milandro

I am perplex. What does this Con-story have to do with some folks (several brands) selling a seemingly efficient product to clean camera sensor at a price that seems to disturb you? Con-men have always been there and so have expensive products. You can buy the gel stick or not if you find it too expensive. I don’t see the analogy with Mr. Martin Shkreli All I know is that, if I have the sensor cleaned it is going to cost me 2/3 or as much (depending where I go). The wet clean seems to me a little more dangerous and complicated. It costs a bit less but it doesn’t come for free.

then buy something else or have it cleaned

stable tripod are of course not always compatible. More so in the open air. There are aprons or bags to bring with you and actually fill with something that you find around like rocks or sand or water to make the sturdiness of your tripod better and use a lightweight tripod even in the wind (one of the causes of accidents smashing a camera with force to the ground!) I have three tripods and a monopod. A small Gorillapod clone ( costed peanuts, I added a linhof ball head that I had and modified it with a Chinese made arca swiss quick system), not very sturdy but at a pinch, very useful. A small but sturdy aluminum ancient Manfrotto 190 SHB with a Beike Arca Swiss compatible ball head ( I bought this at least 15 years ago, not carbon and very small, I use it everywhere) A rather large sold by Hama but made by Berlebach wooden ( ash) tripod with a pivoting, ball articulated, column and an Chinese made Arca Swiss compatible head ( this configuration needs no ball head). This is rather heavy but it would place your camera at 2,5 m from the ground and still be very sturdy. I have used this tripod with my 8” x 10” Tachihara and many 4" x 5“ and it worked perfectly. I even had a much heavier Fatif and Cambo tripods which I only used in the studio.

I wonder what changed in the meantime

Well, you know the story of the guy who comes to fix your telly, he takes a little hammer and hits it in a corner, the telly works immediately and he says that it will be alright for another 5 years and then he asks $100. You look at him as if he was crazy and say “ What !?, $100 for hitting the telly with an hammer, I could have done that! “ and the guy looks at you and says “ Ah! But unlike you, I knew where to hit it!” If you have a piece of gel that does the work and doesn’t wreck your camera, please, do it! Nobody has to buy these gel sticks, it is after all not compulsory, so it is hardly a “ rip off" but what’s the alternative? Having your sensor cleaned, in my neck of the woods, once only, would cost 2/3 of that amount of money. So cleaning the sensor with a gel stick, appears to be rather simple affair and one that you can use at least 20 times. (both products talked about before are shown in the following videos I find the second video more explicative though) @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxKb_OqV7ng @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fetJfPILU3o Wet cleaners are interesting for some application where the gel stick might fall short BUT... Having learned that the Sony/Fuji/mirrorless cameras has a coating that is incompatible with the gel used for the Nikon sensor, what makes you think that the cleaner would be good for the Fuji sensor? @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrahdr5eqqY @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFgSchx54og

The 12mm f2 is really a spectacular lens and not only “ for the money”. The lack of autofocus or OIS is really, only, a theoretical limitation.

The gel cleaner that you were talking about is only $54.99 hardly breaking the bank. Wow, that’s intense! It saddens me to hear that you’ve sent this camera for repairs under warranty and they didn’t think of taking care of this for you. If there was anything to be charged they could have called you, I assume they had your telephone number to get your authorization to give it a clean. It would have taken them minutes and you would now be singing the song of praise and be forever grateful. ( in my other hobby, saxophone playing, if I bring my instrument to the tech to do a certain repair I expect him to give it a general check up and if he finds something else that I wasn’t aware of to repair it and only if this would be of a serious nature to call me and ask if I agree to pay some extra to cover unforeseen repairs) This of dirt on the sensor is certainly one of the worst nightmares associated to digital photography.

how about the legal issues? Anyone knows?

Thanks @Casa. Any images ( preferably with and without focal reducer) which you would like to share? I am very intrigued by the concept that pictures with the turbo adapter might look better than with a simple adapter. I didn’t consider this initially but after you’ve mentioned that, I’ve given this some thought. It might be explained with the fact that sensors (unlike film for which these lenses were made) deal rather badly with deflected light coming at an angle on their surface and deal much better with light rays as perpendicular as possible. By reducing the focal length, the various focal reducers, also reduce the size and the angle of the image circle hence “ straightening" the deflection causing the resulting image to be sharper despite adding glass (which is always going to be detracting from a lens because of added among other things, dispersion). Of course the better the glass (e.g. low dispersion and other things) you add the better this would be. Which, ideally would call for a comparative test between the various adapters with high resolution images. One that I haven’t found, yet, on line. However this might be more true with regard to the center of the image than it is at its corners, which, by the very nature of this idea that sensors deal badly with light coming at an angle, are always at certain disadvantage anyway. I wonder if it wouldn’t be possible ( WARNING: I have no idea if this is at all possible!) for Fuji to capitalize on this adapter market ( which, let’s admit it, might in fact take something away from their potential sales although adaptive photography is not for everyone) by producing, if this is at all possible, something inspired to the Pentax teleconverter (yes I realize that a teleconverter in not the same as a focal reducer) which came out in the early stages of autofos photography and which made ordinary lens to be somewhat autofocus. In other words you could take a Fuji made focal reducer with electrical contacts with the camera, put it in between your camera and a “ legacy” lens and have it shift inside to focus the image. I don’t often engage in fantasy world creations but I’ll indulge myself this time .

well, there is no harm in trying the ( right one!) with the gel first and then go for the wet cleaning if the gel is not doing what you need.

I’ve never used either one of these but I am getting ready to probably clean with one of these the sensor of a friend of mine coming back from holidays with quite some case of sensor dust. In the instructional videos they say that the gel is good for most things but they say that the longer you leave things on your senso the more difficult it becomes to remove it and that for something that has been there for a really long time you will need a wet clean . Good Luck, keep us updated.

I was wondering if there were FR forum members willing to share their experience with this gizmo. I have been wandering about both the quality of the images compared to the much more expensive Metabone speedboster and about the quality of the manufacture, in particular how good the bayonet is ( any chance the Mitakon might shave some metal?). I was wondering if anyone had any for sale and why.

this could explain why, in the Netherlands, we haven’t really seen the price of the X-E2 being brought any lower than the one of the X-T10 ( they are sold if we can say so, at the same price which means that nobody is buying any X-E2 anymore), so, if the performance of the AF will be brought at the same level of the X-T10 that would relaunch this model that hs been suffering very much by the introduction of the more advanced X-T10.

The lens kit is often a reflection of many and different needs and a few prejudices too. After a while one finds out that some lenses are use all the time and others are hardly ever used. I used to have 8mm samyang fisheye, 10-24, 35, 60, 50-230 after 1,5 year with this kit I did find that I hardly ever used the 10-24 at anything else than 10mm and for that reason decided to sell it because I could still get a good sum of money for it. I also decided to do the same with the 35mm because although I loved it and used it much, it was evident to me that I didn’t use it nearly as much at 1.4 as most people do and that this lens was going to have, sooner or later, some sort of remake. So I reformed my kit this way 8mm fisheye, 12mm Samyang, 18-55mm, 60mm, 50-230mm. Selling the 10-24 and the 35mm gave me a differential amount of money which I’ve set aside for the possible upgrade of body or lenses along the way. I could, at a pinch, pack the camera and two lenses 18-55 and 50-230 and go for a trip traveling light, if I had to add something else then the 12mm would go with it to shoot all super wide situations. The 8mm and the 60mm are not, strictly speaking, indispensable nor would the 35mm be if I ever decide to buy the 35mm f2 (or anything else which Fuji hasn’t yet released such as a new 35 f1.4). I don’t care for WR lenses though. If I would then the 18-135 would be a great all purpose lens, despite its size and cost. I wouldn’t worry too much about the light efficiency of the lens since one of the strongest point of the Fuji system is the great quality at high ISO.

As pointed out in the other thread, you are only partially right about gel cleaners not being fit for Fuji, because apparently at least SOME brands have a version for “ normal” sensors AND a version for Sony-Fuji mirrorless camera sensors https://photographylife.com/product/sensor-gel-stick-for-sony “........One of the best solutions for keeping your Sony and Fuji digital camera sensors clean! This sensor gel stick is designed specifically for Sony SLT and Alpha mirrorless cameras, but will also work equally well on Fuji mirrorless cameras. ..." I am adding my post on the other thread here, although I am against double posting of the same content because someone might miss all of what I have found out by a little research on line

Interesting @MrPolite, thank you, but confusing and worrying at the same time. As shown in the video above, that person is reviewing the blue gel Eyelid product and using it on a X-E2. Eyelead has an Orange gel stick too where they say: “ for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus - do not use for Sony mirrorless cameras." for Eyelead , the Orange gel is NOT fit for Sony and Fuji while the blue APPARENTLY ( IS THIS SO? ARE WE SURE ABOUT IT?) MIGHT be ( Be careful !!!!) Very confusing! However the product that you are talking about, bearing the warning on which sensor to use it or not, doesn’t appear to be the Eyelead gel sensor cleaner but something else. Cannot read the label or even see that there is one but it seems to be this PL photography life, own brand. In that case they have the blue gel which, as you say, is NOT fit for Fuji But... “........Product Advisory: Sony’s and Fuji’s proprietary coating technology on its mirrorless cameras might cause the Sensor Gel Stick to leave some residue on the surface of the sensor filter, which will require thorough wet cleaning. The residue can be removed with a wet cleaning solution, but might take significant effort to clean it. Therefore, we recommend that you do NOT use the Sensor Gel Stick on Sony and Fuji mirrorless cameras ........" BUT! Please note that the same site that you are quoting (PL) with the warning on using the blue gel for mirrorless camera has another product which they say is specific for Sony and other mirrorless cameras including FUJI. This one is an orange gel stick. https://photographylife.com/product/sensor-gel-stick-for-sony “... One of the best solutions for keeping your Sony and Fuji digital camera sensors clean! This sensor gel stick is designed specifically for Sony SLT and Alpha mirrorless cameras, but will also work equally well on Fuji mirrorless cameras...."

very nice! I always thought that the X-T1 reminded me of the LX

Interesting! the newest camera in their intermediate segment of the interchangeable lenses cameras has given them the best results although they are saying that this happened in a market that is still shrinking rather than expanding as witness by the following phrase which is formulated in a rather peculiar way ( my reading, I might be wrong...). “ In the electronic imaging business, while sales decreased due to the shift to high-end models, the sales of premium digital cameras X Series were strong. Fujifilm is going to further expand sales by strengthening a lineup of high-value- added interchangeable lenses. " and they reiterate with ​“ In the electronic imaging field, the sales volume of digital camera largely decreased due to the shift to high- end models, compared with the previous year. On the other hand, the sales of X Series especially the new product FUJIFILM X-T10 were favorable" ​So, are they saying ( my words ): “ Because we decided to go for the higher end of the market and , as a whole, this segment has lost revenue, we sold less cameras that we would have wanted to, however despite selling less cameras, the one that sold the most was the X-T10" If that is what they are saying ... I wonder what this would imply for the future high end sector since they say “ Fujifilm is going to further expand sales by strengthening a lineup of high-value- added interchangeable lenses. " Does this mean?, (my words again )”... because we saw that the cameras in the intermediate segment under $1000 sold the most, we are gpoint to put more energy in this rather than in the higher segment"

beautiful, enjoy!

In my mind ( twisted as it might be) a luxury is a hobby that costs money and you do for fun and that is not a strict necessity for your life. A way to indulge to please oneself. As a kid I’ve heard a proverb which influenced my life henceforth : “ If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy roses for your heart”. The meaning of this phrase is easy. The first loaf are the necessities, you need those to live, the second loaf are things you don’t need for your physical life but things which make your life better. I appreciate and value all those things because I understand the fact that if I can do this I am certainly privileged and very fortunate compared to the so many people in the world who don’t have time and money for a hobby, a passion to cultivate. I call all these things a luxury, because I respect them and understand that there are many more people on Earth who don’t have them than there are people who do. My reference to the limited editions was simply to show that Fuji, like Leica ( but in a slightly cheaper segment), has more than a passing attention for introducing a product like this before the holidays because many of the customers are people who are likely to be buying a product like this as a present for themselves or someone else among their dear ones. Indulging into buying a luxury product. Having a certain experience with marketing myself, I set myself amongst these folks who would spend a sum of money to treat oneself to buy something which, strictly speaking, they don’t need to buy but something they want to own. One could argue that the majority of Fuji users are, instead, all professionals who need this new camera (although they probably already have one or more) and any other part of the system for their livelihood. That might be true for some but, by and large, the majority camera users are doing this for fun and, not unusually, have cameras in manyfold already. But maybe Fuji will introduce this in January, so people have one more month to save......... who knows? Does anyone?

A polarizer can only work on light coming from a certain direction (angle), relative to the surface that you want to polarize. Not all objects respond the same way to the use of a polarizer, metal or mirrors reflections cannot be reduced by using a polarizer. read this, it will tell you all you need to know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filter_(photography)

and it is not even very expensive! That kit is a Kenko 39mm Max PL Kit and costs a very reasonable $29, which, seen the dandy effect of it all, is as cheap as inexpensive fried potatoes!

@danwells of course the sales of a special model in limited series are a minority market, nevertheless, to acquire a window at Harrods is a huge commercial score for any brand. Makes people talk of you and ultimately sell cameras. Again, the majority of the photographers using any camera system are, obviously, people whom don’t really need to use any camera and are buyers of relatively luxurious items liek those who buy hi-fi or other things that most of us could do without. Anyone who’s ever sold anything knows that these items are sold best before the holidays and not after. I really would like to see @Patrick FR starting a poll to know who are the Fuji users. I have a pretty good hunch but I’d like to see it confirmed by data.

I suppose we both have ridiculous thoughts then, just not the same, feel feel to ignore them. If you find my thoughts ridiculous there is no point to elaborate any further at least not with each other.

I am sure that someone at Fuji has precise statistics showing that the majority of their customers are people who aren’t professional photographers and that own more than one camera and often more than one camera system. This system wasn’t made for a pro and pretty many were sold from Harrods, a place where few pro’s ever bought their cameras. For this people you need to introduce the new camera before of December. I am sure that Fuji looks at these customers very favorably.