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Fuji X-Pro2 Firmware update coming soon! (New Source) – BUG FIX


Patrick FR

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Interesting approach. Not for the first time either, they first put out things out there ( things which had taken a really long time to develop)  and then come up with a fix.

 

This seems to be the modern philosophy which has surpassed the older “ Do things well the first time around” with a “ Kaizen-ish “ Do the job now, if necessary, apologize later! “ words which the modern CEO’s  seem to love.

 

Times are A-changin'

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It is more related to the always pressure to meet release date of products, not many companies are willing to post-pone a release if they feel things aren't going as they should.

 

Nikon did it recently with their D5 and D500 and was met with general discontentment because of it.

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damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If they don’t release things they are taking too long ( remember they halted the release of the camera allegedly because the software wasn’t yet ready... and then they released the camera... bugs and all?)

 

In the olden days a watch repairer would keep the watch on his person for a few days after repairing it to make sure that both the body heat and movement wouldn’t disturb his repair and that the watch would be accurate also under those conditions. He wouldn’t trust that he had “ repaired” the watch without some extensive test.

 

Times have changed.

 

Some saxophone repairers  overhaul a saxophone quickly and give it back to the anxious customer. After all the customer wants it quick and they are anxious too... to get the reward for their skilled job which is, as far as compensation for a day or two of work a substantial amount of money fro an artisan  ( from a minimum of €300 to a an average of €500, of course the less time you spend on it the more money you make some artisans make one a day which isn’t a bad living...).

 

One of those technicians has overhauled several saxophones for me. 

 

The routine is that he gives me the sax, I go home, play-test it comfortably for a lot longer than I could do there at his workshop, find that something isn’t right then I put a light into it ( that’s the way you see if a saxophone key and its padding leaks) mark all the leaks or other mechanical problems and bring it back for him to revise his previous revision. I know about revising a saxophone. I have taken lessons to do it not so much because I want to do it or like doing (so I don’t) but because I wanted to know what I was talking about when commenting on someone’s work.

 

He knows I know.

 

So, he sees what I mean, agrees, and then works a bit longer on the horn. Sometimes I have to go back again, the most I ever had to do this was 3 times. This happened also with a clarinet technician and is not something that is unique to this particular technician.

 

I have always wondered why he doesn’t spend longer with all the saxophones and getting right the first time?

 

I, personally, would much rather appreciate a company to test and test and test things and release cameras without bugs which showed up already after one week from the release.

 

But that’s me.

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I work in IT and the reality is that you can do absolutely exhaustive testing and you can still miss stuff that the minute you put it out there in the real world someone will find in about 2 seconds flat.

 

The reset bug is a classic example. Most testing involves going through a set of pre designed tests, most testing is designed to be repeatable so they probably used the factory default settings as there starting point for all tests. Which meant that they were probably reseting the camera at the beginning of each test cycle. Its highly possible that they never noticed the reset issues because they never configured the cameras away from the default and they were reseting it so often themselves it would not show up.

 

I am slightly more surprised that the Beta testers (actual photographers) never picked it up. But again I suspect that it only resets if you change one or two specfic options from the default and probably in combination. Again this may not have shown up depending on whether the user 'happened' upon this combination of options by chance.

 

Sometimes the only way you are going to find these things it to let users find them (a much much higher number than you will ever be able to afford or organize at Beta level) and then respond to the issues that come out quickly and effectively with a fix.

 

That is exactly what Fuji are doing, if they did not we would never get a new camera.

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I think you are projecting your own suspicions there. Based on my experience this edited version of your sentence is way more likely in reality.

 

I am sure they were more lucky with their first cameras, then success struck and they had more users meaning that issues pop up much quicker and there is a wider set of use cases to satisy because the diversity of the user base has increased with that success.

 

Or your right a company that has waited 4 years to release a camera in todays market do seem to have let success go to their head :)

 

:)

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 I just look at what I consider to be the facts. You may, of course read them differently.

 

Diversity of opinions is the salt of the earth, I don’t need or want to convince anyone that I am right, I just speak my mind.

 

 

 

All their previous cameras were introduced and upgraded in due time and course without having to resort to repair software to remove bugs.

 

The success of the X cameras is a fact. Fuji stand tall and are counted in a world where, prior to this series they had very little significance.

 

Now they are a brand to be reckoned with.

 

BUT.

 

 

The one before last X-T1 firmware upgrade contained a bug which needed being corrected and soon after the introduction of the X-Pro 2 new firmware is needed.

 

That hadn’t happened before. Things don’t happen, twice, by chance.

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I am slightly more surprised that the Beta testers (actual photographers) never picked it up. But again I suspect that it only resets if you change one or two specfic options from the default and probably in combination. Again this may not have shown up depending on whether the user 'happened' upon this combination of options by chance.

 

Sometimes the only way you are going to find these things it to let users find them (a much much higher number than you will ever be able to afford or organize at Beta level) and then respond to the issues that come out quickly and effectively with a fix.

 

That is exactly what Fuji are doing, if they did not we would never get a new camera.

 

I worked for close to 17 years as a software engineer and analyst. I know exactly what you're talking about. Back then we used to joke at Microsoft, remarking that any version of their software ending at 0 was more or less just a collection of all imaginable bugs, with the actual software following in the next release. :D:rolleyes:

 

Still, the "real world" beta testing phase for the X-Pro2 was really extensive, or so we're told. To the defence of mirrorless companies in particular, they have to implement a lot of novel features with any new camera. In contrast, most "new versions" of DSLRs just offer more of the same capabilities, improved by upgraded processors and such. Perhaps the reason some of them (D5/D500 for instance) are delayed, is due to newly introduced options and the need to test them further.

 

So perhaps we should just accept the idea that modern cameras are highly involved computers, after all. Fuji, at least, has a longer lifecycle for their cameras than most. But on the other hand, there is market pressure, and, for Fuji, their dependance on Sony for sensors. They somehow have to juggle all these together, and there are obviously mishaps along the way.

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Interesting approach. Not for the first time either, they first put out things out there ( things which had taken a really long time to develop)  and then come up with a fix.

 

This seems to be the modern philosophy which has surpassed the older “ Do things well the first time around” with a “ Kaizen-ish “ Do the job now, if necessary, apologize later! “ words which the modern CEO’s  seem to love.

 

Times are A-changin'

 

The fact is that almost anything constructed by humans will be imperfect at first, and certain issues are only uncovered once the thing escapes "into the wild." This applies to cameras, automobiles, computers and other related gear, airplanes, and even space vehicles.

 

If we waited for all things to be perfect before using them, we would never do anything.

 

However, you can easily accommodate your individual level of concern by waiting until the thing has been out a while and some of the issues (like this one) identified and fixed.

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Milandro I was just pulling your leg, I don't want to convince you, just giving my thoughts.

 

In terms of buggyness, my other hobby is music and I have my own home studio, photography has been like a balmy summer holiday of bugs in comparison. 

 

I have a PC and mixing desk various peripherals and software and plugins, and everything has to work well together or it goes pear shaped. In adidition when somethign does not work the troublshooting is extremely complicated.

 

The last Fuji firmware bug was miniscule in comparison and in terms of its impact to me. Why becuase I had not ugraded yet, I read about it and then waited. Not being bleeding edge is a lesson I learned a long time ago in IT. N-1 is the way forward. 

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Little late here to your testing party.

 

Cameras are getting more complex. Fuji installed a whole new menu system. If for example just the menu system had 4 selections, you would have to test 24 combinations (factorial of 4).

 

Now lets just up that to 10 selections possible on the menu system. Now you have 3,628,800 combinations to test (factorial of 10).

 

Now we all know there are more than 10 options in the menu and we all know the camera has a lot more things besides the menu to test various combinations involving hardware and software. It's a complex animal.

 

I say we should appreciate the work FUJI does and appreciate what's involved in testing every possibility.

Edited by ShutterNot
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Now lets just up that to 10 selections possible on the menu system. Now you have 3,628,800 combinations to test (factorial of 10).

 

 

 

I say we should appreciate the work FUJI does and appreciate what's involved in testing every possibility.

 In two days, I found 8 x-pro2 owners with a critical shutter/lens_mount problem. As specified in below thread. Waiting for Fuji to see if it will be fixable via firmware.

 

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2417-x-pro2-initial-bug-report/page-5

Edited by mralien
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I got tired of waiting.  30 day return policy here; mine went back for a refund the day after I first encountered the black frames issues.  My old X-T1 works fine.  Always loved my experience with the X100 series and loved the X-Pro2, but it had the frustration factor.  I enjoy the X100T and the X-T1 and want to take those out with me over the 5D Mark III and I was hoping the X-Pro2 could be the one that had me finally letting go the heavy gear.  No, not yet... it has to be reliable and I have to trust it.

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 In two days, I found 8 x-pro2 owners with a critical shutter/lens_mount problem. As specified in below thread. Waiting for Fuji to see if it will be fixable via firmware.

 

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2417-x-pro2-initial-bug-report/page-5

I'm not saying there are no problems. Just saying it's not easy to put out a camera without faults. It's easy to be critical and for some it's a way of life to be critical.

 

You know a lot of PRO 2 owners it seems. My PRO 2 seems to be an exception  in that it works great.

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