Rumoured new products

[noimmunity]

In English http://www.fujirumors.com/wild-rumo...cake-lens-x-pro2-x-e3-and-more-source-dchome/

The rumour mentions the pancake that was just announced as being f/2.8, but a little into the discussion on the Chinese-language source page, you find that the OP also says it will probably be a fixed aperture lens. So I take that as a sign that the rumours definitely have an element of credibility.

Lots of cool stuff in the pipeline.

Version 2 of the hallowed 35/1.4 will have a lot of people excited.

The XP2 is coming later this year. A reference to "2 SPEC" in the original has Fujirumours baffled about the meaning, but if you read the original Chinese it is simple: Fuji has two alternative prototypes, each with a different spec sheet, and hasn't decided which to put into production.

Mention of a "dual mount" body is sure to stimulate wild guessing.

FAST focusing on the new bodies is sure to make everybody REALLY happy.

Pro Flash will ignite probably satisfy a common complaint I've seen among pros who would like to switch but for the absence of the flash system.

The thing I really love, and it seems so Fuji (user-centric), is this: "Fuji Japan still analyses a program that user by pay some amount of $$ and can upgrade the part ... They hope user can use the model for longer time without refresh [update] model too fast."

I hope the XP2 comes out this year so that I can pick up one at a reduced price before Q1 2017 😀

 

[jsrockit]

Updated:

35mm f/2:

http://www.fujirumors.com/new-roadm...de-xf-120mmf2-8-11-macro-35mmf2-and-more-srp/

 

[willie_901]

Updated:

35mm f/2:

http://www.fujirumors.com/new-roadm...de-xf-120mmf2-8-11-macro-35mmf2-and-more-srp/

Hurray !!!

 

[noimmunity]

Updated:

35mm f/2:

http://www.fujirumors.com/new-roadm...de-xf-120mmf2-8-11-macro-35mmf2-and-more-srp/

I'm surprised it isn't a 23/2, since that is what the majority is clamoring for.

But if it boasts high-resolution, flat field and excellent corner sharpness, it would be a perfect landscape normal, great to pair with the 14/2.8. Exactly what I've been hoping for.

A whole line of small, sharp, medium-speed lenses with aperture click stops on the mount would also be very attractive to me, come to think of it.

Man, Fuji know how to do lenses!

 

[Dante_Stella]

I would think that a new 35/2 would delay a 35/1.4II.

By the way, it would behoove Fuji to (officially and clearly) explain what exactly is going on with the X-Pro2. It's been almost 3 years since the X-Pro1, the old units just aren't selling, and as Leicas get more responsive (and, mirabile dictu, cheaper), the X-Pro1 (and actually, all of the X series) becomes less compelling (unless you are on a tight budget). So what if you tank X-Pro1 sales? They're not being made anymore, and Fuji has already dumped all of its inventory into the market, where new units selling at 40%+ off have killed the secondary market. It's time to make nice with the X-Pro1 user base. I'm sure I'm not the only X system owner who is starting to see the X-Pro2 as receding in the distance.

If you have the cash, the things that made an X-Pro1 a very compelling camera (as against an M8/9) are gone. In fact, the M 240 is way ahead of the Fujis (all of them) in many ways:

• Resolution: 24mp is the industry norm, and 16 is ok - but it is not really enough to do perspective correction.
  
• HSS (and general flash operation): the best Fuji flash is the EF-20 because disappointment has a low price tag. Unlike Leica, which shares at least the basic pinouts (ready, sync) with Nikon and Konica, the Fuji system uses a Canon connector and heaven knows what software. Whatever it is, it is painfully slow. How is it that luddite Leica and its handmaiden Metz managed to create a system that actually functions for daylight fill with a focal-plane shutter? German alchemy?
  
• Shutter lag: getting better, but it's definitely there on the X-Pro1.
  
• Battery life: it's time for the NP-W126 to be replaced with something better.
  
• Ability to use legacy lenses (particularly WA RF lenses). The Leica is able to detect lens focusing movement and automatically trigger magnification in the EVF. It also has offset microlenses that handle wides better (the Fuji visibly smears in the corners even on an APS sensor). Also, the huge sensor means that wides are wide.
  
• Variety of image processing software.
  
• Video: substandard with Fuji.
  
• 2-axis Artificial horizon leveling. When is Fuji going to defeat converging verticals?
  
• Menus: simpler on the Leica

I guess Fujis still have the weight advantage, right? I don't recall - it's been a couple of months that my X-Pro has been in the closet because it is far easier to shoot pictures of my kids with the Leica(!)

Sometimes I have wondered if Fuji's plan is really to sell lenses, not bodies, due to lower development costs and higher margins. So we get a barrage of lenses - most heavier, more provincial, and more expensive than anyone would have imagined for an APS-C camera @16MP - rather than making meaningful improvements to the actual imager. And they have Patrick at Fujirumors whipping people into Pavlovian frenzies about optics that aren't even practical to use with the (supposedly) top-of-the-line Fuji.

There is no conceivable technical impediment to putting PDAF or a 24Mp chip in the X-Pro1 (the X-Trans computations should be scalable - if you even need that pattern), and they already have a higher-res hybrid finder developed for the X-100T, so query what the real issue is. Fuji has never had difficulty cranking out a new EVF model for every tiny change.

/RANT

Dante

 

[noimmunity]

In several interviews over past year since the success of the XT-1, Fuji execs and reps have said that the X-Pro line is not dead, and that there will be a successor.

I understand the frustration about the delay in its release. Let's all give Fuji more pressure!

The comparison with the M Typ 240 is amusing. Yup, a camera released after the X-Pro1 specs better for many things ('cept of course AF, notably), at 5 times the price. Mirabile visu!

It's precisely because of people who talk about their Leicas by trivializing considerations like budget that I simply cannot feel surprised when that brand becomes a lightning-rod for criticism. Just as I cannot condone Leica-bashing, I also cannot condone this kind of dismissive attitude towards things that others may find compelling.

 

[MaxElmar]

I think what's going on with the X-P2 is that Fuji was surprised by selling many more copies of the X-T1 than expected. Many of us old timers cherish optical finders on rangefinder-style cameras, but it's a niche market within a small market. Younger folks like the DSLR look and EVF function. Not everyone likes the lens blocking a fair portion of the OVF - as most of the Fuji lenses do.

The strength of the Fuji systems are the excellent lenses coupled with accurate focussing. As a wise man named Dante once said "...the real battle is optical quality - and going to a closed-loop AF platform makes $600 Fujinons look a lot more like $4,000 Summiluxes in the final image."

So there's the Fuji value proposition for me, while I could afford some nice old rangefinders and C/V lenses, there's no way I'm going for a new digital body and multi-lens kit that cost the equivalent of a year of college tuition for one of my kids. Even an old X-E1 and a good XF lens kit delivers amazing value.

I believe we will see an X-P2, and it will be a great camera, but Fuji will always sell truckloads more X-T series and they will be the development priority.

 

[Dante_Stella]

Noimmunity, I love being over the top. And drama queen-ey. And I did mention the "price" no object part. But my point is that Fuji has managed to fall behind a number of runners, the slowest of which is Leica (btw, I believe the M was rolled out the same year the Xpro went on sale).

I think the "5x the cost" only works as a comparison if you are building a system from zero. And Fuji systems aren't exactly cheap. An X-Pro2, like its predecessor will be about $2,300 with a lens. Not chump change if you are starting a system from zero.

If you owned an M9 with lenses, an M would, after selling your old camera, run about $2,500-3,000 - not a lot more than the most basic X-Pro or X-T1 setup. People fixate on the cost of Leica bodies in a vacuum, but upgrading within Leica is not the horror show that is starting a Leica setup.

Dante

 

[noimmunity]

Noimmunity, I love being over the top. And drama queen-ey.

My saying "I cannot condone" injects a little dramatic, too, LOL!

 

[goamules]

A friend of mine who used to love macro photography with his OM-1 came by last week. He hasn't shot since the Great Film Die-off, about 10 years. He really liked the ability to use adapted lenses on my XE-1 that I showed him. He is semi-retired, on a fixed income. I told him he could get an XE-1 body for just $300 bucks or so (I haven't checked). He probably will.

Young college students and graduates similarly are enticed by a camera under $1,000. They scoff and wander off muttering about the "New World Order of 1%ers" or something when you show them a multi-thousand dollar Leica.

People like me are bottom feeders, I have the income, but like the Fuji technology one generation behind. We may be convinced to upgrade, to the newer products, when we are pleased with the older ones.

Fujis are priced right, and function right, for all socio-economic levels. Except very wealthy, who like to spend that wealth.

 

[noimmunity]

In a recent interview at the end of last year, Fuji Manager Mr. Iida Toshihisa responds to a question about camera life-cycle:

"Q: The cameras life-cycle is getting longer, isn’t it? are you going to expand the firmware update and parts exchange service?

Yes, the cycle is getting longer. We want to create devices that you can use longer.

The firmware updates will continue. And we want to experiment with parts exchange. For example, there are people who want lock buttons and people who don’t. I don’t think more frequent models changes would benefit anyone, clients, makers, retailers."

(source: http://www.fujirumors.com/fuji-mana...utter-x-trans-sensor-organic-sensor-and-more/)

It's interesting to note that Leica began it's foray into the digital era with the idea of a long-cycle body, but jettisoned that (and its CEO) quickly.

By contrast, Fuji are looking to make that part of the value-added proposition of their products.

 

[f16sunshine]

I wonder if I keep asking for leaf shutter lenses in these fuji threads.... will fuji actually deliver? 😀

Redesign your much maligned 60mm "macro" into a Leaf shutter 60mm f2.8 please Fuji!
Come on you can do it!

 

[nongfuspring]

The thing I really love, and it seems so Fuji (user-centric), is this: "Fuji Japan still analyses a program that user by pay some amount of $$ and can upgrade the part ... They hope user can use the model for longer time without refresh [update] model too fast."

This is definitely the most exciting part for me.

 

[GaryLH]

The first company in the digital camera age to do something similar was the Ricoh gxr.. It will be interesting to c w/ Fuji has in mind. From a FRU (field replaceable unit) perspective, I could c maybe
- main body
- sensor and mount unit
- maybe a ovf/evf unit
But anything that u can mix and match is going to add cost..so I can only c them doing this type of thing w/ their top of the line camera bodies.

Gary

 

[daveleo]

I have been wishing for years about paid-for software upgrades and/or open sourcing the Fuji camera OS for developers.
There was a thread on this a year or more back.

Fuji could write "code-for-cash" or they could license developers and turn them loose on the world. Imagine that you could order an a la carte menu system (as simple or as complex as you want to pay for) to download onto your camera.

There's a "new product" for you !

Dream dream dream