Comparing the X-T1 with its ten year old sibling

[Ian]

I currently have the latest and greatest Fujifilm system cameras from 2014 and... 2004, for an Amateur Photographer installation of a series of articles looking at how older gear shapes up.

I've just received the 2004 Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro, many thanks to Col (forum member Splott) who is lending me his camera. I'm now beginning the comparison with today's Fujifilm flagship, the X-T1 mirrorless camera.

But just as a taster here is an S3 Pro shot I snapped today:



Oooh - nasty burned out highlights... or are they?

In Lightroom 5 all I did was move the highlight recovery slider to -75:



Remarkable, eh?

Much of this capability must be down to the S3 Pro's SuperCCD SR sensor with the photodiode array rotated 45 degrees and each pixel served by one normal photosite and one low-sensitivity photosite, the latter to counter blown highlights. It seems to work well!

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Comparing the X-T1 with its ten year old sibling

Here's a quick and dirty comparison between the S3 Pro and the X-T1:



S3 Pro as shot (left) and X-T1 as hot (right)



S3 Pro -75% highlight recovery (left) and X-T1 (right)

Unfortunately, the S3 Pro is slightly over-exposed compared to the X-T1, but all things considered the two cameras are not that far apart.

Ian