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What's disappointing me Matt, is that all these X10 photos you have posted and not a single Orb in evidence!

There's an angry mob of people over on dpreview (who probably have collectively never even held an X10) who want to lynch Fuji over the White Orbs...

Matt

That last image is a wonderful example of the adage "it's not the camera it's the photographer". It's a brilliantly composed image and would look great even if shot on an el cheapo point and shoot.

The 2nd one is a great case of right place, right time.

photohiker
I have been following the white orb discusson on dpreview. It reminds me of why I left that forum many years ago and rarely return. The vitriol is sickening and it brings the whole site down to a level where it is just too unpleasant to spend time there. The Fuji sensor does have a fault and the orbs are real...but I have taken around 2000 pics with my X10 and only lost about 4 images to the orbs. They can be pretty ugly but then they are quite rare in my experiance. (See attached images). In fact, they weren't lost...I could have saved them with some careful Photoshop work but they were not that important. It takes some fairly horrid light to create an orb and I rarely shoot under those conditions. However, if you purchased the camera to do summer water sports or night city lights or lots of chrome under sunlight, then you will certainly have a serious problem. You also got the wrong camera for the job. I'm happy with the camera and its pluses far outweigh the minuses as far as I'm concerned. I'm fairly certain that there are some paid spammers on dpreview who make numerous posts in order to frighten readers off certain camera brands. There are a couple on this particular subject who have posted over 150 posts each and keep repeating the same crap over and over. I think there is some commercial sabotage going on. Pity.

A high contrast image and the dreaded orbs

A little closer.

"commercial sabotage..." has become really big business these days and there is much targeting the more popular forums... often it's not too hard to spot but it's a real pain for those companies being targeted as any attempt to hose it down in any way is seen as interferring in free speech etc. The actual problem does appear real from Matt's example but I'm guessing only a problem when you've got a less that great exposure situation to start with... Like Matt suggests... for a different shape hole use a different shovel.

Agree with your comments Matt. I used to be a member of dpreview some years ago, but I was put off by the paranoid delusions of some wankers telling Canon to recall the 10D over a focus 'problem' I and many others couldn't replicate. The same sort of nonsense seems to go on ad infinitum in most areas of the discussion site now. Basically the disruption to the discussion is like a cancer, and it seems worst on dpr.

Thanks for the examples and the sane response to my tongue in cheek question.

Michael

Last image is a cracker Matt.

While on this subject, I have been in Rome, Italy since Saturday. I planned to take only my Olympus E-pl2, but few days before leaving last week, I purchased an X10 (and received back my GST ).

Yesterday we spent the day around the Colisseum site, and I used only the X10. Today, we visited a heap of others sites and I shot with the Olympus.

To say I am astonished with the Fuji is an understatement. Almost any camera can take nice pictures in good, even light, but in low light, the Fuji kills it. The images are wonderful. I must also add that the panoramic function is worth the price of the camera alone, IMHO.

I will hopefully get around to posting some of these shots soon, but I am too knackered to do anything at this stage. Jet lag is taking its toll and the constant walking around Rome each day makes exhaustion inevitable.

For those who are interested, the coffee in Rome is, as always, superb, cheap and everywhere. Happy days indeed.

Ozi.

Matt,

Not only the white orbs, but your camera also seems to have an issue with some red arrows intruding upon the subject matter.

In all seriousness, and looking at the example Matt has provided, here we have an image that has been shot with a dynamic range well beyond that which the sensor is capable of. there is a white vehicle where the whites are totally blown, yet we have good shadow detail elsewhere in the frame.

We've seen similar arguments in the past where there's been purple fringing at the edge of, again, high contrast regions of an image. As Matt says, it's simply a matter of understanding your tool and its limitations, and shooting accordingly.

I'm wondering how this image might have fared if shot on, say, KC25? I doubt there would have been very much usable image at all, yet that was the standard just 15 years ago.

The herd-like mentality in the dpreview forums disgusts me too. A couple of people start trashing something and every dickhead wants to join in.

Yes, we have seen it all over the years - this lens has back focus, this one produces purple fringing, this camera maker doesn't know what they are doing. These issues seem to attract uneducated photographers and generally bitter people.

Fortunately the technical pages of dpreview are still worthwhile.

I agree that the orbs are ugly, and that they could have a bad effect on an image. Luckily I have yet to see one on my camera, but that is only as a result of the way it has been used. Like Matt, I could readily produce them if I wanted to.

Unfortunately the power of the mass media has forced Fujifilm into releasing a "firmware fix". I haven't even bothered to load it, because a) the issue can not be solved that way and b) the known fault is better "fixed" by the photographer's ability. This bogus fix has done more harm to the company than the original orb issue, IMHO.

Rant over.

And, as usual, great images form Matt. Imagine what he could produce with a decent camera!

the foto fanatic wrote:Fortunately the technical pages of dpreview are still worthwhile.

I agree that they can be useful....but they seem to be less able to make the big calls and seem to have a heavier bias towards certain companies.

But yes their seems to be a mob-mentality that is omnipresent within online communities