the ISO-unlocker site is offline [UPDATE 2: the site is online again, with the following note: “Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.” Ian also said in the comments: “The pre-order system was handled through the Celery crowdfunding service so all user data was protected.”]

_ _ _

UDPATE 1: I just received an email from Steven. He has received the following email from Ian Norman:

“To all the supporters of the ISO Unlocker project,

Thanks so much for your pledge to support the development of the ISO Unlocker for the Fujifilm X-T1. I am sorry to inform you that we will not be pursuing funding any longer and you will not be charged for your order. As of this moment, all orders are cancelled. You will receive a separate email confirming the cancellation of your order.

Please note that your initial order was just a pledge and pre-authorization and no orders were charged at the time of placing the order.

I developed the idea for ISO Unlocker when I and so many other X-T1 owners felt that their photo shooting experience could be improved by a simple fix. The initial response to the project idea was very positive and I was very excited to seek funding to produce something that would help other photographers enjoy their camera even more.

Unfortunately, a full two months past the initial funding goal, support for the project has slowed to a rate that indicates that it would not be sustainable for production and as of the project close, the funding has stalled short of its seed goal of 250 orders with the order cancellation rate matching the ordering rate.

Thanks again for your support, I’m sorry we didn’t see it happen.”

_ _ _

Original Post

As you may remember, on March 2 I told you here about the ISO-unlocker for the X-T1, a “fully machined aircraft grade aluminum cover for your X-T1′s ISO dial. It keeps the dial lock button held down so that you can more quickly change your ISO setting on the fly“.

The news quickly spread around the web, as many considered it a useful accessory in order to improve the ergonomics of the X-T1.

At the ISO-unlocker site we could read that “designs for the ISO Unlocker are finished and prototypes are on the way but we need your help to make ISO Unlocker a reality.” So they needed 250 pre-orders in order to make this accessory become reality.

Just a couple of days ago I stopped again at the ISO-unlocker site and saw that it got 92% of the requested pre-orders. So the goal was almost reached but…

…but was it all just scam? In fact, if you now click on the isounlocker site here, you’ll see that the website no longer works. According to the anonymous FR-reader who passed me this news, the “owner is not responding to emails. Pending PayPal refund request.” [UPATE: Other FR-readers received an email with the text published in the first part of this article]

I’ll keep you posted in case I get some news about it. And if you got some more information, please contact FR at fujirumor [at] gmail.com.

I’ve reported about the story of Nate, who’s travelling non-stop around the world with just one lens 18mm and one camera (X-PRO1) here. Well, it’s more than 700 days now that Nate is on the road and his blog (yomadic.com) is full of impressions and images of his endless travel. Today I’m glad to post a reminder to his blog and to share Nate’s feedback about the X-PRO1 as a travel camera… after 700 days of travel and 54 visited countries. Nate wrote:

“Hey Patrick,

Thought I would contact you again – I have now been travelling for 700 days, with my Fuji X-Pro, and just an 18mm lens. My latest set of photos show some great “ruin-porn” from Sarajevo – the abandoned Bobsled track from the 1984 Winter Olympics. I’ve now visited 54 countries, and all weather conditions, and the Fuji has not skipped a beat.

Feel free to share some of these photos, and report to your readers the incredible reliability of the X-Pro 1 …I don’t even have a case, and I never carry an umbrella ;)

Take care, eagerly awaiting all news on the X Pro 2

http://www.yomadic.com/sarajevo-bobsled-track/ Nate Robert

• XF 18mmF2: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

Announced back in April, and now in stock at Adorama here: the TCL-X100… at least the silver one, for 349. The black one can be found at AmazonUS via third party and you have to pay $50 extra.

At AmazonUS (via third party reseller) you can grab the XF56mm f/1.2 for normal price here.

It’s Kaizen again!  Today you can download the new firmware for X-T1, X-E2, X-PRO1, XQ1, X-A1 and X-M1 from Fuji’s support site here.

X-T1 firmware ver. 1.10

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Improvement of “Exposure compensation/exposure indicator” in EVF – Values are added to the scales of the indicator for better visibility.
• 3. Improvement of Movie-record button operability – To avoid an accidental movie shooting, the delayed time will become longer between the moment you press the button and a movie shooting starts or ends.
• 4. The phenomenon is fixed that images are not recorded with the set interval when “INTERVAL” in “INTERVAL TIMER SHOOTING” is set to 5 sec or less. In this case, the setting of “IMAGE DISP.” in “SCREEN SET-UP” will change to “OFF” automatically.

X-E2 firmware ver. 2.10

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

X-PRO1 firmware ver. 3.30

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

X-E1 firmware ver.2.30

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 2. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.

_ _ _

Some fixes and improvements also for the X-M1, X-A1 and XQ1. And if you own the [shoplink 23847]Instax Share SP-1 printer[/shoplink], you can now send images directly via WiFi to this little printer without having to send it first to your iPhone. If you own the best sellers in the X-lineup, X-T1 and the X-E2, then you still have to continue to upload your images to your smartphone first and from there send it to the printer.

X-M1 ver. 1.20 / X-A1 ver. 1.20

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “instax SHARE SP-1” – Images can be directly transferred to the “SP-1” from a camera and then printed.
• 2. Addition of compatibility with “XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR” – To ensure that autofocus performs as expected, upgrade the firmware for the camera.
• 3. Change of aperture display for zoom lenses – Display of aperture value when zooming with the shutter button pressed halfway will become same as the display when zooming without the shutter button pressed.
• 4. Improvement of recorded sound – Sound quality of a movie shooting is improved.
• 5. The phenomenon is fixed that in rare cases, gray stripes could appear in highlight portion of images with a standard viewer of a smartphone (only Android).

XQ1 ver. 1.20

• 1. Addition of compatibility with “instax SHARE SP-1” – Images can be directly transferred to the “SP-1” from a camera and then printed.
• 2. The phenomenon is fixed that in rare cases, a camera could stop working during image transfer when starting “PC AutoSave” function by pressing the Wi-Fi button.

And now, lucky XQ1, X-A1 and X-M1 shooters, download the firmware at Fuji’s download site here (X-M1 / X-A1 / XQ1)

It’s summer (at least here in the northern hemisphere), and it’s time for holidays and travels. Everybody has its own perfect body/lens travel kit combination to bring with (as you can see from the poll).

But today it’s not about lenses or cameras, no, it’s about a really amazing bag where to pack your X-gear: the MindShift Rotation 180. A paradise for adventurous X-shooters because it gives you quick access to your gear thanks to the rotating beltpack! Photographer Trenton suggested me to try it out and said in the comments to this post:

“This thing is very comfortable, and camera deployment speed is unbelievable; it usually takes me no more than 3-5 seconds from “let’s photograph that” to the actual shot (starting with the gear inside backpack). However, it’s absolutely not suitable for “street” photography – the very moment you slide around that beltpack, you’ll see a lot of attention and jaws will be dropping all around you. As in, “WTF you just did with your backpack?!” :)”

There are some versions of this bag, the Panorama ([shoplink 25507 ebay]find offers on your eBay[/shoplink]), the Professional ([shoplink 25524 ebay]find offers on your eBay[/shoplink]) and the Professional Deluxe ([shoplink 25525 ebay]find offers on your eBay[/shoplink]).

See all Mindshift Rotation bags & prices at [shoplink 25526 ebay]your eBay[/shoplink] – BHphoto – AmazonUS – Adorama / MindShift website

the Mindshift Professional

Those who don’t need a backpack but prefer a roller should check out the Think Tank Photo’s new Airport Roller.

And now, which 3 lenses would you pack into this bag for your travel?

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