In the comments of the last “bags for your X” episode (here), some X-shooters made their own suggestion about which is, according to them, the best bag for those ready to set sails for an adventure.

Today I’d like to include them into this 5th part of the “bags for your X” miniseries… and I’ll also add another bag. It’s not a backpack, but to me, it is a very good option in those moments of your travel, when you’d like to leave your big backpack in the hotel room (or tent) and need just a small bag where to safely store your mirrorless camera and lenses: the Cosyspeed Camslinger Bags.

Not included: bags already covered in previous episodes of the “bags for you X” series (read here part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4).

BAG 1: THE CAMSLINGER (price at BHphoto)

The concept behind the camslinger is the following: “Wear your mirrorless camera like a western hero wears his beloved revolver.” And the aim is the same: to “shoot” as quickly as possible. From the product description:

“Your cam (and depending on what model lenses as well) is secured against bumps, dust ans splash water. You’ll get fast, one handed access to your cam, can wear your cam and lensen comfortably the whole day long and you’ll have a new, cool feeling when “shooting” photos.”

This bag is designed just for mirrorless cameras, so the size is optimized to put a camera with an attached lens into it (CAMSLINGER 105) or a camera + 2 lenses (CAMSLINGER 160).

You can find the bags (and accessories) here at BHphoto.

You can see plenty of videos and photos at Cosyspeed’s website here.

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Bag 2: Thule

Product description: “Thule has backpacks, daypacks, slings, and toploaders to get you and your photo gear up the mountain or down the slope in style. With smart features for safe camera storage and fast access, plus customizable spaces for your essentials and accessories.”

Thule home page / Price at BHphoto

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Bag 3: Lowepro

In this image you can see the Photo Sport 200 AW. Product description: “Trail running and photography. Mountain biking and photography. Snowboarding and photography. Adventure sport athletes who like to go fast and light — but equally like to capture the moment — will enjoy the freedom and comfort of this pack.”

Lowepro home page / Price at AmazonUS

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Bag 4: The Loka UL

The Loka UL is the first ulta-lightweight pack of F-Stop Gear. Read more about it at fstopgear.com.

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BAG 5: Millican series

FR-reader Neil linked to the vintage Millican series (home page) in the comments: From the product description: “Fujifilm was looking for a specialist partner to create a select range of versatile, camera-ready shoulder bags to accompany their award-winning X-Series digital cameras.”

the ISO-unlocker site is offline [UPDATE 2: the site is online again, with the following note: “Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.” Ian also said in the comments: “The pre-order system was handled through the Celery crowdfunding service so all user data was protected.”]

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UDPATE 1: I just received an email from Steven. He has received the following email from Ian Norman:

“To all the supporters of the ISO Unlocker project,

Thanks so much for your pledge to support the development of the ISO Unlocker for the Fujifilm X-T1. I am sorry to inform you that we will not be pursuing funding any longer and you will not be charged for your order. As of this moment, all orders are cancelled. You will receive a separate email confirming the cancellation of your order.

Please note that your initial order was just a pledge and pre-authorization and no orders were charged at the time of placing the order.

I developed the idea for ISO Unlocker when I and so many other X-T1 owners felt that their photo shooting experience could be improved by a simple fix. The initial response to the project idea was very positive and I was very excited to seek funding to produce something that would help other photographers enjoy their camera even more.

Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.

Thanks again for your support, I’m sorry we didn’t see it happen.”

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Original Post

As you may remember, on March 2 I told you here about the ISO-unlocker for the X-T1, a “fully machined aircraft grade aluminum cover for your X-T1′s ISO dial. It keeps the dial lock button held down so that you can more quickly change your ISO setting on the fly“.

The news quickly spread around the web, as many considered it a useful accessory in order to improve the ergonomics of the X-T1.

At the ISO-unlocker site we could read that “designs for the ISO Unlocker are finished and prototypes are on the way but we need your help to make ISO Unlocker a reality.” So they needed 250 pre-orders in order to make this accessory become reality.

Just a couple of days ago I stopped again at the ISO-unlocker site and saw that it got 92% of the requested pre-orders. So the goal was almost reached but…

…but was it all just scam? In fact, if you now click on the isounlocker site here, you’ll see that the website no longer works. According to the anonymous FR-reader who passed me this news, the “owner is not responding to emails. Pending PayPal refund request.” [UPATE: Other FR-readers received an email with the text published in the first part of this article]

I’ll keep you posted in case I get some news about it. And if you got some more information, please contact FR at fujirumor [at] gmail.com.

I’ve reported about the story of Nate, who’s travelling non-stop around the world with just one lens 18mm and one camera (X-PRO1) here. Well, it’s more than 700 days now that Nate is on the road and his blog (yomadic.com) is full of impressions and images of his endless travel. Today I’m glad to post a reminder to his blog and to share Nate’s feedback about the X-PRO1 as a travel camera… after 700 days of travel and 54 visited countries. Nate wrote:

“Hey Patrick,

Thought I would contact you again – I have now been travelling for 700 days, with my Fuji X-Pro, and just an 18mm lens. My latest set of photos show some great “ruin-porn” from Sarajevo – the abandoned Bobsled track from the 1984 Winter Olympics. I’ve now visited 54 countries, and all weather conditions, and the Fuji has not skipped a beat.

Feel free to share some of these photos, and report to your readers the incredible reliability of the X-Pro 1 …I don’t even have a case, and I never carry an umbrella ;)

Take care, eagerly awaiting all news on the X Pro 2

http://www.yomadic.com/sarajevo-bobsled-track/ Nate Robert

• XF 18mmF2: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

Announced back in April, and now in stock at Adorama here: the TCL-X100… at least the silver one, for 349. The black one can be found at AmazonUS via third party and you have to pay $50 extra.

At AmazonUS (via third party reseller) you can grab the XF56mm f/1.2 for normal price here.

It’s Kaizen again!  Today you can download the new firmware for X-T1, X-E2, X-PRO1, XQ1, X-A1 and X-M1 from Fuji’s support site here.

X-T1 firmware ver. 1.10

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Improvement of “Exposure compensation/exposure indicator” in EVF – Values are added to the scales of the indicator for better visibility.
• 3. Improvement of Movie-record button operability – To avoid an accidental movie shooting, the delayed time will become longer between the moment you press the button and a movie shooting starts or ends.
• 4. The phenomenon is fixed that images are not recorded with the set interval when “INTERVAL” in “INTERVAL TIMER SHOOTING” is set to 5 sec or less. In this case, the setting of “IMAGE DISP.” in “SCREEN SET-UP” will change to “OFF” automatically.

X-E2 firmware ver. 2.10

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

X-PRO1 firmware ver. 3.30

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

X-E1 firmware ver.2.30

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

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Some fixes and improvements also for the X-M1, X-A1 and XQ1. And if you own the [shoplink 23847]Instax Share SP-1 printer[/shoplink], you can now send images directly via WiFi to this little printer without having to send it first to your iPhone. If you own the best sellers in the X-lineup, X-T1 and the X-E2, then you still have to continue to upload your images to your smartphone first and from there send it to the printer.

X-M1 ver. 1.20 / X-A1 ver. 1.20

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “instax SHARE SP-1” – Images can be directly transferred to the “SP-1” from a camera and then printed.
• 2. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 3. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.
• 4. Improvement of recorded sound – Sound quality of a movie shooting is improved.
• 5. The phenomenon is fixed that in rare cases, gray stripes could appear in highlight portion of images with a standard viewer of a smartphone (only Android).

XQ1 ver. 1.20

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “instax SHARE SP-1” – Images can be directly transferred to the “SP-1” from a camera and then printed.
• 2. The phenomenon is fixed that in rare cases, a camera could stop working during image transfer when starting “PC AutoSave” function by pressing the Wi-Fi button.

And now, lucky XQ1, X-A1 and X-M1 shooters, download the firmware at Fuji’s download site here (X-M1 / X-A1 / XQ1)