Sunday, September 7, 2014

Fuji S1 versus HS50EXR – Review Part 10 – Macro bugs me …

Well, actually, I shot some bugs. More specifically one bug, which I seriously thought was a live at the time. But once you see the enlargements (or more accurately, the crops) you will see that I was wrong. I had been wondering why I could stand there and shoot the little fella for so long in windy conditions without it making any move to leave at all :-)

I shot this series at the Trenton OnRoute along the 401 highway … more precisely right here:

image

image

Which just goes to show that you can find interesting images almost anywhere when you keep your eyes peeled Smile

So I was walking along and I shot a number of images to compare focal lengths … the subject of my next post. And on the way back I saw some Golden Rods blowing in the breeze and this huge locust sitting in a most perfect pose. Here is the S1’s rendering in raw (I had not yet switched it to raw + jpeg.)

And the HS50’s … and remember that I had to step back several paces to get it to focus at full zoom:

That is shot in L size and is from the RAF. Here is the JPEG …

Some might prefer the Fuji colors and flatter presentation. I don’t.

Anyway, here are the promised close ups … and I think you will have to agree as to which one of these cameras has better clarity … remember that I shot a lot of images and chose the best from both cameras.

S1

HS50EXR … this is good … but …

And the HS50EXR image that comes from the larger one above … note that both are L sized and were shot three images apart.

Better … but still a different league …


An observation …

The EVF of the S1 is incredibly tiny. It is a real shame that it is so detailed and has such great contrast but feels like a contact lens next to that in the HS50EXR. The HS50EXR shows much less resolution and hesitates a lot more, making it very difficult to shoot moving subjects (like the Golden Rod blowing in the wind) … but it allows me to see and focus on tiny objects.

Still … the HS50EXR does not lock focus as easily as the S1. The moon shots from the last article required one press for lock every time with the S1 and two presses many times for the HS50EXR. It is more sure when contrast is higher, but what camera isn’t?

The HS50’s much better build does make it easier to work on exposures etc, and the JPEG engine is very tunable, so if you are a jpeg shooter you might prefer it. It’s not like it takes a bad image at all. It remains the best bridge cam overall in Fuji’s lineup. But sheer clarity belongs to the S1 …