How to Best Reach Fujifilm Firmware Engineers??

[bwcolor]

You have got to wonder if there is a "best" way of communicating with Fujifilm regarding desired firmware fixes. I suspect that many suggestions never make it to the people that make these decisions. Some of the major reviewers have made suggestions and these certainly must make it up the chain of command, but is there a best and most direct way to communicate with the people that make these decisions?

Anyone have a definite answer to this question, versus best guess?

 

[bruceh]

Engineers don't make those decisions. Be assured that the people who designed this have their own lists of features and fixes they'd like to add. The managers have to be convinced to allocate resources and time.

There's an old saying: "It's time to shoot the engineers and sell the product."

 

[Ronald M]

The best way to get the product designers is to not purchase. If you buy, you have no recourse and they have no incentive.

 

[bwcolor]

Catch 22. I considered not using the label of 'engineer'. So, all is lost. These companies have no interest in meeting a customer's need and the only hope is to not be a customer. Hmm.. Doesn't sound like the best business model.

 

[Frank Petronio]

It's pretty clear that the Japanese corporate culture is to ignore their non-Japanese customers, we get English translations and barely-functional software... now shut up and buy their products.

Fuji has never been all that responsive to film comments... CaNikon are 100% deaf.

I've only worked for one Japanese client evaluating scanning workflow and software. They had an entirely different approach to prepress than we did at the same time. But they wouldn't move to change anything.

 

[ABingham]

People asked Sigma to make the useless digital zoom buttons on the back of the DP1 user customizable, and it was in the next firmware release. Set them to ISO and white balance, which greatly improved the usability of the camera. Sigma is a Japanese company....

I would think the best way to get ahold of them at this point would be for UK customers to email the UK 'Premium Service' email address. The response on the tilted viewfinders seems to have been pretty prompt.

 

[dmc]

I agree. Every Fuji camera comes with customer service contacts. Use them.

 

[ZeissFan]

Don't you think that many of these things should have come up during testing? I often wonder about the QA (quality assurance) that's done with digital cameras.

Because it seems that a lot of these things are obvious and should have been mentioned during preproduction testing and then addressed by the manufacturer.

And I don't point the finger at just Fuji. This happens way too often. Like the whole issue with startup times and memory cards.

 

[shashinka-ichiban]

Don't you think that many of these things should have come up during testing? I often wonder about the QA (quality assurance) that's done with digital cameras.

Different cultures, different expectations. What American costumers want or think work well for them may not be what Japanese people think will work well for them. For every American I know who are confused by how Japanese do things, I know Japanese who are confused by American thinking.

 

[Thardy]

It's pretty clear that the Japanese corporate culture is to ignore their non-Japanese customers, we get English translations and barely-functional software... now shut up and buy their products.

Fuji has never been all that responsive to film comments... CaNikon are 100% deaf.

I've only worked for one Japanese client evaluating scanning workflow and software. They had an entirely different approach to prepress than we did at the same time. But they wouldn't move to change anything.

Maybe the members of RFF can pool some cash together and become major shareholders in FUJI. That might get their attention.


http://www.fujifilmholdings.com/en/investors/stock_and_bond/distributions_shareholders/index.html

 

[bwcolor]

So, we must all admit to being confused.

I'm confused about many things and have learned to accept this condition. I'm now less wanting... but still confused.

I'm curious, do Japanese advanced amateurs/Pros prefer complicated menu selections? I would think that at this level of camera, that cultural bias would give way to the basic need to "get the shot". I can understand such differences with more consumer oriented products.

 

[andrew00]

Speaking of, what's the info for the UK premium service? When I got my cam they said it's not yet up but I'm in for it when it is!

 

[jsrockit]

Speaking of, what's the info for the UK premium service? When I got my cam they said it's not yet up but I'm in for it when it is!

Hmmm, sounds like something that will never be up then... figures.

 

[Arjay]

Fuji Canada has two very active marketing people who call themselves the FujiGuys and have a Twitter stream. They posted a lot of valuable info in the past, among which was one comment that they are actively putting together suggestions for the first X100 firmware update. Apparently, at this point in time, the update will be about bug fixes and major UI inconsistencies only.

You might twitter a message to them. I did so yesterday, as I have set up a number of user polls about various FW problems in the X100 forum.

 

[Pinphot]

Fuji Canada has two very active marketing people who call themselves the FujiGuys and have a Twitter stream. They posted a lot of valuable info in the past, among which was one comment that they are actively putting together suggestions for the first X100 firmware update. Apparently, at this point in time, the update will be about bug fixes and major UI inconsistencies only.

You might twitter a message to them. I did so yesterday, as I have set up a number of user polls about various FW problems in the X100 forum.

Does the issue of the camera not holding AF on the shutter button with a half press after taking a not shot bother anyone other than me? I really find it annoying having to either use the AF lock button, (which is unintuitive and inconvenient sometimes), or having to reacquire AF after every shot in S-AF. I've raised this with Fuji in the UK who say that no other camera works the way I request, which is untrue. Just about every camera above a cheap point and shoot allows focus to held on the shutter with a half press after the initial exposure. Does this bother enough users to warrant a poll?

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Arjay]

I really find it annoying having to either use the AF lock button, (which is unintuitive and inconvenient sometimes), or having to reacquire AF after every shot in S-AF. I've raised this with Fuji in the UK who say that no other camera works the way I request, which is untrue. Just about every camera above a cheap point and shoot allows focus to held on the shutter with a half press after the initial exposure. Does this bother enough users to warrant a poll?

Having to reacquire AF after a half-press is indeed a rather unusual AF implementation - at least on the DSLRs I know. OTOH I remember that my Fuji F31fd works the same, and I found it so annoying that I passed the camera along to my son who now uses it as his first camera (and due to a lack of previous exposure to other cameras doesn't mind that quirk).

Re separate AF button: This may at first seem counterintuitive, but it has a definite advantage over locking both AF and AE via the same shutter half-press: You can focus, lock focus, then recompose, lock AE and then shoot. So these two locking actions don't need to be done on the same FOV! I find this highly advantageous, and I know many DSL shooters who have configured their cameras exactly in this way.

I know, however, that this concept isn't familiar to a lot of film shooters...

Anyway, maybe you'd like to compile a number of links to discussions that revolve around this topic, then I will open another poll about this issue over in the X100 forum.

 

[kuzano]

Who cares....

Who cares....

1) As mentioned, I doubt the engineers/programmers are involved in the decision.
2) Marketing ??? They don't care, you already bought the camera.
3) Product development ??? pretty much the same as marketing.
4) However, marketing and product development might care, IF you could convince them you would by another with your ideas added, or that others may be interested, which makes your efforts too altruistic.
5) Just not worth the time and effort in my book, but hey, I'm lazy that way.

 

[Arjay]

Negativity sucks.
If we don't speak up, we can't expect that anything will change.

Not speaking up only serves one purpose: to preserve our prejudices that Fuji doesn't care about its customers.

If we don't speak up, we'll never know if that's really the case.

 

[Pinphot]

Re separate AF button: This may at first seem counterintuitive, but it has a definite advantage over locking both AF and AE via the same shutter half-press: You can focus, lock focus, then recompose, lock AE and then shoot. So these two locking actions don't need to be done on the same FOV! I find this highly advantageous, and I know many DSL shooters who have configured their cameras exactly in this way.

I know, however, that this concept isn't familiar to a lot of film shooters...

I do actually have my eos dslr's set up to work this way, ie AF on the shutter button disabled and AF acquired on the back button and use this method regularly in MF mode on the X100. Unfortunately, the parallax correction in this mode is not made at the moment of AF acquisition on the rear button, but when the shutter release is pressed. (which introduces lag), and the focus scale does not float with the framelines resulting in the framelines then being obscured by the focus scale which cannot be switched off in MF mode.

Mark

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

It's pretty clear that the Japanese corporate culture is to ignore their non-Japanese customers, we get English translations and barely-functional software... now shut up and buy their products.

Fuji has never been all that responsive to film comments... CaNikon are 100% deaf.

True all dat. I remember the focusing issues with the Canon 10D, and they never admitted fault. But after a huge push from a big number of users that cried foul (always running into the usual "who cares?!" walls) did they actually do something.

Also, managers and big-wigs will push a product without understanding the reasons why it needs to be improved; when the engineers actually got through them, the big-wigs get the credit, and when they don't, of course the engineers get blamed.

Blame the "my daughter needs a pony this year" manager whose only goal is to get his bonus.