Samuel Ryde is taking an image every day at 12:34 since 10 years. In the video about this story posted at the BBC, you can see him with his Fujifilm X-T10, which certainly snapped many of the images he took during this project. Of course he uses also his smartphone to take images, but it’s nice to see a Fujifilm X series camera found its spot Samuel’s journey.
You can see the video below and check out also the BBC website.
But yeah, I can’t see the future. Nobody can. So Tony’s opinion is just as valid as mine. The future will tell.
Two System, Less Cameras and Lenses for APS-C due to limited R&D
Maybe I am not so much into other brands, but I don’t feel like Fujifilm is releasing less gear than other brands.
The real issue was more that so far not many third party brands released AF lenses for Fujifilm, but that has been solved in the meantime.
But in some way it is true. No GFX system could potentially mean more resources for X mount. But I think this is also why Fujifilm waited so long before offering a second sensor option. They did want to wait that their APS-C lineup is rich in lenses and once well covered, they can free up resources for other projects.
Lack of Fast Lenses
First off, let me say that there are many fast Fujinon XF lenses such as the XF200mmF2, XF8-16mmF2.8, XF50mmF1.0 as well as all the nice f/1.2 and f/1.4 primes.
But what about the f/1.8 zooms he’d wish for the X system? Well, that brings us to the next point.
High ISO
In the past, pushing your digital cameras to high ISO was something we absolutely wanted to avoid, as the performance was so bad. To avoid to go too high with ISO, we did indeed need fast glass for low light photography.
But that was the past. Today, ISO performance on digital cameras is vastly improved, which means you don’t need to try to desperately avoid high ISO with super fast and expensive glass. Nope, you can also push ISO up much higher than you ever could in the past.
What this means is that you can put smaller, lighter and more affordable lenses on your camera, as you can compensate the slower aperture with a higher ISO value.
Down below I will share a video of an extreme low light recovery I made of my wife overlooking the hills of Ronda in Andalusia, Spain (we made our honeymoon there). She basically went from almost invisible black to nicely visible in clean colors (thank you X-Trans for that high color fidelity) and in my eyes also very contained levels of noise, which make the image pleasing and usable.
But what about Bokeh? Let’s talk about it.
Bokeh
Not enough background blur? Well, this one is easy to answer. I’ll just share an image down below. And it’s not even the fastest lens Fujifilm has to offer (you can get even more radical with this one).
Autofocus (and Computational Photography)
True, Sony and Canon have better autofocus. But the point with autofocus is, that once it is near perfect, there is not much to improve anymore. Fujifilm just needs to catch up with Sony and Canon, and then the “autofocus war” will be basically over, since there will be little room for further enhancements.
Where there is much more room for improvement, is computational photography. And this is an area where smaller sensors simply are superior to bigger sensors. In fact, if done wisely, it could be even lead to a Renaissance of the M43 system (as the Panasonic GH6 shows with its terrific high res handheld mode). And certainly APS-C has a potential advantage here over full frame or medium format.
What some might not know, is that Sigma also offers a “mount conversion service”.So, if you already own any of these lenses for other mounts and now would like them for your new Fuji X system, you can get them converted directly by Sigma.
Available Mount Conversion Service
This service converts the mount of SIGMA lenses to that of a different camera body, allowing photographers to continue using their favorite lenses over the long term regardless of camera system.
Note 1: The Mount Conversion Service is different from a normal repair. In order to apply for the service, please contact your nearest authorized SIGMA subsidiary or distributor.https://www.sigma-global.com/en/world-network/ Note 2: This service is performed exclusively by SIGMA.
Now Cosina has published the main specs and a new product image (see above) of this lens at their website in Japanese, which I now report here on FujiRumors machine translated.
A large aperture quasi-wide-angle lens with the latest optics using one double-sided aspherical lens and two abnormal partial dispersion glass. Although it is a compact size, it has excellent resolution from the aperture opening, and large blur due to the large aperture of F1.2 can be obtained.
Just as the 35mm version, also this one has electronic contacts to transfer certain information such as EXIF data.
I love the look of this lens, and actually also of the Voigländer Nokton 35mm f/1.2 X. And although I am tempted to get one, I so far have not treated myself with one, since I’d pay for features (the electronic contacts) that do not work on my Fujifilm X-E3.
With the latest Sigma X mount releases, it’s high time for us to update the list of third party lenses with autofocus support for Fujifilm X series cameras.
We will include also the newly announced Voigtländer NOKTON 23mm F1.2 (as well as the already available Voigländer Nokton 35mm f/1.2 X), which are not autofocus lenses, but they have electronic contacts for EXIF data transfer and more.
