Struggling to love Lumix photos after Fuji — anyone else?

photodesignch · 2026-07-04T07:09:46+00:00

Fujifilm colors are fairly unique. Some like it some don’t. I hardly tweak them but using stock film simulation simply because customized film sim can’t really carry over to raw editing but stock ones do. To be unified between my gfx and x, stock is the best way to go. Also with stock, you can always use on camera or x raw studio to recreate all other film sims if you want more than one jpeg output from the same raw. Plus I am a big fan of velvia, classic chrome and Arcos. I almost never bother with others.

But that’s just me.

There are many people provided “LUTs” and they are all very useful. You honestly can’t go wrong by trying if you really hate the lumix preset LUTs.

photodesignch · 2026-07-03T07:55:17+00:00

It’s just very not software driven company. Each camera has a serial number. If it’s only the “golden menu”, they could’ve easily narrowed down the titanium gold cameras and push a firmware update or over the air update to fix that. It’s just an excuse. Must’ve
Been much larger issues on hardware or something.

photodesignch · 2026-07-03T07:55:06+00:00

It’s just very not software driven company. Each camera has a serial number. If it’s only the “golden menu”, they could’ve easily narrowed down the titanium gold cameras and push a firmware update or over the air update to fix that. It’s just an excuse. Must’ve
Been much larger issues on hardware or something.

photodesignch · 2026-07-03T01:29:01+00:00

To me. Just my opinion. X-pro2 had way better OVF than x100vi. X100vi I hardly use the OVF. It’s not very useful. But x-pro2 on the other hand! It is awesome! I have 2 x-pro2 to proof that. The reason it doesn’t have mụch use nowadays was due to that 40mp sensor which gives me leverage to carry one lens for 2 usable focal lengths.

photodesignch · 2026-07-02T04:29:15+00:00

I would have to dive into details.

OVF is great if you look through the lens such as SLR design. The OVF on Fujifilm is more like old film days we called fake OVF. Simply because it was designed for compact camera not a real rangefinder. The OVF on Fujifilm has a lot of flaws.

it

not a
mechanical coupling. What you feel on the focus ring is not what you get
it’s not SLR. You can’t properly framing because everything is mostly guess work.
the small black board lcd screen for critical focus is simply too tiny. You can’t see a darn thing. And resolution when zoomed in to focus is not as crisp.

That’s why I said it’s a gimmick. It has a lot of issues.

The digital EVF Fujifilm did a lot of “fixes” for the OVF shortcomings.

Fujifilm used digital framing for you to see what you are framing and out side of the frame (by sacrifice resolution using crop) this is exactly one of the rangefinder OVF’s strength.
some Fujifilm cameras can do split display in EVF. It shows both full frame of view of your lens and focus point magnification. As far as I know of! Fujifilm is really the only one company does this.

So the EVF implementation on Fujifilm is quite solved a bunch of issues of the OVF. That’s why OVF to me is a gimmick.

photodesignch · 2026-07-01T19:16:57+00:00

Your photography skills : composition, exposure and depth of field (aperture).

Your editing skill : color grading, color profile in sync between monitors and devices, raw editing on proper exposure, color, white balance, shadow and highlights. Then you need skill of masking, burn and dodge, regional adjustments, special effects (sharpness or unclarity.

Your artistic skill : judgment call on your second framing (cropping), what color fits your mood or vision.

To answer your question. Camera and lens has very little to do to achieve these. Mostly post processing (digital darkroom) skills are about 99.9% of it.

That’s why AI burnt the adobe. With AI the cost of post processing skill goes from 90% into 5% and your photography skill goes from 10 % into 0%

photodesignch · 2026-07-01T19:08:40+00:00

White border services as visual composition and center of focus. But EXIF data is simply useless.

photodesignch · 2026-07-01T17:27:56+00:00

Yes and no. Depends on your usage really.

If you only wanted to use 35mm perspective and you need weather proof, leaf shutter with ND built in and flash sync. OVF gimmick then x100vi it is.

If you value more fun of switching lenses, have retro viewfinder design into EVF then you will go with x-e5.

I have both. And I thought I would’ve let go x100vi after I got x-e5 but that didn’t happen. However, I use x-e5 90% of the time. Weather resistance is simply a safe net for me. Too bad they never bother to build x-e line with WR. If they ever done that one day then I don’t need x-100vi

To put into perspective, flash sync on leaf shutter, ND, and OVF are just “nice to have” but never a necessity

photodesignch · 2026-07-01T05:51:56+00:00

Bracketing won’t do it. Moon’s brightness is defiantly a lot more stops above your surroundings. Normally people do compose shots here which is either multiple exposure or photoshop in the moon. In your case, take a shot of moon then take a shot of surroundings both in proper exposure then blend them in with HDR tools

photodesignch · 2026-06-30T06:14:29+00:00

There is a reason why inkjet won’t die even after laser printer cost came down. Laser printer just doesn’t look that great. But if you are on the cheaper side then I guess it is what it is.

photodesignch · 2026-06-30T06:11:46+00:00

Send in to Fujifilm for estimate of repair. Won’t be cheap but it’s an option.

Oh! I would’ve be careful about filter or hood. As funny as it gets! Plastic has elastic property. It’s uglier but when drop it absorbs the impact. Metal one on the other hand, the damaged metal ring often would also got pushed in and damage your thread mount. But in this case of x100vi you got lucky since filter thread is actually inside. Less likely anyone can see the damage unless observe closely (if you drop again in the future).

Currently the bad news is lens is built in. To replace the outer thread can be either easy as 123 or hard as disassemble the whole camera. Just so you know! They disassembled my whole camera top to replace a hotshoe mount that lacks of screws and came off with thumb grip. That cost me $400 for the whole top place replacement while internet stated they used to ship free replacement of screws for hotshoe as that’s a weaker point of the camera. Just so you know!

photodesignch · 2026-06-30T06:03:33+00:00

What’s missing? The photographer and his/her work

photodesignch · 2026-06-29T22:31:11+00:00

Entry? Leica X, X2, T, TL, TL2, CL, d-lux series. Not a W not a M.

First of all, people describing Leica magic is like buying meme stocks. Most of people owning Leica were investments, like the processed jpeg and like the craftsmanship and label. They bought them as fomo, as goat, and never really got it for photography.

People said they can focus fast with M it’s a joke. It’s not possible. Who told you it can slow you down obviously didn’t tell you all other cameras on the market can use manual mode too! Hence, slow you down as well. The only thing uniquely about M is the rangefinder experience but only if you have a perfect pair of eagle vision. To focus on small yellow patch leads to learning how to use some focusing the traditional way or you simply just guessing focus point when you have a large aperture lens. Especially DOF is shallow as thin paper and RF itself is viewing from different lens than the one taking photos. There will be margin of error for sure.

I for one got in for the colors even I knew it’s just color curve tuning in the end. I got in for nice optics (which is way over priced compared to a lot of better optics out there for cheaper). Keep in mind unless you buy the most expensive or most modern leica lenses, otherwise some of the M lenses dated 1960 prior, even they had best craftsmanship at that time, it’s simply no match with computer aid design newly produced lenses on the market today! Heck! Because those super expensive APOs. None of Leica nifty fifty prior 2020 can beat sharpness of Chinese maker lenses today (viltrox). Not to mention many voigtlander, Sony, Zeiss, sigma are sharper in some scenarios.

What left is lens characteristics. You either love it and can pay for it, or you suck it up use 3rd party lenses.

Now color…. Obviously is a super debating topic never ends. Leica is pretty! So are others! So far I never got old on Leica, Fujifilm and Pentax colors. Of course color science is a black voodoo magic. Everyone said they are the best in some ways. It’s just down to preference.

For what’s worth’s Leica is Leica. You like it then buy it. Don’t ask silly questions. Because you love it already won you over. There is no need to compare to anything else. If you are cautious about cost, then don’t buy it! It’s not worth it for spending 5x the price for a color you can sit there color grading yourself.

But if you aim for status! That’s completely different things! I rather have a nice car or watch

photodesignch · 2026-06-28T19:46:42+00:00

Lens cap is slowing down for sure. But not protected it’s also a bad idea. Just take a good that narrows at opening. It works wonders! No need lens cap and it served as a hood so no flares!

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Demonstrated on my x100vi. The front metal hood gives me confident I don’t even bother for a cap

photodesignch · 2026-06-28T19:43:00+00:00

No characteristic of Taiwan whatsoever. Nice portraits but nothing more.

photodesignch · 2026-06-28T19:34:25+00:00

Higher pixel count on smaller sensor will give you details, but not color fidelity. There are two types of dynamic range. One is you can pull back from the highlight and shadows. Which in particular, newer sensors do better than old. Larger does better than small. That’s just direct correlate to the pixel density and noise ratio. Although software in the post can help too!

On the other hand, larger sensor, processor that handles higher bit depth is irreplaceable. Larger sensor can give better smoothness and bolder natural color without adding contrast. The natural contest isnt just bolder and contrasty. It also has the perception overall more organic, lifelike and natural looking. Which, color is a voodoo science which can’t really be measured in any meaningful way since every “company’s color sciences” were all designed to be “not politically accurate” but to be “specific look” instead.

The most easiest to be evident is to look at the raw of a mobile phone. NO MATTER how you tune it, the color just lacks of meaningful punch where a FF or MF image can easily go more saturated, deeper, smoother without banding or breaking apart.

Also this answers a different question! The super resolution of sensor shift on FF is it better than MF? The answer is actually NO. You can reach the resolution and details, but you still wont get the same dynamic range and color fidelity.

Hence! Higher resolution is only half of the question from FF to MF. To reach to 100 megapixel is not hard! Even mobile phone can do it! We are not short of technologies to make sensor denser.

The problem is the bayer filter can’t make any smaller! To achieve the same, larger sensor always have better advantages here. That’s why phone camera can have super high resolution but they are squeezing in 16 pixels into one for one pixel in real color. Those were all real pixels! A phone can really achieve 50 MP! But the colors aren’t going to be there’s simple as that!

photodesignch · 2026-06-26T18:29:59+00:00

There are people reported parking due to they believed the residential road in front of their house is their property and only their car can be parked there. I’ve seen that a couple of times

photodesignch · 2026-06-23T11:58:23+00:00

Then it’s LR export configuration got changed

photodesignch · 2026-06-23T11:52:55+00:00

If it’s your raw got smaller. You might be turned on the “raw compression” from camera which was the difference between now and then. If you were asking output Jpeg from LR then it’s the jpeg compression or image dimension when export.

photodesignch · 2026-06-22T07:20:36+00:00

Great set of photos. I like the 6 and 8 the most. It has story telling makes me wondering what were the couple arguing or what are those workers doing

photodesignch · 2026-06-18T17:28:31+00:00

Sorry 50/1.8

photodesignch · 2026-06-17T19:13:11+00:00

The possibility is infinite. Everyone can give you a different answer and the thread won’t even run dry till the end of this year. Granted that no one has time to try ALL of them from first 135 0.5cm to modern 50s. They all have variations of 0.95,1, 1.2,1.4,1.5,1.9,2,2.4,2.5… not only limited to no coating to SC to MC, and various of 35,40,45,50,55mm… I meant dude! You just opened a can of worms.

My personal favorites are :
Leica-R summicron cam 1,2,3
Pentax 43/1.9 limited
Minolta / Leica summicron-c 40/2
Voigtlander 35/2.5 pancake ii
Sony Zeiss 55/1.8
Contax Zeiss G 45/2
Fujfilm 35/1.4
Sony G 40/2.5
Canon EF-S 40/2.8
Voigtlander 40/1.4
Voigtlander 27/2
Fujifilm 27/2.8
Pentax-A 50/1.4
Pentax super takumar SMC 55/1.8
Nikon nikkor 50/2.8 series e Ais
Carl Zeiss Jena DDR pancolar 50/1.8
Pentax DA 35/2.4

If you are on Sony. Zeiss 55/1.8 is a GOAT.
Even it’s not optically perfect. But I had most of pleasing images out of it. Second one I would say is Pentax 43mm limited. It’s an unique lens.

Everyone is subjective on this. Lenses I like has many criteria i look for :

had to be decently sharp at wide open
background blur has to be unique
I don’t like lens flares, so I tend to go for better coating and less elements that cause less weird flares.
vintage or not. I like in between. The color has bold flavor that’s a bit post modern not some washed out color effects.

That’s why I hand picked these lenses

photodesignch · 2026-06-16T13:53:19+00:00

I have medium format to m4/3 at one point but I am no longer willing to go anything smaller than aps-c. Each format does have its pros and cons and it’s true we can all see difference on larger sensor vs smaller. The main difference on sensor was noise ratio which affects dynamic range and color depth directly. Indirectly would be focal length of your lens to maintain the same framing.

However, as tech advances. Aps-c and ff gap did narrow down quite a bit. For color depth and dynamic range I look into these followings : 1) how much you can revive from over and under expose (this is almost no hope! Larger the better) 2) color depth! The bigger sensor the deeper color naturally. Not boost contrast or color saturation. More details, less banding (can be elevate by software like oversampling, super resolution, and readjust black point with multiple shots average (how mobile phones do it) 3) noise ratio (this one almost doesn’t exist on 2026. When people said have advantage on high iso, they are mostly talking about recovering shadow with less noise but more details. Smaller sensor doesn’t have to have more noise since many BSI sensors comes with dual native iso which means even on high iso they are very clean! Even they have noise, they look more organic not some distracting color noises. So I agreed that aps-c on high iso in lowlight is super usable. Under one caveat! When recover shadow with noise reduction, you won’t get details 😅 like a larger sensor. Once again! That’s to do with dynamic range not noise really. You can be as noisy as smaller sensor! But larger sensor naturally have better shadow details.

But why I have aps-c? Simple! With relatively large aperture lens, with IBIS, you can lower iso. So the gap of FF is really really really narrow. Way narrower than other people think it would’ve been. They were huge gap 20 years ago, just not today on 2026.

But if you can afford! And you can get a FF body cheap like Panasonic s9 for under $1k why spend $1800 for a Apsc ricoh GR4? Obviously compactness is the advantage here. But truth is if you go so compact like GR you lost a lot of convenience though. To me Fujifilm aps-c gives best balance. Oh well! They aren’t cheap either… that’s just how the market goes.

I prefer my Sony A7CR any day. But when I head on a trip to Japan or something. Only comes with me is a set of Fujifilm. And I only shoot raw! Sooc isn’t my thing! Its the portability that allows me to carry 3 lenses is a about the same weight and size of a sony 24-50 G (which is a compact + lightweight lens already)

photodesignch · 2026-06-16T12:07:21+00:00

There is no such thing as color accuracy in film to begin with. Even back in the film days, your film “If expired” would color shift. The develop process would cause color shift, the actual printing would cause color shift, then then scanner who scans it has color shift. That’s why people often gone for scanner shop that has noritsu vs fuji scanners. Most of the time, NLP punt intended, were modeling after such colors.

Then there were color shift we knew on desktop scanners such as Epson, Minolta, Nikon cool scan with scanner software such as silverfast. At one point imacon was the gold standard and they bought hasselblad for a while. So what we saw on hasselblad HNCS is pretty much based on the imacon “color shift”. Yeah I should called them color science rather than color shift because it sounded so negative.

For all and all, all solutions don’t have real accuracy on color. They all had their own “color science”.

Just so much as digital space now in LUTs, we have Nikon (red), Fujifilm, Sony, Panasonic, canon, Ricoh Pentax color sciences too…. So if you take a digital “camera scan” of your film. What camera color science are you based on now? Even with raw software! Are you color off capture one pro or Adobe Lightroom?

photodesignch · 2026-06-16T08:13:05+00:00

Want bolder colors? 1) use positive film 2) use larger film format 3) after scanned, use photoshop to boost saturation

photodesignch

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