Pulitzer Prize Winner Ringo Chiu uses Fujifilm X Gear

Ringo Chiu won the Pulitzer prize 2021 as part of the awarded photography staff of Associated Press for a collection of photographs from multiple U.S. cities that cohesively captured the country’s response to the death of George Floyd.

Now NBC News just published a video about Ringo Chiu. In the interview, Ringo Chiu’s first sentence is “I just love photography” and then he goes on telling his story that brought him from China to USA and finally to win the Pulitzer prize.

So what has this to do with Fujifilm?

Well, photography lover Ringo, who grabbed one of the most prestigious awards for photojournalism on the planet, also shoots Fujifilm, as we can see multiple times during the video.

So let’s celebrate yet another Fujifilm X shooters who achieved great results thanks to his passion and talent for photography.

And yet, I am pretty sure that somewhere in a basement or fancy loft, a youtuber is already preparing a video with catchy headline declaring that the Fujifilm X system is no good for any professional use ;).

You can see the video above and check out Ringo Chiu’s work at his instagram here and website here. For the Pulitzer price photo series about the Black Live Matters coverage see this link.

Photography Awards

Hollywood Loves Fujifilm

& More

  • Fujifilm image makes the cover of the TIME magazine (story here)
  • Fujifilm images makes the front page of the Wall Street Journal (story here)
  • X gear is good enough for God’s work (story here)
  • X gear captured America’s most hated man (story here)
  • X gear distracted a French presidential candidate during his interview (story here)
image courtesy: Ringo Chiu - Taken on Fujifilm X-T2 with 10-24mm
image courtesy: Ringo Chiu – Taken on Fujifilm X-T2 with 10-24mm

FUJIFILM sets its Highest Record with 24 Products Winning the “iF Design Award”

Plenty of Fujifilm products have been awarded with the iF design award. In terms of photographic gear, the winners are:

Wasted money, Fuji!

Press Release

FUJIFILM Holdings sets its highest record with 24 products winning the internationally prestigious “iF Design Award”
– Recognized for beautiful appearance, advanced performance and excellent operability in products of various business fields
April 27, 2022

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Hey Fujifilm X-H2, Look at What Your Predecessor Can Do (and an Apology to All FR-Readers at My Birthday Today)

My Birthday Apology

I owe you an apology… and an explanation, that I hope you’ll understand.

Let me try to explain it my way.

On April 17, 2020, in full COVID lockdown, I celebrated my birthday alone with my wife.

The result of our celebration was my son, born 9 months later (just hours before Fuji’s biggest announcement ever). ;)

I made myself the best possible birthday present so to say ;).

So what has this to do with FujiRumors?

Well, many of you guys rightfully noticed (and some rightfully complain) that I don’t do image roundups anymore.

The reason for this is simple: time!

You know I am a teacher, and of course I also work on FujiRumors. So spare time was never something I had in abundance.

But while in the past I was still able to run FujiRumors at full power, my son now absorbs most of my spare time.

Now, the Italian state is quite generous, and allows me a total of 23 months off from teaching that I can take whenever I want until my son is 12 years old (and I already took a few of those months off), but it’s nonsense to take time off from school and then invest most of that time into working on FujiRumors. I mean, that’s time I take off for my son and family, not for more work.

Long story short: I could not run FujiRumors at the same pace I did before, so I had to look at ways to save time.

At the end it came down to two things I could cut off:

  • stop replying to the immense amount of emails I receive daily
  • stop with image roundups, which take a huge amount of time to make and generate very little views

I thought about it, and I decided that I want to keep up the 1:1 interaction via email as much as I possibly can. So what remained was the image roundups. And that’s why I haven’t done any in a long time.

My Birthday Present to you: An Image Roundup

But truth is, even if they make little views, I personally miss those roundups. Because at the end of the day, what it all comes down to are the images we make with our gear.

So I thought that today, at my birthday, I give the image roundup a revival.

And since all the talk these days is about the Fujifilm X-H2 high resolution and the Fujifilm X-H2S, I thought it could make sense to make a roundup of Fujifilm X-H1 images.

Because the flood of X-H2 rumors (with many more tome come) at times can give the impression that the X-H1 is kind of an unusable and dated piece of gear that urgently needs a refresh.

But that’s far from true.

The Fujifilm X-H1 was and still is a lovely camera that can create stunning results.

And that’s not just random talk.

In fact, it was a photographer using the Fujifilm X-H1 to win the overall World Press Photo Award just a few years ago.

And still today, those who own an X-H1 keep using and enjoying it with very pleasing results.

Hence, down below is an image roundup of 100% Fujifilm X-H1 images courtesy of images shared by photographers at our Fujifilm X-H group.

So will the image roundups get back now?

I can’t promise anything. If they come back, then certainly not at the same almost weekly pace of the past. But if there is ever a moment in my day where I find myself doing nothing and be bored, and outside it’s raining and I can’t go taking pictures, then I will make sure to grab my computer and start to work on image roundups.

Image Roundup

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Laowa 15mm f/4.5R Zero-D Shift New Version Announced: 14 Aperture Blades and Now Native for Fujifilm G Mount

Back in 2020, Venus Optics announced the original Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D shift lens (blue ring version), which thanks to an adapter worked also on Fujfilm GFX with the ability to shift ± 8mm with no vignetting.

Now Venus Optics announced a new version, the Laowa 15mm f/4.5R Zero-D Shift (red ring version) with 14 aperture blades instead of the 5 aperture blades of its predecessor.

The good news: Laowa is now offering both the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Shift lenses (the blue ring and the red ring versions) in native Fujifilm G mount, hence no more need to use any adapter.

Press Release

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Fujifilm Wins 20 Red Dot Awards

Fujifilm has purchased won 20 Red Dot Awards, including an award for a camera that won it already last year, the Fujifilm GFX100S. Isn’t that amazing?

In terms of photographic gear, the winners are:

My opinion (and some facts) about these joke awards here (I guess that’s why Fujifilm published the news on April 1st).

Down below the press release, the full list of winners and more details about each awarded product.

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Fujinon XF400mm f/4 and Fujinon XF550mm f/5.6 Patents Surfaced

There is a lack of long and fast primes in the Fujinon world. A lack on the market, but not on paper, as Fujifilm has patented a few of them:

Now we have new additions in terms of patents, as Fujifilm patented:

  • Fujinon XF400mm f/4
  • Fujinon XF550mm f/5.6

Particularly the Fujinon XF400mm f/4 seems interesting to FujiRumors readers, as it won our huge telephoto primes survey.

99% of patents remain forever on paper. But it’s good to know Fujifilm keeps looking at long prime options.

Down below you can find the details on both lenses.

If you want to, you can check out our previous “long telephoto primes” related articles.

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Panasonic Unveils 35MP Organic Super35 CMOS Sensor with Global Shutter and Great Dynamic Range

The organic sensor has reached a mythical status.

In fact, 8 year after the joint Panasonic and Fujifilm announcement, where the organic sensor was first unveiled to the masses with great optimism and claims of glorious performances and dynamic range, we haven’t seen anything coming to the market, expect for a camcorder prototype shown by Panasonic back in 2019.

Probably like many of you, I just stopped hoping that such a sensor would ever see the light of the day.

And yet, today we have to add another chapter to the organic sensor novel.

In fact, Panasonic has just announced the first 4k/8K Super35 global shutter organic CMOS sensor during the “4th 4K / 8K Video Technology Exhibition”

Here are Panasonic’s claims (google translated):

  • replaces the silicon photodiode that has been used as the light receiving part of the conventional CMOS sensor with an organic thin film that has a larger light absorption coefficient
  • wide dynamic range and global shutter
  • In a general back-illuminated CMOS sensor, if a high resolution and a wide dynamic range are realized, a global shutter cannot be installed, and if a global shutter is installed, the resolution and the dynamic range are reduced, which is a trade-off
  • The organic CMOS sensor has a dynamic range four times that of a general CMOS sensor
  • the global shutter also adjusts the voltage applied to the organic thin film to control the photoelectric conversion efficiency
  • technological development for practical use is making great progress
  • color reproducibility is high
  • As a next-generation technology for organic CMOS sensors, there is an ultra-WDR technology in which two sensitivity detection cells, a high-sensitivity cell and a high-saturation cell, are provided in one pixel.
  • With this, the dynamic range can be 100 times that of an organic CMOS sensor and 400 times that of a general CMOS sensor.

Well, we knew about all the dynamic range claims and the global shutter already. Today we got a bit more insights on how it works and especially one sentence revived my hopes after all these years:

technological development for practical use is making great progress

So let’s hope that we will soon see the first cameras with such a sensor and that they were able to sort out the main problems with this sensor: heat generation and battery drain.

Will this be the sensor of the Fujifilm X-H2?

I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

Maybe it will initially find its way into larger bodies of camcorders, which can handle heat generation better. At a later stage maybe also mirrorless cameras will feature this sensor.

Best Deal on Capture One 22

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The Organic Sensor Novel – A Summary:

  • June 2013: Fujifilm and Panasonic announced the organic sensor development
  • December 2014: Our sources told us here, that there is a crucial problem to be solved with the organic sensor: heat generation (and battery drain)
  • December 2014: Top Fujifilm Managers confirmed, that the organic sensor is “still well ahead of us.”
  • October 2015: 43rumors broke the rumor here, that it will still take a 2 or 3 years before the organic sensor will be ready for mass production.
  • February 2016: Panasonic announced that, along with Fujifilm, they are developing an organic sensor with global shutter and impressive 123dB (!!!) dynamic range.
  • February 2016: Fujifilm management says: “We don’t have any specific plans of incorporating an organic sensor into our products at the moment, but yes we are observing the progress of this technology. As of today, there would be No benefits to using an organic sensor. Our X-Trans III sensor is superior to the currently available organic sensor.”
  • February 2017: Panasonic announces the world’s first organic CMOS image sensor with electrically controllable near-infrared light sensitivity. However, unlike in previous press-releases, this time Fujifilm isn’t mentioned.
  • February 2017: Fujifilm Announces Development of World’s fastest Organic CMOS Circuit For Multi-bit flexible Temperature Sensor
  • August 2017: Development of Wide Dynamic Range and Global Shutter Technology for Organic Photoconductive Film Image Sensor (Panasonic)
  • Febraury 2018: Panasonic Announces 8K 36 Megapixel Global Shutter Organic Sensor… and Time To Stop Sony’s Sensor Hegemony
  • October 2018: Panasonic Says Organic Sensor Cooperation with Fujifilm Continues. Mass Production Will Take a Bit more Time
  • September 2019: Panasonic shows first Camcorder featuring 8K organic sensor

via digicame-info via monoist

Nitecore BlowerBaby and Camera Cleaning Pen, Fuji Guys “In My Bag”, X-T3 Flip Screen Alternatives & More – Accessories Roundup

Nitecore has released the BlowerBaby, which works in conjunction with the Nitecore Camera Cleaning Pen.

The BlowerBaby creates a 70 km/h (43.5 mph) strong wind you can use to blow off dust from your gear and sensor. Moreover, the camera cleaning pen comes with several brushes (a harder one and a very soft one), that you can attach on the BlowerBaby in order to remove the most stubborn dust from your gear.

The Nitecore BlowerBaby & Cleaning Pen is now available at AmazonUS here and also in Europe at AmazonDE and AmazonUK.

  • Strong Wind: Max wind speed of 70 km/h (43.5 mph), which is two times the traditional blower.
  • Wide Range of Usage: Applicable to the cleaning of photographic equipment and more devices, such as cameras and lens.
  • Electric Drive: Built-in 1, 500mAh Li-ion battery provides consistent usage, built-in Li-ion battery charging circuit with a USB-C port, power indicator to indicate the remaining battery power.
  • User-friendly Design: Silicone nozzle to prevent accidental damage to the object surface, constructed from aerospace-grade aluminium alloy with HA- III military grade hard-anodized finish.

Get Yours

Press Releases + Video + Accessories Roundup

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Fujinon XF70-300mmF4-5.6 in Stock – Limited Number (4)

Due to the shortage in parts announced by Fujifilm (an issue that every electronic company in the world has right now), lots of Fujifilm gear is hard to find in stock.

Especially the most recently announced gear is widely unavailable.

Little curiosity: a long time and good friend of mine owns a little company that makes graphite components for the ovens needed to make silicon wafers, and he told me he has so much work right now that semiconductor facotries worldwide are tring to match the chip-demand.

With that said, one of the gear that is hard to find in stock, is the Fujinon XF70-300mmF4-5.6, which is not available at BHphoto here and Adorama here, but a limited number (4) is available at the time of this post at AmazonUS here.

In the last few weeks, I see more and more images taken with this lens at our facebook groups. And I must say what probably most impressed me, are its macro capabilities. Just go to any of our X series facebook groups linked below, search inside the group for “70-300 macro” and be amazed by what you’ll see,

And just overall, the XF70-300mm seems to be a great performer. Down below you can see some customer review ratings.

Gosh, I spend all my holiday/tavel/free time/restaurants money saved in 2020/2021 in gear already (GFX100S, GF64-32, XF80 macro, XF27mmF2.8MKII), and I am trying to save my marriage by not purchasing any new gear this year, but the XF70-300mm is one of my top temptations of 2021 along with the GF100-200, the GF50mmF3.5 and also my Nr.1 temptation, the X-E4.

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