Fellow FR-reader Sven is specialized in IR and Astro conversions, and he recently did a fullspectrum conversion on his Fujifilm X-H2.
Here some excerpts regarding the teardown:
After a deep look under the hood, the design of this camera can be summarized as follows: Heat Management and Dissipation.
mainboard of the X-H2 reveals countless SMD components. With the amount of features packed into such a small camera, this is hardly surprising
the processor is covered with a heat conduction pad
The entire shutter mechanism is supported by small springs all around and has no direct contact with the body
this also explains why the camera’s shutter is relatively quiet and has this very special muted sound
The heat of the X-Trans V sensor is tapped directly on the back of the sensor via a delicate heat sink and conducted to a copper plate on the stainless steel chassis
As for the IR performance, they write:
Some modern sensors can show fine, mostly horizontal lines in the images. This is probably caused by PDAF pixels (“AF pixels”) on the sensor. These occur more often with strong IR filters and with very high-contrast processing. How does the X-H2 perform with an 830 nm infrared filter? With overly high-contrast processing, no lines or other artifacts are visible at 100% view (aside from noise, of course, induced by the high-contrast processing). The new sensor is a clear recommendation and can be used without restrictions.
As well as a firmware request:
Unfortunately, the X-H2 shares the same handicap as all X-Trans cameras. The manual white balance is always set without any problems, but the available range is not quite sufficient. […] Unfortunately, a warm magenta color cast remains in the camera and has to be corrected on the PC.
Fujifilm can actually do that, with their Bayer sensor cameras (X-A series and X-Txxx) it works without any problems
The X-H2 seems to work a bit better than the X-T3, but you can’t get rid of the color cast completely
In the unlikely event that a Fujifilm firmware designer reads this: Please expand the limits in both color axes in which manual white balance can be set. A little bit wider and the cameras internal white balance will work for infrared as well. Such a change can be distributed in a future firmware update in my eyes and should neither harm anyone nor cause too much work in programming.
Read the full article and see all the images at irrecams here.
Now an image appeared on the Chinese social media Weibo (and spotted by the Japanese website Asobinet) showing the lens mounted on the Fujifilm X-H2S (you can see the image above).
Coming in June… with Aperture Ring?
If the google translation didn’t mess it up, I think Yongnuo said on their Weibo account that it will come in June.
Anyway, if they did add the aperture ring, than that’s definitely a nice touch and I wish other lens manufacturers would have done the same when they adapted their Sony E mount glass to the X system.
The complete list of autofocus lenses Yongnuo is planing to launch is:
Yongnuo 11mm f/1.8
Yongnuo 23mm f/1.4
Yongnuo 33mm f/1.4
Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8
Yongnuo 56mm f/1.4
Some of these new Yongnuo lenses are going to have some stiff competition:
I was with my Fujifilm X-T5 and the XF18-135mm because I wanted to take landscape images, but also images of the marmots who just came out from their hibernation (as you can also see in this video).
The X-S20 Would Have Done Better (than X-T5)
So I set my X-T5 to animal tracking because of the marmots.
But then I notice an alpine chough on a rock nearby ready to jump into flight.
I wanted to track the “take-off”, but first I had to press an FN button, then scroll down to bird detection, press to confirm, go back in live view and then… the bird had already taken off.
My first thought?
“If only I’d have had the smartness of the (more affordable) Fujifilm X-S20, I would not have missed this shot“
Why?
Because the Fujifilm X-S20 recognizes and tracks all sorts of subjects automatically, without any need to press a single button and go into the menu and tell the camera what it has to track.
That’s a level of smartness my X-T5, but not even the X-H2 or X-H2S has.
I can hear some say: “but it’s just a few presses on the buttons to change subject“. And that’s true. In most cases, you will have enough time to change the settings. But in my case, it all happened quickly, faster than I could react.
It Works So Great, but with One Big Missed Opportunity
If you couldn’t care less about this feature, that’s great.
We are all different, and you are probably just seeing and reacting to things faster than I do.
But the point is that Fujifilm has this technology available. It’s there on the X-S20 and it works very well according to those who tested it such as Gordon from Cameralabs, who says:
Auto Subject Detection does a great job to automatically recognize subjects. You don’t need to manually select the type of subject anymore.
Although there is a limitation, which would be completely avoidable if Fujifilm would provide a firmware update for it. In fact, Gordon rightfully remarks*: *the full review of Gordon can be found down below
Sadly Auto subject detect does not work, unless you are in the full AUTO mode, which is a missed opportunity. Workaround: switch quickly to AUTO if you want the camera to track automatically (but then you’ll also get Auto Dynamic Range, which can work well but sometimes give a too HDR like look.
This is a limitation that Fujifilm could fix with a quick firmware update by not linking auto detection to the full Auto mode.
Also, I do hope that Fujifilm will bring this feature (not the full AUTO feature, but the automatic subject tracking feature) also to the more expensive 5th generation Fujifilm X-T5, X-H2 and X-H2s.
The goal of the survey was to find out how popular the newest 5th generation X series cameras have become among the FujiRumors community.
The results surprised. And not because the Fujifilm X-T5 sold well. That was to expect. But because despite being launched just a few months ago, the Fujifilm X-T5 is already the most owned Fujifilm X series camera among this community.
And more impressively: this is the first time that any Fujifilm X-T camera has some serious internal competition in the higher end Fujifilm segment thanks to the Fujifilm X-H2. But despite this stiff internal competition, the X-T5 made it to the top as your most owned camera in just a few months.
Speaking of X-H2, it is 7th in the ranking, showing the huge popularity of the 40MP X-Trans V sensor.
In the battle X-H2S and X-H2, the X-H2S wins and grabs the 6th spot, but with only a few votes of advantage.
The first non-XT camera in the ranking is the Fujifilm X100V on the 5th spot, slightly ahead of the X-H2S. The next rangefinder camera is the X-Pro2 on the 9th spot
NOTE: The popularity of camera (lines) on FujiRumors is not indicative for the overall popularity on the worldwide market.
And given all those major releases, I was wondering how successful they have been among the FujiRumors community.
That’s why today I will launch an updated survey where you can tell us which camera you own.
Let’s see if there was a breakthrough in terms of 5th generation gear here on FujiRumors or if many of you did not update to the latest and greatest and stick with their older gear.
Important Note: If you pre-ordered any of the gear listed below and just wait to get it shipped, you qualify as owner.
Fujifilm’s X-H2S product planers and Autofocus developers meet in the latest X-Lab episode to talk about the improvements Fujifilm made with firmware 3.00 on the X-H2S.
Now, it’s again available only in Japanese so we have to rely on the automatic YouTube translation tool, which is far from ideal.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to do that. I went through this at 6:30 AM while drinking my coffee and I will sum it up for you below.
But if any Japanese speaking reader would like suggest corrections/additions to my summary, feel free to do so by writing me at fujirumor@gmail.com or drop it down below in the comments.
So, I told you here that the Fujifilm X-S20 will have an improved automatic subject detection tracking feature.
In short: no matter what’s in your frame, bird, car, person, animal, train, insect or whatever is part of Fujifilm’s trackable subjects (list here), the Fujifilm X-S20 will automatically recognize it and track it.
That’s not possible on higher end models Fujifilm X-H2, X-H2 and X-T5, where you have to always tell the camera in the menu what you would like to track and change it every time you want to track something differently.
In that article, I also expressed my wish for this AUTO mode to come to other 5th generation cameras via firmware update.
And I also have an idea how Fujifilm implement it on our cameras, but first I have to clarify something.
The Misunderstanding
The AUTO feature on the X-S10 (and X-S20) will do much more than just recognizing the subjects to track.
It will also recognize if it’s sunset, night, tripod, landscape, macro etc and adjust all the settings accordingly (even pick the film simulation it thinks works best).
So it’s a full fledged auto mode like on a smartphone, and to me it makes totally sense that a base model like the X-S20 offers it, because it’s a camera that’s also aimed to people who want to upgrade from smartphones, and having that option can help to make the switch less intimidating.
And here comes the misunderstanding:
Some of you wrote me and told me it makes no sense to have such a full AUTO mode also on high end Fujifilm cameras.
And guys, I agree with you. I also want to pick my film simulation, my aperture and so forth by myself.
What I was referring to was only the AUTO scene detection mode. So the option to let the camera recognize by itself what’s the subject to track in my frame, without me needing to go all the time to go into the menu and switch subjects.
And I also have a solution on how this could work on Fujifilm X-T5, X-H2 and X-H2S.
The Solution
Fujifilm could add the option AUTO in the “Subject Detection Settings” menu and that’s it. Above you can see a rendering I made of how this would look like.
Once set on AUTO, the camera will automatically pick which subject to track (people included).
And of course, it would not affect your film simulation, aperture, ISO or other values, like the AUTO on the X-S10 and X-S20 mode dial does.
Fujifilm, you have the software capable to do that (as the X-S20 will show). Now it’s just a matter of will to bring it to us higher end Fujifilm camera users.