Fujifilm UK manger Andreas Georghiades returns to the Fujicast postcast.
It’s an almost 1 hour podcast, and if you are in a hurry and can’t listen it all, I provide a summary of everything the manager says, so you can get it all in under 5 minutes.
Fujifilm has now published its fiscal report for the fiscal year 2020 (1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020).
Fellow FR-reader Mistral has summarized it in French over at the French forum chassimages. In short:
Fujifilm as a whole is still doing well even if it has not reached the expected goals given the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on its last quarter.
Imaging Solutions is the division with the lowest performance.
Fujifilm records a loss in the last quarter. The decline in sales of digital cameras and their lenses has accelerated throughout the year.
The only positive note: the Fujifilm GFX100 keeps up selling strong, as well as the Fujifilm X100V and Fujifilm X-Pro3 are mentioned positively in the various reports.
Frazis has released Photographer’s Collection Volume 2 software pack.
At the moment the website shows you get all the software below for $69 launch price (reg. $276)
There is something I do not get (help me out, if I miss something).
When Sony released their “real time tracking”, it rightfully got tons of coverage and praise.
The killer feature?
Sony’s autofocus system switched automatically between subject tracking, face tracking or eye tracking.
Imagine you are face/eye tracking a person with your camera, but then the person either puts her hands in front of its face or just turns around. Well, the camera will keep up tracking whatever “replaced” the person’s face (the hands or the back of the head etc.).
That’s cool, because it means that when the camera loses the face, it will keep up tracking the subject.
I remember DPReview made a couple of videos and articles praising it as “a big leap forward for AF“. All the vloggers and blogs covered it in countless videos and articles.
A massive coverage and well-deserved hype for Sony.
But guess what?
I am playing around with my brand new Fujifilm X-T4 and I notice that my Fujifilm X-T4 can do pretty much the same!
In fact, my Fujifilm X-T4 also switches automatically between subject tracking, face tracking or eye tracking.
I will demonstrate it with a video I just did, tracking my mother, my dog and a car.
To set it up in your camera, do this:
Even in the latest DPReview review of the Fujifilm X-T4 I think I did not read a single line about this feature. And yet, on the Sony, they called this feature a “big leap forward for AF” (video below).
Ignore faces with face detection enabled? I tell you how.
If you put your focus box on an object and half-press the shutter button, and then a face comes into a frame, the X-T4 sticks with the object you chose, but a grey box appears on the new face, just to let you know “Hey, I saw a face, if you want, I can track it“. But it won’t let your chosen object go. Unless you want to.
To switch to the detected face, let the shutter button go press the focus stick, and the camera switches to the face. You don’t want the face again? Press focus stick again, place your focus box on the object you want, and track it, ignoring faces (but always with the grey square around faces, just so the camera let’s you know it is detecting faces).
Down below a short video I just did at midnight here with my wife to demonstrate it.
I select the couch, and even though my wife’s face is in the frame, the X-T4 sticks with the couch, because I told the camera I want so. But there is a grey box around my wife’s face. I toggled to the face doing what I told you above. And then quickly back to the couch.
I am not saying the Fuji AF is as good as Sony. But I say it is at least something they should have mentioned, tested and eventually also compared to Sony.
But don’t worry, I have a plan
I am going to tape a Sony logo over my Fujifilm X-T4 and send it for testing to all possible vloggers and bloggers, so they might notice this amazing feature also on the X-T4 and maybe, who knows, even praise the full frame image quality ;). Just kidding, in these days where all is so heavy and full of bad news, we need a bit of lightness.
Now seriously, as I applauded Sony, when they released that feature in their AF system, I think I should do the same also with Fujifilm now.
And especially, I’d like to let you guys know about it. Sure, Fujifilm came a bit late compared to Sony, but now with the X-T4 we are here, with a real-time tracking that could simplify our tracking experience quite a bit :).
Remains to see, how well it works compared to Sony’s version.
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As you might know, photographers using Fujifilm cameras creamed off all the top awards at the World Press Photo Awards 2020.
Fujifilm X/GFX shooters’ triumph put even the most hardcore Fujifilm APS-C mockers like Mr.”LOL Fuji” into an uncomfortable position.
In fact, after tons of videos celebrating the infinite virtues of full frame and the horrible shortcomings of APS-C, when commenting the World Press Photo Awards, suddenly Mr. LOL Fuji showed a momentary lapse of reason, and said that the camera does not matter, but the results matter.
Sure, he was not yet able to say “damn, also those APS-C Fujifilm cameras can deliver bloody awesome and professional award winning results. Maybe I was wrong all the time“. But he will eventually get there, one day.
Deconstructing wrong believes and notions that are calcified deep in our nerdy brains can take time. But Fujifilm X shooters are cool cats, and will hug Mr. LOL Fuji big time, when this happens.
Just one tip, read the manual first, Mr. LOL Fuji… and be creative. Creativity is like having a 8×10 digital sensor in your brain. Trust me, inspiration matters more than which image is sharper if seen at 500% magnification ;).
Anyway, Fujifilm is continuing to interview the photographers behind those Award Winning images.
The first interview was with Alain Shroeder (we reported here), winner of the World Press Photo overall stories category. It’s an interesting one, make sure to check it out here.
This time they interview Luca Locatelli, 1st Prize for environment story in 2020 Word Press Photo Contest.
Fellow Fujifilm shooter Luca used a Fujifilm GFX100, hence a camera with a sensor 70% bigger than full frame (that’s for the nerdy folks able to read until here ;)).
He is interviewed by one of the most popular Fujifilm managers, Makoto Oishi.
Here is a summary of the interview:
