Fuji X-Pro1

I've owned a Fuji X100 and now a X100s. I shoot street and usually shoot very close to my subjects , So F8 (sunny), Shutter at 500, ISO Auto (6400), manual focus at 7 feet and I am ready for some street photography. So out I go to the streets and I see an interesting subject, whip out my x100s , frame > shoot (sometimes from the hip) in a matter of seconds ! Sometime later, I retire to a nice cafe, order a ice mocha ... and settle down to browse thru my shots. Arrrrggh !!!  Fully half of my shots are not in focus. Only now I've noticed that my manual focus distance has shifted from 7 feet to 15feet instead !!!

So the issue here to me is, the manual focus ring is so damn smooth that it is very easy for me to unintentionally touch it and shift focus distances. It is very irritating when you are zone focused and need too check the evf/lcd every now and then to make sure your distance scale is correct.

So I brainstormed a bit and came out with a small (maybe inelegant) solution. I dug out an old inner tube for my mountain bike, cut out a strip that is about the width of the focus rings and wrapped over it. The little bit of friction from the rubber prevents the focusing ring from moving from the lightest of touches but it does not affect anything else and I still can adjust aperture/manual focus (turning the ring or AEL/AFL method) as per normal.
I've attached a pic here ...

Fujifilm is committed to the entire X-Series line of advanced digital cameras and FUJINON XF lens, and is issuing an updated XF lens roadmap following the initial XF lens roadmap released in June 2012.

With 10 FUJINON XF lenses and the new three X-Mount lenses that Carl Zeiss announced in September 2012, there will soon be 13 high-performance lenses available for the X-Mount system to meet the needs of every photographer and support a wide range of photography from  ultra-wide-angle at 10-24mm(15-36mm*1) to super-telephoto of 55-200mm (83-300mm*1.) 

End 2013
In late 2013, Fujifilm will deliver the pancake XF27mm (41mm*1) F2.8 high performance single focal length lens. Fujifilm will then launch the super wide zoom XF10mm-24mm (15-36mm*1) F4 lens with optical image stabilization and the single focal length XF23mm (35mm*1) F1.4 lens.

Early 2014
In early 2014, FUJINON will launch its premier prime portrait lens, the XF56mm (84mm*1) F1.2R.

Following the recent public release of Adobe Camera Raw 7.4, we've updated our studio comparison database with new raw conversions of files from the Fujifilm X-Pro 1, X-E1 and X100S. We've been using the release candidate version of ACR 7.4 for some time, which contained significant improvements to Adobe's treatment of files from Fujifilm's X-Trans sensors. The official public release version of ACR 7.4 brings some further (very minor) tweaks. Follow the links below to the studio comparison pages in our X-Pro 1 and X-E1 reviews, and X100S preview, now with final ACR 7.4 raw conversions.

Conclusion

Pros

- Unique camera design makes you want to take pictures

- Excellent JPEGs, little need to shoot raw most of the time

- Reliable metering and AWB systems, good color (with choice of 'film modes')

- Dials for exposure controls allow for easy check of settings by glancing at the top deck, particularly with prime lenses

- Impressive image quality at all ISO settings - good resolution and low noise

- Built-in flash is handy for fill lighting in a pinch

- Film-simulations offer quick access to different color modes and black and white filters

- Use of electronic viewfinder simplifies interface while maintaining most important features

- Quick menu gives fast access to most digital controls not covered by dials or buttons

- Built-in level helps when capturing landscapes

- Various bracketing modes are easy to set via the Drive button

- Relatively quiet shutter

- Excellent available prime lenses

Cons

- Built-in level isn't always as accurate as we'd like

- Relatively slow AF makes photographing children more difficult

- Framerates in continuous shooting mode aren't completely consistent

- Camera disables RAW shooting without warning in some bracketing modes

- Relatively low-resolution rear LCD compared to some peers

- Panorama mode can result in visible banding in plain tonesAuto ISO often chooses too slow a shutter speed (specifically problematic with the longer primes)

- Minimal control available in video mode

- Continuous drive mode saves files with a different name, sorting them to the bottom

- Large and chunky build won't suit everyone 

Overall Conclusion

There's a lot to be said for form as well as function and there's no question the Fujifilm X-series cameras elicit a certain response from those of us who enjoy both photography and well-built gadgets. What's great about the X-series cameras and lenses is they don't just look like old photographic tools, they integrate digital and analog controls very successfully. Also, the old-style analog dials are really excellent ways of helping conceptualize things like shutter speed and aperture, the two main elements of photography one has to understand to use cameras effectively. Those who already understand the concepts generally have no trouble understanding numbers on an LCD, but those who are learning can benefit from seeing the numbers laid out in a linear fashion; and the truth is I still find it helpful to turn a dial to adjust aperture, as I can do with the X-E1. For beginners, having that dial wrapped around the lens completely differentiates it from the body-bound shutter speed dial. When using one of the XF prime lenses, the main photographic interface elements are right up front and visible, in the form of physical dials. Photography students would do well to secure a prime lens for this reason (as well as others).

Kit lens users will have to pay attention to the numbers on the LCD.

But that's not all Fujifilm did right with the X-series cameras. Their simple button arrangements also make accessing common functions convenient. Important functions like Drive mode, Exposure, and Autofocus are dedicated to three buttons left of the LCD - a good position to adjust each setting. At first having a button for Drive mode seemed unnatural compared to a dial, but Fujifilm's inclusion of fast access to bracketing modes made those even more useful. The Quick Menu allows access to almost all the other important adjustments the average still photographer will want to make, including things like ISO, resolution, and aspect ratio. Only one analog control needs fixing: the somewhat loose Exposure Compensation dial, which can be rotated accidentally, both in the hand and when being carried around or put in and taken out of a camera bag. Of course, the elephant in the room is video. Although the X-E1's design philosophy is based around giving you all the direct manual control you could ever need, this does not apply to video, which overall seems as much of an afterthought as it is in the X-Pro 1 and X100. For now, the X-series is simply not competitive with its peers in terms of video functionality. As impressive as the Hybrid Viewfinder is on the other cameras in the X-series, the X-E1's electronic viewfinder is excellent. Compared to the X-Pro 1's finder in electronic mode, the X-E1 offers a better and higher-resolution image, but of course it can't pull of the X-Pro 1's impressive trick of switching to an optical view for those times when you want a literal 'window' on the world in front of your lens. The X-E1's EVF cannot replace the X-Pro 1's OVF but if you don't really need or want an optical finder, the X-E1 is clearly a better choice than the X-Pro 1, thanks to its superior EVF and lower overall cost.

Another series, during the same weekend as the China Light event.

This hotel is a beauty and a good place to test the X-E1.....

The Fujifilm X100S is the latest in a recent rush of cameras to include phase-detection elements on its imaging sensor, giving an AF system that is a hybrid of contrast and phase-detection methods. However, Fujifilm also uses this system to provide a unique and incredibly clever manual focus aid - which could finally allow digital cameras to offer the speed and convenience enjoyed by manual-focus SLR and rangefinder users. Fujifilm UK has posted a video showing 'Digital Split Image' focusing and Japanese camera site DCWatch has published details that allow us to show how it works. The X100S's Digital Split Image system splits the central section of the camera's live view into four black-and-white stripes of the scene. These stripes line-up when the camera is in focus - in a similar way to a split prism viewfinder on a manual-focus film SLR. This gives a method of achieving manual focus while retaining a view of the entire scene, making it possible to assess focus and framing at the same time. This speed and convenience is what has helped focus peaking (a feature the X100S also offers) become a highly desirable feature in mirrorless cameras.

How it works

The best way of understanding how the system works is to understand how on-sensor phase detection works. Because the Digital Split Image focusing system is essentially presenting the camera's phase detection information visually. Fujifilm was the first company to offer on-sensor phase detection in one of its cameras, when it launched its F300 EXR and Z800 EXR compact cameras. When they were launched, we explained how the system works. The key thing is that the light entering the left-hand-side of the lens will only give the same image as the light from the right-hand-side when the lens is in focus. So if you can 'look at' the left- and right-hand sides separately, you can compare the two images and calculate how much you need to move the lens to get them to match up........

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams

In a previous article, I discussed several so-called 'rules of composition'. Compositional rules, however, can be polarizing and divisive. Is this because as artists, we prize independence and don't like to, 'color in between the lines'? Or is it because we've all experienced disappointment when slavish application of the Golden Ratio still produces drab and lifeless images? Certainly, great works of art have been produced throughout history that paid no heed to pre-determined compositional rules. You may ask then, if compelling art is not created by simply following rules, what's the point of learning the rules in the first place? That's a great question.

Now this is not going to be an article suggesting that all compositional rules are 'bad' or 'wrong'. Instead, what follows is a look at the rationale behind some established compositional rules. I'd argue that by understanding the intent behind a rule, we can subvert or break the rule to create drama or focus the viewer's attention in creative and novel ways. Let's begin with an example from another visual medium: drawing. 

A story about eyes

Many years ago, my great-uncle - an accomplished painter and sculptor - was teaching me how to draw portraits. He suggested placing the eyes at the vertical midway point of the head. This 'rule' won't be surprising for anyone with a drawing background, but for many people, the idea that the eyes are halfway down the face is unintuitive - it seems too low! I recently had a conversation with a friend who received the same advice from his father, despite the fact that he and I grew up in different countries. The fact that two artists from opposite sides of the planet were taught the same 'rule of eyes' points to one source of artistic rules: observations about the natural world. In reality, are everybody's eyes exactly halfway down their face? No, but it's a good starting point that is visually pleasing and conforms to our expectations of illustrated portraits. In fact, a distinguishing feature of children's drawings of people is that the eyes are placed 'too high up' on the face. This is a simple rule that helps us to draw a more realistic portrait. Just as importantly, however, understanding this rule allows us to make deliberate choices. We can draw a face with the eyes in the middle of the face for a natural look. We can instead place the eyes above the midway mark to give the drawing a more child-like quality. Or we can place the eyes below the midway mark to make the drawing look furtive or comical.

The FUJIFILM X-E1 pairs perfectly with the XF18mm-55mm (27-84mm) F2.8-4 lens to deliver super-fast focusing speeds that will capture even the fastest action. The highly responsive linear motor in the XF18-55mm lens combines with the high-speed signal readout of the X-Trans CMOS sensor and the EXR Processor Pro, to achieve a huge leap in AF speed and precision performance. Contrast Detection in the X-E1 brings your subject into sharp focus in as little as 0.1 seconds.

FUJINON XF14mm key features list:

21mm equivalent bright F2.8 lens Consists of 10 elements in 7 groups, including 2 aspheric and 3 extra low dispersion elements and a seven-blade rounded diaphragm58mm lens filter size

FUJINON XF18mm-55mm key features list:

27-84mm equivalent F2.8-4 lensHighly responsive linear motorContrast Detection brings subject into sharp focus in as little as 0.1 seconds(2)High quality all-glass lens structure consists of 14 elements in 10 groups, including 3 aspherical lenses and 1 extra low dispersion element, as well as a seven-blade rounded diaphragmOIS to provide image stabilization equivalent to 4 stops58mm lens filter size

Pricing and Availability

The FUJIFILM X-E1 and XF18mm-55mm (27-84mm) F2.8-4 lens (kit) will be available in November for $1,399.95. The FUJINON XF14mm (21mm) F2.8 single focal length lens and XF18mm-55mm (27-84mm) F2.8-4 lens will be available in November for $899.95 and $699.95, respectively.

......

Overall Conclusion

The Fuji X100s is a photographer's camera. It's also a hipster's camera and a dentist's third or fourth camera that they never use. If you want value, this is not your camera. Get an APS-C DSLR - the companies that make them have competed away all their profit margins and you can get a really great, mature, feature-rich camera for a lot less than the X100s. But your DSLR won't look like the X100s. It won't be silent like the X100s. It won't be as small, light, and portable as the X100s. It won't travel like the x100s. It won't shoot street photography like the X100s. But, then again, you can say all that about the other large-sensor-but-small-body cameras out there right now.....

So what are we left with? Well, the Fuji X100s produces as-good-as, or better, images than the majority of those alternatives, and to my eye it's the best looking of the bunch. Add on top of that the most important things: good ergonomics and handling, a good sensor, and a good lens, and you've got a winner. For now. This is a good camera. It takes good pictures. My friends like it. It looks cool. All the cool photographers (some of whom seem to spend more time writing about gear than taking photos) are raving about it. I guess I'd better like it. But is it a DSLR-killer? Hell no. (What are you, high?)  The Fuji Xpro2 or Xpro3 might get there, someday, and until then, I'm waiting in the wings.....

Over the past few years, the digital camera market has been transformed by the arrival of mirrorless system cameras. Freed from film-era design constraints, these can provide image quality to match SLRs in a much more portable form factor. Entry-level models provide compact-camera like handling and simplicity, while high-end cameras such as the Sony NEX-7, Olympus OM-D E-M5 and Fujifilm X-E1 are able to offer a full set of enthusiast-friendly manual controls in smaller, more discreet systems, and with relatively few compromises. However to persuade buyers to forsake their SLRs, the camera companies also need to offer lens lines that will cover their needs. While most manufacturers have attacked the mirrorless market from the bottom up, Fujifilm's approach has been the opposite, starting with unashamedly top-end X-Pro1 followed up by the more enthusiast-oriented X-E1. The company's lens line reflects this - instead of starting out with entry-level kit zooms, it took the decidedly unusual step of launching with three fixed-focal length primes. The first zoom appeared with the X-E1, but the XF 18-55mm F2.8-4.5 R LM OIS is no ordinary 'kit' lens, offering premium optics and a faster maximum aperture.

The XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS telephoto zoom follows in the same vein - according to Fujifilm the aim is to provide premium optical quality and construction alongside class-leading image stabilization. Like the 18-55mm it features a relatively fast maximum aperture, gathering half a stop more light than most similar zooms for SLRs, and it uses a pair of linear stepper motors for near-silent autofocus. As with the other XF lenses, it also offers all-metal barrel construction and an on-lens aperture control ring. The overall picture is of a decidedly premium lens, that's quite unlike the inexpensive 55-200mm F4-5.6 telezooms for APS-C SLRs.