OPEN LETTER TO FUJIFILM: About the “Kaizen Light”, the X100S and the “David Hobby Firmware” with Classic Chrome

[FX Admin]

Patrick posted this open letter to Fujifilm about two month ago.
 
Still valid - and definitely worth to be still discussed.
 
What's your opinion?

Regarding the X100S firmware, I'd prefer that Fujifilm releases...

• a SMALL & FREE FW-update with Classic Chrome (and 1 more new feature, e.g. electronic shutter OR intervalometer)
• a BIG & PAID FW-update with many New Features like Classic Chrome, Intervalometer, Electronic Shutter, Customizable Q-Menu, PDAF support in Instant-AF, Spot Metering AF frame coupling, etc...

 

OPEN LETTER TO FUJIFILM: About the “Kaizen Light”, the X100S and the “David Hobby Firmware” with Classic Chrome

Dear Fujifilm

Today I write you in the name of (probably) many X-shooters following FujiRumors, and especially those who own an X100S and would like a new firmware update. But first let me say this:

THE KAIZEN HISTORY
(or why we love Fuji)

When it comes to firmware udpates, we X-shooters are probably complaining at a level all other camera brand owners frankly envy us (and I know it from the guys at 43rumors, SonyAlphaRumors and CanonWatch in our regular meetings, that they are jealous about how Fujifilm listens to its customers and delivers amazing firmware updates).

Over the years you did an amazing job in keeping our cameras up to date with the latest features. That’s something no other brand offered with such a consistency and dedication (huge X100 update after 3 years, X-PRO1/E1 focus peaking, X-E2 EVF frame rate like X-T1, X-T1 Electronic Shutter… and there would be A LOT MORE to put into this list.)

So, Fujifilm, I don’t say it for captatio benevolentiae, but I really Thank You for all the effort you’ve put into all those new firmware updates.

THE KAIZEN LIGHT
(or why updating older X-cameras with New Features is NOT Good)

It is also clear to me that, with the rapidly growing number of X-cameras, the costs to keep them all updated with the latest new features would be unsustainable, unless you cut your resources destined to the development of new camera technology and redirect them to update the XQ1, X-A1, X-M1, X100, XF1, X-E1, X-PRO1, X20 and all the other X-series cameras with new features.

But given how fiercely contested the CSC market is, it’s wise to put most of your R&D into new camera technology for the Fujifilm X-PRO2, rather than spend your time, money and manpower in figuring out how to bring the electronic shutter on the X-M1.

Therefore I personally understand if you start to look forward and (apart bug fixes) stop introducing new firmware features to older cameras and focus on FW-updates for newer and successful ones… let’s call it a Kaizen Light approach .

THE DAVID HOBBY FIRMWARE
(or why you should update the X100S)

That being said, there is one thing I really do not get, and it’s about a firmware for the X100S… a pretty successful X-camera that would still deserve a bit of Kaizen love.

Here is the thing: a new X100S firmware already exists and it was used by David Hobby to test Classic Chrome on his X100S. Hobby himself said: “I have played with the new Classic Chrome film simulation on an X100S that had been altered to include it.”

So I think it should not be that difficult anymore to release a firmware update that allows all X100S shooters to add this new film simulation to their camera… just as you did with the X-E2 and with David Hobby’s X100S.

I know the X100T is fresh on the market and you don’t want to endanger its sales. But the X100T offers so many other improvements over the X100S (30 improvements listed in Rico’s X100T first look, starting from the ERF & WiFi), that a simple Classic Chrome update would for sure not make the X100T sales collapse, since there would be still 29 improvements left… or 28, if you’d add to the firmware also the electronic shutter or the intervalometer .

So, dear Fujfilm, it would be really great if you could make the “David Hobby-Firmware” available for download.

THE KAIZEN FUTURE
(or how you could possibly still update also older cameras)

And what about this: maybe you could work on a huge X100S firmware update (with Classic Chrome, Intervalometer, Customizable Quick Menu, Electronic Shutter, more reliable Battery Level Indicator, PDAF support in Instant-AF, Spot Metering AF frame coupling etc.), and make us pay a few bucks for the work? Please think about it. I’ll add a poll about it down below.

So, thank you Fujifilm for (hopefully) reading this letter. If you have any statement or reply to make on it, please don’t hesitate to contact me at fujirumor [at] gmail [dot] com. I’d be happy to post your answer here on FujiRumors.

Regards

[citral]

No troll : I think they should not propose anything and remain on their stance : no more FW update for the X100S.

 

Any of the two options proposed will make half of the people rage.

 

Free? There's not enough in it! I would pay for one with MOARRRR etc. etc.

 

Paid? Unfair, Mercantile, What has Fuji become, We're not cash cows, Should be free, etc. etc.

 

Fuji will be known for changing their mind if enough people bug them all the time with new fancy stuff they want. This will splash on all other products, and those to come. They will appear weak and while some people will have the impression they "won a battle" everybody willl lose in the end.

 

There is one thing I agree with tho : the battery indicator. For me it's a bug, not a feature.

[milandro]

Well, you know what they say, a sword cuts both ways. Could this apply to the Samurai’s Katana?

 

The Kaizen or “ continuous improvement” in the form of firmware upgrades ( or the lack of them), which in the beginning must have looked like a good marketing idea to Fuji, is beginning to show the darker side of the shiny medal.

 

 

If you look at the reactions at the simple hint ( and the publishing of an hasty declaration to the contrary, although by the sole Fuji France) that the X-E2 wouldn’t be upgraded or wouldn’t be upgraded as much as the X-T1 in relation to the X-T10, they are clearly showing some degree of hostility for something that I am afraid would only be the normal course of events if Fuji hadn’t, apparently firmly convinced, some of their customers to expect and take for granted.

 

The “ why not me?” will rapidly go from dismay to rabid hostility.

 

I don’t really know how this will play.

 

I hope that some Japanese marketeer, but one with good grasp of the psychology of the western buyer, will realize that this going to produce a large dose of spiteful reactions created unwittingly by Japanese marketing based on a different psychology.

 

We shall see.

 

I would advise to appease the public but to be clear in the message that Fuji is in the business of selling new cameras. Any other mixed reaction will confuse the market and produce even more negative reactions.

[kielinski]

Pay for a firmware update?  No thanks.

[aceflibble]

The problem is people don't understand what "kaizen" actually means and they haven't gotten a grasp on the Japanese business trend of having one-word corporate philosophies as part of a marketing strategy. Fuji's is 'Kaizen'; Canon's is 'Kyosei', for example.

"Kaizen" is simply shorthand for "we'll try to improve upon our existing product lines until it stops making financial sense to do so." That can mean a firmware update, a software update or a hardware update with a trade-in deal on the previous model. It also means a plain end to the old hardware once it stops being viable from a business perspective.

What "kaizen" does not mean:
- "The best update ever which will fix every complaint every single person has had"
- "Free updates for life"
- "We will never release an updated model"

 

Once you understand that, you should never be confused or concerned by Fuji's firmware update strategy (or lack of) again.

  

 

As for the X100S update to hack in Classic Chrome, you can do it yourself. You just copy the CC profile from a camera which does have it into the X100S in place of a film simulation you don't use. Never use Monochrome + red filter? Swap it for Classic Chrome. Tired of Astia? Paste Classic Chrome directly over it. Go hit up Google for tutorials on how to edit firmware; once you know how to open, edit and save, and what to look for, it becomes a literal copy & paste job to put Classic Chrome on an X100S. Just remember that you also have to trick the camera into think it is an X100T, too, just like if you edit the EXIF of a X100S raw to read as a X100T to get Classic Chrome to show up in Lightroom. (You'll notice Zack Arias' and David Hobby's X100S also read as X100Ts once they had the CC firmware put in.)