Last night, at the Fuji event, X-T2 vs. S5 Pro

Fuji and the local camera store held a Click & Drink event here in San Diego yesterday to showcase their latest offerings. It's a savvy idea given Nikon and Canon are about to release their own mirrorless cameras. Fuji had XH-1's, XT-2's, and Instax cameras to try out but unfortunately no GFX-50's.

Anyway, I got an X-T2 and 56mm f/1.2 APD to test for 15 minutes. There was not a lot of time to configure the camera much less to shoot. I set Auto ISO, single point AF, and Auto WB but forgot to verify that I was shooting JPEG+RAW and found out after I got back that I only had JPEG's, ugh.

The camera store had kindly provided both a male and female model. Unfortunately each was under completely different lighting. One had low watt studio bulbs behind umbrellas and the other was under dual LED's. Neither was ideal and since they were next to each other they also interfered with each other. Much better if they had simply setup three strobes behind umbrellas and given us a wireless trigger.

Anyway, I enjoyed trying the X-T2 and found the AF under dim lighting to be excellent for still shots. Here is an SOOC JPEG from the loaner camera shot wide open at ISO 1600:

Fuji XT-2 SOOC

As there were about 50 people behind me still waiting to try gear, I had time to shoot the same model with my S5 Pro and a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 shot wide open at ISO 400. Here is a similarly posed shot converted from RAW:

S5 Pro

Note two things. First is that the full sensor AF point coverage of the X-T2 gave me a more natural high AF point for this vertical composition. PDAF in the S5 doesn’t stretch to the corners. Second, this is not an entirely fair color comparison as I had the RAW file from the S5 and thus could fix the WB. Due to the low light I also struggled shooting the 17-55 at 1/60. It really ought to have been 1/80 or 1/100 but I didn't want to push it to ISO 800 given the noise limitations of CCD. In fairness, the X-T2 could also have selected a lower ISO than ISO 1600 or 1/340. I really wish there would have been more play time to setup custom WB and dial in optimal settings for both cameras.

Anyway, it was a fun event. I think I will continue to drag along my old school equipment to future events. A lot of people asked me what I as shooting and were keen to hear about the advantage Fuji had over competitive DSLR's in 2006 with their SuperCCD sensor.

Here's another S5 Pro example for the remaining CCD faithful:

Fuji S5 Pro

fPrime

fPrime wrote:

Fuji and the local camera store held a Click & Drink event here in San Diego yesterday to showcase their latest offerings. It's a savvy idea given Nikon and Canon are about to release their own mirrorless cameras. Fuji had XH-1's, XT-2's, and Instax cameras to try out but unfortunately no GFX-50's.

Anyway, I got an X-T2 and 56mm f/1.2 APD to test for 15 minutes. There was not a lot of time to configure the camera much less to shoot. I set Auto ISO, single point AF, and Auto WB but forgot to verify that I was shooting JPEG+RAW and found out after I got back that I only had JPEG's, ugh.

The camera store had kindly provided both a male and female model. Unfortunately each was under completely different lighting. One had low watt studio bulbs behind umbrellas and the other was under dual LED's. Neither was ideal and since they were next to each other they also interfered with each other. Much better if they had simply setup three strobes behind umbrellas and given us a wireless trigger.

Anyway, I enjoyed trying the X-T2 and found the AF under dim lighting to be excellent for still shots. Here is an SOOC JPEG from the loaner camera shot wide open at ISO 1600:

Fuji XT-2 SOOC

As there were about 50 people behind me still waiting to try gear, I had time to shoot the same model with my S5 Pro and a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 shot wide open at ISO 400. Here is a similarly posed shot converted from RAW:

S5 Pro

Note two things. First is that the full sensor AF point coverage of the X-T2 gave me a more natural high AF point for this vertical composition. PDAF in the S5 doesn’t stretch to the corners. Second, this is not an entirely fair color comparison as I had the RAW file from the S5 and thus could fix the WB. Due to the low light I also struggled shooting the 17-55 at 1/60. It really ought to have been 1/80 or 1/100 but I didn't want to push it to ISO 800 given the noise limitations of CCD. In fairness, the X-T2 could also have selected a lower ISO than ISO 1600 or 1/340. I really wish there would have been more play time to setup custom WB and dial in optimal settings for both cameras.

Anyway, it was a fun event. I think I will continue to drag along my old school equipment to future events. A lot of people asked me what I as shooting and were keen to hear about the advantage Fuji had over competitive DSLR's in 2006 with their SuperCCD sensor.

Here's another S5 Pro example for the remaining CCD faithful:

Fuji S5 Pro

fPrime

Hard to argue for any of the 2 cameras here as neither of your shots are properly in focus.

Dunno what else to say but looking at those shots at screen res it looks to me that the S5 is holding its own nicely. In fact I would prefer the S5 shots.

Deed

deednets wrote

Hard to argue for any of the 2 cameras here as neither of your shots are properly in focus.

😁 Probably because it was a "Click and Drink" event!

deednets wrote:

Hard to argue for any of the 2 cameras here as neither of your shots are properly in focus.

Given the dim lighting, high ISO’s, fast lenses wide open, and noise reduction softening I was actually relatively happy with the AF accuracy of both cameras. If you look at the X-T2 image for example the leading eye is in focus, the trailing eye is soft just like I would expect for the 56mm f/1.2. I took over a dozen shots with it at these settings and all were reasonably in focus.

Same for the 17-55 f/2.8. The S5 Pro is of course a touch softer as it is 6MP sensor interpolated into 12MP.  When shooting at base ISO it can be sharpened up aggressively, but here at ISO 400 best not to push it too much.

Dunno what else to say but looking at those shots at screen res it looks to me that the S5 is holding its own nicely. In fact I would prefer the S5 shots.

Me too. Color plays a big part in this. I really wish I had had the RAW file from the X-T2 so I could have corrected the WB. The SOOC clearly has too much magenta.

fPrime

Robert Garcia NYC wrote:

S5 pro all the way. Great color.

Thanks, Robert. I still wish I could have shot it at base ISO with strobes and f/5.6 instead of wide open under dim artificial light, haha! This is successfully salvaged color but the S5 can actually do much better.

fPrime

primeshooter wrote:

Umbrellas with weak continuous lights are always a challenge and less than ideal aren't they? Give me an ad200 or 600 and a softbox / beauty dish any day. The s5 pro shots look great here, also the model, nice poses.

Indeed. Why would Fuji bring four reps, 20 cameras, and 30 lenses to this event only to have us shoot them all at ISO 1600 under weak lighting? Good light is essential to showcasing cameras... it easily trumps both sensors and lenses in importance.

If Fuji are reading this, I hope they invest in strobes, soft boxes, and triggers for the testers. Also it would help to preconfigure the cameras for common things like saving JPEG+RAW. When you are given 15 minutes to shoot a new camera you don’t have a lot of time to play with the menus.

fPrime

I know the problem, it`s like when I was a member of a camera club with everybody itching to get a go.

I`m lucky, I live 20miles from a massive showroom, I go along on something like a Tuesday morning, get to test everything I want including going outside for daylight shots, take the card home and then decide.

primeshooter wrote:

Umbrellas with weak continuous lights are always a challenge and less than ideal aren't they? Give me an ad200 or 600 and a softbox / beauty dish any day. The s5 pro shots look great here, also the model, nice poses.

With really good light the S5 Pro can kick some serious bootie. We all know that this camera's weakness is only it's low resolution depending on how much you need to blow up the photos other than that the output of this camera is pretty darn magical and unique. I shot some photos in jpeg and over exposed the photo by accident and during PP when I lowered the exposure I could not believe the color tones that came out of that thing, very unique and weird and cool looking with a more film like look.  Today's sensors are much more different and they are unfortunately getting more digital looking.

Today I am still shooting with Nikon and I have been able to gathered much much nicer prime lenses and have a few flash guns and spot lights and sometimes I do remember this camera and wonder if I should start looking for a used one and take advantage of it

Great camera indeed and the model shots look very nice to me.

fPrime, looks like it was fun event and a great opportunity to play with new Fuji gear. Agree that 15 minutes is hardly enough time to get familiar with a new camera. If Fuji holds the same event next year, you will probably be getting acquainted with new the X-T3.

I am sure the X-T2 portrait would be much better with proper WB adjustment to the RAW file. Having said that, the S5 portraits can easily stand on their own and look terrific, great colors.

Nice job of hand holding the not exactly light S5 & 17/55 combo at low shutter speed. With the current crop of VR fast portrait lenses & zooms, one can buy the S5 a good 4 stops with decent technique.

My compliments to Fuji for the attractive model selection.

Thanks for the post!

Regards,

Serge

fPrime wrote:

Robert Garcia NYC wrote:

S5 pro all the way. Great color.

Thanks, Robert. I still wish I could have shot it at base ISO with strobes and f/5.6 instead of wide open under dim artificial light, haha! This is successfully salvaged color but the S5 can actually do much better.

fPrime

started my journey w s2Pro...and and consider the age of S5pro you have got a wonderful image there. from image alone cannot tell one camera is well ahead in technology than the other.

Serge 07 wrote:

fPrime, looks like it was fun event and a great opportunity to play with new Fuji gear. Agree that 15 minutes is hardly enough time to get familiar with a new camera. If Fuji holds the same event next year, you will probably be getting acquainted with new the X-T3.

I am sure the X-T2 portrait would be much better with proper WB adjustment to the RAW file. Having said that, the S5 portraits can easily stand on their own and look terrific, great colors.

Thanks, Serge. I agree and that's one reason why I'll never sell my S5 Pro.

Nice job of hand holding the not exactly light S5 & 17/55 combo at low shutter speed. With the current crop of VR fast portrait lenses & zooms, one can buy the S5 a good 4 stops with decent technique.

Yeah, I was debating carrying a VR lens or the 60/2.8D as the latter would have been lighter and still kept me at f/2.8. You can tell that I really wasn't expecting to have to shoot these test shots under continuous lighting and without strobes!

My compliments to Fuji for the attractive model selection.

Haha, then here's one more just for you.

S5 Pro

Thanks for the post!

Regards,

Serge

fPrime

nikkor35f2 wrote:

fPrime wrote:

Robert Garcia NYC wrote:

S5 pro all the way. Great color.

Thanks, Robert. I still wish I could have shot it at base ISO with strobes and f/5.6 instead of wide open under dim artificial light, haha! This is successfully salvaged color but the S5 can actually do much better.

fPrime

started my journey w s2Pro...and and consider the age of S5pro you have got a wonderful image there. from image alone cannot tell one camera is well ahead in technology than the other.

Thanks! Although the difference in resolution is significant we are viewing on screen here without a need to print large and so we can easily get away with either an S2 or S5 image.

I don't know how you feel, but I really believe that the Fuji S2/S3/S5 recreate scene colors as they appear in true life. Everything from the true gold tone of the models dress, to her red lipstick, and to the color of her eyes... they all fall right into place as my eyes saw it that evening.

fPrime

fPrime wrote:

deednets wrote:

Hard to argue for any of the 2 cameras here as neither of your shots are properly in focus.

Given the dim lighting, high ISO’s, fast lenses wide open, and noise reduction softening I was actually relatively happy with the AF accuracy of both cameras. If you look at the X-T2 image for example the leading eye is in focus, the trailing eye is soft just like I would expect for the 56mm f/1.2. I took over a dozen shots with it at these settings and all were reasonably in focus.

Same for the 17-55 f/2.8. The S5 Pro is of course a touch softer as it is 6MP sensor interpolated into 12MP. When shooting at base ISO it can be sharpened up aggressively, but here at ISO 400 best not to push it too much.

Dunno what else to say but looking at those shots at screen res it looks to me that the S5 is holding its own nicely. In fact I would prefer the S5 shots.

Me too. Color plays a big part in this. I really wish I had had the RAW file from the X-T2 so I could have corrected the WB. The SOOC clearly has too much magenta.

fPrime

"The S5 Pro is of course a touch softer as it is 6MP sensor interpolated into 12MP. "

Thanks fprime, do you mean this for the above? I only started research about Super CCD HR/SR lately.

Super CCD HR pixel doubling for greater resolution

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2940620
Best

cuppajoetography wrote:

fPrime wrote:

deednets wrote:

Hard to argue for any of the 2 cameras here as neither of your shots are properly in focus.

Given the dim lighting, high ISO’s, fast lenses wide open, and noise reduction softening I was actually relatively happy with the AF accuracy of both cameras. If you look at the X-T2 image for example the leading eye is in focus, the trailing eye is soft just like I would expect for the 56mm f/1.2. I took over a dozen shots with it at these settings and all were reasonably in focus.

Same for the 17-55 f/2.8. The S5 Pro is of course a touch softer as it is 6MP sensor interpolated into 12MP. When shooting at base ISO it can be sharpened up aggressively, but here at ISO 400 best not to push it too much.

Dunno what else to say but looking at those shots at screen res it looks to me that the S5 is holding its own nicely. In fact I would prefer the S5 shots.

Me too. Color plays a big part in this. I really wish I had had the RAW file from the X-T2 so I could have corrected the WB. The SOOC clearly has too much magenta.

fPrime

"The S5 Pro is of course a touch softer as it is 6MP sensor interpolated into 12MP. "

Thanks fprime, do you mean this for the above? I only started research about Super CCD HR/SR lately.

Yes, that applies to all images taken by the S5 Pro. Unlike a normal CCD, the SuperCCD outputs its file tilted at a 45 degree angle. Because it splits the scene's horizontal and vertical detail over the diagonal length of the sensor that allows a bit of extra resolution to be coaxed out of it. In practice this means the S5 Pro probably has the resolving power of a standard 8MP Bayer CCD.

Super CCD HR pixel doubling for greater resolution

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2940620

Personally I don't believe the S5's highlight pixels add any resolution. I believe that comes entirely from the diagonal readout. The highlight pixels do add dynamic range, however, which gives you that lovely filmic roll-off on the highlights that CMOS just can't emulate.

fPrime