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
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.
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)
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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
I am a man on a mission: making being a Fujifilm X and GFX shooter even more fun than it already is!
How?
Well, by keeping you guys informed, entertained and possibly even excited about all things Fujifilm X/GFX using this humble blog called FujiRumors.
I hope I was able to do that in July, but I will work even harder in August in trying to make a hot summer even hotter with lots of breaking news and rumors.
And now let’s take a look at what happened in July with the top 10 posts of the past month.
It is optically close to perfect, with sharpness being definitely its super-power. In fact, Fujifilm itself said that with this lens they did focus on resolution to make it fit for “future higher resolution cameras” (aka Fujifilm X-H2).
I know, some might say that lenses are more than just sharpness. And I get the point. I mean, I totally love my XF35mmF1.4, which probably isn’t the sharpest Fujinon X mount lens out there, but has an overall vibe in the images that some describe as “magical”, and indeed, it took some of my favorite images ever.
But if what you need is the ultimate sharpness, then look no further, as the Fujinon XF18mmF1.4 might just be what you were looking for.
Hold on a second… there was one thing I wanted to say.
