100X100 – episode 3

What better choice for black&white street photography than a retro styled, discreet and compact camera with a fast 2.0 lens and excellent high ISO image quality?

Here’s a few more examples from my recent evening stroll in downtown Antwerp.

All shots were captured in RAW at ISO 800, converted using Lightroom 3.4 and Silver Efex Pro 2.0.

The X100 delivers color JPEGs pretty much to my likings, and there’s surely room for further improvement from the extensive fine-tuning options available. I am less satisfied with the snap and contrast of out-of-camera B&W files: I will have to experiment more with ‘stronger’ settings for the processing parameters.

Gear notes: Fujifilm X100

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100X100 – episode 2

The Fujifilm X100 promises to be a great street photography tool. It also does very well in low light situations, due to its optical/ electronic viewfinder combo an excellent high ISO performance. All the reasons to take mine out to the streets of Antwerp on a damp and misty night…
 

   

All images shot in RAW at ISO 800, JPEGs from Lightroom 3.4.1.

Gear notes: Fujifilm X100

Click on the image(s) to see a larger version

100X100 – episode 1

I have started the process of discovering the wow’s and ouch’es of my new compact sidekick. For now, it’s mostly an exploration of how the camera behaves (at its ‘standard’ settings) and how I can tweak the out-of-camera results to my taste.

I plan to share this journey with you, posting chunks of random shots from the X100 until there’s 100 of them. Along the way, you will learn about my experiences and conclusions.

All of the following sights of Antwerp are out-of-camera JPEG images, shot handheld at ISO 200 through 800, resized in Lightroom 3.4.1 with no or only minimal ‘Basic’ adjustments.

 

I am already amazed by the quality of the JPEG files this camera delivers. Excellent capture of dynamic range, good handling of mixed light sources, very low noise levels… And that little 23mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.0 lens is simply stunning!

Gear notes: Fujifilm X100

Click on the image(s) to see a larger version