drushka

I noticed a lot of the custom climbing rope straps that use leather patches for termination have two points of failure: The single seam attaching the leather patch to the climbing rope The fold of the leather patch holding the keyring on the camera Like in this type of climbing rope strap: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Peacock-blue-Climbing-rope-10-5mm-handmade-Camera-neck-strap-Generic-SLR-DSLR-/112165047126?hash=item1a1d8ecb56:g:7VYAAOSw8w1X~jJd Both are poor choices for holding a camera safely, as the will inevitably wear down and break. I've noticed there is an Etsy seller who actually uses the rope to hold the camera but to hold it together, he seems to use a complex knot: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GUMBINGER?ref=l2-shop-info-name&from_reg=2&joined=1&section_id=18829304 Has anyone used these and saw them up close? How do they hold up to wear and tear? Do the melted ends of the cord holding the rope fray and fall off, letting the rope open up? Thanks!

A lot of bursting will get the X-T1 warm, too, so will using the X8 flash unit that draws power from the internal battery - which I assume is the main culprit in warming up the body, along with the screen. In the X-T2, you have a four times more powerful processor for ACROS noise simulation, 4k downsampling, and blazing fast AF and burst shooting. All this functionality will draw quite a bit of power, which has to be dissipated by the body, as it is ultimately turned into heat. So it's not very surprising and I'm sure the camera is designed for it. A warmer environment will make it harder for the body to get rid of the heat, so it will reach a higher equilibrium temperature. If you find that to be a problem with stationary use, you can remove heat from the equation by using an external power supply and switching the view mode to viewfinder + eye sensor only. CPU heat can be reduced by not using ACROS, using slower burst modes like 5fps, and turning off boost, which will slower AF speed. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it unless it is very uncomfortable to you to have warm hands.

I just got back from a vacation and want to share my experience. I can confirm that 23mm is a great focal length for both casual shooting and landscape. I carried my 18-55 and a 12mm and ended up using 23mm most of the time, not missing a thing. It was very sunny so quite often I found myself shooting at fast shutter speeds. Frequently, I would shoot against the light or a reflection in some way, having to either blow out a part of my image or use a fill flash. For this purpose, I had a flash transmitter bolted on to my camera and a flash at my hip to pull out at a moment's notice. I would encourage you to take a hard look at the X100 series (I have the X100T for WiFi and editing with Snapseed on the go) because it enables you to shoot at wider apertures with lower flash power (1/32 for direct fill flash, 1/8 for bounce in midday), saving battery while on the go. In comparison, shooting flash against an already darkening sunset sky with my X-T10, I had to set the flash to full power because to reach the flash sync speed of 1/250 I had to stop down to F8 or F11. Below a sample landscape shot and a fill flash shot from my X100T. Both are very lightly edited, basically SOOC for time and demonstration purposes, please do not take these as examples of my work. The portrait would be a black outline without the flash, I bounced this one at F2, 1/1000s, 1/8 power on a YN560IV. PS: Since you mentioned price, have a look at the X100S, it's 16MP Xtrans like the X-T10 (unlike the original X100, which is 12MP and Bayer) you should be able to find it used for around $450 to $500, and you don't have to swap lenses because you get the body for free!

While we're talking about video, I can't believe the (Bayer) X-A2 doesn't have a mic jack. It would be the Fuji camera to use our existing lenses for video. Like this, it's stuck with external recording, which is a much less attractive option for a casual user.

I have considered renting cameras but it costs one third of the price of a used camera per day, so I'd rather just buy a couple of cameras on ebay and sell the one I don't like, that way I lose less money in the process and might get to keep both lenses (if they are different). If you are price sensitive, here is a comparison of ebay pricing of the X-E2 and X-T10 cameras. If you don't shoot series of photos for which you'd need a larger memory buffer, they deliver the same image quality as the X-T1 at a fraction of the cost. 24 MP in the X-Pro2 sounds great but remember that your lenses have to resolve this kind of information, too. If you use adapted legacy lenses or zooms, the existing 16 MP cameras (X-E2, X-E2s, X-T10, X-T1) will suit you just fine, and you have lots of money left over to build up a selection of higher quality glass for when you decide to upgrade in a year or so, when the X-T2 goes to a reasonable price level, or the X-T20 is out.

It depends on your needs. I do not recommend the auto mode or scene modes in the X-T10, as they don't give you raw files for more advanced processing later (I used to shoot only jpg and regret it dearly). If your girlfriend wants to get into serious photography, she won't be using these modes but wants to always shoot raw + fine. That leaves the SLR form factor, the tilt screen, and price as the only differences. I find the viewfinders of the X-E2 and the X-T10 quite similar in ergonomics (unlike the X-T1 which is much larger, giving the larger body), so it boils down to whether she likes the SLR form factor of the X-T10 or the rangefinder form factor of the X-E2. The X-E2 built-in flash can be bent to the ceiling for a low powered bounce flash, which may come in handy in a pinch using ISO 400 or 800. Most importantly, the X-E2 can be bought for less than the X-T10. Here is a comparison of prices for X-E2 and X-T10 bodies on ebay. You'll see that X-E2 come first, as they are consistently sold for less, although they have the same autofocus system with firmware 4.0, and they deliver the same image quality.

I was frustrated by my Fuji rear lens caps and found this thread. Does anyone else find them incredibly slippery? When I grab a lens and end up holding the rear lens cap end, it just wants to slip out of my fingers and I worry about my lenses. I feel like Samyang/Rokinon is doing a better job (and slightly smaller, too), and even the cheapo no-name "FX mount" caps that come with $5 adapters are easier to hold on to. As for hoods, I keep the 35mm F1.4 hood always on, so I don't know where the cap is. For the other Fuji hoods, I line up the dot on the hood with the mark at the top of the lens to put it on, and line up the "Fujifilm" iris logo with the top of the lens to put it on in reverse. This works with all Fuji hoods I have seen, try it for yourself. Here, too, Samyang is doing a nice job on the 12mm F2, they have the marking at a 45° angle and you can line up the same dot for putting it on as a hood and in reverse. Nifty. So if anyone at Fuji is reading this, small things matter, and it makes me like to use my Samyang more.

I don't know what the statistics look like. I quickly googled "adapted lenses mirrorless market share" and didn't find anything useful. If you have any links about this subject, I'd be thankful if you could post them. My statement about the popularity of adapting lenses came from the following: Youtube videos I have seen with people using and recommending adapted lenses, some of who don't even own any autofocus lenses from the manufacturer. Most prominently, Sony users adapt modern Canon lenses but also older lenses because Sony lenses are super expensive and not the great. I have seen at least one Fuji user who does not own any Fuji lenses (sacrilege, I know). Videographers. People who get into video (not Fuji before the X-Pro2, obviously) love their adapted old lenses with no aperture click. This is where it goes from many anecdotes (that don't make data) to real data: the way prices for old lenses have changed on eBay. There has always been camera equipment from estate sales on there but the recent advent of usable mirrorless cameras has produced a noticeable uptick in prices. I know this isn't solid evidence but if it can move market prices, it means something. Some old lenses with specific qualities go for $200 or more. Any more than that and they'd be priced out of the market compared to modern autofocus lenses.

On a bright, sunny day, it is a lot of fun to go for a walk with just the X30 with how versatile it is. Flip screen for those low shots. Zoom lens sharp from super macro to infinity (unlike X100 series which has to be stopped down for macro). Leaf shutter to kill the ambient wide open with only a $50 flash and $20 transmitter. Zoom range up to 112 mm equiv for portraits. Mechanical zoom is the camera OFF switch. This is huge for me, as I have had a lot of cameras try to extend their lens in a pocket or bag, breaking the lens motor. Besides the zoom accuracy, this makes compacts with motor driven zoom a deal breaker for me. All in all, the X30 is a great camera, right now and for the next couple of years. That said, low light performance and subject separation are lacking due to the sensor, so it is a niche camera. It is also too large, other companies can make flip & touch screen cameras much smaller by miniaturizing the electronics (I know about battery size and lens size inside the body but I stand by my statement that it could be made smaller). Any improvement around the existing sensor would just be a gimmick and would not trigger many purchases. That means I'm ok with the X30 being the end of the line if I can keep getting it used if it breaks over the next couple of years. If three years from now Fuji releases a fixed lens zoom with mechanical zoom, leaf shutter, and great macro, built around a current APS-C sensor, I'll be all ears.

I think the vigorous market in old lenses shows that a certain level of reuse is possible with modern technology. Instead of a digital back for an existing body, you swap out the whole body, ok. Of course you get a whole new user interface with it. I think this isn't terrible, and many low-cost photographers with X-E1 or X-Pro1 bodies using exclusively legacy lenses agree. We have to remember there is a large difference between an enthusiast who has and regularly uses 10 or more lenses and a hobbyist who thinks a camera is nice to have, with one or two lenses. Hobbyists represent the vast majority of photographers and are very price/performance conscious. To get back to the topic, I already owned 3 exchangeable lens X-Trans II cameras and the X100T with WCL and TCL but I still picked up the X30 because its zoom extends past the 50 mm equivalent of the TCL. It's a steal if you can get it used for under $200, so it was a total no-brainer.

I've tried the eye cup and found it doesn't really work with glasses when in portrait mode. Is that your experience, as well?

- The resolution equivalence of 16MP Xtrans with 24MP Bayer really means that both have smaller that 16MP effective resolution (through unsharpness, think "smearing") and that the Bayer sensor is worse and that both end up at an effective resolution of, say, 12MP (I made that last number up, so don't quote me on it). There's only 12MP of information in there, the rest is redundant. - You can't create information out of thin air. If you take the effective 6MP at the center and blow them up to 16MP, you still have only 6MP worth of information. The rest is various degrees of interpolation (smudge). - The way Fuji interpolates the 6MP of information up to 12MP may be psychologically pleasing and nice to look at but at the end of the day it only creates the illusion of high resolution, in other words, it beautiful smudge but it's still smudge. Some background: - Both Xtrans and Bayer sensor types have only pixels that record either red, green, or blue. The other values on that pixel have to be interpolated using clever algorithms that exploit the weaknesses of the human eye (hence the transformation to luminosity vs color, as the eye is more sensitive to variations of the former than the latter). - The human eye is more sensitive in the green part of the spectrum (bang in the center of the visible spectrum, due to the solar spectrum that reaches Earth's surface), and Xtrans has more green pixels than Bayer, so that improves resolution. - Xtrans allows some clever interpolation schemes due to its arrangement of RGB and the prominence of green pixels that give very good luminosity information but it's still intrinsically less than 16MP since it's only ever one out of the three red, green, or blue values and the rest are interpolated. (Unlike foveon sensors that have RGB in every pixel but they have their own problems because the light has to go through the sensor, leading to a physical loss of intensity).

I just bought the X100T with converters used and am very happy with it. 23mm f2 translates to a lens opening of 11.5mm, while the 18mm f2.8 of the X70 and rumored X200 translates to only 6.4mm. That's not different enough from a cellphone camera for me, and I'm no fan of the digital crop zoom modes in the X70. What I love about the X100T: - focal length - phase detection autofocus, WiFi, fast operation - leaf shutter for quiet operation and 1/1000s flash - small but great image quality - great system with conversion lenses What I'm missing is hopefully (I really do hope this happens) fixable by taking the firmware to 4.0 or 4.30 levels, i.e. - improved autofocus, no button wasted on macro selection - manual focus on shutter half-press - external flash firing in multiexposure mode (4.30, still waiting on that for my X-E2) It's a great, small camera, so maybe that'll help make the decision for someone (besides the point that X200 is pie in the sky right now).

- Using the focus assist light to trigger flashes is a great idea, I'm sure you can "flash" the LED sufficiently shortly to make flashes trigger. - I would keep the buttonts on the thumb, and probably go with a X-Pro2 layout. - To accommodate the X-T1 viewfinders, I'd be ok with a hump on the upper left.