation making it shoot more like a small DSLR or rangefinder. For shooting experience, there is no comparison as the X10 (and GRD III) is my favorite P&S of all time for actual photography where you are doing more than just pointing and shooting.

I also found the AF performance of the X10 more snappy and accurate than the RX100 (see the DPR review of the RX100 where they discuss the RX100 AF). Expect the X20 with the addition of PDAF to have significantly better for AF, perhaps similar to the blazing fast and accurate AF of the Nikon 1 cameras, which also have PDAF.

This is just not true, even with the faster f1.8 lens (the Fuji has an f2 lens at the wide end). If you go by DxOMark tests of both cameras, for Low-Light ISO (sports) Score:

• RX100 - 390 ISO
• X10 - 245 ISO

A 1 stop advantage in high ISO performance, as Ray estimates, would be a 490 ISO score for the RX100, which it clearly did not achieve. I actually only has less than 1/2 EV better high ISO performance.

And as Ray mentioned, at the telephoto end where the RX100 max aperture drops to f4.9, the X10 at it's max aperture of f2.8 will actually will produce faster shutter speeds in the same light. The other problem with the RX100 is at portrait focal lengths like 100mm the f4.9 lens makes shallow DOF/bokeh shots with good subject/background separation more difficult.

Lastly, the other thing to remember is the X20 is going to have the newest X-Trans sensor with no OLPF (Optical Low-Pass Filter) so it will be capable of high resolution images than the X10. Fuji predicts it will match larger sensor cameras for resolution, but since the X20 has not shipped, nobody knows for sure.

Other updates include focus peaking, and improved video performance with 1080p60 at 36 mbps, which is similar to what the RX100 shoots. The RX100 is an excellent video camera, and if I had to guess, I'd say the X20 won't equal the RX100 in video mode for IQ, lack of artifacts, etc.

For photography, IQ of the X20 should be more than competitive with the RX100, and the Fuji ace in the deck is colors. Fuji colors, to my eyes, look significantly nicer than the more subdued Sony color palette.

Cheers, Markus