Vidalgo

There are third-party teleconverters which can be screwed into the filter thread of lens. Raynox makes a lot of such.

Biggest pros of same bodies: same handling, same user interface, almost all the same. Biggest pros of different bodies: possibility of weight/size optimization together with different lenses, cost savings on body with lesser features which are rare used probably, total pool of features is wider

www.fujivsfuji.com/ have some side-by-side comparison for several bodies.

You have a real chance not to get T2 before the trip. Sales are scheduled only. We cannot to see the future but we have seen various delays in past. In such situation, I would go to the choice of T1/T10/E2/E2S range depend of personal points and actual availability at local shops.

My XT-1 also can't get focus with XC50-230 sometimes, with long hunting. Rare situation but it is. Especially in lowlights. I think behavior of 50-230 may be different for 1st and 2nd versions of lens, note the last one had a firmware update. I own first version so I cannot prove it.

Apart of DIY-enthusiasm (I'm DIYer as well, but at different area), there are some practical points. Bigger battery is great idea, but it cannot be fitted in existing battery compartment. Hence you need an enclosure for battery with mechanical and electrical connections to the camera. It is possible to keep battery in pocket and connect it to camera via cable with an adapter, but ... make that mock-up and try to walk and use ... So, the hardest stage of project will be not a battery at all, but design and making of that "battery grip" with good exterior, reliable connections, comfortable enough and of reasonable weight. Note the Fuji makes DC couplers and power adapters, for use in studio or similar place: http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/accessories/batteries/#coupler there are third-party couplers as well, that probably can be useful for your project.

Looks like it was taken with 18-135 lens, which has great overall sharpness but lack of microcontrast, hence no fine details at far field.

Some goods become a collectible items after years. There are collectors, they like to get their lovely items in perfect cosmetic condition, fully functional (as much as possible) and with all original accessories and package. Price for such item can be very high. So, keeping of original boxes can be worthwhile.

If you change lenses frequently, worth to have lenses of similar size/weight. For example, swapping XC16-50 to XF50-140 may be quite uncomfortable, no matter what a camera, but swapping to XC50-230 is much less noticeable for your hands.

I had checked. Camera on neck strap, spare battery in pocket. 6-8 sec for replace, average. Can do it at 4 sec.

By the way, do you know how decode this number? I have several batteries, one of them is 2 years older (from older camera). All works as should, but I want to know who is who.

Question to E2S owners: RAW shooting (or RAW+JPEG), does it available in AUTO mode?

I had visited Budapest twice, the last one just month ago. I think a week is a really minimum time for trip because so many interesting places. City center is crowded by places. There is a great walking route on Danube promenade which can give you views to the most prominent landmarks arranged on the river banks. Approximately start (or end) point is 'Szabadsag' bridge (huge one with chains, dark green colored), here is metro 'Fovam ter', old market building designed by Eiffel (behind the market, there is a modern mall a bit empty though), in front of market there is beginning (ending?) of 'Vaci utca' if you like shopping streets, of course you can see the bridge, also worth to cross the bridge and you have Gellert Thermal Bath building, on left side, and ancient church and monastery built in rocks, on right side. All these places can take whole day or even more. Next is distance from this 'green' bridge to white one, Elisabeth Bridge. You will see Gellert Hill across the river, with Liberty Statue on top. Citadel on hill isn't visible from here. Near the Elisabeth Bridge you can find two churches, so-so. Bridge by itself is a relatively modern design, may be not so picturesque. Next is distance to Szechenyi Chain Bridge, looks like 'central' part of promenade, here are many beautiful bronze statues, Castle Hill is across the river. Note the Castle may take whole day - worth to walk on Chain Bridge, which is beautiful by itself, then you have old picturesque elevator, Buda Castle tunnel on right side and big mural on brick wall at left side, while staying in queue to elevator (not so long). Take one-way ticket. Lifted up, you have Buda royal palaces at left side. Note sometimes there are great expositions in museums of palace, the last one was Picasso's artworks. Views to Danube from hill. After visiting of Palace, worth to walk to Fisherman Bastion. Holy Trinity Column in front of church (sorry, forgot the name, St. Mattias?). Worth to see interior of church (pay for entrance) and walk through it's passages, in one of side passages there is original gold crown of Hungarian kings! Yep, Fisherman Bastion, depend of sun position you can make great photos with Danube on background. After bastion, worth to go to the nothern end of Casthe, then you have less-known Mary Magdalene Tower and picturesque old gate. After the gate you have 2 choices: at right side - large beautiful park with views and statues, great quiet place, or to continue in direction to Mammut mall, short distance. But back to the promenade route. From Chain Bridge go to the Parliament. Views to the Castle Hill and Danube. Parliament - building by itself, surrounding area. Best time is morning hours. Some nice old buildings in close proximity, interesting statues - 'man on bridge'. If you like salami, there is 'Pick' brand store at left (southern) side of Parliament's square. From Parliament area there are choices: - go to 'Szabadsag ter' - square/park, monuments, architecture. - go to Nyugati train station - station by itself (built by Eiffel), WestEnd mall (biggest in Hungary), surrounding - keep walking on promenade If keeping: go to Margit Bridge, some Danube views and bridge by itself, then worth to visit Margaret Island, whole is park area, very quiet place. Counting from the Margaret bridge, there are: fountain area with lots of flowers, Water Tower approx. in the middle of island (by the way, it's famous place for music events), beautiful Japanese garden at northern part. Immediately after garden there is Arpad Bridge for return, or walk back. Apart from promenades: Worth to get tickets to concert of organ music in St.Stephen Basilica, the hall has excellent acoustics, and basilica by itself is very picturesque both interiors and exteriors. Big interesting area is: metro 'Hosok ter' - glory monuments - 2 good museum galleries at sides (one is contemporary art and second of old masters works) - large park - picturesque Vajdahunyad Castle with own garden - Zoo - Szechenyi Thermal Bath. May be, full-day of walking. Old metro line (yellow one), probably the oldest in Europe. Note the each stop has two different entrances, depends of direction, also no ticket machines at stops. Andrassy korut (boulevard), starting close to basilica, - luxury stores, Opera house, Museum of Terror, next long distance is less interesting but at the end leads you to Hosok ter, see above. Moorish-style synagogue building at Dohany street, close to Karoly korut. If you keep walking on this street, 10-15min. approx., you'll get Boscolo mega luxury hotel, very interesting building, with it's own church (?) and diabolic figures at sides as a streetlights. Find the statue of black young devil across the street. Corvin-negyed metro stop. Here are: Corvin Plaza mall, not big but not bad at all, picturesque building of Museum of Applied Arts (green tiles on roof) For night shoots, both sides of Danube are great. Just look at first evening. At lower bank there are tram lines and other structural things which are distracted, so hard to find good position.

Lens caps from China they are so cheap so worth to buy several different and pick one that fits in the best way, then you'll have one + spares.

Exposure metering mode level on 'average' position can be source of dark pictures, sometimes.

I use ProNegStd profile a lot for RAWs because great headroom for postprocessing. When jpegs only, I use Provia or Astia profiles, depends of scene and light. Portraits are better with Astia. For night shots, ProNegHi works fine for me. Never was lucky with Velvia - colors too fat, fine details mostly gone. Good for regular vacation shots though.

Try ProNegHi profile, and make exposure correction to -1 or so

Thanks!

Shutter is very fragile part, and replacing cost is much much more than few bucks for sensor cleaning.

That's the great idea for travel use. More scratches = less chances to be stolen.

My copy of 50-230 (China) is noticeable sharper than my copy of 55-200 (Japan) lol

I mostly use it for quick shots of small (or relatively small) objects in close proximity when incoming light is poor or bad angled, so it helps a bit. Like a first aid. Sometimes it's quite enough. I like to see/improve lightening before to make the shot.

I keep this one as a smallest pocket-size option: http://www.amazon.com/JJC-dimmable-Iphone-Camera-Camcorder/dp/B00PKS2Z00 It's not so powerful but works OK as light aid for short distance or macro, and gives me a kind of freedom for lighting directions. There are much more powerful panels with hundreds of LEDs.

I tried both wide- and tele- converters on 18-55 and results were so poor so I very quickly stopped even to think about that option. I tried x0.3, x0.79 and x1.54 converters from Raynox. They are expensive and quality products by itself, but just don't suitable for Fuji 18-55 lens despite of thread size. I believe things would be even worse with cheap nonames. Being unlucky with that Raynoxes, I didn't want to try it's macro lense. But I have Marumi DHG Achromat 330 (+3 diopters) with 58mm size, don't remember the price, sure something below 100$. It works suprisingly good with Fuji 18-55 at long end. Good sharpness, distortions from low to neglible, minimal distance is about 15-20cm (never measured yet), AF works as should, no vignetting. Overall, the results from this Fuji+Marumi combo are really comparable with what you can get from XF60macro, with a bit less magnification (note there is +5 diopters version). That makes a nice lightweight travel option for occasional macros when absolute quality is not the purpose.

It would be fine to run a kind of trade-in program for outdated lenses. They can serve as an official second hand market for customers with titgh budget at a moment, or beginners or trials, etc., so number of glued to X-system will grow in progression. But such program is almost impossible without well-spreading of authorized services.