Fuji TX-1 bulb shutter timeout.

[dvornik]

I have recently bought a TX-1 and was surprised that it's bulb shutter times out at around 40 seconds. I've previously rented Xpan II and never had this problem.

Now, I looked at the manuals of the Xpans and realized that they do have timeouts but at 4.5 and 9 minutes or something like that.

I don't have a manual for a Fuji and I suspect it's in Japanese anyway. Can anyone verify that TX-1 can go over 40 seconds?

I work for a photography store and that's where i bought it. We tried to contact Fuji, Hasselblad and two repair shops that they refferred us to (Nippon and Southern Photo Technical Service). No one seems to be able to fix it. Hasselblad said that they will not work on a Fuji. Fuji gave me several conflicting answers the only helpful of which was referring us to Southern Service. The guy over there insisted that the cameras are not identical inside so unless I know for sure that TX-1 can go over 40 seconds there's nothing they can do.

I also talked to Arca-Swiss distributor (Precision Camera Works) that services Fujis but they referred me back to Fuji techs who in turn reffered me to the Southern Service....

Thanks in advance for any information on the matter.

 

[dvornik]

OK so the bottom line is Fuji TX-1 has an official 30 seconds timeout of it's electronic bulb shutter.

At the time of writing there are 6 vendors on ebay offering TX-1 for sale. Five of them responded confirming 30-ish bulb times. One of them didn't bother to check.

One of the vendors indicated that his Xpan goes 4.5 minutes while Fuji is only 33 sec. Another vendor indicated that both his Fuji and his Xpan are ~30 sec. That confirms a statement I've heard from one of the Hasselblad techs - early batches of Xpans were timed to 30 seconds and Hasselblad used to reprogram them to 4.5 minites. But Hasselblad techs will not touch a Fuji.

According to Isaac from Southern Photo Technical Service (to which Fuji outsources their film camera repairs to the best of my understanding) Xpan and TX-1 are only about 80% the same inside. Electronics and programming are somewhat different and in his opinion Xpan is more oriented towards professional use.

Personally I don't see any difference other than the exterior and the bulb shutter speed. But if you are into night photography you really need to check the bulb shutter speeds before buying an Xpan or a TX-1.