New Pixii 26MP

[ranger9]

Oops, sorry... if your camera has extended memory (more than the base 8gb) there's an additional step that's not in the FAQ and that I forgot to tell you about:

• Connect the USB cable to the camera and your computer; power the camera on, but don't enter USB mode yet.
• Go to the "Storage" menu, scroll all the way to the end, and choose "Reveal system"
• Exit the menu, go back to the USB menu, and switch to USB mode.

Now when the camera mounts on your computer, it will mount the system partition instead of the extended memory partition, and you'll be able to see the 'updates' directory at the end of the directory listing. The system partition also includes a lot of typical Linux/UNIX files and directories, some of which I've peeked at and others which I haven't tried messing with yet.

If you follow the steps above but still don't see an 'updates' directory, or if you don't have extended memory, I don't know what to tell you. Good luck!

 

[ranger9]

Here's what my system directory looks like. The DCIM directory is for image files, but normally nothing goes in there unless you try to take a picture before your extended memory mounts. A lot of the other directories are standard UNIX/Linux features. Profiles is where your image profiles live; I've been experimenting with copying these and editing new ones using the Adobe profile editor tool, but haven't found enough to report any findings yet. 'updates' is at the very end.

 

[ranger9]

Oops, one more thing: Putting the files in the updates directory (btw, you do have to decompress/unzip them first) the camera does NOT install them automatically when you reboot it. Instead you have to go to the System menu and scroll down to 'Install Update'. Choose this and the camera will install the updates. Once they've been installed, it will empty out the updates folder so you'll be ready for next time.

Some people are going to think this process should be more automatic, but as an old-time UNIX guy I like it because I feel like I know exactly what's going on instead of relying on some startup-time firmware routine that might or might not hang. If you'd rather do things the automatic way, there's always the over-the-air software feature in the app (although if you can't connect to WiFi you're out of luck with that one, so it's good to have this as a fallback.)

 

[boojum]

Oops, sorry... if your camera has extended memory (more than the base 8gb) there's an additional step that's not in the FAQ and that I forgot to tell you about:

• Connect the USB cable to the camera and your computer; power the camera on, but don't enter USB mode yet.
• Go to the "Storage" menu, scroll all the way to the end, and choose "Reveal system"
• Exit the menu, go back to the USB menu, and switch to USB mode.

Now when the camera mounts on your computer, it will mount the system partition instead of the extended memory partition, and you'll be able to see the 'updates' directory at the end of the directory listing. The system partition also includes a lot of typical Linux/UNIX files and directories, some of which I've peeked at and others which I haven't tried messing with yet.

If you follow the steps above but still don't see an 'updates' directory, or if you don't have extended memory, I don't know what to tell you. Good luck!

I have a terrible fear the next step will be to hop on my left foot while whistling the Marseillaise if this current fix does not work. ;o)

 

[boojum]

Oops, one more thing: Putting the files in the updates directory (btw, you do have to decompress/unzip them first) the camera does NOT install them automatically when you reboot it. Instead you have to go to the System menu and scroll down to 'Install Update'. Choose this and the camera will install the updates. Once they've been installed, it will empty out the updates folder so you'll be ready for next time.

Some people are going to think this process should be more automatic, but as an old-time UNIX guy I like it because I feel like I know exactly what's going on instead of relying on some startup-time firmware routine that might or might not hang. If you'd rather do things the automatic way, there's always the over-the-air software feature in the app (although if you can't connect to WiFi you're out of luck with that one, so it's good to have this as a fallback.)

Yes, I decompressed the updates. But the "Reveal Storage" option does not exist in the "Storage" menu. It does not exist. I am looking for the sheet music for le Marseillaise.

In desperation I did a factory reset and it made no difference.

 

[ranger9]

It starts out like this: "Allons, allons, les enfants de la patria, la jour du gloire c'est arrivé..."

But you'll probably get better results emailing support@pixii.fr for detailed instructions, once you've gotten over your understandable case of "Pixii fatigue" and decide to start investigating again.

Looking at your original screenshots, they show that you were doing all your looking-around in the .Spotlight-V100 directory. This is NOT part of the Pixii filesystem; it's a hidden directory created when removable storage is connected to a system running MacOS and is used to store indexing information for the Spotlight search utility that runs on Macs.

The fact that you were in the .Spotlight directory instead of the regular Pixii directory structure explains why you couldn't find the updates directory (or anything else) but it does NOT explain why you'd have a .Spotlight directory in the first place, since you are using Windows 10 and Linux Mint, not MacOS!

And since I don't know much about Windows at all, and I haven't tried Mint (although it sounds like a pretty good distro) I can't give you any suggestions about how to escape from .Spotlight jail and get into the Pixii filesystem so you can actually do something useful. I'd think your Linux machine might be a better platform for exploration than Windows, but again, since I don't have a Linux box handy, I can't give you any experience-based advice. (Kind of makes me feel like I ought to throw together a Linux install on something, but don't have a spare computer handy...)

 

[boojum]

I keep W10 on the box as a place where I run software not available on Linux. This is rare. I prefer Linux, and for you it is an easy jump from Unix. I have the hidden files option active so I am at a loss about what is going on and not too pleased. But right now I have a burger to make and to relax. I would really like to get the damned camera to work as advertised. Thanks for the help, and the lyrics.

 

[spb_ch]

That was the original PIXII, the one with the 12mp industrial sensor. As for the new 26mp model, well, no one really knows. Except me! And now you... because yes, the PIXII pic was the better-looking one on the right.

Here's another example with people, from yesterday, when I was hanging out in the wings at a ballet rehearsal. There's no noise reduction on either one, although saving as JPEG probably smooshed the noise a bit. The PIXII pic still looks considerably better to me in terms of noise and tonality than the X-T4 pic:

http://ranger9.net/pixiifun/noise_co...i_on_right.jpg

Now before everybody feels like they need to jump on the bandwagon and run out and buy a PIXII, let me just point out a couple of things:

1. I'm comparing to a Fujifilm X-T 4, which I picked because I have one and because it has a sensor with the same size and megapixel count. Undoubtedly there are lots of other cameras out there (e.g. ones using the 36x24mm Simplex format) that would do better than either of them at ISO 10K.
2. As I've been discovering, there are various other things about the PIXII that ARE problematic. Battery life is one: I got through only 120 shots yesterday before I hit the low-battery warning! I'm still tinkering with settings to see if I can improve on that, but so far this seems to be a knock on the original PIXII that has NOT been improved on the new model. The battery is an NP-FW50, the same as used on scads of Sony A6000-series cameras, so it's not going to be a problem picking up a spare or two, but if I'm going to be carrying around a lot of consumables I might as well use a film camera, right? 🙂

I will share some of these other downers over the next few days as I get them documented. Meanwhile, I've still got 12 days left on my 15-day trial, and the jury is still out...

If I think of some of the car meetings I have done, 120 shots to start getting the low warning on 1 battery is not too bad. That I have heard can be increased by switching off wifi as it is not needed. Bluetooth handles the instant transfer of jpg preview images anyway. Wonder what happens if one's phone is switched off! I hope that when one switches on you get all the jpg previews! With other Fuji cameras XPRO I used to use 2 to 3 batteries, (two completely) last one about a third for a day photographing as many classic cars as I could from a meeting with over a thousand vehicles.

 

[Godfrey]

If I think of some of the car meetings I have done, 120 shots to start getting the low warning on 1 battery is not too bad. That I have heard can be increased by switching off wifi as it is not needed. Bluetooth handles the instant transfer of jpg preview images anyway. Wonder what happens if one's phone is switched off! I hope that when one switches on you get all the jpg previews! With other Fuji cameras XPRO I used to use 2 to 3 batteries, (two completely) last one about a third for a day photographing as many classic cars as I could from a meeting with over a thousand vehicles.

That seems quite short on battery life to me for most of my cameras. The Leica CL is somewhat low-spec on power and I usually get 250-350 exposures per charge with it. The Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c gets about double that per charge, same for my Olympus E-1 and various other cameras I've had along the way. The Pixii's battery management was pretty poor when I had one to test ... often less than 100 exposures on a charge! ... and definitely an area that I suggested to Pixii SAS that they concentrate on for improvement.

On my recent visit to Pismo Beach for the Lancia club gathering with the Leica CL, I made about 140 still photos and three short videos during the whole trip (three days) and never had any need to recharge the battery.

With the Leica M10 Monochrom, which I've only had for a fairly short time, I went to SF Pride early to catch the sidewalk traffic before the parade etc ... The 67 photos I made that morning drove the battery down to about 40% remaining so I recharged it, but that was the first time I'd recharged a battery for that camera: it had made over 650 exposures since I obtained the camera. That seems incredibly good battery management on its default settings, and it really changes the shooting experience not to have to think of the battery like that!

G

 

[spb_ch]

That seems quite short on battery life to me for most of my cameras. The Leica CL is somewhat low-spec on power and I usually get 250-350 exposures per charge with it. The Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c gets about double that per charge, same for my Olympus E-1 and various other cameras I've had along the way. The Pixii's battery management was pretty poor when I had one to test ... often less than 100 exposures on a charge! ... and definitely an area that I suggested to Pixii SAS that they concentrate on for improvement.

On my recent visit to Pismo Beach for the Lancia club gathering with the Leica CL, I made about 140 still photos and three short videos during the whole trip (three days) and never had any need to recharge the battery.

With the Leica M10 Monochrom, which I've only had for a fairly short time, I went to SF Pride early to catch the sidewalk traffic before the parade etc ... The 67 photos I made that morning drove the battery down to about 40% remaining so I recharged it, but that was the first time I'd recharged a battery for that camera: it had made over 650 exposures since I obtained the camera. That seems incredibly good battery management on its default settings, and it really changes the shooting experience not to have to think of the battery like that!

G

Indeed the M11 battery life is superb too. I hope that by only using bluetooth on the Pixii to get acceptable battery levels. I never use Wifi on the M11, in fact after initial testing with Photos I gave up the idea of connecting camera and Mac or Phone. So I remove the card on the M11 and plan to use a USB stick or SSD drive with the Pixii.

 

[boojum]

I have a lovely old Pentax ME Super that gets only 36 shots, max, on a load. Sometimes only 20. I wish I could get 120 shots with it. The solution I have come up with for "short" battery life on the Pixii is to carry a spare. So far the additional weight has not been an unbearable burden. Actually I carry a couple. As usual, YMMV.

 

[boojum]

This rather tacky sunset shot is off my porch the other evening. Canon 35mm LTM f/2.0, f/4.0. Just another sunset, this time with the sun viewable. ;o)

​

 

[Godfrey]

I have a lovely old Pentax ME Super that gets only 36 shots, max, on a load. Sometimes only 20. I wish I could get 120 shots with it. The solution I have come up with for "short" battery life on the Pixii is to carry a spare. So far the additional weight has not been an unbearable burden. Actually I carry a couple. As usual, YMMV.

LOL! You're killing me. 😉 Sometimes it takes me three weeks to use up a pack of 8 shots in my Polaroid SX-70 ...!
Matter of fact, I've had 6 shots remaining in that camera for three weeks now. I guess I'll carry it on my bicycle ride today and see if I make a photo or two. 😀

Somehow, this is never an issue when I'm shooting with a film camera, but gets "in my way" when I'm using a digital camera. It's a funny thing.

That sunset is nice but seems very cyan ... Did it look that way to your eye when you made the photo?
I was curious: Brought into LR Classic, just a couple of clicks on white balance and such took out the cyan cast and gave a dreamy, evening rendering.

G

 

[boojum]

LOL! You're killing me. 😉 Sometimes it takes me three weeks to use up a pack of 8 shots in my Polaroid SX-70 ...!
Matter of fact, I've had 6 shots remaining in that camera for three weeks now. I guess I'll carry it on my bicycle ride today and see if I make a photo or two. 😀

Somehow, this is never an issue when I'm shooting with a film camera, but gets "in my way" when I'm using a digital camera. It's a funny thing.

That sunset is nice but seems very cyan ... Did it look that way to your eye when you made the photo?
I was curious: Brought into LR Classic, just a couple of clicks on white balance and such took out the cyan cast and gave a dreamy, evening rendering.

G

It's funny how film was preciously doled out. 24's were too short but a 36 would seem to last a long, long time. With digital we are PO'ed if we come home with less than 100. I prefer digital for its ease of use but shoot, still, as if I were shooting film. A battery will last me a long, long time. Even an M9 battery lasts a long time.

The sunset is as it was at the time shot as I checked the images right after taking them. The view is sandwiched between the sky and the blue Columbia and pretty shaded other than the rays poking through the clouds. It is SOOC, exported from Darktable to 8bit JPEG which was reduced in size with GIMP.

Going to the gym to be able to carry more batteries. ;o)

 

[spb_ch]

Going to the gym to be able to carry more batteries. ;o)

Now my turn to laugh LOL! Going to a gym to carry such small batteries makes those batteries VERY expensive!

 

[boojum]

Now my turn to laugh LOL! Going to a gym to carry such small batteries makes those batteries VERY expensive!

No effort spared to help Pixii SAS achieve its deserved success. I have worked up to two batteries and hope to be able to lug three by the end of August.

 

[spb_ch]

No effort spared to help Pixii SAS achieve its deserved success. I have worked up to two batteries and hope to be able to lug three by the end of August.

I hope to have mine early August, have got two batteries now, so will have three when Pixii arrives.

 

[boojum]

I hope to have mine early August, have got two batteries now, so will have three when Pixii arrives.

That's me, too. I bought a pair and a charger from B&H.

 

[agentlossing]

The sunset is as it was at the time shot as I checked the images right after taking them. The view is sandwiched between the sky and the blue Columbia and pretty shaded other than the rays poking through the clouds. It is SOOC, exported from Darktable to 8bit JPEG which was reduced in size with GIMP.

You might want to check your monitor colors, as that sunset is overwhelmingly cyan on my monitor. The buildings are all awash in blue-cyan as well. Not natural colors at all.

 

[boojum]

You might want to check your monitor colors, as that sunset is overwhelmingly cyan on my monitor. The buildings are all awash in blue-cyan as well. Not natural colors at all.

I have a Benq SW270C. I have watched the sun set here for 20 years. It looks to me pretty much how the sun sets here. I am aware it looks unnatural to others. Welcome to my world.