Outside of technical stuff like image quality and autofocus, there are some cameras that just make you happy when you hold them. To celebrate great ergonomics, Chris Niccolls runs down his top five handling digital cameras of all time.
Fujifilm X100V
Many people love the analogue control experience of the X-T line. Chris prefers the ergonomics of the Fujifilm X-S10 and Fujifilm GFX100S. But at the end Chris picks the Fujifilm X100V because it is a refined and pocketable camera. Hybrid Viewfinder is nice to use. Flip out LCD is so thin that it does not make the camera bulkier. Compact 23mmF2 lens. Fits in pocket and very nice to use.
Photons to Photos has published its Fujifilm X-T4 dynamic range measurement data.
The Fujifilm X-T4 basically performs identical to the X-T3. The Fujifilm X-Pro3 seems to be superior, but as Blill Claff from PTP explained to us:
The X-Pro3 appears to have improved PDR but it is an illusion.
It’s well known that Fuji implements the ISO setting in an unusual way.
In this case they have given ISO 320 to ISO 12800 an addition 1 stop boost.
Fuji uses a proprietary Exif tag called “Raw Exposure Bias” to indicate how much they have shifted the raw data from “standard”.
Adjusted in Excel for Raw Exposure Bias we see that the X-Pro3 and X-T3 are essentially identical. (They shift to dual conversion gain at a slightly different point).
When we told you about the Fujifilm X-H2 coming with a 26 megapixel sensor, most of us speculated that it would be the current 26 MP X-Trans IV sensor, but used in combination with a new processor it would perform better.
And I get it, I also thought this could be an option, especially considering that Fujifilm did the exact same thing with the Fujifilm GFX50SII: use the old sensor but a new processor to improve performance.
But if you read again the article I wrote last year in regards to this rumor, I literally also wrote:
It would be very atypical for Fujifilm to launch in one year (2022) two completely new higher-end APS-C sensors. But just because Fujifilm never did it before, it does not mean it can’t happen with the Fujifilm X-H2.
And according to our sources this is exactly what is going to happen.
In fact, I have been told the the 26MP sensor on the Fujifilm X-H2 will be a “new sensor”.
And remember, there will be also a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2, and that one is (obviously) new, too.
I have no doubts my sources are 100% accurate, and you should not doubt them either ;).
Just stay tuned on FujiRumors to know more details soon.
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.
According to rumors found and shared at Japanese websites such as AsobinetandDigicame-Info, the Voigtländer Nokton 23mmF1.2 for Fujifilm X will be announced “later this month” and ship in April.
We can be sure that the original source of this leak is Nokishita, who is all but gone ;).
This will be Cosina’s second Fujifilm X mount lens with electronic contacts after the Voigtländer Nokton 35mmF1.2 X.
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.
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