The styling of the X10 oozes class with real metal top and bottom decks with milled aluminium dials giving a solid feel for photographers using the camera. The Fujinon lens also has a metal body with a milled surface on the combined zoom and power switch.
The X10 has an optical viewfinder for composing pictures while holding the camera securely to minimise blurred images due to camera shake.
In this review the DxOMark lab tests show the new digital sensor in the their latest offering, the FinePix X10, is a top performing compact digital camera. To achieve a compact convenient size in a digital came there are inevitable compromises in cost, sensor and lens size.
Price
The X10 has a recommended retail price of $US599 dollars putting it in the premium Point & Shoot camera class. It is cheaper than the new mirror less interchangeable lens cameras and the extra special compacts with large sensors such as the FujiFilm X100 with price of $US1199.
Lens
One of the reasons for the X10’s compact size comes from not including a mounting system for interchangeable lenses. The X10 has a typical Point & Shoot permanently attached zoom lens with a focal length range of 28 - 112 mm in 35 mm equivalent terms.
This gives a good wide angle view for scenery and group portraits and the telephoto end of the zoom range gets photographers in close to the action. The compact nature of these fixed zooms contributes to the convenient size of the X10.
Sensor Performance
The physical size of a digital sensor is a good guide to its overall performance and this is born out in the comparison tests from DxOMark. The FujiFilm digital sensor in the X10 is larger than the normal Point & Shoot sensors at 8.8 x 6.6 mm, compared to 7.5 x 5.5 mm for the Canon S100 and Nikon P7100 in the comparison tests shown below. The Canon and Nikon are top performing Point & Shoot cameras with digital sensors larger than most Point & Shoot cameras.
The X10’s sensor is still considerably smaller than the 15.8 x 23.6mm APS-C size sensor in the X100 at. This difference in size is a factor the sensor performance measured in the DxOMark tests. The larger sensor in the X100 scored 73 in the overall DxOMark score, compared to the X10 with 50.
Surprisingly the Canon PowerShot S100 achieved the same DxOMark overall score, despite having a slightly smaller sensor. The detailed results reveal the ISO range is for the cameras is different for the cameras in the DxOMark tests and this affects their overall scores.
In its working ISO range of 100 to 1600 the X10 is an outstanding performer for a Point & Shoot digital camera, as the noise, dynamic range and color sensitivity results in the graphics below the article show. They compare the X10 to the Canon PowerShot S100, an excellent Point & Shoot and the Nikon P7100
ISO Range
The specification from FujiFilm quote an ISO range of 100 -12800, which is much greater than the range DxOMark measured. In the fine print of the specifications the higher ranges of ISO are only available at reduced image resolutions. The nominal ISO range at the full 12 megapixel resolution for the X10 is up to 3200. In the DxOMark ISO tests they found the sensitivity at the 1600 and 3200 settings were similar, so the effective ISO range is 100 -1600.
This is still a very useable ISO range, covering everything from bright sunlight to well lit indoor scenes without the need for flash. Although, fill flash is always a good creative option, and the X10 has an inbuilt pop-up flash unit as well as a standard hot shoe for an external flash unit.
My backup DSLR has an ISO range of 100-1600 and only really struggles for indoor sports in poorly lit venues.
Power Switch
This is a little bit quirky. The switch is part of the lens zoom mechanism. To turn the camera on and off the lens has to be zoomed to one end of its range. The potentially annoying part is if the camera switches itself off to save power between shots, half depressing the shutter button does not turn the camera back on. The zoom switch has to be turned off and then on again to bring the camera back to life.
Often photographers should wait for the right moment to take the photo, depending on lighting and the subjects. Often the basic composition and framing with right amount of zoom are done before the shot, so the photographer is ready to go at the decisive moment. In most other cameras a half press on the shutter button and they are ready to go.
Shutter Lag
This strange power switch arrangement is a shame because FujiFilm have addressed the delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera taking the photograph that frustrates many Point & Shoot users. They say their X10 has a shutter operating time of 0.01 seconds to help capture fleeting moments.
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