These will be great lenses for Fujifilm X-T3, Fujifilm X-T4, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-T6, Fujifilm X-H2, Fujifilm X-H2S, Fujifilm X-H3, Fujifilm X-H2r, Fujifilm X-Pro4 and all the other cameras that Fujifilm will launch in the decade to come, such as the Fujifilm X-T7, Fujifilm X-H4, Fujifilm X-H5, Fujifilm X-Pro5, Fujifilm X-E5, Fujifilm X-H20, Fujifilm X-S20, Fujifilm X-H2O (the underwater X-H2)… ;)
Contrary to what we were used so far, this time they also included non Fujifilm X Photographers to the talk, meaning photographers that are not part of the official X photographers program, but who simply started using X or GFX gear, even though they have no relationship with Fujifilm Corporation.
The first not official X/GFX photographer to be part of the Fujifilm Nordic Webinar series is called Soren Solkaer.
Soren Solkaer went digital since 2002
he instantly started shooting with Full Frame digital (but in his analog times he shot medium format)
about 1 year ago, his prost production guy told him “Sir, we have to talk, there is a new camera in town“
Soren was very skeptical. He didn’t want to change his camera as he was so used to his full frame gear
his post production partner told him there are files now, that are way better than his full frame files
in some of his exhibitions he prints 2×3 meters big, and squeezing that our of full frame can be done, but having a bigger file is a huge advantage
his post production partner told him the files of GFX are bigger and the quality is just amazing
despite being very reluctant, he tried out the GFX system and he saw that his post production partner was right
he did not start with the 50MP GFX but he started right with the 100MP GFX100S
on top of the resolution, there were many other things that hugely impress him of the Fujifilm GFX100S
he needed to get used to the menu, the buttons, etc
in the last 25 years he mainly took portraits of celebrities
the interviewer asks about the speed of the GFX100S, and he says that he shoots full manual control (except for autofocus), and after a bit of time of getting used, he now gets 100 out of 100 perfectly exposed and focused images
in some other of his project the file size itself is not necessary at all, and in those cases he still uses his full frame gear
lately for a projects he photographs bird formations flying in the sky at fairly low light. He shoots at 1/500 of a second and wide aperture, so he only has the ISO left to adjust. And the higher he goes with ISO, what is gained in resolution with the GFX100S, is lost in noise at high ISO.
another issue: GFX100S shoots at 5fps continuous AF. For birds, the more fps you get the higher the chance to nail the right moment
And here comes Soren’s question: Will there be any improvements down the line in terms of sensitivity and also buffer? Here is what Fujifilm Nordic answers:
there are some secrets Fujifilm Nordic can not reveal, but what they can say is that in May there will be an X summit with an announcement, where we will see new sensor and also new processor technology
there will be definitely a speed improvement on the APS-C X system, so why shouldn’t those improvements drop down also to the GFX system?
Actually the whole GFX system started this way: first 5 years with X system, then Fuji started with the GFX system and pulled the technical stuff of the GFX system into the X system
without telling every secret, but GFX system will get faster and faster with the new hardware
speed will increase on the GFX system
Fujifilm Nordic can’t tell when, but they are confident that it will go into that direction [of more speed]
one day Soren will get a medium format camera that can burst quite a lot more than the current GFX cameras
“we are working on it, definitely“
I guess it is safe to assume that Fujifilm Nordic is referring to the stacked APS-C sensor to be announced in May 2022 (as Fujifilm officially teased here) and hence hint to the possibility that the stacked technology could find its way also into future GFX cameras.
Just to be clear, so far in terms of rumors I have no hints about any stacked sensor GFX camera coming. Of course this doesn’t mean it won’t come, I just say that at the time of this article I have no information about it.
The summary above is just an extract of Soren’s part of the talk with Fujifilm Nordic. But actually the whole 2 hours talk also with the official Fujifilm X Photographers is well worth a listen. So make sure to check it out down below.
And to be clear: this does not mean that Fujifilm is discontinuing the Fujifilm X-T4 and that a Fujifilm X-T5 is coming in May at the Fujifilm X Summit (I mean, I don’t know if it is coming in May. So far I only hear of the Fujifilm X-H2 coming in May).
So, don’t panic. The Fujifilm X-T4 is still being manufactured. But if you prefer the silver version, maybe it might be a good thing to buy it sooner rather than later. I expect the first silver kit versions to slowly run out of stock and being discontinued in the next few weeks over several stores.
A move that aligns Fujifilm with other brands, who in most cases don’t offer color variations in their mid and higher end camera range.
One of the most read articles back in 2020 here on FujiRumors was the guest post titled “The X-Pan Rebirth of Fujifilm X-Pro1“, where a reader modified his X-Pro1 into an X-Pan digital camera.
And every now and then the wish of a digital Fujifilm X-Pan camera surfaces again in the Fujifilm community such as here, here and here.
Well, today we have another request for a Fujifilm X-Pan camera coming from Pavel and shared over at his youtube channel SuperSuperka (video below).
He so severely wants a digital XPan Fujifilm camera, that he made a very nice rendering on how he imagines it to be.
He called his rendered X-Pan camera the Fujifilm TX-3, of course inspired by what Jonas Rask called “the most beautiful camera ever created“, the Fujifilm TX-1. He wrote me:
Some notes about the concept. It has GFX sensor cut in half, which gives just perfect match to Xpan proportions
Logarithmic response pixels are not commonly used, but are used in technical tasks. What they can do is to not mimic film but to have native film-like look.
Arca-swiss is the bottom of the body. No additional plates needed. OVF with phase-detect autofocus.
I used 28mm which with this sensor is a bit wider FOV then original 45mm on Xpan. Like, say, 40mm on Xpan.
Quite frankly, at this point, if Fujifilm was to adventure itself in a crafting a unique niche digital camera, then I’d personally find a digital X-Pan much more appealing over let’s say a monochrome Fujifilm X camera.
What about you? Feel free to vote the survey down below.
When Sigma launched their new Fujifilm X mount trinity, we had a huge live blog here on FujiRumors, where we could see that these are very fine lenses.
Down below a summary in case you are in a hurry and can’t watch the video right now (plus a few personal notes).
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.
🤖 Improved face refinement pipeline
Gigapixel AI will now do a much better job detecting human faces more often and delivering more realistic results. Tiny background faces especially should see a noticeable improvement in quality.
🖥️ Significant image quality improvements with Windows GPU
You’ll notice much better image quality across all models in Gigapixel AI when using GPU-powered Windows machines.
🧠 Reduced memory usage We’ve streamlined how we cache and utilize image data through the entire editing pipeline, resulting in less memory usage and faster importing and exporting of image files.
⚙️ Lots of usability improvements and bug fixes
We’ve improved the post-processing resize algorithm, optimized how we compress JPG, PNG, and TIFF files when exporting, and squashed a bunch of annoying bugs.
Now, here in Europe cashback deals are the norm, but I can understand that for a customer getting the rebate instantly makes life a bit easier.
So why is Fujifilm USA following the steps of Europe?
Well, the reason is probably rather simple.
As you know, the Japanese fiscal year ends on March 31. Before that date, Fujifilm wants to show up in front of investors with the best sale figures possible.
One way to “improve” the numbers is to offer cashback deals, because:
Fujifilm launches deals shortly before the fiscal year ends
the deals boost sales
customers initially pay full price for their gear
Fujifilm will show up in front of investors with better sales numbers (it will result as if Fujifilm sold all their gear at full price)
once the yearly financial report is out they will start to refund customers
This is probably also why Fujifilm writes that if you buy your discounted GF lens today, you will need up to 8 weeks to get your refund processed and delivered (hence you’ll get your money back in April, after the Japanese fiscal year is over).
Sure, then, in 2022, they will have to pay back the money and this will influence their next fiscal report. But that’s a problem for the following year. A problem that gear like the Fujifilm X-H2 will take care of, which hopefully for Fujifilm will sell very well. And if not, there is still the option for more cashback deals.
Look, if this helps Fujifilm, I am fine with it.
It’s really not that big of a deal to mail Fuji the invoice and the serial number and then wait a few weeks to get your money back. I literally just mailed them my latest purchase 3 days ago. Easy and smooth process.
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