Backpage Posted January 7, 2011 Share #1 Posted January 7, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Despite all the Sturm und Drang on this forum, I went ahead and bought an X1. While it's true it will not capture a bottle rocket headed toward your face, nor will it make a decent soufflé, it appears to be a damn nice camera. So I'm a happy camper and look forward to snapping many a fine, or should I say "super-fine" pic. BTW, you can find me and my many photography obsessed friends on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1620143010 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Hi Backpage, Take a look here Got a X1 Noir. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
DwF Posted January 7, 2011 Share #2 Posted January 7, 2011 Welcome to the ranks.... If you get pics that you want to share, there is the X1 Photos under "other" see Photo Forum. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phancj Posted January 7, 2011 Share #3 Posted January 7, 2011 Welcome! There's the X1 challenge for you too Cj Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted January 7, 2011 Share #4 Posted January 7, 2011 Photo can go anywhere in the Photo sub-forums, not just in the X1 thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrdawkins Posted January 7, 2011 Share #5 Posted January 7, 2011 Congratulations You will love the camera. I sold mine in haste last week because I didn't give it a chance and ranted like a baby. I might get one back or at least I will probably get the next iteration. Take no notice of some of the rants - it isn't perect - nothing is, but its renderings are beyond belief and when they pop up on the monitor you will, I guarantee, have a little smile to yourself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECliffordSmith Posted January 7, 2011 Share #6 Posted January 7, 2011 Hi, Congratulations on your new camera. Prepare to be amazed at what this little thing can do in low light. Even heavily underexposed very good results can be restored in Lightroom from the DNG files. I have found that highlight flare is a bigger problem than shadow noise so keeping those from blowing and bringing up the shadows is what I have found to be the way to go with high contrast low light scenes. The opposite than with my M8 actually. One other thing I think quite few people do is to reduce the JPEG size to increase the card capacity. Personally I find the 3Mb standard JPEG to be sufficient to dertermine accurate framing and focus. This saves quite a lot of space from the full resolution fine JPEG. You lose quite a lot more data for not much more space reducing the JPEG further. The DNG file is always the full file regardless of the JPEG setting (providing DNG + JPEG is set). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phancj Posted January 7, 2011 Share #7 Posted January 7, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Ed, My observations exactly. Except I do not have the M8 but I found the nikons to behave like you described. The X1 I normally shoot such that even if the image looks dim in the LCD I am 100% certain they can be brought back up real nicely in post. CJ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_gee Posted January 7, 2011 Share #8 Posted January 7, 2011 Hi, Congratulations on your new camera. Prepare to be amazed at what this little thing can do in low light. Even heavily underexposed very good results can be restored in Lightroom from the DNG files. I have found that highlight flare is a bigger problem than shadow noise so keeping those from blowing and bringing up the shadows is what I have found to be the way to go with high contrast low light scenes. The opposite than with my M8 actually. One other thing I think quite few people do is to reduce the JPEG size to increase the card capacity. Personally I find the 3Mb standard JPEG to be sufficient to dertermine accurate framing and focus. This saves quite a lot of space from the full resolution fine JPEG. You lose quite a lot more data for not much more space reducing the JPEG further. The DNG file is always the full file regardless of the JPEG setting (providing DNG + JPEG is set). Do you have any issues with banding when you heavily underexpose? How many stops under would you say as maximum to pull out good detail in the shadows in low contrast scenes? Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phancj Posted January 8, 2011 Share #9 Posted January 8, 2011 Even if nothing is on the screen except blips of light I will still not worry. Thats how good the shadow preservation of the X1 is. On the other hand highlight presents more issues. Cant say for certain how many stops but as long as it is not pure black the X1 can manage somehow. My nikon is the reverse. What is amazing is the parts that are dark when pulled up in brightness actually has virtually no banding/artifacts, just noise sometimes very much like film which a little noise reduction will quickly eliminate, moving a slider in LR/PS haha. Awesome little thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted January 8, 2011 Share #10 Posted January 8, 2011 Wouldn't it be better to expose the photograph properly rather than trying to fix it in Photoshop? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
h00ligan Posted January 8, 2011 Share #11 Posted January 8, 2011 Sure, but without the ability to use filters sometimes one needs to compromise to one side of the histogram or the other depending on the scene no? Maybe it's not as big of a problem in lower contrast areas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phancj Posted January 9, 2011 Share #12 Posted January 9, 2011 Wouldn't it be better to expose the photograph properly rather than trying to fix it in Photoshop? Thats given ideal light. In tricky/dim lighting I find it better to underexpose for the X1. Since it is more competent in the darker tones underexposure with PP leads to better images. Highlights are blown quite easily on the X1. For my Nikons the reverse is true somehow. The darker shades are more murky and less detailed, and with PP the results are not as good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECliffordSmith Posted January 11, 2011 Share #13 Posted January 11, 2011 Hi Len, Sorry for the late response. My experience has been more to meter for close to the highlights which then enables the use of a lower ISO. Pulling up a few stops of shadow does not procduce banding at ISO 800 for example. I have not tried to pull up shadows from ISO3200 for the simple reason that I have not had a realistic scene where this ISO level was required bearing in mind my choice of metering. The only reason I expose this way is to limit the flare from the lens. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Jones Posted January 11, 2011 Share #14 Posted January 11, 2011 I've found myself underexposing a lot without concerns, it allows me to avoid slow shutter speeds handheld and it is really easy to fix with LR. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grober Posted January 12, 2011 Share #15 Posted January 12, 2011 Fix the bloody firmware and get the camera's operating speed up to something vaguely similar to a real Leica. The camera should never have been released as is. -g Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
h00ligan Posted January 12, 2011 Share #16 Posted January 12, 2011 Its operating speed aside from af (which the m9 doesn't have) is as fast or faster than the m9 (based on the time i spent with them side by side)- speaking in terms of review and write times... and it has a better lcd.. so what do you mean by 'real leica' - analog? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted January 12, 2011 Share #17 Posted January 12, 2011 A "real" Leica has no shutter lag? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phancj Posted January 13, 2011 Share #18 Posted January 13, 2011 In that case get a dlux5, very fast, no shutter lag. Faster AF too. A real leica. Wait for the firmware before the X1 becomes a real leica. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted January 13, 2011 Share #19 Posted January 13, 2011 Sorry, but IMHO, a DLux5 is not a "real" Leica. It's a real Panasonic. If the shutter lag on the DLux5 is anything like that on my wife's DLux3, then that's just not good enough. And yes, I have test driven an X1 with a view to buying one. I didn't. If you are used to the shutter lag on an M2, an M7, an R8, or a Nikon D700 with Leica lenses (as I am) for example, then the lag on any compact camera really isn't good enough. Tne above cameras, to all intents and purposes, have no lag AT ALL. Push the button and the camera takes the photograph - when you want it to, not when the camera itself feels like it. The lag is reduced if the compact is set to manual focus, but that partly defeats the object of having such a camera. YMMV. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted January 13, 2011 Share #20 Posted January 13, 2011 This is one of the primary reasons why I don't have an X1, to be honest. My first digital camera was a Canon Ixus thingy, no idea what. The lag on that was so bad that your subject could get entirely out of shot just by ducking quickly as you pressed the shutter release. Andy is right; the M (and Barnack) cameras are to all intents and purposes "instant", or at least as much so as I need. I love the idea of the X1 and I am now seeing some really good work done with it, but that lag combined with the fixed wide lens are both killers for me. Regards, Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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