LP26

A good read at DPR... The subject of service is part of the conversation. One could be an optimist and hope that improvements will be made. Here's the link. http://www.dpreview.com/interviews/6258617860/fujifilm-interview-jan-2016

I too have been an NPS member for some 40 years. There was an occasion back in the 1970's when I had a Nikon F and lens shot out of my hands and found a new camera and lens waiting for at the next reasonably sized town I arrived in. No questions asked, just a new functional tool to work with. Ironically, Fujifilm made available X-Pro 2's to my agency prior to the official release. One of my agency colleagues even made a promotional video for them. I shot with one of those X-Pro 2's and was favorably impressed enough to purchase/pre-order one on the first day of sale. Yet when I spoke to the so-called "professional division" techs I got a significant degree of arrogance and was told I could expect my camera's return in "perhaps" ten days to two weeks. When I noted that by that time I would find myself, quite literally, on the other side of the planet, I was told that then I would find it waiting for me on my return (this assignment will keep me on location for as long as 60 days). Is this what Fujifilm claims is professional service? If so, it's not the level of service this particular shooter references as professional. My bag is now packed with reliable Nikons and Leicas. These are genuinely professional cameras backed by genuinely professional service and support. My feeling, at the moment, is that Fujifilm is an amateur corporation serving an amateur market. I suppose that's all well and good if the amateur market is their target. They do however attempt to sell themselves as a producer of pro-level tools. Trust me, based on current experience, professional is not an adjective I would apply to Fujifilm.

Yes, the camera is with their so-called professional service department which, to this professional, seems to be anything but professional. Time is indeed the core issue here, yet that so-called professional service department has little to no concept of the importance of time to a working professional journalist.

Let me begin by saying that I am a professional photojournalist with some forty years of experience in the field. I have worked on multiple continents and have had my images published in leading publications throughout this increasingly connected small world of ours. For most of those forty years I have shot Leica and Nikon cameras and I have never experienced the such an extreme discounting of professional needs until I purchased a Fujifilm X-E2. I also have an X-Pro 2 on preorder at the moment, an order I am strongly considering cancelling. My first X-E2 malfunctioned within two days. That camera was promptly replaced by the vendor. That replacement X-E2 ceased to function after four months. It has been returned to Fujifilm for repair or replacement. The response of Fujifilm's service department has been cavalier at best, informing me that I will get the camera back when they are good and ready to return it to me. Needless to say, after four decades of exemplary responses from Leica and Nikon, I was more than a bit disconcerted by Fujifilm's response to the situation which has been "You'll get the camera back whenever we get around to sending it back." I am left with the feeling that Fujifilm has little to no interest in serving the professional market, nor is it concerned with the quality of the cameras it offers. As a professional journalist I am forced to determine that Fujifilm has little to no interest in meeting the needs of professionals, but rather an attitude reflecting reflecting a profound ignorance of professional users. I suppose that if their marketing folks have determined that professional needs are of little importance to their balance sheet then perhaps it's time to return to the professional relationships that are of value to companies like Nikon, Leica, and Canon.

That's my thought as well... I don't know what sales figures look like for the X100's, but I'd have to imagine if anything was cannibalized by the introduction of a small top quality X-Mount 23mm f/2 it would be the X100's. I don't want to buy a camera just to get a lens. I want to purchase the cameras I know will work for me as well as the appropriate lenses. LP

Oh, I've looked at the X100T closely and it is a temptation, but... What I really want is my described 23mm f/2 as a standalone (jeepers, they make the lens now - put it in a mount). Then I'll acquire the X-Pro 2 which, indicated by rampant rumor I admit, should appear at some point in 2016. Small, simple, fast enough for me at f/2, built to pro standards, good enough-sharp enough to shoot wide open and have your eye/brain connections explode when you see the image quality. Price it in the mid-range to upper mid-range, maybe 35mm f/1.4 range, and they'll sell like peanuts & beer at a baseball game. This is a real deal shooter's lens. I've shot with Nikons and Leicas since the early '70s a film photographer and I was never without the 35mm f/2 Summicron. Leica has been VERY late to the game with digital and I had little confidence until recently with the M240 hence I've shot Nikon digital professionally and personally for the past decade or so. With Leica products selling at movie star prices I've been looking for a while for something to fill the void as the shooting experience, for me, was always very immediate and gratifying. So I've been checking on the Fujifilm X System for a few years, basically on the release of the X-Pro 1 and its three lenses. I waited for the system to mature a bit - as it has - and... I suffer an injury shooting a college lacrosse game and have some surgery and the doc tells me I need a much lighter load so... I'm liking Fujifilm and have had some VERY positive experiences with their lenses on my 4X5 film camera... I start shopping and discover I'm in the middle of a very nice lens sale... So I buy the the X-E2, 14mm f/2.8, 18mm f/2, 27mm f/2.8, 35mm f/1.4 and 60mm. I shot in New York last week. The successful shots are wonderful, though I had I higher number of duds than usual. On editing it was apparent the camera and I were not in sync. It's new. I've had it for maybe a month and had largely done test shooting. The problem for me was timing. The camera was ahead of me or I was ahead of it. This will sort itself through with use. I really do love the whole rig. The lenses are terrific, the kit inconspicuous in a small ThinkTank bag. LP

I'd like a 23mm f/2 - a Summicron equivalent, built to the same high standards and approximate size as the 18mm f/2. Compact, aperture ring, smooth and precise manual focusing capability, metal construction, metal rectangular hood, the best glass, quiet in operation... Man, if Fujifilm were to produce that lens I'd place it on a pre-order more or less on announcement. The current 23mm f/1.4 is a great lens, but it's large and has a tulip hood. I want something that's highly inconspicuous on the street, sharp as a tack and still eminently useful in low light.