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It’s difficult to gauge how well the autofocus of the Fujifilm X-M5 truly performs.

Why?

The real issue is that performance depends on which Beta firmware version reviewers are using.

In the lead-up to launch, Fujifilm frequently updates the firmware for pre-production models, sometimes even multiple times a day.

So, someone testing the camera in mid-September may have significantly different results from someone testing it in mid-October.

And since reviewers aren’t able to re-test everything after every update, any autofocus performance assessment right now should be taken with a grain of salt, as it’s unclear which firmware version was used.

So we can come to a situation in which some might claim that the X-M5’s autofocus is on par with other X series cameras, while others might say it offers the best autofocus performance of any X series camera.

With that disclaimer out of the way…

In response to my article The perfect dial is…?, FR-reader Luigi replied to me with an idea: what if Fujifilm would still use the dial, but instead of printed markings they would consist in ink-displays?

So how would it work?

Well, you can read more about below.

Guest Post by Luigi – LuicaPhoto Flickr

My Fujifilm history began 2012 with X-E1, 2, 3 and X-T1, 2, 5 and I belong to the group of enthusiast photographers. And I started already in the film era of the 70-90-ties. Therefore I like the Fujifilm vintage design with dedicated dials. But I am also aware of PASM design advantages.

Here I propose a dial design which could combine the advantages of both design worlds:

Dedicated rotating mechanical dials, same size and with central lock button as known from the X-T series. But instead of the small engraved numbers for shutter speed or ISO – which looks crowded and have poor readability – the dial top plate should become a circle shaped ink display. And each dial would always display two assigned settings (at 12 and 6 o’clock), but now in much larger figures.

Circle shaped displays can show their their settings when rotating the dial as we are used.

The dial itself consists therefore of an outside ring, rotating around the circle shaped display inside .The existing levers of the X-T could be transformed into push levers: when pressed, the upper or bottom halve of the display becomes the active section.

The Dials Explained

You can see the PDF below or download the PDF at my Dropbox here.

Before the PDF, I will share it also in JPEG format as gallery for you to quickly scroll through.