milandro

It depends and comes down to what one is doing with photography. These days, compared to when I was a kid, there are many more things photographed and filmed that ever before, this has to do with the fact that now not only almost everyone has a camera build in his phone. Two examples when I was a 13 my father, uncle and I were on holiday and went fishing for conger eels at night. We got one which was particularly large, so we went to town, woke up the village photographer and asked him to take a picture of us to document the event. My wife has hardly any pictures of her life from teens to when she met me because nobody had an interest in photography in her circles, so, at most, she has pictures at some particular event but very little else. These days we all have images of everything that happens to us and to others easily recordable with a phone. But they are two different media. The phone-camera ( with few exceptions) is used to simply record events, the photographic camera is used to attempt to go at least one step further than simply recording events. I am not saying that all people are ever reaching this and plenty shoot snapshots even with a pro camera. I am sure that the majority of people do realize that. If you watch the dramatic images of the arrival of the refugees on the Greek shores, the first thi9ng they do is to shoot a picture of themselves and share it with their families, to tell them that they are safe. Unfortunately, the sad events of the day show us also that in Paris , a great many of people involved in the sad and dramatic events, used their phones to document and show what was going on. None of this ever happened before. Times are A changing

The original grip is 4 to 5 times more expensive that the grip which we are talking about and in case you want to shoot vertically you add yet another L plate to it ? To each his own but this is way too complicated for me. Yes the front of my grip is not rubberized but once the grip is there I never need to fiddle around with it.

The left door access is certainly possible with this grip but much depends on the kind of strap that you have on the camera. In my case what’s limiting the access of that door is not the grip but the leather circle op protection material for scratches, If I wouldn’t have that one there would be no problem with easy access but I do have it, my consolation is that I have no reason to use the door . As for material to improve your grip I would certainly not use clay, but I rather suppose you mean something like “ Sugru” , which is a kind of adhesive plasticine which can be formed into any shape, then is cured by air drying and once is dry is stable but at the same time one can remove it without to many problems. Sugru is a very good product which, I am afraid, unlike what happens in other countries, we in the NL cannot just buy at every corner of any street. I would prefer it to any other similar product because it is flexible and air cured. The Staedler Fimo clay is also good but it is best cured at a moderate heat in the oven and not all are soft to the touch. I honestly don’t like either one of them because the finished item, even if you are a gifted sculptor ( which I am afraid I am not) looks like a hack @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2GiLRBXux4 @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZDnP9Njx8w @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnjmJEo_xmI @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLbRQY_gvw @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3jkwMzrrY

...which is something one does frequently, unless using the wi-fi. As others have said, this is not just a passing fuss and not the only situation where you need taking the case off. What are you gonna do if you need to put your camera on a tripod? The OEM halfcase is a quarter case really, allowing card ( and some also battery) access but because of it being so small one has to wonder what the function of this thing would be? Since my post above I have exchanged the Sunaway grip for another and better one , I am rather satisfied with that one. I would just improve it with some anti-slip at the front.

Apologies but the interpretation of some emoticons such as this ninja one varies widely, yours looking like a ninja, gets many on the internet rather confused about it. I did speak about my bag ( which has been reviewed by me here ) http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/122-my-favorite-camera-bag-is/?p=576 where I explained the reason why I like such a big bag as opposed to the more customary messenger with dividers.

Everyone likes have things and I often indulge myself into buying things I don’t need. Indeed much of what makes life enjoyable is superfluous yet pleasant. But one needs to make choices and I’ll pass this time.

I agree, entirely my sentiments , nothing that I am hearing makes me feel the urge to break the piggy-bank

Well, at least for the time being, the rumors that I am hearing don't sound, to me, very exciting. Not enough,anyway, to make me want to desire any upgrade. So I guess, I’ll wait and keep on enjoying what I have, which, realistically is way more than what I need. I will urge myself and others to ponder on the eternal question whether to have is an addition to to be let alone an alternative. Acquiring yet again another black fuji box containing a generation 2 will not change much in what most people are or do with what they already have.

I gave no brand advise and only shared my experience and my way to reason.

I thought you wanted more “ reach"

you could use the tele converter but it would be really asking too much from this lens.

I don’t think it is possible to buy one bag that will fit all your needs all the time. Which is the reason why most people end up having more than one to cover for different situations. Yesterday I was in fact buying a small bag to cover for those moments when one or two lenses suffice and I have no need for all the extra space offered by the, admittedly, very large leather bag that I have. One of the reasons why I don’t like now, and never liked before in my entire career as a photographer, small bags is that you can indeed fit all you need there but you will need to pile up things, often in two layers, and of course you will see that when you need lens A, it will be under lens B or C so in order you take it out you either have to put something somewhere down or you would need to grow an extra pair of hands. I see a lot of people buying very beautiful messenger bags which really only fit a body with a lens on and one or two other lenses in one layer. Because people often tend to own more, if that’s all you have you will have to put some lenses on top of others, let alone another body with the body cap alone which you then quickly need to open and put a lens on should you ever need it, while taking all the things which are impairing access to the lens or the body. Unfortunately, also due to a small acquired disability, my finger top dexterity has been greatly diminished in the last few years, so I might easily drop something if I try to juggle all of these things at the same time. In other words my advise to you is to either reduce your needs to one or two bodies with two zoom lenses covering the widest possible range that you can afford, better if the two bodies each have the lenses permanently attached in order to minimize lens change, always a source of problems while on a trip. Otherwise you need a larger bag to carry all your equipment and a smaller one to carry the equipment that you will chose for the day. Always try to picture in your mind the operative situation and how would you really work with things in the field. You will now of course hear all sorts of brandnames ( Ona, Temba.....) from others advising you to do what they do, I am not going to do that because I am not you and you are not me. What I can share with you is an attitude, a way of thinking,and how to work out, for yourself, what the best bag (s) is (are) for you. Brands and types won’t help you much because they will reflect someone else’s needs and way to work with their equipment which might not be yours. Good luck!

I have the same grip and actually I have bought this after owning for quite some time the one made by Sunway which fell short in two important areas 1) the front grip was way too short and small 2) the access to the tilting screen ( which I hardly ever use though) is much more complicated in the Sunway while made easy on this other grip by having a part of the plate removed so that you can lift the screen easily Yes the fit is a little tight, but the grip has one bolt only to put the vertical plate on so it really works fine by removing that one first and then removing the base. I have elected to leave it on the camera permanently so I don’t perform this maneuver all that often. One addition was to add a pice of neoprene cut to size in the front bit where your middle finger goes.It would be nice, for grip purposes to find something to glue to the front grip to increase the actual grip since the bare aluminum is quite slippery. I wonder in fact if anyone has a solution to improve ant slip of this type of grip while still looking nice. Leather?

I love accessories and gadgets. Not so much that I would buy them all but enough to have started a thread here in order to show some curiosities. Some of these accessories are justified by the fact that we are not all built the same or use the cameras the same way but others are purely and simply something to make our pride possession reflect our own image by having a customized look. As said above. I bought the fuji halfcase for the X-E1 when I had it but I couldn’t bring myself to buy any halfcase for the X-T1 because of the way they are built offering an incredibly flimsy “ protection”. The protection offered even from the best of these generally very expensive accessories is, in the case of the X-T1, minimal at the very best while positively be “ in the way” when it comes to extracting the SD card. I love to give a leather look to the camera though and I would rather buy one of the kits made by Asahi http://www.aki-asahi.com/store/ than a not so useful halfcase an accessory which impairs my ability to slide the camera on a tripod head with arca-swiss-like system. that is...if there was one Asahi leather skin for the X-T1 ( it was promised some time ago, I don’t really know what’s keeping him)

Johan, companies look for minute ways to make a saving, Yamagisawa saxophone company produced a model where they put a Bb plastic spatula ( and few other things) to make it cheap enough for students. The main money saving in the case of the cheaper Fuji lenses are yes, the materials and the fact that these lenses are assembled in China rather then in Japan ( apparently also some of the more professional line are too but they are clearly indicated as such on the lens) like the 27mm. The plastic bayonet and transparent soft plastic cap of the 16-50 and 50-230 are the usual way to save money used by camera companies for years, you can easily change the cap and I think it is actually possible to replace that bayonet with another made of metal, provided you mount correctly the electric contacts. But I am not going to bother. someone made a youtube video of the exact combination that you are looking to use

what after the Holiday season? Don’t they believe in Santa or Chanukah lights?

enjoy!

The feel and construction of the lens are very good. It has no play and it doesn't feel cheap. I have actually had two copies of this lens. One I bought from someone who had bought it in a kit, then sold it(at cost) to a friend who wanted the lens but didn’t want to buy it from a stranger or buy a whole kit. He just cam back from a trip to Myamar and loved the lens. I bought a second copy as part of a kit with a X-E1, 18-55mm and 50-230. Kept the lenses and sold the body, new. Kamera Express has this set ( you have to search on their shop on line and tell them that they have to ppply the “ set” price otherwise they would try to sell you the separate parts. The entire KIT costs €699 for the black version! http://www.kamera-express.nl/product/12197858/fujifilm-x-e1-zwart-xf-18-55mm-xc-50-230mm-zwart/ You can find plenty of these lenses at €200 or less. If you buy a X-T10 with 16-50 and 50-230 both lenses only add €200 to the price of the camera! ( €999 but there is now a €100 but some shops will still sell the kit for €899 ). http://www.kamera-express.nl/product/12208573/fujifilm-x-t10-zilver-16-50mm-ois-ii-50-230mm-ois-ii/ Performance It focuses very fast because of the internal focussing even at the most extended focal length. When the new software came I tested the predictive tracking focussing with this lens. ( a function that is really not important for me) but it worked just fine. The OIS of the version 1 is very good but they say that the version 2 has an even better one. Version 2 has also a shorter minimum focal distance but those things are of little to no importance to me. I have the 60mm macro after all. It feels rather solid to the touch and use. I have used this lens on a X-M1 ( which I am sure wasn’t better than the X-E1 a camera that I’ve also had and which I had to bring back to the shop, they gave me the X-M1 as a body to borrow while my camera went for a long and useless roundtrip to Germany where it was supposed to be repaired but wasn’t, which is why I exchanged it for a X-T1) You are welcome to come and try any time Johan

The 23mm is not weather sealed anyway. So all that weather sealing disquisition doesn’t apply to this case anyway. The guarantee in most countries in the world is only one year. Even if you reside in Europe but you’ve bought this from an online vendor, the guarantee applicable would only be the Fuji own international guarantee, which is, also, 12 months. In the EU you are correct to say so, the general criteria are that a camera or a lens has a minimum of 2 years guarantee, BUT, despite the European law saying they should’t , the UK vendors have taken the view that UK residents are only allowed a 1 year guarantee ( this has been fought successfully in the local courts) but the UK might soon leave the EU anyway so this could rapidly become academic. However in most countries of the world the guarantee is only one of the many criteria which protect the consumer. In the Netherlands, for example, the guarantee is 24 months but in actual fact it extends ( and the problem is that it is not ruled by a specific norm) to the foreseeable and expectable life of any product. In the case of electronics one could successfully say it is 3 to 5 years. There are however exceptional circumstances. If the product shows (even past the guarantee) that the whole or a part fails because of a factory defect, no matter the fact that the guarantee has expired the product should be repaired or replaced. This is the concept, enforcing it is a totally different matter. So, what the abrasive matter in the lens is, we don’t know. OP tells us he has never exposed the camera to unusual circumstances. He sent the camera out for repair NOT based on the abrasive matter. He was given the camera back, no repair, because of this foreign abrasive stuff. Several Fuji buyers have reported (I was one too) specs of material (often black appearing as plastic shavings) inside NEW lenses. How can this happen? Something is clearly not the way it should be. The repair shop has all interest not to do anything but the Fuji head office might take a different view on the matter and expend their magnanimity to this case.

Not if they are very light efficient but they are still modestly priced if you are talking of a 24mm f2.8 M42

esplain that the camera has never been exposed to any strange materials and that you haven’t bought the cream of the crop of the Japanese production to be let down with the words, sorry we are not going to do anything for you. Certainly appeal to their sense of Japanese professional honor and pride and the famous reputation of Japanese for always being of service to the honored customer.

the fact that another lens performed without condensation says not too much about the fact that this might be condensation, I strongly believe it is.

well, abrasive material covers just about anything solid but how could “ abrasive material” in nature not be “ sand” of some sort. I wouldn’t just let this go after all this is not a normal thing to happen to anyone who wasn’t in a sandstorm. I would get in touch with the head office in Japan and demand explanations. If you don’t ask you don’t get, other ones asked and got thing they didn’t expect to get. https://contact.fuji...1477.1432290617 I have already applied for the position of Fuji ombudsman.

condensation inside the lens or on the sensor? Astro-Photographers have painful experience of this all too common phenomenon at night read this http://mattjanowsky.com/astrophotography-timelapse-test/

If one needs to do that this is absolutely news to me! I have never had any ill effect from not removing battery and lens but who knows that why my pictures are not what I would like them to be! Seriously, I have no idea of why this should be done but we carry things around mounted and nothing happens I don’t see how anything wrong would happen if they were standing still with battery and lens on.