On Sunday night I shot the ChefX event in the Hudson Valley for the Heritage Radio Network. I had lots of fun hanging out in the kitchen at the gorgeous Crimson Sparrow restaurant with 5 of the top chefs from the Berkshires as they turned out an amazing 5 course dinner.
One reason it was so fun? I got to test out my new Fuji X100s side-by-side with my trusty Canon 7D and see how they performed under the same conditions.
The short version: The Fujifilm X100s flambeed the Canon. In every possible way. I was expecting the Fuji to do better, but I was pretty shocked at how huge the gap was.
A few technical details and then I’ll get into the pretty pictures:
I shot the Fuji X100s on jpg, AF-S, Auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/125 and max ISO of 6400.
I shot the Canon with the 24-70 f 2.8 lens on RAW, auto ISO and slightly adjusted them in Lightroom to be more jpg-like. (I meant to to switch the Canon to JPG beforehand to make it more apples to apples, but forgot. So this is more apples to asian pears.)
Chef Bjorn Somlo of Nudel Restaurant in Lenox:
Canon 7D: 70mm, ISO 1000, f4, 1/100
Canon 7D: 70mm, ISO 1000, f4, 1/100 Detail
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f4, 1/110 Detail (Straight out of camera)
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f4, 1/110 (Straight out of camera)
Canon 7D: 24mm, ISO 3200, f3.5, 1/20 (Straight out of camera)
Canon 7D: 24mm, ISO 3200, f3.5, 1/20 Detail (Straight out of camera)
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f4, 1/17 (Straight out of camera)
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f4, 1/17 Detail (Straight out of camera)
Here are a few more favorites from the night. Edited in Lightroom, Nik Color Efex Pro and/or Nik Silver Efex Pro
Chef Bjorn Somlo of Nudel Restaurant in Lenox:
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 2500, f 2.8, 1/125
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 3200, f 4, 1/125
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f 5.6, 1/120
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 4000, f4, 1/125
L to R Chef John McCarthy III of The Crimson Sparrow, Chef Bjorn Somlo of Nudel Restaurant and Chef Brian Alberg of The Red Lion Inn.
Fuji X100s: 23mm, ISO 6400, f4, 1/45
Canon 7D: 52mm, ISO 3200, f3.5, 1/100
Chef Brian Alberg of The Red Lion Inn.
Fuji X100s, 23mm, ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/125
Fuji X100s, 23mm, ISO 400, f2.0, 1/30
Walk a mile in my underpants 
Great overview that is pretty accurate. I’ve had my x100s now for about 4 weeks, and as a previous x100 user, this is a real step up in image quality, iso range, AF, manual AF and ease of use. I have a Canon dslr that gives great images with right lenses, and in some circumstances it is better than the x100s. That’s the 60d with primes. But, for an all day multiple use camera with outstanding image quality, the x100s is very hard to beat. I havent tried the RX1 yet but plan too soon, although the price is right up there. I’ve been blogging about it recently at my blog click here to see…www.dwwphotography.blogspot.com.au if anyone is interested. I’ve posted many different pictures and even a high speed sync flash setup that works up to 1/4000th of a second. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing David. Glad to hear you’re enjoying your X100s too. Looking forward to hearing your impressions of the RX1. Cheers, Brian