Jürgen Heger

On cameras without dedicated ISO dial like the E-1/2/2s, T-10/20,and Pro-1 the exposure compensation dial could make a kind of ISO dial in full manual mode. As the EV compensation dial has no other function we would not miss anything by this. Edit: Typo corrected

My E2s does not switch the LCD on or off when I press at the back. I just tried.

Unfortunately I do have neither a Pro 2 nor a T2 so I cannot answer the original question. But I think the discussion is drifting away from the original question. Therefore I would like to encourage my fellow forum readers to come back to the original question. Are the SOOC images of the Pro2 as good as those of the Pro1 regarding waxy skin tones. What ever quality level this means compared to other cameras. It is not a question what X-Trans can or cannot do what Beyer can or cannot do. It is also not a question if skin tones only occur on portrait shots and if it is wise to take pictures of people at high ISO.

Many thanks for the explanation. BTW, I like the 'Hogwarts' shot, a nice combination of fore and background.

@Warwick: Hogwarts?

Interesting title

My start combo would be 18-55 50-230 23/1.4 I am not sure if they are within the same budget. But I use my zooms at day light most of the time. The 23/1.4 is for low light. This is more or less how I started with my first X camera, an E-1. In fact I have the 56-200. But from what I have read about the 50-230 has a very good image quality. A couple of months after the zooms I bought the 23/1.4 and the 18/2 at the same day but the 18/2 did not get much use. Not because it is bad but because it is only one stop faster than the zoom and for low light it is always the 23/1.4.

a) It should be possible to read and reset the sensor multiple times during one exposure and combine the pictures in the camera. This could give RAWs with more bits and a higher dynamic range and would allow a lower base ISO. However, with ES the T2 is limited to 14 frame per second. So may be this technique could be used for shutter speed of a 1/2 second and slower. The additional time for the read out would not increase the total exposure time significantly and motion blur would not be affected. So at least in the case where people want a long exposure time at bright sun light to get the soft look of moving water this would help. Of course you could also take 4 pictures and combine them in software. But this would be more work and you can't see the result on location. In same cases it would be sufficient if the exposure measurement would always measure the brightest spot and adjust the exposure to avoid blown out high lights. I think the biggest problem is the definition of sharp. In analog times the circle of diffuson should be smaller than 1/1500 of the diagonal of the picture. But this corresponds to 3 to 6 mega pixel. So on a 24 MP camera the depth of field is much smaller than the marks on a lens from analog times would suggest. So the user had to define what is sharp enough for him.

So dpreview brought us back to the ground. The T2 may rule its class of mirror less cameras but the champion of all classes is still found among the DSLRs with the D500. Of course, at one point I will buy the T2 anyway. T1 and E2s are good enough for most what I do. So the T2 will be good enough as well and will bring some improvement in the AF department and a little bit in the low light department. But it also looks like sensor technology is moving only slowly at the moment. Depending on the review is the T2 only 1/2 to 1.5 stops better than the T1 even if the higher resolution is used in post processing to reduce the noise. And also the latest Nikon D5 and Canon 1DX 2 do not improve the low light performance of their predecessors significantly. So the T2 will likely not be my last camera... So more fun for the comming years.

Your last comment is not what we want to read here :-) But seriously, do you think the D500 is much better at low light? The images at dpreview do not look that different.

@flysurfer:"adapted lens exposure bug"??? Would you like to provide a link if you can?

Least used is the 18mm. Not because the lens is bad but it somehow sits between other lenses that I use for a particular reason. The 18-55 is my sight seeing/street/reportage or what ever you call it lens at day light. I like the flexibility of the zoom. In low light situations I use the 23/1.4 for the same purpose. The Samyang 12mm is used in narrow space or other situations when I want it wider. So in any situation where I could use the 18mm I have another one which I prefer. And personally I believe the difference in size between the 18mm and the 18-55mm does not make any difference in inconspicuousness. Any tourist with a cheap DSLR has a zoom that is bigger than the 18-55mm. So the 18-55mm does not look more serious. And even the cheapest and smallest point and shot will be noticed if people don't like that you take a picture. Another little used lens is the 56/1.2. Again nothing wrong with the lens for me but I simply do not shoot that many portraits as I thought I would. Finally I am not sure if I will use the 55-200 in the future a lot since I have the 150-400.

May be an explanation helps to understand why 1/180 is not needed. Typically shutter speed steps are in a way that the time when the shutter is open is cut in half with every step. So typical steps are 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 and so on. You may have noticed that the 1/120 is rounded to 1/125 same as 1/16 becomes 1/15. You see that 1/180 is not part if the standard steps. But you have it on the T1 as there it is the shortest shutter speed where the shutter is completely open. In fact the shutter consist of two curtains. Curtain 1 is fixed on one side of the sensor window. It is closed before you press the shutter button. So no light will reach the sensor. Curtain 2 is fixed on the other side and is open. When you press the shutter button curtain 1 will open, thus letting light to the sensor. After the selected shutter time curtain 2 will close. If a very short shutter time was selected curtain 2 will start closing before curtain 1 has fully opened. In this case the window is never completely open. This way you can provide very short exposure times with relatively slow moving curtains. But in this case when you are using a flash which typically has a very short duration it can never illuminate the complete sensor. So the highest speed where the window is completely open is the fasted shutter that you can use with a flash besides with those modern flashes that provide High Speed Shutter (HSS) function. Obviously the curtains of the T1 are not fast enough for 1/250s so the 1/180s was introduced between the standard steps as the fasted speed for flash synchronization. The T2 has faster moving curtains and therefore can provide 1/250s as flash sync speed.

The 50-140 even without TC is not really below Jon Porter's $1,000 price point but that combination may be the reason why a 100-300 may not have top priority on Fuji's list.

Very nice, indeed. Did you use autofocus or manual zone focussing?

Does it mean that Fuji admits that the X-Trans pattern is inferior to the Bayer pattern? - Just kidding. But it would be strange if they praise X-Trans for APS-C format because it gives better IQ and then use Bayer on their medium format camera. Medium format buyers want the very best IQ and will compare the Fuji MF camera with the PhaseOne XF 100MP. If X-Trans can help to fight above its weight they should use it. I personally do not care neither what color pattern is used in the MF nor if X-Trans is a few percent better or worse than Bayer.

Johant, you are slipping.:-)I am pretty sure that even my 500mm T2 has more than 31m horizontal view at infinte distance. I can easily take a picture of the moon and even get some environment in the picture and the diameter of moon is more than 31m, I believe and the distance is only a few hundred thousand km, by far not infinte.:-) I guess your numbers refer to 1000m distance. They remind me to the view that specs of binoculars show for 1000m distance. More related to the OP. For long distance where you can not easily zoom with your feet to adjust the framing I prefer zoom lenses. So a fixed 200/2 would not be very intriguing for me. I would prefer a 100-200/2.8 which can be used with the converters.

Until recently my list was identical to the joint list of sukeren and Hermelin above. But then I read an intriguing idea in the Disqus of Fuji Rumors. Someone proposed an electrical OVF, an EVF driven by an additional iPhone like sensor. Like an OVF the viewfinder could show what is outside from the main sensor. May be it is possible to give the small sensor a very high refresh rate. Considering that the current EVFs have a resolution of about 1M pixel even a 5 MP sensor would give some room for cropping when used with longer lenses. It would be possible to insert the live view from the main sensor avoiding a parallax error and still showing what is outside the main sensor. Unfortunately I do not remember exactly where I read the original proposal so I can not give credit to the person who had this wonderful idea. This electronic OVF would make the E series very different from the Tx0 series and different from the Sonys and it kind of would justify the range finder/view finder form factor. However, pricewise it would be closer to the T1/T2 I am afraid. Edit: It is a mess. Each time I read my contributions I find another typo. Couldn't I find all of them at the first time or even better make it right from the beginning?☺

The choice of a lens is always a personal thing and depends on your style of shooting. May be it helps if I describe my yourney. - 18-55 came with the camera, is my daylight general purpose lens - 55-200 came two weeks after I bought the camera because I was missing the reach that I was used from my point & shoot. IMHO this lens is a very good compromise in quality, reach, speed, weight and price. It is/was my zoo lens. - 23/1.4 my low light lens. In some low light situations 2 stops better than the 18-55 are really helpful. Some times I wonder if I need a 35 mm lens. But instead of changing lenses I prefer to zoom with my feet or to crop from the 23 mm. I am sure, at one point my GAS will win and I will buy a 35. - 56/1.2 for portraiture and bokeh ("Ah, the bokeh" as Milandro would say ) In real life I use it much less than I wanted to. It gets it's time when I am shooting a concert from in front of the stage. - 18/2.0 planned as stealthy street lens. In fact, I think it is not that much less conspicuous than the 18-55. So I do not use it a lot any more. - 12/2 Samyang, for people in narrow environments, people with a lot of background, landscape - 100-400 as better zoo lens and to satisfy my GAS. The quality is very good but the thing is very heavy, I mean, really really heavy compared to other Fuji equipment. At the moment I am a little bit torn between the comfort of the 55-200 and the longer reach of the 100-400 and I carry both with me when I go to the zoo. Stupid, I know. BTW, for me the difference in quality between all the lenses I have mentioned is so small that it will never really improve (or degrade) the overall quality of any picture I have taken. But then, I am more into composition, light, timing and colors than the last bit of sharpness.

@Flysurfer Just a bit of nitpicking. The Yen is up against USD and Euro.☺ But this exactly explains why Japanese companies have to increase their prices. Nevertheless I highly appreciate your comments, your technical knowledge, and your knowledge about Fuji internals.

Admitted Rico, if you have the information from Fuji that even the E2s sells much slower than the T10 then my opinion obviously was wrong. So immo_p seems to be right and only the photo nerds prefer the viewfinder style. Edit: Typo corrected

Fuji tends to put all the good stuff into the fake DSLRs cameras and when these sell better than the viewfinder models they take this as an argument that most customers prefer the fake DSLR style. So if we want high performance we have to buy the fake DSLR camera. In Fuji speak because we prefer the DSLR style.

Which proves, you do not need an X-Pro 2 to capture a good picture.☺ Composition and foremost timing are more important than the equipment. Edit: Both are nice shots anyway.

E3, but may be a Pro2 or T2 in the mean time. You never know. Will also depend on what the firmware update for the Pro2 will bring.

I think Vidalgo has a good point. My first pictures with my 100-400 where birds. So mostly I had a lot of bright sky as background which fooled the exposure automatic and I had to use two or three stops positive exposure compensation. The same may be nessecary when doing manual exposure setting but using the meter of the camera. Of course this was not necessary when the background was darker like the leaves of trees and bushes behind a deer. Edit: Sentence about manual exposure added.