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X1 Surprise!


ChiILX1

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My best friend announced a Cubs game this Fall to have the recording for his portfolio- he works for WGN radio and also announces for a minor league team. He requested I capture photos of the event. I took my X1 just in case I got into the booth with him, and my Minolta XG-7 with 200mm lens for photos of him in the booth from the stands.

 

He wasn't able to get me into the booth. I ended up taking pictures from the stands with both the XG-7 200mm Celtic lens and the X1. The pictures from the stands with the X1 were great but really far away. I was lazy on sending the film in and thought that once I got those they would be better than the cropped X1 photos as far as clarity and usability is concerned. Once Ron Santo died (who was in most shots with him since he was 2 booths down) we had a renewed interest in the film shots.

 

I just got the film back today scanned at 3000x2000 pixel resolution (6 megapixels). Wow was I wrong! The X1 cropped to hell has better clarity and color of the Minolta with a 200mm Celtic lens! I am astonished!

 

I think this speaks to many things. First, the XG-7 was a great camera by many people's standards (although hardly the best out there at the time). Second, people complain about no Zoom on the X1, but here it outperformed a 200mm zoom on a good film camera after cropping! :eek:

 

I literally JUST picked up the shots and am cleaning everything up a bit. I will post a couple straight-up comparison shots here in a few.

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Ok I sharpened everything as best as I could. Here are the results.

Images:

X1 Original Cleaned (to give you an idea of the distance)

X1 Zoom Cleaned

X1 Heavy Crop Cleaned

X1 Heavy Crop 2 Cleaned

Very Best Minolta XG-7 200mm Celtic Cleaned

 

I think they prove that with a steady hand, cropping X1 photos can be usable for web & 4x6 prints to the equivalent of a 200mm film camera's quality and zoom.

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I see more detail in the film shot. Bear in mind possible camera shake with the 200mm lens (what's a 'Celtic' lens?) and that the scan is most likely of low resolution. The film stock, developer and lens quality / aperture need to be taken into account also, that's a lot of variables.

 

Film is the winner here in this particular contest I think :rolleyes:

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The film was the best that Central Camera Company here in Chicago had and was 800ISO since it was night. Aperture was 4.5. Celtic is the Minolta line of lenses. This was the clearest shot out of all so I believe that camera shake is minimal, since shutter was 125 or 250 and others were worse.

 

I just posted all the shots without distinction on a private Flickr set for my friend to choose any/all he wanted printed and posted on his site. He chose 6 X1 shots and 1 film shot.

 

I'm happy with the shots form both cameras, I just didn't expect the X1's to compare at all. I was pleasantly surprised!

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Film is the winner here in this particular contest I think :rolleyes:

 

I think you are right when I look at the faces but I'm still surprised at how well the X1 did considering I cropped 90% of the image- and the X1 provided the majority he chose to use.

 

By the way the res scanned was 2000x3000.

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i'm just wondering, the 3rd and 4th shots are from teh X1 right?

 

but, the 4th shot is tilted and is very similar to the 5th's (in terms of tilt/straightness)...

 

could there be a mistake?

 

 

on a side note: i like the rendering of the sky's colour... nice! =D

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Wrigley Field . . . where so many elysian days of my happy youth were spent!

 

Would that my memories of the past eight months of X1 usage were as blissful.

 

Maybe Leica Camera will speed up the camera's operation before the Cubs make it to the World Series, eh?

 

-g

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You are bound to get camera shake with a 200mm lens shot at 125th unless it's on a tripod.

 

That said, the film shot stands out as clearer to me too. I have to agree with James on this one. But you are pushing a crop to it's limit on the X1 examples.

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