I’ve been wanting to do a head to head comparison of these cameras for several weeks. I was hired to do some portraits on Thanksgiving, so it was a good chance to see how they stacked up. Before you look too critically, these will be finished in Lightroom, yada, yada. I am not excited about showing you unfinished files, but I’m trying to be as subjective as possible. By doing it this way you can see what I actually got from the camera and now have to work with.
First of all, these are pretty much out of the camera. I did a very slight exposure adjustment to each of them, just to try and get them as close as possible. Nothing more was done.
This image is from my Nikon D700 with 70-200 f2.8 VRII lens tripod mounted VR off
This is from a Fuji X Pro 1. No tripod and a tad over exposed. I still like the flesh tones here as a starting point.
Aside from the obvious saturation differences, I think they are pretty close. Here are a few things to consider:
- I’ve owned my Nikon for almost two years, and I have had time to tweak the internal color settings to be the best they can be, according to my preferences. As you know, I am not a big post processor, if it can’t be done in Nik and Imagenomic, I am out.
- That said, I am very optimistic that given the opportunity to tweak the X Pro 1 I will be able to get just as close, possibly closer. My favorite skin tones from any digital camera I’ve ever owned were from a Fuji S2. What if I can get it close to that look? If so, and with the savings in weight, I am “all in!”
- Some call the Fuji “pricey” but there is a $300.00 instant rebate on the body when bought with a lens. That makes it not quite so bad in my opinion.
- I will reduce the amount of weight I carry considerably. I will also reduce the amount of money I have invested in my current system.
- The decision to switch is not a Nikon vs Fuji vs Canon vs whatever. It is about what makes the most sense for ME and me alone. Just like you, I have to buy my cameras, no free gear for me. So I want the most bang for my buck!
- Last step I need to do in my opinion is a studio comparison. That would allow a totally controlled situation, doing custom white balance with non-fluctuating exposure variables. But what I see up to this point I am super stoked about the possibilities this camera system has to offer!
CAMERA GEAR FOR SALE! Yep, I am putting all my stuff up for sale. (I’m pretty sure anyway) If you know me, you know how I baby my stuff! It has spent every day of it’s life in a ThinkTank bags when it isn’t being used. My camera probably has less than 15,000 shots on it, and the 70-200 f2,8 VRII lens was bought just this year. All boxes and original everything is included. You can send me an email from the blog site here. If it’s easier, just send it to nickcoury@me.com I also have an SB900, SB800, Tamron 14mm fisheye and Tamron 28-75 for sale.
Nothing terribly conclusive, but this may inspire you to look a little more closely at some of the emerging technology that I (along with many others) think is the future of our industry.
by Nick Coury
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