Monday, April 12, 2010

F80EXR vs F70EXR – One last shot …

Ok, if you haven’t seen enough by now, then I suggest you buy these two and beat it to death even more than I have :-)

But one more shot at a direct comparison at large size. This time in a bit of shadow, but still very brightly lit. Macro range, so we see a lot of detail.

DSCF4194_f70EXR_l43[1]

Click through to see the 800px version. The following crops are full sized on this blog.

f80_f70_L43_baseball[1]

The detail difference here is *blindingly* obvious. At large size, even macro shots are ruined by the massive noise reduction required for 12mp. What a fricken crime!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

That's one sharp image Kim. I have a feeling I am not able to get the best out of this cam in terms of sharpness. Maybe I need to check with different subjects :)

Kim Letkeman said...

Thanks Archish, I did process this image for sharpness in order to show the difference very clearly. But getting images this sharp is a matter of steady hands and excellent focus. Practice your technique for both.

Unknown said...

So, what do you recommend? This compariosn you have made is between F70 and F80, i want HD-video so F70 is no alternative. In your opinion, is F80 still worth the money or is it just a handfull of crap compared to many others in the same pricerange?

Unknown said...

Just ordered the F70 at US$190 from Amazon Market Place "New Harbor".
I love my F200, but really want to have the longer reach.
Kim you are very correct, if I carry a bridge cam I may as well bring the e410 and both kit lenses!
I do hope Fuji does not abandon the EXR sensors, in the first gen in the F200/70 the NR processing was spot on, perfect combination of sharpness and NR.
Also ordered more eneloops for my S6000 and K100D Super.
BTW IMHO the 6mp sensor in the Pentax is simply awesome, I love its colors and 'draw'!

Kim Letkeman said...

Kalle: In good light, and preferably with minimal use in really low light, the F80 is quite a nice camera. But only shot at 6mp, never at 12. The HD video looks decent so far, the audio is very nice ... much better than F70 from what I can see. So the F80 might still be your cam, but for day to day use the Panasonic might be just as good. It sucks too in bad light, but has even better video than the F80 (tests to follow soon.)

Kim Letkeman said...

Lili: Agreed on the Pentax. They really nailed it starting with the K100 ... the newer models have mind blowing NR. Great cams. As a Nikon shooter, I'm a bit jealous, although I really having nothing to complain about. I agree on the EXR sensors ... Fuji could perhaps pack 14mp on their larger sensors and get spectacular 7mp images binned. I wish they'd think that way ... and also find a way to tack the 27-280 on that cam :-)

Henrik Jansberg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kim Letkeman said...

Henrik: It's a tough call ... the video seems pretty nice on the F80, and it works well in decent light. So for concerts with great lighting, you can probably get away with shooting at 400 ISO and boosting in post. Also remember that you don;t tend to touch the white balance in concerts because of their strange lighting. I really need to try this cam at a concert before I can make that call ... and of course all concerts are different. But if you can live with SD video, the F70 is the better low light cam with no reservations.

Henrik Jansberg said...

Think I am going for the F70 after reading through this blog..

I really wanted a camera that could do both concert pics and HD - and everyone I asked said I would have to get at least a Dslr..

Now I am thinking it is more in my budget to buy the f70 and a compact HD camcorder..

Henrik Jansberg said...

when you conclude the f70exr is superior to the f80exr in low/bad light - does that also count for the video..

my main demand for the camera I am going for is concert pics and video.. and off course the compact size

Kim Letkeman said...

Henrik: I bought the F80EXR specifically because I hoped that the difference in high ISO imagery would be minimal (it is enormous) and that the HD video would smoke the SD video of the F70EXR (we'll see ... some video tests are promising, some horrid so far.) As it stands, I have no intention of giving up my ZS3 (especially now that I downgraded the firmware and my 3rd party battery works again) for video and my F70EXR for stills. The F80EXR is simply not good enough.

Unknown said...

I am interesting in a new compact camera:

Important for me: low light stills, good flash performance, nice HD video with good sound, I thought fuji f80 exr was my bet, but i read your blog...

Could you help me to choose beetween f70-f80 and lumix zs3?

Kim Letkeman said...

Zchy: I have many test posts on this blog ... 3 or 4 dozen that are relevant. Search (top left of this page) for "ZS3 F70EXR" or "F80EXR F70EXR" and you will get hours worth of reading. You should be able to form an opinion from the things I say about each camera. The F70EXR is my general purpose camera of choice so far, but I also have the ZS3 for video, so I am cheating :-)

VaDaMp said...

Hi Kim, I bought F72EXR recently (as many of the people here, after reading your blog and some other blogs) and so far I can say that I am pleased but still I'm hoping for a better results. Even though I'm just an amateur I still have to learn how to use every setting properly, especially manual mode. I don't actually like to shoot with flash, so indoor I always try to go without flash if there is still light in the room. I wonder do you use your mentioned settings for shooting indoors also? Here is my small gallery of several photos I took indoors with almost no light at all. I did not use the flash and also didn't know (yet) how to cope with manual settings so I shot in P mode mostly. I would appreciate if you could give me some advice about shooting indoors with F72EXR? http://www.flickr.com/photos/37832177@N02/show/ Opinion?
Also, I found P mode more usable during day than EXR. Noticed that it produces a bit better lightning results. I have to say that I do not like to deal with Exposure compensation all the time, and with +-0EV I actually often get more darker images even at strong (sun)light. I am glad I did not buy F80, though I considered it before.
Thank you for your advises and cheers from Serbia!

Kim Letkeman said...

VaDaMp: I shoot the P mode in all light. EXR DR I reserve for really brutal sunlight (like in San Antonio) and Manual I generally reserve for concerts. There, I fix the shutter speed so I can avoid too much blur, then use ISO (starting at 400 and working upwards) to manipulate the exposure, since the aperture will be fixed wide open. But with that technique, it is very likely you would have to lift the exposure in post processing and possibly use some after market noise reduction. I use the NR in ACR mostly, but sometimes I use Neat Image. I have uploaded custom profiles for the F70EXR and can recommend that as a decent NR alternative. Finally, I reserve flash for fairly close shots so that the subject is bathed in that light. Else, you end up with mixed light temperatures and that looks pretty bad. Your slide show looks pretty decent to me by the way ... I tend to present web images at 800px on the long side, which also helps a bit. I'd suggest you try that. Remember that super low light is dSLR territory, so anything you get from a compact is pretty much gravy.