Should the X-T2 Have an Integrated Battery Grip?

[milandro]

yes, as I said, nobody can please everybody.  This is as true of me as it is of Fuji.

[9.V.III]

Milandro, it's all about surface area.

 

Adding a battery grip means you have two magnesuim alloy exterior surfaces meshed together, that's going to be as much surface area as most of the grip itself. Adding a second battery would only increase the weight of the body by just 10%.

 

http://aboutphotography-tomgrill.blogspot.ca/2014/03/fujifilm-vg-xt1-vertical-battery-grip.html

 

Secondly, it is possible to make a square with the same surface area as a rectangle!

Make the body square, keep the same surface area, add a second shutter button and put the battery compartment on the bottom with room for two batteries.

[milandro]

Well 9.V.III,  again there is nothing wrong to wish for change.   It is not that camera companies know better and they can be convinced to do almost anything if enough customers appear to want it.

 

Camera companies are obviously in the business of building cameras to make money. If enough people want something, whether logical or not, they will pick up the idea and build it. If...there is a consensus or at least a large market base asking for this.

 

That’s the fly in the ointment, you see... .

 

 

OP asked for opinions on the  X-T1 XL and the majority of this, admittedly, very small sample of Fuji owners, appears to be not very excited about it.

 

 

 

In my opinion it not possible to squeeze more battery and more grip into the current dimension, so whatever you add the dimensions of the camera will have to grow. That doesn’t appear what people want. I certainly don’t.

 

Don’t forget the oh!   , so important..., 2 slots for an additional card! which apparently the X-pro 2 has and which very likely will be in the X-T2 already.

 

I referred to the automotive industry before.

 

Have ever found yourself in a parking where the parking slots were dimensioned for the cars made 20 years ago? Well, the thing is that small cars made 20 years ago were very much smaller than they are now ( I am not talking of the SMART ) because adding all sorts of things ( some very necessary things, I admit) has made the cars way bigger than the same class of car was. The result is that cars no longer fit in those parking places.

 

 

 

It is possible that, although Fuji has made its breakthrough with the X system obtained great success with its small cameras with dials and buttons, will from now on proceed to make them as big as other cameras were , and still are, and with on screen menus and no dials.

 

It’s all possible but, in my opinion, very unlikely.

 

Make the body square?

 

Why not!? Maybe the Fuji medium format breakthrough is in making a modern version of the Rolleiflex.

 

I had one of these.

 

Rollei_SLX_open.jpg

[9.V.III]

In my opinion it not possible to squeeze more battery and more grip into the current dimension, so whatever you add the dimensions of the camera will have to grow. That doesn’t appear what people want. I certainly don’t.

Rollei_SLX_open.jpg

I said we can accomplish these goals by changing the ratio of the X and Y dimensions of the camera. Thus far your strategy has been to ignore the facts and slander the counter argument.

 

I understood that the original question was how to have all of that without adding an external grip, but that, unless one resorts to sorcery, looks like it is impossible to realize.

I guess basic math is still "sorcery" to some people.

[milandro]

I don’t have a strategy. I have opinions but I have already made them politely known. You have yours, I have mine. A square camera might be the future, just not my future.

[deva]

And integrated grip doesn't have to change the size overall. I'm confident 90% of people would love to have a second shutter button on a compact camera, but this thread wasn't specifically about that concept. It's good to see the user base here is united on the subject of body size,

 

 

I don't want the grip and I don't want a second shutter button... the X-T1 is small and agile enough that I have no trouble with the existing shutter button whether shooting horizontal or vertical. 

[deva]

Milandro, it's all about surface area.

 

Adding a battery grip means you have two magnesuim alloy exterior surfaces meshed together, that's going to be as much surface area as most of the grip itself. Adding a second battery would only increase the weight of the body by just 10%.

 

http://aboutphotography-tomgrill.blogspot.ca/2014/03/fujifilm-vg-xt1-vertical-battery-grip.html

 

Secondly, it is possible to make a square with the same surface area as a rectangle!

Make the body square, keep the same surface area, add a second shutter button and put the battery compartment on the bottom with room for two batteries.

 

 

I love my X-T1 exactly as it is... I am 100% against making it bigger, adding a second battery, second shutter etc. I love my X-T1 because it doesn't have those things... because it is small and agile. I loved both my Nikon FM2 and FE2. Since then I had increasingly fancier cameras and though there was a convenience for work. The simple visceral pleasure of my FM2 is still my favorite. The X-T1 is the closest to it since then.

 

When the X-T2 comes out I will be buying 2... that is if it is the same as the X-T1 except it has the new sensor, processor and joy stick from the X-Pro2. Its current size and weight is one of the best possible features.

[9.V.III]

I love my X-T1 exactly as it is... I am 100% against making it bigger, adding a second battery, second shutter etc. I love my X-T1 because it doesn't have those things... because it is small and agile. I loved both my Nikon FM2 and FE2. Since then I had increasingly fancier cameras and though there was a convenience for work. The simple visceral pleasure of my FM2 is still my favorite. The X-T1 is the closest to it since then.

 

When the X-T2 comes out I will be buying 2... that is if it is the same as the X-T1 except it has the new sensor, processor and joy stick from the X-Pro2. Its current size and weight is one of the best possible features.

I think the retro argument is the strongest reason to leave the X-T series in its current form. The body I'm looking for is really quite unlike anything that has come before.

[darknj]

Alright, let's play your game with math then. We will just assume the X and Y axis and avoid the Z thickness.

 

The X-T1 is 120mm by 90mm, so if we were to shift the numbers around a bit, we would be getting some 105mm x 105mm, which is a nice little square. But even with all that, we still don't have any more room to add the extra battery. We might be able to get another set of button but where are you going to fit that battery without enlarging the body ?

Alright, let's just add 10mm more to both axis and believe that is plenty enough to add an extra battery, now we are sitting at 115mm by 115mm, if I look back at my orignal number (120 x 90), we are 5mm less than the original length already while being over 10% taller. 

 

Even if we were to keep the 105mm size on both axis I wish you the best of luck to find a bag that will accommodate with the square shape. A lot of the current bags are made for rectangular shaped camera bodies. I have access to a D3S camera on regular basis and trust me, there aren't much bag to easily transport it with a lens attached. Once you are ready to shoot, you have to take it out hanging on a strap or keep it in your hand. It might be good for an hour but if you have to walk around in a city for street shooting or even a wedding, this is going get really annoying really fast.

 

Let's go a step further and also add the Z to the equation now, which brings us to 120mm x 90mm x 46mm, that's roughly 500cm cubic. Again, let's go they are able to squeeze the same volume, we will be a lot tighter now it's going to be 90mm by 90mm for both X and Y axis, but the Z depth is going to increase to 61.5mm, that's a good 30% increase in thickness already and really close of the thickness of a Nikon D5500 and still no secondary battery, which would add more thickness making it close to the thickness of a D610, the smallest of the the FF Nikon camera.

 

With that 90x90 form factor, the camera will be very difficult to hold, it's close of being a loaf of bread of half a kilogram already without any lenses and with quite a consequent thickness to it...

 

Sorry but I really do not find that appealing in anyway.

[Phil]

I wouldn't mind an integrated grip, as long as I had a second body I could use for everyday carry. I'm probably one of few, but I'd like to see more weight to the X-T1. I like the reduced size because it's more discrete and easier to bring around with me, but I find heavier cameras easier to hold steady. I would have loved it if the X-T1 alone weighed as much as it does with the grip now, and to have the grip add that much extra weight again.

[deva]

I think the retro argument is the strongest reason to leave the X-T series in its current form. The body I'm looking for is really quite unlike anything that has come before.

 

I do not consider it a 'retro' argument. I'm not sentimental about the past. I don't have nostalgia nor care about some social image as an 'old school' photographer.

 

I like the X-T1 because it is effective for me. I value the physical dials not because they look like the past, but because they work better for me. Same with the small size and light weight. Those are two of the main reasons I switched to Fuji. If I wanted a big grip and vertical shutter, I'd have stuck with Nikon.

[EyesUnclouded]

First of all, Fuji had at least one camera with integrated grip in the past, this one:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinePix_S3_Pro

 

Nevertheless, its successor, the S5 Pro, didn't feature the integrated grip at all, instead opting for a separate accessory.

 

My opinion on grips for mirrorless bodies, which I've already expressed years ago in other fora, for OIympus/Panasonic cameras, is that the manufacturers should work on specialized grip designs for specific needs. Meaning they should offer more than one option for a given camera.

 

For example, one design could feature two batteries, for extended use on the field. Another could provide extra connections, or even extra storage (for example, for video applications).

 

In general, I believe a more modular approach is needed. Mirrorless cameras should remain as small as needed (but not smaller!) in their basic configuration (which would still satisfy probably 90% of the users) and be able to be "extended" by such attachements.

[milandro]

Fuji has gone past and abandoned any previous experience when they started the whole of the X line.

 

New look, functions, bayonet and ultimately a completely different philosophy form their previous S cameras. This was the reason of their current relative success while before the current success, their involvement in photography was at a dead end and wasn’t showing promises for the future.

 

If the market would take a different direction they might go back into rethinking their current philosophy but in my opinion there is absolutely nothing to make me think there is any such trend and I think that  this is not likely to happen in the near future.

 

The territory of specialized accessory for particular needs within the X cameras is certainly one which independent makers could explore and possibly exploit.

 

Companies such as Fuji are not in the business to cater for the particular needs of a minority of their customers.

 

The investment would be simply too big for a return that is simply too small.

 

Let’s not forget that as a corporation they make more than 50% with copiers, from the remaining part, the largest profit comes from instant photography, only a very small part of the remaining profit comes from mirrorless cameras and within this niche in their activities a need for a camera with more battery capability and a larger grip would represent such a small demand that they, as a company, could never be fulfilling.

 

http://www.fujifilmholdings.com/en/index.html

 

A small independent maker though, without all the baggage of a large corporation might be able to do this. Of course there would be the need for a certain amount of co operation between companies which might interest Fuji or not but it is certainly a possibility.

 

In this respect 3D printing can be a very good way forward since numbers would be so small that injection molding costs would be prohibitive.

[Kalle]

No, because X T would be too heavy and too big to be a small camera. Extra grip is good for those, who need extra battery or use heavy tele without tripod.

[Vladimir]

If X-T2 Pro will appear with integrated battery grip (should be slightly less than X-T1 with VG-XT1) and bi-i-igger battery, I’ll take it instead of X-T2