Photography News issue 21

Preview

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The three-inch monitor can be angled for low or high up shooting but what’s really interesting on the X-T10 is that there is an electronic viewfinder. It has been the case with some brands that the viewfinder is the first thing to go on a budget model. However, here we have an excellent 2360k dot EVF that gives 100% image coverage with a display lag of just 0.005sec and the viewing image is impressively bright. A simple side-by-side comparison showed that the EVF is brighter and more contrasty than its bigger brother’s. Manually switching between the non-touch sensitive monitor and the EVF is possible so you can either have only your preferred method working or you can use the auto feature, which detects when the eye is up to the eyepiece. The auto feature works really well until the camera is on the tripod, when just passing your hand by the eye detector switches viewing mode, which can be slightly annoying. Image quality from the X-T10 is a known quantity as the same sensor has appeared on various X-series cameras. Native ISO range is 200 to 6400 and these speeds are available in Raw and JPEG. If the higher speeds interest you, shooting is available in JPEG only. Images are very clean and noise-free up to ISO 800 with accurate colour reproduction (images shown here are from JPEGs as no Raw converter was available) and good levels of contrast. Get up to ISO 1600 and beyond and noise becomes

Selling at £499 these features are nice extras that youwouldn’t expect on a budget cameras more of an issue and it has a greater impact on the resolution of fine detail. The X-T10 has the option of an electronic shutter with a top shutter speed of 1/32,000sec and totally silent operation. For a body selling at £499 these features are some nice extras that you wouldn’t expect on a budget camera and they are worth having, especially with Fujifilm’s collection of fast aperture lenses. Exposures on our sample were generally good. We stuck with program and aperture-priority AE with multi-segment metering and it was relatively rare that the camera struggled. Usually strong into-the-light scenes were the issue. Even after a comparatively short time with the X-T10 I grew to like it and I have to say, given its price, it doesn’t seem a budget camera. It definitely has features and a performance level that belie its cost. Yes, true, it is early days because you can’t truly test a pre-production model. I could be being premature but what I saw and experienced augurs well for the future.

ABOVE You can see clearly that the X-T10 is smaller than the X-T1, but size apart there are a great many family similarities. The X-T1 user can happily use the two side by side so the X-T10 is a great backup.

π To find out more, go to www. fujifilm.eu/uk.

ABOVE With its discreet styling and compact size, the X-T10 is ideally suited to street photography and the AF system of our (pre-production) camera was responsive.

ABOVE The X-T10 is not as tall as the X-T1 and it still has a viewfinder hence the pentaprism housing, under which is a small pop-up flash. The right side has a smaller grip than the X-T1 so an optional grip might be a good investment.

RIGHT The X-T10’s menu system is easy to navigate whether for newcomers to the system or to X-series devotees.

www.absolutephoto.com

Issue 21 | Photography News

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