Is Old Fuji Color Better? Or Even Different?

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

enigmatico wrote:

These test images look remarkably similar. Its hard to assign any of them to any particular camera, although Image #5 looks on my monitor to be the most saturated and I would guess that it came from one of the older sensors.

* Below is an edit from an earlier reply where I got the images mixed up

Actually no, #5 is the jpeg from the X-Pro2, an X-Trans III camera, Here with #2 (the X-T1, an X-Trans II camera), with the slight exception of the yellows, the color appears very similar to me.

Considering that some of these images were shot years apart and not all with the same lens, I think they are remarkably consistent, a lot more so than most other brands.

#2 (L), #5 (R)

Having done some direct comparisons myself between older and newer Fuji sensors during the past few days, I would say that the differences when looking at the files on a high quality monitor, are more apparent than when they are reduced and posted online. However the differences remain small and its quite easy to make an image from a current sensor resemble an image taken from an older sensor (as I perceive it to be), even with my extremely limited skills with Photoshop.

Maybe I'm crazy I don't know. But from the side by side comparison it seems to me that the image on the left has better distinction of color tones, to the point where it  seems almost higher res. In more pronounced detail, the right side seems better defined, but look at the red tie, the blue ties, the whiter tie, among others, the better distinction of color produces what seems to be better sharpness.

If #2 is the older sensor these differences might be attributable to less downsampling in displaying the posted images, but it could also be attributable to the cleaner color of lower pixel density.