milandro

pretty much my feeling too. The liberating feeling that I experience from having a relatively small camera ( although I made it bigger with an L plate & grip ) is second to none. As I wrote above. I bought a 16-55 and quickly reminded my why I didn’t want it. Yes it might have been better than the 18-55 and certainly wider but all that weight made me really doubt that I was going to use the camera as casually. Similarly the “ necessary” grip for the X-T2, yes you may not use it but then two important (for some) plus of this camera ( 4K and autofocus speed) are not supported or well supported. I think the brand has made a choice and that choice is opening a new market segment where they can be a leader rather than occupying a crowded market place. This may mean that in the smaller formats, things will take a step back too, returning Fuji in a market segment ( the small affordable mirrorless system camera with smaller affordable lenses at an higher quality than any other brand in that market segment at a better price than SONY) where they have been a leader in the last 3 or 4 years. As long as the brand has an identity and pursues it, it will keep its market leadership in the mirrorless segment and I believe that as soon as it starts giving mixed messages about what the brand is all about this will spell problems because it puts this camera in direct competition with brands with larger experience and resources.

isn’t it what the internet ( blogging or anything else ) these days is all about? Interent started as an anarchic ( as in no powers controlling it) idealistic phenomenon and it has progressively become a playing field dominated by interests of sorts. Being politic or economic interest. It might have not be the reason why they all started doing what they do, but it is certainly the way it goes. If someone spends time and puts work into publishing they want to see a return of some sort some time. So, pushing a product might not necessarily mean they get paid by Fuji to do so ( that would be being a shill ) ,l but generates traffic and followeres, the more thraffic and more followers you have the more you are worth of the internet market. There are bloggers ( facebookers, instagrammers and so on) who don’t have any other source of income than their internet publishing. Like is a supermarket, we look around, pick what we need or are told we need ,we buy and we pay , in the end we all do. Tanstaafl ( there is not such thing as a free lunch). .

Possibly. However it has come to my attention the overwhelming fact that the main preoccupation of Fuji rumors and its members is the GFX, they are absolutely not alone in this. http://www.fujirumors.com/?s=GFX http://www.scoop.it/t/fujifilm-x-pro1-x-e1-x100s?q=GFX While there is no doubt that this camera and its lenses are a new and impressive achievement, the fact that I know that this camera and its lenses won’t be the object of my concrete desire ( and I suppose of most of us, unless there are all lottery winners here) puts me slightly off reading the hosannas everywhere. Also, I find this slightly disturbing ( not so much as disturbance in the force but maybe in the farce or perhaps soap opera) because although it might show that they are following the market, I can’t help thinking that perhaps that they are trying to influence the market into buying the largest, (maybe) best, biggest AND most expensive camera that Fuji sells. There is a number of pros whom most certainly need this new tool, and if I were still active in the profession, I would certainly consider a medium format digital camera (although I would go for the Hasselblad). But the fact of the matter is that the reviewers are going to be instrumental to a number of amateurs of modest photographic ability buying a camera they don’t need to do the often mediocre images which they take ( and not those great ones which they don’t and only dream about ). Pretty much the same that it happened with the X-T2...some of these upgraded their camera but, frankly speaking, when you see the pictures they take with it (or took before), they might as well have shot them with their phones ( which some, by the way, keep showing off in their messages here) for all their proficiency let alone aesthetics. These people don’t need a GFX but some will undoubtedly buy one. Not bad for Fuji though! Maybe that is going to boost even more the content of their koffers.

Maybe they are all concentrating into testing the new Giant Fuji X? I am curious. What exactly disturbs you? There are very few people who do any “ scientific” testing anyway so they maybe testing this lens as we speak. Do you think they aren’t doing it because there is something to hide or simply because they cannot possibly test everything and they are prioritizing the things that are bound to attract more traffic on their sites? Isn’t this what drives their testing? Generating traffic therefore revenue? Could it be that the 50mm f2 is less “ sexy” to review, in “ scientific" depth, than, say, the GFX? In general, even on this board here, I see that they interest in many things Fuji, is driven by the introduction of new items. When more than an item is put on the market, the reviewers ( the independence of whom is always been object of questions) always go for the more expensive items compared to the cheap(er) ones. Could it be that this is the reason?

if you put side by side a generic adapter to an almost equally costing K&F you will see and feel the difference really. Saving a couple of bucks isn’t worth it. http://www.ebay.nl/itm/M42-to-Fuji-X-K-and-F-Concept-Lens-To-Fuji-X-Mount-Camera-Adapter-/142281675525?hash=item2120a61305:g:ed8AAOSwnHZYfV2H

it is affecting it because it is changing the system into something else that originally wasn’t. I chose this system because of its small size but everything ( lenses and camera) is getting ginormous because of the demand for things that are foreign to the initial thought of the system. Anyway, It is quite clear, to me, that Fuji is making a different choice. I have been a pro for over 30 year and now I would like to enjoy photography with a great system small and compact and not too expensive hence my dislike of the forces pulling in an opposite direction. The GFX is gaining a lot of support but it won’t be mine (see also this forum talking of the new kid on the block more than it does about anything else these days). It is quite fine by me. I am not interested in that game and if I were I’d go Hasselblad.

Probably, and that is, I think, a good thing. So those who can’t live with the X system and its limitations, will let the rest of us ( those who can and like things to stay as they are) enjoy the X cameras as they were meant to be. Small, affordable high quality cameras with small high quality affordable lenses built around a small affordable sensor. Which is how the Fuji X system was born and made this brand return to a successful camera and lenses production. If you want large camera, large sensor, large output, large lenses and a large price to match, then you have another more expensive system. The GIANT FUJI X Enjoy that and... to each his own.

spanner menu 1. screen settings. access IMAGE DISP.Choose how long images are displayed after shooting. Colors may differ slightly from those in the final image and “noise” mottling may be visible at high sensitivities. CONTINUOUS Pictures are displayed until the MENU/OK button is pressed or the shutter button is pressed halfway. To zoom in on the active focus point, press the center of the rear command dial; press again to cancel zoom. 1.5 SEC/0.5 SEC Pictures are displayed for 1.5 seconds (1.5 SEC) or 0.5 seconds (0.5 SEC) or until the shutter button is pressed halfway. OFF Pictures are not displayed after shooting. READ the manual, really.

I recently bought ( and then returned ) the 16-55, the reason why I returned the lens was a malfunction but having this lens caused me to ponder about the apparent dichotomy that the fuji system is currently living through. This system started as a reasonably priced, high quality, SMALL camera & lenses system, which built its successes around a small sensor performing well above its size. There were limitations but they were deemed merely acceptable trade-offs, at least this was the attitude by the first generation of fuji users with respect of the size of camera and lenses and their price. Last but not least, the cameras were appealing people whom were seeking a camera looking rather more to a camera of the past (like in “ operating like a classic camera") rather than to a camera of the future. A camera and a lens system that was not trying to keep up with Nikon, Canon and Leica, but a camera a a lens system doing pretty much their own thing. Something of its own. So, at least in the beginning, this camera therefore suited a category of middle aged, old-fashioned photographers or, paradoxically, of young hipsters alike. These people made the fortune of a brand, a brand that was struggling to sell cameras before they started doing the new X cameras. And few years down the line? Now It is getting increasingly difficult to recognize the fundaments of the Fuji system in the current (and perhaps future) production. First of all the camera. All of a sudden users were demanding things that the camera newer had. 4K filming and faster focus came at a huge price. The new X-T2 yes is capable of this but only with the power grip providing more power ( you need the new batteries b.t.w.) and at the same time dissipating the heat generated by the processor ( which was never designed to perform like this). The power grip dimensions and weight make now this camera almost in DSLR territory. 24Mp was a must ( I am still baffled by why). A conditio sine qua non, although few people ever print their pictures and hardly ever at their maximum allowable size. Lenses are growing is size and weight (nullifying the size advantage of the camera system over a DSLR) and users are demanding OIS, ISIS , apertures of 1.4 and above... All this will increase weight even more, size and price. In actual fact if Fuji would listen to all the pleas and prayers we would have a camera that would be twice as big and twice as expensive . Like the more expensive Nikon and Canon. The largest camera with small size sensor in the world! Of course it needs touch screen and more menu’s and all sorts of modern things. They all have it after all! Instead of competing being different, they are demanding Fuji to compete being the same. Which was precisely what Fuji tried before, with NO succes! Of course now we need a 35mm f0.85! Of course we need a Macro lens 1:1 90mm with OIS and f1.8!... The question is... would it still be the Fuji system that I liked? Hardly. Someone wrote an article saying the reason he didn’t upgrade to the X-T2 is the Fuji GFX ( GIANT FUJI X) exactly ... a different camera, for a different public. Please please Mr. Fuji, don’t make this the largest and most expensive system around a small sensor in the world, please, will you?

precisely, they are dong their own thing, and they are doing very well. When they tried to keep up with the Jones’ they were doing very bad.

all the major brands defined, at some point, even micro lenses that, without an extension tube, couldn’t reach 1:1 ( I have had both the Micro Nikkor and the Macro Pentax both only gave us 1:2 and the macro for 6 x 7 was even less). Fuji has’t been able to cater for all the wishes of all the photographers nor, I think, has tried to do that. They have provided equipment for a niche market, which is doing very well. I don’t think that there is a widespread demand for such a lens... or they would have done it in over 5 years. However it will be ready when it is ready. Not a day before, not one later.

but we are not talking of bread. I have to think of the famous “ Bread and roses “ story Even if you are winning your bread with photography I am sure that you can use the 60mm or another macro lens while you wait.

this is as close as you are going to get to “ inside information" http://www.fujirumors.com/?s=80mm But again, Fuji doesn’t answer ( as any other company wouldn’t) any emails with questions, prayers, or wishes concerning their coming production. This is why there are several rumor fora, blogs, sites, all to quench the thirst for information. In the end even these sites don’t know. They are only told what the company want to tell them to keep the attention on themselves. As for the 1:1 , do you really think that, if there were no reasons why to make one, they would have deliberately be waiting over 5 years halting this lens for fun? Don’t you think that they have a good reason not to? In the end you and all the others whom “ can’t wait” will have to wait. As always one gets there when one gets there.

I had the 18-55 and now I have the 16-55. A great lems but not an easy lens, you know that already the 18-135 is too long ( for me) and I’d rather have a wider lens than a longer one.

trees and shrubs

a field of view

and me, if you read my post.

good for you

using any professional camera in program mode is like driving a formula 1 with an automatic gearbox. The whole point of using a camera like the X-T2 is to be in control. I don’t shoot manual because it is simply too slow for what I do but if I want the camera to prioritize aperture then I put it into Aperture priority automatism, read the shutter speed and adjust accordingly the aperture ( if the outcome isn’t favorable) or (and increasingly so these days since the incredible performance with high ISO) the ISO. Whichever program you use you will always have to modify because the camera will always make choices that you wouldn’t appreciate, so, if you like aperture to be more significant, choose Aperture priority.

thanks, found a SIGMA but tit is not mine, I think. I am happy for what I have to do with what I’ve got

yes, they do that often, of course being a very small item this helps. Interesting the achromatic lenses. I have found one Sigma Achromatic macro lens too but it appears to be just a close up filter like many others there is no indication of its dioptric correction. Maybe I will find something better one day. Macro photography is not something I practice a lot but it is nice to have some extra macro capability.

I'm happy to hear that you got this in the end. I am personally very happy with it especially for the reason that I can use it both for macro and to adapt lenses without any helicoid. Lately I use it also on an Helios which had lost the last part of the focussing barrel (still has the internal helicoid) and in this way is adapted to Fuji and focusses very easily too. Of course there are disadvantages in using an helicoidal extension macro tube since the light diminishes with the square of the distance you are pretty soon losing light like hell ( at the speed of light!) when you get very close. Did you have to pay any tax?

No, I am sure that they would have to pay considerable royalties to the proprietary system design OWNED by Arca Swiss, royalties that are , shall we say, “ forgotten” by the Chinese makers. ARCA SWISS is a proprietary system, Fuji couldn’t simply, as the Chinese makers do, forget to pay Arca, for the privilege. (look it up, it is a proprietary system), RRS for example is expensive because they pay the royalties and also the brand that you suggest above, given its price, does that too, hence the price. There isn’t much free I am afraid when it comes to proprietary systems.

how does this differ from Montreal night in winter?

As written and shown above, there are literally hundreds of plates and plate makers to chose from and many are of the same quality if not better, than some expensive ones. I have, for example, modified my tripod head and acquired a new arca clamp which was better than the original one. This arca compatible clamp was easily mounted and then I use a number of plates to mount many other accessories, They exist in all manner of sizes and manufactured in all sorts of quality. Consequently one has an enormous choice. This for example is a UK importer. http://www.ebay.nl/itm/QR-120-Clamp-Adapter-For-Quick-Release-Plate-1-43-8Arca-SWISS-RSS-Tripod-/282340528020?hash=item41bcce8f94:g:CfYAAOSw241Yi2Oc This only costs £15. Doing a little of homework pays great dividends in this field. Anyway one may go immediately to the easiest and readily available brands at the shop around the corner, so one could spend hundreds ( choose the currency at will) for an original Arca Swiss plate and tripod head to follow suit, and although they are beautifully made they perform more and less at the same level than so many and so much cheaper accessories would. I for one, attempt being frugal and resourceful ( as I always endeavor to be) and if possible seek the best solution choosing accessories among the makers of, cheap as inexpensive fries, photographic accessories. In this way I’ve saved lots of money.