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Old 23-06-2012, 09:37 AM
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Fujifilm X Pro1 astro test shot out of the box.

This is a tripod 10 second exposure (crop) taken with a Fujifilm X Pro1. 35mm (53mm - 16MP APS-C XTRANS CMOS) @ f/1.4 iso800.

Gradient removal and a few tweaks in Pixinsight.

The lens at f/1.4 is not very usable for AP due to significant coma in the corners. Cloud prevented further experimenting.

The colour mosaic is not a standard Bayer matrix. Fuji claim that this reduces Moire significantly, and no need for an antialiasing filter, improving image sharpness. The IR filter is not too strong either. The infrared guys are taking advantage of this from what I read. It would be interesting to buy the cheap adapter on ebay and fit my 200mm prime and see what gives - maybe, sometime.

Playing with this camera, claims about image sharpness seem validated. I did lots of reading prior to buying it as a more realistic replacement for all my gear (which I am selling off) and needs. There is an adapter available from Lipon (China) to fit Leica and Nikon lenses.
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Last edited by rcheshire; 23-06-2012 at 09:48 AM.
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Old 23-06-2012, 09:53 AM
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It looks promising doesn't it. It's always best to knock the f stop up a couple of notches. It sharpens the stars and helps with the coma.
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Old 23-06-2012, 09:32 PM
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It does look promising JJJ. I was quite surprised by the saturation and detail.

Except for cloud I would have tried at various f-stops to see which produced the flattest field. The lens is designed for daylight photography.
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Old 24-06-2012, 08:39 AM
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That is superb for a 10 second shot! Wow, 10 seconds and you've got colour like that - terrific.

As JJJ said almost all camera short focal length lenses have corner issues although 50mm seems the sweet spot for lenses. For some reason 50mm must be easy to make perfect as most camera makers 50mm lenses (well at least Canon and Nikon) are superb in all ways.

Camera lens makers try to balance several conflicting optics goals, - vignetting, coma, chromatic aberration, distortion, sharpness and f-ratio. Coma often seems the hardest for them to control. Often its not an issue for portrait type lenses where edges are blurred usually anyway.

Stopping down a couple of stops is the usual cure. Marc also made use of stop down rings to achieve less flare and rounder stars as well. Another thing to consider.

A very promising image.

This little Fuji XPro 1 is a camera I have my eye on as well.

Its way ahead of anything else in its class and one of the current truly great cameras.

Images from it that I have seen are simply gorgeous. Color is incredible, good low light high ISO performance. The only thing it gets knocked for is slow autofocus but I believe a recent firmware ugrade improved that for some and not for others strangely.

Greg.

Last edited by gregbradley; 26-06-2012 at 03:09 PM.
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Old 24-06-2012, 10:03 AM
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Hi Greg. I chose it for all the points you mention, it's form factor, somewhere between a DSLR and compact and to some extent the slightly retro look. Image quality was at the top of the list. And yes, focus is a bit slow, but sharp with brilliant colour.

This replacing all my gear and will spend a lot of time with me because it is light and easy to manage.

The firmware updates for the body and lens improve several functions. The thing that most will notice is the noisy and slower AF - but when it locks on, sharp as a tack.

I will post some examples as soon as I have time and play with the lens to find an optimal AP f ratio.
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Old 24-06-2012, 11:51 AM
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I agree for just 10 sec the detail is excellent, I love my Fuji x100- the xpro looks like a real winner
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Old 26-06-2012, 03:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcheshire View Post
Hi Greg. I chose it for all the points you mention, it's form factor, somewhere between a DSLR and compact and to some extent the slightly retro look. Image quality was at the top of the list. And yes, focus is a bit slow, but sharp with brilliant colour.

This replacing all my gear and will spend a lot of time with me because it is light and easy to manage.

The firmware updates for the body and lens improve several functions. The thing that most will notice is the noisy and slower AF - but when it locks on, sharp as a tack.

I will post some examples as soon as I have time and play with the lens to find an optimal AP f ratio.
I look forward to seeing what you can do with it.

Its an amazing camera and a technological breakthrough getting away from the annoying and outdated Bayer matrix which is so 70's and causes as many problems as it solves. I think the main camera makers have refined their systems to accomodate the Bayer matrix very well but probably have hit a wall with nothing much left to tweak there. So sensors with alternative layouts see ready to take over. The Foveon sensor has its fans but is poorly executed but Fuji have done a great job with their sensor. I wonder if we'll be seeing those Kodak true sense sensors in cameras soon? They've been around for a couple of years now.
Greg.
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Old 26-06-2012, 07:00 PM
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I like it already. Just need time to get out and take some pics.
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Old 27-06-2012, 12:09 PM
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I too have the aforementioned X-Pro 1, had it for a few months, and actually enjoyed using it on a quick trip to Melbourne recently. Refreshing to walk about all day with a lightweight camera and two fast primes, the 18/2 got most of the use, with the 35/1.4 less than I would have guessed.
And yes, of course, curiosity got the better of me, and late last week I stuffed it unceremoniously on the rear of the GT-81, for a real quick and dirty.
I used either a focal reducer (for the M8-M20 shot) or a field flattener (for the Omega Cent shot).
With the reducer the focal length becomes about 388mm, and with the flattener it remains about it's native 480mm. Yo will see that the spacing distance with the reducer was not bang on, so we have "warp factor 5" happening in the extreme corners, this is a simple fix, get the spacing correct.
Focus was effected by way of a Bahtinov mask, difficult but not impossible, and the magnified live view really helped.
ISO was a combination of 3200 or 6400 for the M8/M20 shots, and ISO800 for the Omega shots. (the quick looks that I had on the rear LCD seemed awfully "bright" at ISO6400, so I would it back a bit to 3200).
M8/M20 was 6 shots each 45 seconds, I used a cable release and the bulb setting. If I had used my noodle, the "T" setting would have been better, but dark/cold/old age conspired.
The Omega shots were 10 shots at 45 seconds. One really neat idea is the counter timer visible on the rear LCD, makes my astro shots simpler, although an intervalometer would be better, I could then program a series and walk away.
All were shot in the Fuji RAW mode, and converted to TIFF's, then simply aligned/stacked, and DDP'd with AstroArt. No darks, no flats, no bias, to lazy at the time.
Gary
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Old 27-06-2012, 04:49 PM
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I must get out and try that for myself - looks good.
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