Nikon FX versus Fujifilm X-body 'kit lens' Shootout

Peeb

Semi-automatic Mediocrity Generator
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
4,026
Reaction score
4,613
Location
Oklahoma
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
Round 1 will be shooting low aperture for max bokeh. The contestants are the Nikon D610 with the 25-85 kit lens and the Fujifilm X-T20 with the 16-50 kit lens. Here they are (taken with my iphone):
000.jpg


The Nikon has a larger sensor and a wider aperture (Nikon: 3.5 to 4.5 versus Fuji: 3.5 to 5.6), which makes the bokeh portion of the shootout kinda unfair at maximum focal length, but let's take a look anyhow! BTW, everything will be shot in RAW, processed in photoshop ONLY to reside to 800x534 size to fit here. There will be no other adjustments to skew results one way or the other.

So, here we go...


1. Nikon at max focal length, wide open:
1wide open and close.jpg


2. Fujifilm, max focal length and wide open:
1wide open and close-f.jpg


MY TAKE: The color and bokeh win clearly goes the the full frame Nikon, but the sharpness is a no-contest win for the little X-T20. Hmmm.... this is gonna be interesting.

3. Nikon- waterdrop
2waterdrop.jpg

4. Fujifilm waterdrop
2waterdrop-f.jpg


MY TAKE: Again, the little Fuji-that-could seems a bit sharper, and there is just something kinda... cloudy?... about the Nikon bokeh to my eye. Odd.

5. Nikon at minimum focal length, wide open (to test for clarity only)
3tiles.jpg


6. Same shot with the Fujifilm
3tiles-f.jpg


MY TAKE: at the 'wide' end of the spectrum, the sharpness edge of the X-T20 evaporates, and the X-T20 is trounced by the Nikon (to me). It is interesting that this is a true 1:1 comparison in that the effective focal lengths and apertures are identical here, yet the Nikon is much wider for some reason.

7 Nikon at 85mm wide open - high contrast target
4green.jpg

8. Fujifilm:
4green-f.jpg


MY TAKE: the bokeh is technically 'better' on the nikon, but I find the foreground more (actually much more) pleasing in the Fujifilm image. Just me? EDIT: when resized to 800 pixels wide, this images appear MUCH closer in clarity than they did at full resolution.


9: Nikon - subject Isolation (blurring out a car in the background)
7bokeh.jpg

10. Fuji
7bokeh-f.jpg


MY TAKE: (btw, this is just the back of a carved tree trunk shot to test the cameras). As expected, an easy win in subject isolation for the bigger camera. The car is a dark discernible blob with the x-t20 and is pretty much totally blown out by the D610

CONCLUSIONS FROM ROUND 1- really surprised by the clarity of the the Fujifilm kit lens. Not sure if the Nikon missed focus a hair or perhaps I was inside of the minimum focusing distance or who knows, but the X-T20 repeatedly rendered sharper images. Impressive. Especially in light of the the much larger and easier to use viewfinder in the FX Nikon. The EVF in the Fujifilm is nice but REALLY small.

I can continue the shootout in terms of other subjects (wildlife, macro, night photography, etc) if there is any interest, but it this is a one-and-done, it was still interesting, at least to Peeb! ;)
 
Last edited:
I don't know much about the 16-50 kit lens. Is it as highly reviewed as the 18-55? Curious if you think that the difference in bokeh - which I agree is noticeable but attributable to the wider aperture - is enough to warrant the size and weight of the Nikon gear in comparison to the Fuji gear. I think many people, especially those who are hobbyist only, buy a Fuji to cut down on the weight and bulk of their kits for traveling/every day use and then they start to ignore their heavier and bulkier full frame and eventually sell it due to lack of use.

Re the clarity test - curious what settings you used on the Fuji that produced that bland result? It definitely looks brighter. Does the Xt20 have the film simulations and the ability to pre-adjust the shooting settings? For example I usually use +1 for sharpness and +1 for color unless I'm using Velvia film simulation.

Would love to see some macro shots compared although the 16-50 isn't really the lens for that...
 
I don't know much about the 16-50 kit lens. Is it as highly reviewed as the 18-55? Curious if you think that the difference in bokeh - which I agree is noticeable but attributable to the wider aperture - is enough to warrant the size and weight of the Nikon gear in comparison to the Fuji gear. I think many people, especially those who are hobbyist only, buy a Fuji to cut down on the weight and bulk of their kits for traveling/every day use and then they start to ignore their heavier and bulkier full frame and eventually sell it due to lack of use.

Re the clarity test - curious what settings you used on the Fuji that produced that bland result? It definitely looks brighter. Does the Xt20 have the film simulations and the ability to pre-adjust the shooting settings? For example I usually use +1 for sharpness and +1 for color unless I'm using Velvia film simulation.

Would love to see some macro shots compared although the 16-50 isn't really the lens for that...
The kit lenses would need to step aside for wildlife or macro. In that instance, I would use the identical Nikkor lens and compare results. Advantage XT20 for the crop factor in both subjects, but advantage D610 for AF and VR in wildlife, I would say.

Edit @SquarePeg : Forgot to mention, all the 'x' shots were in RAF and were attempted to be as flat as possible. It renders absolutely beautiful jpg files!
 
Last edited:
I think shots 5 and 6 are interesting, and shed some light on what might be happening as far as "sharpness" (which is a tricky,complex word as it relates to photography,and what the word "sharpness" means is somewhat ill-defined) on the images shown in the comparison. On the stone flooring material,which represents a basically flat subject, as you wrote, "the X-T20 is trounced by the Nikon (to me)". I think the Nikon is just resolving detail better, has higher spatial resolution with that lens at that focal length than the Fuji has with its lens. However, on the coniferous tree limb, and on the water drop on pine needle shot, the shallower depth of field for the same picture angle that the full-frame Nikon gives results in a "less sharp" feeling to the pictures, due to less being in acceptable focus.

Still...both cameras are capable. But there will be some subjects and some camera-to-subject distances where the two cameras will show some imaging differences. As far as background defocus goes, that's not the be-all,end-all, but shots 9 and 10 do show that there is some difference where shallow DOF in the background is the goal. But on the other hand, there are many situations where a more-recognizable background can be an advantage; that is something I think that is helpful on mid-range scenic shots, the ability of an APS-C camera to render the backgrounds MORE in-focus at say, f/5.6 with a very long normal-range lens or a very short telephoto lens length. I shot APS-C for almost a decade, and it has its strengths.
 
I don't know much about the 16-50 kit lens. Is it as highly reviewed as the 18-55? Curious if you think that the difference in bokeh - which I agree is noticeable but attributable to the wider aperture - is enough to warrant the size and weight of the Nikon gear in comparison to the Fuji gear. I think many people, especially those who are hobbyist only, buy a Fuji to cut down on the weight and bulk of their kits for traveling/every day use and then they start to ignore their heavier and bulkier full frame and eventually sell it due to lack of use.

Re the clarity test - curious what settings you used on the Fuji that produced that bland result? It definitely looks brighter. Does the Xt20 have the film simulations and the ability to pre-adjust the shooting settings? For example I usually use +1 for sharpness and +1 for color unless I'm using Velvia film simulation.

Would love to see some macro shots compared although the 16-50 isn't really the lens for that...
The kit lenses would need to step aside for wildlife or macro. In that instance, I would use the identical Nikkor lens and compare results. Advantage XT20 for the crop factor in both subjects, but advantage D610 for AF and VR in wildlife, I would say.

Edit @SquarePeg : Forgot to mention, all the 'x' shots were in RAF and were attempted to be as flat as possible. It renders absolutely beautiful jpg files!

How are you processing the raw files? In Adobe? Not the best choice for Fuji from what I have read. My old version of PSE11 doesn't support Fuji raw so I didn't get to compare this for myself... For me, I think half of the appeal of Fuji is being able to use the jpegs with very little or no post processing if I want. Especially for quick shots for social media. Anything I want to print or that needs serious editing, I have the raw files if I need them.
 
I don't know much about the 16-50 kit lens. Is it as highly reviewed as the 18-55? Curious if you think that the difference in bokeh - which I agree is noticeable but attributable to the wider aperture - is enough to warrant the size and weight of the Nikon gear in comparison to the Fuji gear. I think many people, especially those who are hobbyist only, buy a Fuji to cut down on the weight and bulk of their kits for traveling/every day use and then they start to ignore their heavier and bulkier full frame and eventually sell it due to lack of use.

Re the clarity test - curious what settings you used on the Fuji that produced that bland result? It definitely looks brighter. Does the Xt20 have the film simulations and the ability to pre-adjust the shooting settings? For example I usually use +1 for sharpness and +1 for color unless I'm using Velvia film simulation.

Would love to see some macro shots compared although the 16-50 isn't really the lens for that...
The kit lenses would need to step aside for wildlife or macro. In that instance, I would use the identical Nikkor lens and compare results. Advantage XT20 for the crop factor in both subjects, but advantage D610 for AF and VR in wildlife, I would say.

Edit @SquarePeg : Forgot to mention, all the 'x' shots were in RAF and were attempted to be as flat as possible. It renders absolutely beautiful jpg files!

How are you processing the raw files? In Adobe? Not the best choice for Fuji from what I have read. My old version of PSE11 doesn't support Fuji raw so I didn't get to compare this for myself... For me, I think half of the appeal of Fuji is being able to use the jpegs with very little or no post processing if I want. Especially for quick shots for social media. Anything I want to print or that needs serious editing, I have the raw files if I need them.
Yep- photoshop. I agreed that the JPEG‘s are wonderful with this little camera
 
Round 1 will be shooting low aperture for max bokeh. The contestants are the Nikon D610 with the 25-85 kit lens and the Fujifilm X-T20 with the 16-50 kit lens. Here they are (taken with my iphone):

The Nikon has a larger sensor and a wider aperture (Nikon: 3.5 to 4.5 versus Fuji: 3.5 to 5.6), which makes the bokeh portion of the shootout kinda unfair at maximum focal length, but let's take a look anyhow! BTW, everything will be shot in RAW, processed in photoshop ONLY to reside to 800x534 size to fit here. There will be no other adjustments to skew results one way or the other.

So, here we go...

MY TAKE: Again, the little Fuji-that-could seems a bit sharper, and there is just something kinda... cloudy?... about the Nikon bokeh to my eye. Odd.

MY TAKE: at the 'wide' end of the spectrum, the sharpness edge of the X-T20 evaporates, and the X-T20 is trounced by the Nikon (to me). It is interesting that this is a true 1:1 comparison in that the effective focal lengths and apertures are identical here, yet the Nikon is much wider for some reason.

7 Nikon at 85mm wide open - high contrast target

MY TAKE: the bokeh is technically 'better' on the nikon, but I find the foreground more (actually much more) pleasing in the Fujifilm image. Just me? EDIT: when resized to 800 pixels wide, this images appear MUCH closer in clarity than they did at full resolution

9: Nikon - subject Isolation (blurring out a car in the background)


MY TAKE: (btw, this is just the back of a carved tree trunk shot to test the cameras). As expected, an easy win in subject isolation for the bigger camera. The car is a dark discernible blob with the x-t20 and is pretty much totally blown out by the D610

CONCLUSIONS FROM ROUND 1- really surprised by the clarity of the the Fujifilm kit lens. Not sure if the Nikon missed focus a hair or perhaps I was inside of the minimum focusing distance or who knows, but the X-T20 repeatedly rendered sharper images. Impressive. Especially in light of the the much larger and easier to use viewfinder in the FX Nikon. The EVF in the Fujifilm is nice but REALLY small.

I can continue the shootout in terms of other subjects (wildlife, macro, night photography, etc) if there is any interest, but it this is a one-and-done, it was still interesting, at least to Peeb! ;)

OK, maybe next time try photographing a subject that moves ;)
;)

www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless
 

Most reactions

Back
Top