Venice. 1985.
I shot my last last five assignments with a Fuji X-T3 and I photographed a bunch of assignments before that with my Panasonic G9; including 9 days in Iceland. This week I photographed two different rehearsals of Zach Theatre's "A Christmas Carol" using one camera system for each performance. I'm examining over 2,000 files shot at ISO800 to 3200 from the G9 tomorrow. I'll compare them with the 1200+ files I shot with the Fuji on Sunday. Same lighting. Same actors. Same costumes. Just different cameras. Then I'll tell you which camera has the best operating characteristics and the best images overall (for me). Stay tuned. My assessment is coming right after Thanksgiving Day.
11 comments:
Well, showing us a black & white photo from 1985, with gorgeous blacks, I guess that Acros will win. But I'm curious. For me it would be more interesting to see a Pen-F with that simulated Tri-X when compared to the Fuji.
Kirk
This should be interesting. Please try to use the pana-leica 12-60 some of the time to see if the dualIS lets you use a lower iso. I suspect because of movement it'll have only limited use.
Jay
Kirk
Just reread your previous Zach post. You've already done it. Still hope you used the 12-60mm. And it is going to be interesting.
Jay
Hey Kirk,
I think you will probably be very surprised at how good the G9 files really are. I have rented fuji cameras a few times for fun, and in all honesty they make high ISO shooting quite easy because they are using a very clever noise reduction algorithm on sensor which seems to blast colour noise and accent high contrast detail. My main issue with them has always been the strange demosaic in ACR.
However I played around with files quite a lot and what i tend to see is the usual 1-ish stop which you get from the sensor size but no real DR differences to speak of. At base ISO my EM1.2 (ISO 200) I consider a highlight protection setting, and ISO 64 a shadow protection setting. From my playing around I learned there really is no difference in DR between the two, but ISO 64 has cleaner shadows and less highlight headroom while ISO 200 has lots of highlight headroom with noisier shadows.
Use a small amount of Luminance NR (say 5-10) in ACR, and pull back the standard 40 sharpening to 30 and you get a very clean grained file from the panasonic, and while it has a hair less detail than the 26mp fuji you will find the differences live deep into 100% viewing territory.
Just sharing some useful thoughts from all my playing with files. Looking forward to hearing what you think.
Thanks for the heads-up, Kirk. I've been wondering which one of these two cameras I should buy. Now I've got plenty of time to make popcorn before I read your conclusions.
Looking forward to your take. Given you were able to take great photos years ago with much older tech, my prediction is that this will come down to haptics/ergonomics and lenses available for the system. At this point of tech evolution, I don't see any bad cameras out there from the major companies.
It also seems to me that the G9 will win. Hope the Fujis are still within the return time.
Cheers
I am anticipating your ideas on these systems. I Love my GX9 and GX85 and the in-body stabilization and small lens sizes. I also love the choice of lens that I can you on these M4/3 cameras. I am always taking my Panasonic Cameras with me and I have been leaving my Fujifilm X-T2 at home recently. I really am more comfortable with the weight reduction of the smaller cameras. I can not see much of a difference in image quality in the systems.
After a year using a XT 1 and EM1.2 I sold the Fuji. IS, cleaner files, and more reliable focusing kept the Olympus in my bag. Might have liked an XT 3 better.
I shoot with the G9/12-60/40-150 2.8 AND xpro2/35/50. Fuji for portraits and G9 for everything else + superb video. Both superb but for portraits of the grandkids, the Fuji/35mm F1.4 combo is otherworldly.
Enjoying your recent posts Kirk. (Actually I enjoy them all).
Max from Down Under
I have been waiting for this moment since you first picked up the Fuji. If the G9’s wins does the Fuji go back?
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