Fuji X70 First Shots: See how the little brother to the X100T stacks up in our test lab
posted Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 5:40 PM EDT
Heads-up X100-series fans, the popular fixed-lens APS-C X-series camera from Fuji now has a younger sibling in the X70, and while the sensor size and resolution remain the same, much is certainly different about the Fuji X70.
For starters, it's a wider lens at 28mm eq, and the camera is much smaller and lighter. But of perhaps equal or even greater significance to many is that the X70 costs just a little over half the price of the X100T, and yet it still retains the characteristic wealth of vintage external controls that fans of X-series cameras tend to crave.
The first question from us at IR with a new camera line is virtually always the same: "How's the image quality?" Our First Shots from our test laboratory Still Life target are generally the best place to begin. You can view the images directly from our Fuji X70 Samples Page, or use them to compare images side-by-side against any other camera we've tested here in our lab with our Comparometer.
How does the Fuji X70 measure up against its big brother, the X100T? Or how about its major competitors, the Ricoh GR II or the Nikon Coolpix A, both of which have similar sensor sizes and fixed prime lenses? To get you started, below are a few crops made at 1:1 in order to get a good look at detail. We'll compare the X70 to the X100T at base ISO, and then have a look at ISO 3200 comparisons with the GR II and the Coolpix A.
Here at base ISO with default sharpening and noise reduction settings, the X70 certainly offers a compelling image to compare to its higher-priced cousin the X100T. It's a safe bet that the X70 is applying slightly less default sharpening to these in-camera JPEGs based on our initial analysis, and the RAW files for each model are available on their respective samples pages for a more detailed comparison.
ISO 3200 is generally the gain setting at which APS-C cameras begin to distinguish themselves and show their ISO character and tendencies. Both the X70 and the GR II handle ISO 3200 quite well, especially factoring in their reasonable prices, and both handle noise in respectable fashion.
The Coolpix A also handles ISO 3200 fairly well, yet again with a reasonable amount of noise apparent in the flatter areas towards the top of our target. The X70 does extract just a bit more fine detail in the mosaic tile area of the bottle, at least here at default in-camera JPEG settings.
Stay tuned for much more to come from our lab and Field Test on the Fuji X70!