“Sony’s Full Frame Mirrorless is a Fatal Mistake.” APS-C (and Fuji) is better! + The Answer of SonyAlphaRumors!

Bildschirmfoto 2016-04-05 um 11.16.59
A7rII
+ Zeiss 85mmF1.8 Batis Vs. Nikon D810 + the 85mmF1.8 Vs. Fuji X-Pro2 +XF56mmF1.2

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There is an article at Petapixel, that is creating quite a buzz. Many FR-reader dropped me a link to it. In short: Sony’s Full Frame Mirrorless is a Mistake (and some are afraid that Fujifilm will Make The Same Mistake one day. Here some reasons:

  1. Compactness: Full Frame lenses are Big, so you lose the size advantage of mirrorless cameras. “In many cases, Sony FF mirrorless works out as being bigger than a comparable DSLR.” […] If compactness really were your priority, you would choose the Fuji 56mm f/1.2, which also allows you to shoot faster in low light.”
  2. Weight: “The next answer you will hear is that a FF mirrorless body is still lighter and the height or width might be a bit less. However, that’s partly because Sony put such a miniscule battery in their FF mirrorless bodies that you end up having to carry multiple batteries, which negate any size advantage.”
  3. In Body Image Stabilization: In this case they quote a Sigma CEO, who said: “…the diameter is very small and makes it difficult to design high quality FF lenses … it almost looks like E-mount was designed for APS-C more than FF“.
    You might remember how a Fuji Manager said here, that IBIS is not good for X-mount because “The diameter of our mount was designed for the image circle without IBIS. It means the amount of light at the corners is reduced when the sensor is shifted. We could correct it digitally, but we don’t want to do it: we don’t want to compromise our image quality.” So the conclusions they make at the petapixel article is that “if you want IBIS, you have to design the mount in advance with a wider diameter, so that it doesn’t compromise corner IQ as the sensor moves around. What you don’t do is take an APS-C mount (NEX mount), turn it into a FF mount, then forcibly retrofit IBIS onto a mount never designed to take it in the first place.”
  4. Sony FF Mirrorless not good for ultra-wide angle: “Zeiss has admitted that the short flange distance of the FE mount makes it technically challenging to design ultra wide-angle lenses, because the short flange distance between the sensor and the rear element is an engineering challenge for ultra wide-angle lenses. At really short focal lengths, the light hits the corners at too steep an angle, which is exacerbated by IBIS when the sensor moves. It isn’t without reason that Sony have yet to come up with any high quality wide-angle zoom lenses for the FE mount.”

All in all it looks like APS-C (and Fujifilm) is the better way to go for the reviewer.

Before you start the discussion, you should read the response of SonyAlphaRumors. He highlights a few “errors”:

  1. Size: It’s not the “mirrorless” aspect that makes Sony FF attractive. But mirrorless is necessary for most of these innovative features to exist.
  2. Big lenses: The lenses are big because it’s high quality glass, for example the [shoplink 44295 ebay]new 85mm GM lens[/shoplink] is made for ultimate quality. […] Sartor, the author of the article, did not take into account that lenses are also designed for different image quality performances.
    Let’s make a more fair comparison: Here is the Zeiss FE 35mmF2.8 Vs the XF18mmF2.0 (29mm f/3.0 FF equivalent) comparison by CameraSize (re-aligned on the LCD screen)
    So SAR’s conclusion is that: “Owning a Sony A7 camera gives you an extreme flexibility: If small size is what matters you can use small APS-C or FF lenses on the very same E-mount. If extreme quality is what matters you can use the bigger FF GM lenses. Such a flexibility is yet second to none in the camera businessaligned
  3. IBIS: SonyAlphaRumors says that Sartor doesn’t bring a real actual proof to support his thesis.

Check out the Full articles at SonyAlphaRumors and Petapixel… and then feel free to drop your own considerations in the comments.

The Rise of Instax: From 100k units sold in 2004 to 5 million in 2015 :: Expected 1.4 million digital camera sales in 2015

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the Instax Mini 70 – latest addition in Fuji’s Instax World Line-up

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In the internal battel, Fuji X-digital Vs. Fuji Instax-Film, the latter wins hands down.

You might wonder why we should care about the success or not of Fuji’s Instax cameras. Well, easy: the terrific earnings Fujfilm makes with Instax are fueling the development costs of the X-series cameras! Without Instax, Fuji’s imaging division would hardly be profitable.

The Wall Street Journal published some numbers:

  • 100.000 Instax Cameras sold in 2004
  • 5 million expected instant-film camera units sold in 2015 (compared to the 1.4 million digital cameras expected to be sold in 2015)
  • expected 6.4 million instant-film cameras sales in 2016
  • 30% Instax sales in Asia, 30% sales in USA, 15% sales in Europe

No suprise that over the last few years, the OVERALL camera ranking at AmazonUS is dominated by Fujifilm Instax Products.

So, the name, Fujifilm is still justified.

I remind you how The New York Times said in 2013, that from 2011 (Fujifilm X100 launch) to 2013, Fujifilm sold 700,000 X-series cameras.

You can read the whole story about the very interesting rise of Instax at the Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times says: “700,000 X-series cameras sold”

DOWNLOAD NEW Firmware for X-Pro1, X-E1, X-A1/2, X-M1, XF50-140 and XF100-400 :: Improved AF for X-E1 & X-Pro1 with 100-400 + 50-140!

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NEW FIRMWARE

Fujifilm just relased new Firmware updates for X-Pro1, X-E1, X-A1/2 and X-M1 to support the focus limiter function on the XF100-400.

They also released a new Firmware for XF100-400 and XF50-140 to improve AF when mounted on X-Pro1 and X-E1 cameras.

AF tracking performance on AF-C and Movie mode will be improved when they [XF50-140 & XF100-400] are attached to FUJIFILM X-Pro1 or X-E1. “

Download the Firwmare here.

LAST SUPER X DEALS DAYS

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It’s Official: Fujifilm Cameras Look Great :: Fuji wins 9 Red Dot Design Awards

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Record-high 9 Fujifilm cameras won this years’ Red Dot Design Award, including the X-Pro2 and the Instax Mini 70.

  • Fujifilm X-Pro2
  • Fujifilm X70
  • Fujifilm X-T10
  • Fujifilm X-A2
  • Fujifilm X-E2s
  • Fuji XQ2
  • Fujifilm XF16-55
  • Fujifilm XF50-140
  • FinePix XP90
  • Instax Mini 70

via fujifilm

Fujifilm X-Pro2: USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / FocusCamera / AdoramaPictureline / BestBuy CANADA: AmazonCA / EUROPE: AmazonDE / AmazonUK / WexUK / PCHstore / AmazonITA / AmazonFR / AmazonESP /   AUSTRALIA: CameraPro

Which one is the Best Looking X-series Camera?

View Results

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Fujifilm Loves Our Polls? Then here are 2 more! :: X-Pro2 4K via Firmware update + ISO dial “T-camouflage solution”

Fuji POLL Empty

*Fujifilm Reads You!
Click HERE to see the original FujiRumors Poll, that Fujfiilm used in an official presentation to the Press

It’s no secret: Fujifilm loves our Polls and reads our comments.

This has been made possible thanks to you guys and your participation, which made this blog the by far biggest source of “online feedback” for Fujifilm.

X-series related Polls gather several thousands of votes within a few days (and hundreds of comments)… and if you keep it up, then we can be sure that they will continue to read us and maybe once again even display our Poll-Results at official press events.

Now, as you know, FujiRumors is a one man show that I run in my spare time. That’s why I rely on your help and support. So keep up sharing rumors and links to news, reviews, curiosities, deals and whatever you think should be featured on FR.

And sometimes FR-readers also suggest Polls in the comments and/or via email, which I’m happy to share whenever I can. And today, upon readers request, I’m going to share two more Polls:

Poll #1 – 4K via Firmware update: As you know, Fujifilm Managers said in several interviews, that the X-Pro2 is 4K capable (and the X-T2 will have 4K, as Fujifilm said here), but the problem with Fuji’s new flagship is that it overheats when filming in 4K.

The FujiRumors community asked me for a Poll regarding this, and I’m happy to share it:

Should Fujifilm bring 4K via Firmware to the X-Pro2?

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Poll #2 – ISO-Dial: In our last Poll here, the result was pretty clear: most X-shooters want an ISO-dial. Many actually seem to get used quickly to the X-Pro2 ISO/Shutter dial, as Marin said here on facebook:

ISO

However, there is still a good number of X-shooters, who’d prefer to get rid of the dedicated ISO Dial. Couldn’t Fuji make everybody happy…. maybe with some sort of “T-camouflage solution“? Let me explain it.

On current X-series cameras, when you place the shutter dial to “T”, you can control the shutter speed with the front dial.

The ISO dial of the X-T1 and X-Pro2 have no “T-like” marking. But some FR-readers came up with alternative solutions. My favorite one? If you set the ISO-dial to “H2” (which I can’t remember ever having used, so it’s useless anyway, for me), you can adjust the ISO value with front or rear dial. And what if you’d like to shoot at ISO 25600 and jpeg only (because that’s what H2 means on the X-T1)? Set the ISO dial to H1 (ISO 12800) and select in the menu if you want to shoot at 12800 or 25600.

With this solution, H2 would basically work like the “T” on the shutter dial, and H1 gives you access to both extended ISO settings.

This is just one possible solution. Feel free to drop your ideas in the comment…. and here is the Poll

Should Fuji find a firmware solution to allow us to control ISO values with front/rear dial?

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