HS10 Review Part 10 – Bokeh and Dynamic Range

Bokeh is the quality of the blurred background in an image. Well, that’s simplistic. Read all about it here. The point being that we want smooth, undistracting backgrounds to our subjects. That’s critical to keeping the eye where it belongs.

The HS10 comes in with a massive advantage here … it can shoot at more than twice the focal length of the F70EXR. It is destined to slaughter the F70EXR, and you will not be disappointed.

HS10

F70EXR

No contest. Same subject, same look. Background *much* better at 720mm.

 

At 270mm the background is acceptable, certainly when compared to what we would see at 140mm … but the little donut bokeh shown here where the speculars are just drags your eye away constantly.

The other thing to note here is how badly burned out the two images are where the sunlight hits the leaves. Dappled sunlight is brutal to deal with … but I would have hoped that the F70 would distinguish itself better than this.

Here is an example that is closer, but still a win for the HS10 because of its ability to get better magnification by shooting from closer in. I started taking full advantage of that as I became comfortable with the camera (hint … it takes a few hours.)

HS10

F70EXR

The F70EXR is just that bit more jumbled and jarring. I can’t pin down the difference … it is going to come down to (a) magnification and (b) better control of certain aberrations in the HS10 lens.

Kudos to Fuji on this magnificent lens. I simply cannot argue with these results. If only the HS10 would fit in my fricken pocket :-)