WHOOPS: DPReview Removes Their (Bad) XF150-600mmF5.6-8 Samples While Other Photographers Show Super Sharp Images at 600mm

Some guys were sure: it is simply impossible that the Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 is sharp at 600mm, due to mathematical calculations considering f/8 on APS-C combined with statistical elaborations on the effect of diffraction for a pixel pitch of ….

OK, I hear you, let’s keep it short: the XF150-600mmF5.6-8 it’s an unusable piece of junk at 600mmF8.

And looking at the sample gallery shared by DPReview (not to be mistaken with DPRTV) at launch day, which were the worst possible samples, one would agree with the above.

But now it looks as if somebody at DPR had the decency to pull off the sample gallery, as the original link to them is now broken, the sample gallery never loads and on the main page any reference to the sample gallery (still visible in cached version) is gone.

So what happened? I see two options:

  • the lens was used in hot condition with lots of hazy air that influenced IQ
  • the pre-production copy had an issue
  • UPDATE: suggested in the comments, the X-T4 used does not support the lens yet

UPDATE: According to information I have received, the prototype lens didn’t have firmware for X-T4 (which was the camera used for the samples).

Anyway, damage done: the sample were so bad, that some Fuji shooters looking forward to this lens were hugely disappointed and moved away from it.

But the questions remains open: how does the XF150-600 perform at 600mm?

Well, I put to together a series of links where you can see the samples by yourself. Some of them I already shared in the live blog, but others are new links that I did not share in the original live blog coverage.

Look for example at samples of Alan Hewitt below. They show the performance at 600mm with an additional crop to it.

If you ask me, that is actually an excellent performance!

But as usual, watch by yourself and make up your own mind.

Pre-Orders

SIZE COMPARED: Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 MKII vs XF56mmF1.2 plus XF30mmf2.8 and XF8mmF3.5 vs Current X Mount Lenses

So Fujifilm announced a new X mount roadmap. The three new lenses are:

  • Fujinon XF56mm f/1.2 MKII
  • Fujinon XF30mm f/2.8 Macro
  • Fujinon XF8mm f/3.5

During the X summit, they dispayed some technical sketches of the lenses which I used as a base to compare it to other X mount lenses.

Let’s go through the 3 comparisons:

Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 MK II vs XF56mmF1.2

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Memorial Day Deals with Lots of Savings including on X/G Mount Lenses

The Memorial Deals have just been launched.

At BHphoto here there are several hundreds of items in offer. You can see them all here.

Down below I have filtered out all deals that are related to Fujifilm as well as Apple deals, Peak Design deals and deals on storage media, including CFexpress Type B cards, which as you know will fit well on the Fujifilm X-H2S.

Many of the deals listed below either end today or tomorrow.

X Gear

G Mount Lenses

CFexpress Type B Cards (for X-H2S)

SD-Cards

Hard Drives

Apple Products

Peak Design

Other Fujifilm related Gear

RUMOR: Fujinon XF18-120mm f/4 Announcement on May 31

Not everything that Fujifilm has officially teased or we have rumored here on FujiRumors will come during the X summit on May.

We certainly will not get the full announcement of the Fujifilm X-H2 high resolution or the Fujinon XF56mm f/1.2 MKII.

But today we can add one item to the list of gear that will come: the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4!

So, at the time of this post, the gear that we know will certainly be announced on May 31 is:

LIVE STREAM – May 31 at 9AM New York Time – Live on FujiRumors

RUMOR: Fujinon XF56mm f/1.2 MKII will NOT Be Announced on May 31 (but I confirm it’s Coming in 2022)

We know thanks to our sources that the big Fujifilm X summit will take place on May 31.

And we also made a list of gear that is rumored or also pre-announced to come in 2022:

However, we also told you that we don’t know if all of it will be announced on May 31.

In fact, we told you that for sure we won’t get the high resolution Fujifilm X-H2, as the announcement for that one is expected after the one of the Fujifilm X-H2S.

We now can also strike the Fujifilm XF56mm f/1.2 MKII from the X summit on May 31 list, as the announcement will happen later (we confirm it will happen in 2022).

I want to be clear….

What I am referring to is a full announcement, hence with full specs and pre-orders. That’s not going to happen for the Fujinon XF56mm f/1.2 MKII.

We have seen in past X summits that Fujifilm has shown mock-ups of future lenses and even future cameras without actually fully announcing them. So I don’t know if Fujifilm plans something like that also for the XF56mmF1.2 MKII. That would be atypical, as, looking at the past, Fujifilm usually does not tease MKII lenses, but I can’t rule out anything in this regard.

But hey, May 31 will be exciting also without the XF56/1.2MKII. So make sure to follow us on FujiRumors.

Fujifilm X Summit on May 31 – Full Live Coverage on FujiRumors

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Top 10 Gear to Look Forward in 2022 and Your Top Wishes for 2022 (Anything Goes – Almost)

Coming 2022 (For Sure)

So what can we look forward to in 2022?

Well, here are the 10 things we can be sure to enjoy this year (even if some of them are “just” rumors until now).

  1. Fujifilm X-H2
  2. Fujifilm X-H2 – no joke, twice
  3. Fujinon XF150-600
  4. XF 56mm f/1.2 MKII
  5. XF 18-120mm
  6. Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 AF X Mount
  7. GF 20-35mm – possible aperture range shared here
  8. Sigma X mount lenses
  9. More AF X mount lenses from Tamron
  10. TTArtisan 32mmF2.8 X autofocus mount lens

Your Fujifilm Wishes for 2022

Ok, I can hear your questions:

Well, some of those questions I think Fujifilm managers quite categorically already answered in the past, such as the monochrome questions and full frame question. But hey, managers also categorically said that X mount is not compatible with IBIS, and look, at the end we got IBIS, and it is even one of the best in the industry.

I am also working on some other of those questions, and I already have first answers that I won’t share just yet as I want to have it not only twice, but multiple confirmed. I can’t go wrong when I share certain things ;).

But we will talk about all that soon enough.

What I would like from you now, is that you share your top wishes for 2022 in the comments. Anything goes, as long as it has something realistic to it. So for example, wishing for an X-E5 when we just got an X-E4 is not very realistic. Also a big and heavy Fujinon XF600mmF2 probably won’t make much sense, unless you would pay any amount for it and train a lot to be able to carry it around.

Other than that, from cameras to firmware or lenses… whatever your heart desires and wishes, feel free to share it in the comments down below.

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2021 Rumor Check: What’s Right, What’s Wrong and What’s Still to Come in 2022 (with Reliability Ranking)

In 2022 we will have for sure a very wild ride here on FujiRumors.

But before we jump on the 2022 rumor-rollercoaster, let’s look back at how things went in 2021.

And I tell you this: I will be BRUTAL to myself, because out of the 5 wrong rumors, I personally consider only 1 really wrong. Why? Well, read my notes at the bottom of the article and I think you’ll agree with me.

Note: if you wonder where the “Sigma X mount lenses coming in 2021” rumor is, well, that was a rumor we shared back in 2020, hence it is not in this list. The rumor however has been sort of confirmed a few months later by Sigma itself, who literally wrote on their social media “we may see some X mount Sigma lenses in 2021“. And after tons of teasers, even the Sigma CEO himself confirmed X mount glass is coming. Sure, I consider this a wrong rumor shared in 2020, but it is clear to me that once again it’s the parts shortage that forced Sigma to adjust their schedule.

With that out of the way, here is the 2021 rumor check:

  • 83 rumors shared in 2021
  • 13 rumors still to be verified (all rumors with high reliability)
  • 65 correct rumors out of 70 verifiable rumors
  • 5 wrong rumors out of 70 verifiable rumors
  • 92,8% correct rumors

Rumor Overview with Rating (about Gear coming in 2022)

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Which Film Simulation is Best (and Worst) for Low Light Photography?

There is a misconception out there.

And the misconception is that Fujifilm film simulations are something good only for pure JPEG shooters. But that’s far from true.

When I photographed the wedding of my friend I did shoot everything in RAW (I explained which gear I used here), but when it was time to edit everything in Capture One 21, I did not waste any time with color grading the images. I just scrolled over the various film simulation options in Capture One, saw in real time which color gives me the best mood, clicked on that film simulation and that’s it. Done that, I started to edit the images to taste (except for the colors).

I’ve explained in this article which film simulations I’ve used most in my wedding editing (curiously a film simulation that I’ve rarely used until I’ve shot the wedding).

So that’s how I see it: also hardcore RAW shooters can take huge profits from Fujifilm film simulations.

But it is also true, that in many cases the JPEG output of Fujifilm cameras is that good, that you can skip the RAW editing right away.

It happened to me recently when I was in Ferrara with my family. I took my images in RAW+JPEG and when we were going home by train, I just used the internal RAW converter to try out some film simulations on certain pictures, stored them directly on the SD-card, and once home all I did was to load them into my computer, and that was it, my holiday images look great without any editing effort.

And here comes the connection to the video we share today.

If you are like me, and about 80%* of the images you keep are simply JPEG images (*thanks to the amazing Fujifilm JEPGs, with my previous gear I mostly edited the RAW files), then it might be of interest to know which film simulation works best in which context.

And Chris from Pal2Tech (one of the must follow channels for Fujifilm shooters) tested which film simulation works best (and worst) for low light photography (if you shoot in JPEG).

Chris’ video has been cross posted to petapixel here, where the conclusions is:

  1. Monochrome is much less noisy than ACROS at all higher ISO ranges. In going through my testing, it seems pretty conclusive that Fujifilm adds some additional grain and/or noise to ACROS to help give it that unique look. The problem is, at much higher ISO values, it can start to fall apart at bit. If you are planning on shooting with ACROS, I would not go above 3200 ISO. Also, I’d definitely make sure the grain setting on your camera is turned off.
  2. PROVIA, VELVIA, ASTIA, ETERNA, Pro Negative High and Sepia all performed well and had roughly the same good performance at higher ISO values. Of this group, PROVIA was the overall winner when you start pixel peeping at 300% or above.
  3. If you are shooting at ISO 3200 and above, I would avoid Bleach Bypass, ACROS, and Classic Negative. Once you go above ISO 6400, I would not use any of those three film sims if I wanted to keep my noise to a minimum.
  4. Most interesting of all were the winners. And they were Pro Negative Standard and ETERNA. If you are planning on shooting in low light at very high ISO values, you may want to give them a try. Both Pro Negative Standard and ETERNA gave me the overall best and consistent results.

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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.

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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

DPRTV X Summit Reaction Video: Stacked APS-C sensor Dreams, GFX 50S II, X and GF Lens Roadmaps and More

Chris and Jordan from DRPreviewTV share their reactions to Fujifilm’s ‘X Summit 2021’ announcements: a new GFX 50S II medium format camera, new X-T30 II, new X-mount and GF-mount lenses, and a teaser for a new stacked APS-C sensor!

Here is a summary:

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