Testing a Fuji XT2 vs a6300 this weekend, any requests?

[Trek of Joy]

I'm trying to find my ideal long-term travel hybrid as I'm going to be spending a lot of time living out of a backpack over the next few months. I also own the a7rII, but a kit based around that is going to be too bulky to carry every day for long periods of time, so I'm moving to APS-c. Plus used prices are still high, selling the a7rII will fund a lot of kit. My kit will be 2 bodies and likely no more than 4 lenses, one standard zoom, one UWA zoom and a couple fast primes. If I can make it work, I may add the DJI Mavic, just don't know if I'll use it enough to justify carrying it around every day. M43 is killing it on the video side, but it just doesn't do it for me with stills.

I have the a6300 and various lenses and I rented a XT2 with the 18-55 (for stabilized video) and 23/1.4 for the next few days. The appeal of the Fuji is two-fold, the 18-55 is a great standard zoom and its stabilized, plus I can shoot more jpeg's which will help cut down my editing while on the road. I'll be gone too long to save everything, so I'll be culling images and video as we go. The a6500 is supposed to be released a few days before I leave, so I can't count on it being available as that can change and if it gets pushed back just a week means I'll be scrambling. I need to get my kit locked in over the next month so I can also have things like my bag, tripod, accessories and so on sorted as well. 

Quick first impressions after spending 30 minutes setting up the XT2 ... geez this is so much more solid feeling than the a6300/a7rII and of course you have more controls on the XT2. I'm on the fence with the ISO and SS top dials, I've always used the front/rear control dials for that. Since there are other control dials under SS/ISO, those settings can be changed if they're not locked down. The XT2's LCD and EVF are bigger, brighter and more detailed. The LCD tilt/swivel is clever, but a flip out/fully articulating LCD would be simpler and more useful.

One bugaboo with the XT2 that drives me nuts so far. I have to use the drive mode dial to shoot video, so moving between stills and video is a little clunky as you have to click it over a few times to get to optimal stills drive modes. Why no video record button? Or they could have moved single shot next to movie so you could flip back and forth.

Anyway, any comparison requests? I can match FL's on both cameras and put the a6300 on top of the XT2 with a tiny hotshoe ball head. Everything will be recorded internally.

[John_Harrison]

I would love to see comparisons of dynamic range as well as high iso performance. I'd like to see how far you can push both codecs in post, and I'm interested in seeing how the HD modes of both cameras look, and how they both perform at 60 fps. I'd also like to see how Sony color science stacks up against Fuji's. 

 

A rolling shutter comparison would be nice too, even though I think that's been done already? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

[jasonmillard81]

1. ISO +1 (stills and video)

2. Colors +1

3. Human subjects not flowers, walls, landscape

[TheRenaissanceMan]

1. skin tones, greenery, lake/ocean water, and sky (memory colors). Maybe a box of crayons or some fabric swatches if you've got them laying around.

2. Rolling shutter. Still haven't seen these two compared.

3. Highlight rendering. Shoot a scene with the sun or some bright practicals (a bare lightbulb works well) in the frame and see how gently each camera renders the transition into clip.

4. Over and under exposure. This is the biggest one. Shoot a scene with a correct exposure, then under expose, going by steps of 1/2 stop until you reach 3 under. Then do the same for over exposure. Then, see what each camera looks like when corrected in post. This gives you not only the latitude of the camera (how far off you can expose with good results), but also gives you an idea of DR by showing where the noise sits and when you lose highlight detail.

5. Battery life! See how long each camera will run on one fully charged battery, both in standby and continuously recording (might be tricky with the Sony overheating).

[Trek of Joy]

11 hours ago, John_Harrison said:

I would love to see comparisons of dynamic range as well as high iso performance. I'd like to see how far you can push both codecs in post, and I'm interested in seeing how the HD modes of both cameras look, and how they both perform at 60 fps. I'd also like to see how Sony color science stacks up against Fuji's. 

 

A rolling shutter comparison would be nice too, even though I think that's been done already? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

Rolling shutter, 4k and 60 are at the top of my list. From the XT2 thread Classic Chrome look like the best color profile, with the a6300 I like Autumn leaves and I have a custom Cine PP. Thanks!

10 hours ago, jasonmillard81 said:

1. ISO +1 (stills and video)

2. Colors +1

3. Human subjects not flowers, walls, landscape

Added to my list. I'll be on the beach, so I'm going to head to the pier and just shoot for a bit. Thanks!

5 hours ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

1. skin tones, greenery, lake/ocean water, and sky (memory colors). Maybe a box of crayons or some fabric swatches if you've got them laying around.

2. Rolling shutter. Still haven't seen these two compared.

3. Highlight rendering. Shoot a scene with the sun or some bright practicals (a bare lightbulb works well) in the frame and see how gently each camera renders the transition into clip.

4. Over and under exposure. This is the biggest one. Shoot a scene with a correct exposure, then under expose, going by steps of 1/2 stop until you reach 3 under. Then do the same for over exposure. Then, see what each camera looks like when corrected in post. This gives you not only the latitude of the camera (how far off you can expose with good results), but also gives you an idea of DR by showing where the noise sits and when you lose highlight detail.

5. Battery life! See how long each camera will run on one fully charged battery, both in standby and continuously recording (might be tricky with the Sony overheating).

Nice list, thanks! I'm doing a lazy beach weekend so greens, ocean, sky, sun and people should be everywhere. I need to bring a notepad so I can keep track of the exposure changes. I've been able to run my a6300 to the record time limit, so I'll see what I can do.

[John_Harrison]

Oh Also a comparison of all the different film simulations of the fuji with their equivalent DRs, colors, etc (I'm most interested in Pro-Neg vs Classic Chrome)

[ND64]

Please do a bright window test in a relatively dark room. one time expose to the window highlight, and next time expose to the room shadows. 

Thanks. 

[Viet Bach Bui]

If you can please include an A/B test to eliminate biases. If you do, please match aperture, shutter, ISO and use the standard picture profile (or no pictute profile) on both to make it less obvious. You can then shoot a number of different scenes and label the cameras differently between them then let us decide which one we like more for each scene. That would be a fantastic test.

[Trek of Joy]

I have the camera one more day I'll do the rest tomorrow and follow up later in the week with a vimeo video and  dropbox files. Looking at what I shot over the weekend, the 18-55 has really effective stabilization and when combined with much better rolling shutter it looks really good handheld. If I go Fuji I won't miss IBIS that much.

9 hours ago, Viet Bach Bui said:

If you can please include an A/B test to eliminate biases. If you do, please match aperture, shutter, ISO and use the standard picture profile (or no pictute profile) on both to make it less obvious. You can then shoot a number of different scenes and label the cameras differently between them then let us decide which one we like more for each scene. That would be a fantastic test.

Everything will be matched, same FL, same exposure settings. The only difference will be colors (obviously) because I really only use Cine and Autumn Leaves with Sony. Though Pro Neg and Classic Chrome seem to be tops with Fuji.

15 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

Please do a bright window test in a relatively dark room. one time expose to the window highlight, and next time expose to the room shadows. 

Thanks. 

Will do. Thanks for the suggestion.

On 10/29/2016 at 11:05 AM, John_Harrison said:

Oh Also a comparison of all the different film simulations of the fuji with their equivalent DRs, colors, etc (I'm most interested in Pro-Neg vs Classic Chrome)

I'll cycle through all the simulations using the -2 shadow/highlight settings and sharpness dialed down.