The Big Rumor Check-Up 2014: The right, the wrong and the still to come (with reliability rating)

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Hi there,

2014 is almost 6 months old, and I thought it’s time to check back the rumors I’ve published in order to see what turned out to be correct, what was wrong, and especially to tell you how reliable the remaining rumors are.

For me, this is a good opportunity to make a rumor overview of the past half year and to answer to all those readers who dropped me an email asking me how reliable rumors published in the past months are.

Rumors NOT included: rumors from other sites and blogs, as I simply reported about them and never confirmed them with my sources (like digicame-info saying the X30 would come in February/March, the 18-135 price [it was published by a store], Fujifilm Bangladesh announcing a new X-mount camera, the freepatentsonline stuff, Dominik Fusina publishing his fake X-W1 and a few more).

And here they are. I added very low, low, medium or high rating to the rumors. I hope this helps you to get an orientation in the rumor jungle.

enjoy your day,
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HIGH RATING

– X100T successor of X100S

– XF16mm 1.4

– XF120-400

– X-PRO2 with APS-C sensor

– No more X-PRO1S, all R&D placed into the X-PRO2

– X30 coming in summer (so there is time until September 20)

MEDIUM RATING

– XF 35mm MKII (As Fuji has first to complete its lens lineup, it could take a while before the 35 MKII hits the market… and Fuji can change plans in any moment regarding this lens.) PLEASE NOTE: This rumor was not reported accurately by other sites (as petapixel and mirrorlessrumors). They quote FR, but say that the lens is “coming soon”. Which I never said. None of my sources ever told me a release date. In fact I said on May 5th: “I do not know when it will be launched nor which improvements we can expect, but, as you may guess, I’m restlessly working on it.”

– Faster AF for the 35mm MKII (This rumor is separated from the first 35MKII rumor, as it comes from another source and was posted in another article)

– X200 with 24MP, tilt screen, improved AF and wider detection area (Medium rating as I think that some, but not all the specs will be correct. The name has changed almost for sure to X100T).

– Button Upgrade for the early produced X-T1’s with mushy buttons.

– X-PRO2 available in 2015

LOW RATING

– X-T1P release with 4K viewfinder in July [An upgrade (or special/limited edition) is possible, but not anytime soon. And, as soon as also drphotorumor says that this rumor is not correct, I’ll downgrade it to “very low rating”. As soon as/if the top trusted Japanese source and/or the good old source tells me that this is wrong, I’ll move it into the wrong rumors 2014 list]

– XF 90mm (same as the 35 MKII here, the release of this lens is everything else but imminent, so a lot can change. Plus: I do not have any confirmation until now about it from trusted sources or sources who were right in the past)

VERY LOW RATING

– Sigma X-mount coming at photokina

– Medium Format Fuji (there are several anonymous sources telling me that this rumor is wrong. But I will post an update only when a trusted source speaks. And if they say, as to expect, that it is not correct, I’ll move it into the “wrong rumors” list)

_ _ _

And now let’s check the 2014 rumors

NOTE: You will see for example some X-T1 rumors (and others) listed sepratately. This is due the fact that there was, for example, a source telling me of a tilt screen, while another told me at a different time about the price and so on.

It’s fair towards my sources not to put everything together in the same pot and simply say “X-T1”, as every rumor listed here comes from a different source and was posted in different articles and could have been right or wrong.

Obviously the same goes for the wrong rumors. I don’t simply say “18-135 announcement”, but shared all 3 wrong release dates separately, so that they result as 3 errors and not as one.

CORRECT RUMORS IN 2014

– XF 18-135 coming June 16th

– X-E2 deal

– X-E2 firmware update with X-T1 EVF refresh rate coming soon (correct, it came a few days later)

– TCL-X100 will be out end of May (correct. It’s available since then in Japan, now also in Europe. Still out of stock in USA)

– TCL-X100 will cost €250 and be a bit cheaper than the WCL (correct. AmazonDE sells the silver version for €249, while the discounted WCL still costs €269)

– TCL-X100 will cost $350/400 (correct, it costs $350 at Bhphot & Co)

– TCL-X100 coming second half of April (correct, announced April 22)

– Lightroom 5.4 coming next week

– February/March lens deals with confidential Fuji document

– With the next update, Adobe will support X-Trans film simulation

– X30 won’t come in February/March as rumored by digicame-info

– Image and size comparison of the 10-24 with a protype 18-135 (real image)

– XF 16-55 and 50-140 will be weather sealed

– X-T1 announcement in January 28th at 4:30 AM London Time

– Improved WiFi for the X-T1

– UHS-II SD card slot, but no double SD-card slot + 8fps with AF tracking (Fuji originally planed a dual SD-card slot. When the first X-T1 image leaked here on FR, it even looked like a dual SD-card slot, but the Japanese source said it has just a single SD-card slot)

– X-T1 will cost $1300 / €1200

– First images of a prototype X-T1

– Firmware update for Zeiss will add PDAF support

– Tilt screen for the X-T1

– The name of the weather sealed X will be X-T1

– X-T1 will have the best EVF on the market

– black X100S will have a retail price of about £1000, about the same as silver version (the final retail price in UK is RRP £1099.99 for the black and £1049 for the silver version, according to wexUK. But now both are sold cheaper).

– XF56mm announcement at January 6th

– black X100S will be the only “new” X-camera presented at CES

WRONG RUMORS IN 2014

– XF 18-135 announcement on Memorial Day (wrong, but, as Rico said in his first look, the announcement has been postponed at least two times, so actually the date could have been origianlly correct, but the source did not know about the updated release date. NOTE: I excluded the rumor of an 18-135 f/3.5-4.8, as this was a typo by Fujifilm at the CP+ (see this image), and I just reported about it.

– XF 18-135 will come in May (I’ve shared this in Janaury. But what was right in Janaury, is wrong now. As we know from Rico, the release has been pushed back at least two times. Announcements are a very tricky part of rumors).

– XF 18-135 in stores in February

– X-PRO2 with FF sensor (wrong, and corrected a few weeks later by the top trusted Japanese source)

Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4: that’s Fuji’s new high speed wide angle lens on the roadmap (trusted source)

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Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4
trusted Japanese source

The rumor comes from the top trusted Japanese source, so do NOT take it with a grain of salt, spread the good news on facebook, google+, twitter and wherever you want (but don’t forget to quote the (original) source ;-))

Fuji’s mysterious high speed wide angle lens will be the Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4!

XF 120-400mm
new source

As I told you on February 3rd, according to a new source (see here), the super telephoto zoom lens will be the XF 120-400. If correct, we’ve just unveiled all the lenses that are currently shown on the Fuji Roadmap. So I’ve updated the roadmap for you :-)

XF 18-135mm f/3.5 to f/4.8
reminder

XF 18-135mm Reminder: We know it since the CP+ in Japan, but Fujifilm hasn’t still updated the roadmap: the 18-135 is getting faster (from f/3.5-f/5.6 to f/3.5-f/4.8). This lens will be the first weather sealed lens in the Fuji XF lineup. First rumors suggested that it would be released in April / May. But then Fuji changed its plans and delayed the release to probably June. This explains why Fujifilm has delayed the release… they are making it faster!

Stay Tuned because…

… because Fuji can insert new lenses to the roadmap in any moment. So I won’t stop it here and continue to investigate further for you.

Any hint and help would be highly appreciated. You can drop me an email (with a fake email account if you want), or use the rumor box. It will keep you anonymous (in this case you could use a nick-name so that I can recognize you in future).

Thanks in advance to anyone who decides to make my work here on Fujirumors a bit easier :-)

cheers
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HOT DEALS

Fujifilm X-E1

The X-E1 price is falling to ridiculous $499 and $699 for the kit at Adorama (including free hand grip and up to 6% reward!!!). But only while supplies last. At BHphoto the silver kit version is already discontinued! Adorama sells it also via AmazonUS, but you won’t get the freebies and the reward.

As Gabe said in the comments to the previous post:  “If anyone was going to buy the 18-55mm, they should spend the extra $5 and get a free camera.”

Adorama: black body ($499 + 4% reward) / silver body ($499 + 4% reward) / black kit ($699 + 6% reward) / silver kit ($699 + 6% reward) /

AmazonUS: black body ($499 via Adorama) / silver body (via Adorama) / black kit ($699 via Adorama) / silver kit ($699 via Adorama) /

Lightoom 5 boxed version

Lightroom is now $35 off at BHphoto here and AmazonUS here. The boxed version will cost you $109!

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Fuji Manager promises a total of about 20 lenses as soon as possible + no X-PRO2 for now

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FR-reader Hallvard spotted an interview with Fujifilm’s Imaging Division Sales Department Manager at the Japanese site dc.watch (thanks, I’ve missed that one!). It’s dated December 17th.

It’s available google translated here. Hallvard was so kind to decipher it for us:

I stumbled upon an in-depth interview with two Fujifilm representatives on the japanese site DC Watch (dated December 17.) which may be of interest to your readers (and which I don’t think you’ve quoted yet?). It’s not easy to make sense of everything in the Google Japanese-English translation, but a few points can be extracted:

1) He confirms that Fujifilm has no plans for a X-Pro1 replacement at the present

[admin: he also says that the X-PRO2 will remain Fuji’s flagship, so it will be released once a major breakthrough is obtained… or in the words of google translator: “It was not the only model change this year only X-Pro1, but thought at the time (as a top model) is obtained major breakthrough, X-Pro1 and want to do the appropriate model change.”]

2) He promises at least a total of about 20 lenses “as soon as possible”.

[admin: as there are actually 10 lenses available, and two more in the pipeline (the 10-24 (specs&price) and 56), there should be about 8 more lenses. 5 are already rumored to come: 16-55mm 2.8, 50-140mm 2.8, 18-135mm 3.5-5.6, Large-diameter wide-angle lens, Super-telephoto lens 200mm or more. With these rumored lenses there is a total of 17 Fujinon lenses.]

3) He elaborates on the X philosophy quite a bit, and if I’m not too far off, Fujifilm are aiming to make an industry reference” for digital imaging, like Kodak did with the silver halide film, the unquantifiable “three-dimensional appearance and feeling of air”. He emphasizes the perceived image quality, tone and color reproduction, over measurable features like S/N ratio and resolution. And he observes that the number of people who have “a deeper understanding of the X-Series” is slowly increasing. He sits tight, committed to their product, not industry trends.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who would have liked to read a proper translation of this interview. But anyhow, I hand it over to you. Please feel free to use it as you like.

[UDPATE] Here is another translation, shared via facebook by FR-reader Levels Of Detail:

– No expectation in the short term to update the x-pro1. It’s the flagship model, so they’ll continue to upgrade it through firmware updates. They expect to upgrade the flagship model when they can time it to deliver a major technological breakthrough.

– They see the latest features like wifi or miniaturization as competitive realities that they need to address, but fundamentally they view their strengths to be around image quality and color processing.

– They don’t think they’ll be done with the lenses until they’re at about 20 choices. They focus a lot on high quality glass, and they prioritize optically corrected lenses rather than software post-processing.

– A very interesting anecdote: they mention how the 35mm f/1.4 uses an essentially 100-year old 8-element design, which requires all elements to move when performing AF. They acknowledge that by changing the design, they could improve from 400ms to 200ms for AF time, but they choose to prioritize the IQ over the extra 200ms improvement.

A lot of what they talk about really jives with my impression of the X-E2. Great IQ, some really great color processing (I really like the B/W modes), but AF is not the highest pri.

In case you missed it, there is also a nice interview with Fuji manager Mr. Kawahara here.

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First Look: X-M1 with New Kit Zoom and Pancake Lens

by Rico Pfirstinger

Talk to Rico (open forum for questions & feedback) – Rico’s Flickr sets – X-M1 sample images – Mastering the Fujifilm X-Pro1 reading samples (65 free pages)

Click here to read Andy Westlake’s excellent preview of the X-M1 on DPR – Click here to jump directly to my set of sample images taken with my pre-production camera and lenses

Edit [16/9/13]: Added additional findings to the “pro” section of this article.

Edit [1/8/13]: Added plenty of new samples, both JPEG and RAW (Lightroom & Silkypix) to the Flickr set. Updated Pro/Con comparison with X-E1.

Edit [30/6/13]: Added several SOOC JPEG portrait samples taken with the X-M1 and the two new lenses to the Flickr set.

Edit [29/6/13]: Added my experiences using an USB adapter to get RR-80 remote controls to work with the X-M1

Fujifilm’s new X-M1 mid-range system camera is targeting users and fans of premium compact cameras (like the Sony RX100 or Fujifilm X10, X20 and XF1) as well as users of entry-level DSLR cameras who do not want to compromise on image quality, but prefer a small, lightweight and still affordable package. It’s important to recognize that the X-M1 was at least as much inspired by the Fujifilm X20 and XF1 as was by its older and more expensive system camera sibling, the X-E1.

In other words: This is as much a smaller X-E1 as it is an APS-C sensor sized system camera version of the XF1 or X20. Believe it or not, but the X10/X20 is actually a little bit larger than the body of the X-M1.

A Little Bit of Everything

This turns the X-M1 into kind of a hybrid system: It features the mode dial, scene modes, additional AF modes (including face recognition and pattern tracking), an additional OIS mode and the “art filters” of Fuji’s premium compact and bridge cameras. At the same time, it records images with the same 16 MP APS-C X-Trans sensor found in the larger and more expensive X-Pro1 or X-E1.

In terms of image processing, the tiny X-M1 even surpasses its bigger siblings with the faster EXR Processor II engine already known from the X100S and X20, with conventional 12 Bit RAW image recording. This turns the X-M1 into a pretty responsive camera (at least in Fuji terms). A 95 MB/s SD card (such as a [shoplink 13681]SanDisk Extreme Pro[/shoplink]) certainly pays-off when used in concert with this camera. It takes the X-M1 just about 2 seconds to copy 3 FINE+RAW images from its internal buffer to the card. With its modest burst rate of 5.6 frames per second, this means that the camera can shoot 13 frames in a row at full speed, even though the buffer is just large enough to hold 10 FINE+RAW images at any given time.

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X-DAY CONFIRMED: new body (entry level X-Trans APS-C), new firmware and new lenses on JUNE 25!

I got feedback from trusted sources. They confirm everything what the new Japanese source told to Fujirumors and… now here is what we know:

DATE: On June 25 Fujifilm will indeed make an important announcement.

X-BODY: The question is, which X-camera will be launched first (the X-Trans or the non X-Trans body)? According to both, the Japanese and trusted sources Fuji will launch the “little sister” (X-M1?) of the seXy-one (X-E1). It will be a cheaper and smaller X-E1 without viewfinder (trusted sources) but with tilt screen (new sources).

LENSES: According to trusted sources, on June 25 Fujifilm will launch the 27mm lens (confirming this FR-post of April 15) and the new zoom lens. Trusted sources said it will be a 16-50 or 16-55 cheap zoom lens. The new Japanese source told me that it will be a 16-50 zoom lens (if the source is right also this time, I think I should upgrade it to “trusted source” :) .)

FIRMWARE: Fuji will update the firmware for the X-E1 and X-PRO1. With these new lenses in the pipeline, it’s possible that it will only add compatibility. If I remember well, Fujifilm talked of a major firmware update in July.

On June 25 Fujirumors will follow the announcement live. Follow us on facebook, twitter and subscribe the RSS feed, and you won’t miss anything!

stay tuned
Patrick

X-entry level cameras rumor update: tilt screen and name: X-A1 (new sources)?

Note: Please read carefully if the rumor comes from trusted or new sources.

1) APS-C X-trans entry-level camera: We know that this camera won’t have a viewfinder (trusted sources), but according to a new source it will have a tilt screen.

2) The non X-trans very cheap camera: You remember when I told you that I guess it will be the sensor of the X100? Well, trusted sources told me that my personal supposition is wrong. It won’t be the APS-C of the X100… I’ll shut up and leave guesses to you in the comments :)

Another new source also told me that the X-Trans camera will be called X-A1 (A stands for Amateur.) Trusted sources could not confirm it. And if the Nippon magazine is right, the non X-Trans camera could be the X-M1… where M stand for…?

Now, let’s suppose that the name guessed by the new source (X-A1) is right, then this could be the new APS-C interchangeable Fuji X-family: X-M1, X-A1, X-E1, X-PRO1…

I remember you that trusted sources told me that there will be 2 new lenses here and one of those will be a 16-50 or 16-55.

cheap body without X-Trans sensor and new lenses to come?

I’ve passed a lot of time yesterday/today chatting and writing emails… and now I can give you an update about the mysterious non-X-Trans camera.

Trusted sources told me that the camera without X-Trans sensor will be very cheap and sold together with one or two new lenses (one of these lenses could be a 16-50 or 16-55 zoom lens)… could this be the camera that another new source told me would cost $550 body+lens? (trusted sources could not confirm the price of $550)

I’m sure you want to know what sensor it could have… I’ve no idea. But if I should place a bet, then I would agree with Per K, who in the comments to the previous rumor said it could be the APS-C sensor of the X100… but it’s only a supposition.

If the sources are right, with these new entry-level cameras (X-Trans and non-X-Trans), Fuji could soon offer to every customer the camera tailored to his needs, from high-end (X-PRO1 + great lenses) to entry-level (X-whatever ;) + cheaper lenses). As I’ve read somewhere in the web (can’t remember where): “Fuji colours for everyone”.

stay tuned
Patrick