Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Rocketman's got a brand new toy!

Stop and smell the roses, and while you're at it take a picture or two.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Rocketman's got a brand new toy!

Postby RocketMan » Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:38 pm

Happy happy, joy joy

Ever since I pawned off, err, I mean sold my G9 to some suck--, I mean, lovely former Pres, I've been looking at something to replace it.
The main features I was looking for were
A real viewfinder, preferably optical
ability to shoot in RAW mode
a fast lens, minimum F2 i.e. ability to collect lots of light, for shooting in low-light conditions without a flash
fast AF, auto-focus
full manual mode along with shutter and aperture priority modes
compact, non-interchangeable lens
and good layout of controls with two sub-dials (so when using it in Manual mode, you don't have to switch between shutter and aperture modes using just one dial)

In the end it boiled down to four possibilities, the Nikon P7100 or P7700, Cannon G15, Lumix LX7 (or 5) and the Olympus XZ-1 or XZ-2.
The G15 and P7100 both have an optical viewfinder with the P7100 having a slight advantage, but still hard to use due its recessed position and both have rather small eye pieces so positioning it quickly was something of a pain. The G15 had a 1.8f lens while the P7100 was still at 2.8f max opening, the P7700 goes down to 1.8f but gave up the viewfinder.
Both shoot raw and have bigger sensors than P&S systems and run at about 12M pixels, about all I really need for this style of camera, and most other features.
The Olympus and Panasonic do not a have a viewfinder built in but do support a electronic viewfinder that is fairly large and easy to use, but both seemed a bit “pixelated” so you feel like your looking at a tiny TV screen and like the LCD screens on most P&S cameras the image is sightly delayed when moving the camera quickly. The Lumix does sport a supper fast lens at 1.4f but the button layout didn't really fit me and the lens protrusion, even when parked was a put off. The Olympus does use a better viewfinder, with a higher pixel count and could be used on a PEN when I upgrade mine but still not quite the fit and few other limitations.
While I had looked at the Fijifilm X10 but that sucker is pricey, so I discounted it even while lusting for it (it has one of the best overall ratings in its class) when they first came out they were selling for $800 and now are still going for 550 to 600 clams.

So it seemed I was destined to have to give some features with any choice so which to give up????

Then just the other day I went by what was the Barns and Nobel book store in Woodbridge, but its now a used book, CD, and movie clearing house. I did find the books I was looking for and on the way out I stopped by the display cases they had with used game systems and other electronics when on the back side of the display case I saw a P&S with a viewfinder and on closer examination it was the Fijifilm X10! Couldn't see the price tag so I called someone over to open the case for me. Besides the camera they had the box, the software manual, strap, battery and charger. All in very much like new condition. And the price? $300! Wow!

So.....Now its MINE; all MINE! They had two actually, both for the same price if anyone else is in the market for such.

Man, talk about quality, these cameras, along with the x100, are top quality, as one site mentioned, its one of the few P&S with word “Japan” on it, as in Made in Japan, Not China.
Fantastic attention to detail and layout of controls, with the dual sub-dials, direct access to changing the EV step via a dial on top, a lot of the menu items easily accessible without going thru screen after screen, direct access to zoom via a manual lens dial, a Large easy to use Optical viewfinder that protrudes a bit from the back plate so its easy to get your eye up to it quickly. It even came with a small plastic disk with an inclined plane to pry the the metal rings apart that hold the strap and anyone who has tried to spread those things apart knows what a pain it is to spread those things enough to get over the eyelets on the camera. It even has leather protectors that slip on the strap to keep the metal rings from scratching the camera body. As I said, attention to detail. Has a nice fast lens with f2 to f2.8 from wide angle to full zoom, whereas most others with a f2 lens quickly climb to f4.5 at max zoom. they also have a nice retro look, like my PEN which for me is a nice plus (my first camera was a Petri ranger finder like this one

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Man, what a find, I'm one happy camper!

So without further a due some pix from the new camera followed by some pix with the Oylmpus TG-1 waterproof P&S (which also has a f2.0 lens, a rare find in any P&S, much less a waterproof model) I got recently that has a built in GPS that records where you are when shooting and can even be used to create a track you can load into mapping software or google maps of where you have been and record and find various landmarks you can use for finding possible interesting shooting locations. Some shots are rather washed out in the sky since I was exposing for foreground and wanted to see what the camera thought was proper and I didn't bracket the shots since i had limited time available. Mostly I wanted to look at level of detail of the images since both have larger than standard imagers but "only" 12 Mega-pixels but with very fast processors, focusing and write speeds comperable with my D80 ( yeah I know, its old hat now! So sue me!)

All pics are right out of the camera(s) without further processing.

From the Fijifilm, some shot in RAW some in jpg

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and the TG-1, which I played around with some of the “scene modes” just sh*ts and grins

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not often you see the exact same cars lined up on both sides of the street!

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Fromerly MR. MonkeyButt now Mr. Breezy-Butt!
http://roadrunes.com

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts" - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"I think you're a NUT!"- Tina
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RocketMan
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Re: Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Rocketman's got a brand new toy!

Postby Unity » Thu Dec 20, 2012 1:15 am

:D

--John
2002 R1150RT, Silver
Silver, the "cool and aloof" color.
(Road & Track Vol. 56, No.2, p. 19)

1971 Triumph Bonneville, Gold
Gold, the "paying the restorer" color.
(Trust me.)
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Re: Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Rocketman's got a brand new toy!

Postby Paul Mihalka » Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:20 pm

Great find and great pictures! I am in the process of upgrading from my point and shoot Canon A590 to a Canon G11 from a friend who wants to upgrade to a SLR. The A590 served me well but I want a bit of a upgrade.
PS The picture of the same cars on each side of the road - they are both parked illegally :)
Paul Mihalka
 


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