Faster, Wider, Sharper: Speed Booster for your X-series

speed booster

Just came back from work, checked my emails and saw that many readers linked me the same news (thanks guys!).

Faster, wider and sharper, and it’s no April Fool’s, as Philip Bloom says here in his review about the Speed Booster! Take a look also at www.metabones.com and take your time to read the PDF about it here… how to turn your APS-C into a Full Frame ;-). To every early adapter out there, send your first impressions to Fujirumors and tell us if it keeps what it promises.

It will be available soon for US$599 / £372 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Capture One 7.0.2 officially released today at 14.00 CET

Capture One X-Trans Support

Here is the email I received yesterday from Lionel of the C1 team: Let’s see what the final version of C1 can get out of the X-Trans RAF files.

“Dear Beta Customer.

The beta of Capture One 7.0.2 [download page] has now ended. The terms of the beta will terminate on Monday Jan 14, 2013, at 14.00 CET, where Capture One 7.0.2 will be officially released. Thank you all very much for the participation in making Capture One an even better piece of software. In particular I want to thank all who contributed with comments and raw images.

Regards,
Lionel Kuhlmann Ph.D.
Phase One”
C1 offers the possibility to download a 60 days free trial version, for all those who prefer to try it out first.
P.S. Here is codyhatch’s  lightroom vs capture one beta comparison.

Prototype: carbon fiber grips to ennoble your X-camera

You wanna pimp your X-camera? Then maybe you could be interested in this kind of rumor…

HRR Manufaktur is a company specialized in individual upgrades and ennoblement of different products. One of the next projects is to offer customized parts for Fuji cameras (or even completely modified cameras). In this post you can see some images of early prototype samples of X-Pro1 grips that replace the original rubber grip on the camera.

The price for a hand grip will likely be 89 €. For a fully upgraded camera (including the original camera, but not a lens) the price should be of below 3000 €. The company can do almost anything with any product, but the main focus regarding Fuji for now is on the X-PRO1 and the X-E1.

These replacements will be available in classic Carbon Fibre, but also in different colours and other styles/materials.

You can see a fully HRR customized Leica M9 on the website leicarumors.com here.

P.S.: You’d like to ennoble your X-E1 spending just a few pennies? I’ve already posted how to do it here. ;-)
hand grip 1

hand grip 2

hand grip 3

 

miXed zone (X100s, X20 and more) + the 14mm mystery at Amazon

Do you agree with the position of Fuji about IBIS?

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Amazon 14mm cancellation

First of all, what happened with the 14mm at Amazon? Here is a mail from a FR-reader: “I just got off of a very lengthly conversation with amazon.The final feedback I received was that Amazon discovered a mis-match with the manufacturer product number  and cancelled all orders so that customers did not receive the wrong product. They are researching the problem. Appears to be an Amazon error. Question, did they order using the wrong product number????? Problem and strong customer complaint has been escalated.”

X100s

Whatdigitalcamera Fuji X100S First Look Preveiw at CES 2013

Which camera do you think is the best at the CES according to digitalcamerareview.com. It’s the X100s! Click here to see the top five!

dcwatch at the CES. X20 and X100s click here for the translated version.

Dpreveiw hands on (click here). For some more hands on impressions click here. How split image focusing works at dpreview.com.

eoshd.com posted his thoughts about the new X100s. They say it’s a significant upgrade to the X100, which was a great cam, but “the terrible AF and fly by wire manual focusing technology spoilt it, and the video mode was very much an afterthought… On the new model the AF system for stills is now one of the fastest around and manual focus is much more responsive… To be honest I find it strange that all this good stuff has been reserved for the $1200 [note: $1300] X100S, and Fuji have based their much more important interchangeable lens system around quite outdated technology, since the X100S seems like generation 2 from Fuji and comes only a few months after their new X-E1 which has none of the essential new AF or MF upgrades that the X100S brings to the table.” Read more at eoshd.com

Also photographybay is at the CES and posted his hands-on review here.

digitalcamera X100s first impressions video

X20

digitalcamerainfo X20 first impressions.

You’ll read a lot of beautiful words also in this hands on review at dslrphoto.com. Let’s hope we can see soon some images shot with this cameras… can’t wait for it!

X-E1

Mike Kobal compared the NEX6 and the X-E1 (sava $123 at Adorama vor the bundle). Just one sentence from the conclusions: “As a purist with no interest in video, the choice is easy. Fuji X-E1.”

Mike Kobal’s portrait of the day shot with the X-E1 and the 35mm lens. Its bokeh, he says “can be incredible and easily mistaken for something we thought only possible with a full frame sensor.See his shots and read more here.

It’s the old dilemma, X-PRO1 or X-E1. Here is another one that tries to give an answer to this question. Take a look at it here.

The only thing I have left to say is go out, and buy the Fuji X-E1.  This is one of those cameras where you really, REALLY get your money’s worth.  The X-E1 is a fantastic little camera, and priced very reasonably allowing many, many photographers out there to easily obtain stellar image quality for not put yourself “in the dog house” price.” Read why findingrange comes to this conclusion here.

X-PRO1

Fuji X-PRO1… more to learn. IS1 and IS2… read the difference between these two options to activate the Optical Image Stabilization on the 18-55mm lens.

Fuji X-PRO1 winter street photography in London (click here).

X-PRO1 street shooting in Iran at stevehuffphoto.com

Prague in December. Click here to see the pics.

See the pics here of the X-Pro 1 at the 2012 Pushkar Camel Fair – Rajasthan, India

New year fireworks shot handheld with the X-PRO1. See the results here.

Fuji X100

camera.co.uk posted his X100 review. Read the Good and the Bad here.

The X100 really has impressive metrics for a compact camera. Its sensor manages to outperform that of the Sony NEX-5, and thus takes first place in the mirrorless rankings. The interesting part though is that it also manages to outperform or rival mid-range DSLRs such as the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 60D, thanks to its well-handled noise and good color management, but above all thanks to a truly decent low-light performance.” That’s an extract of the conclusions of the DxOMark review here. There is also a short comparison with the Nex-5, the Nikon D90 and the EOS 60D.

Best Cameras 2012 (MirrorlesCentral)

Which where the best cameras in 2012 according to Mirrorless Central? In the category Still Photo Cameras the winner are the Fuji X-PRO1 and X-E1. See the video here.

Fuji X10

A German Fuji X10 (18% price drop) video review can be seen here.

Accesories and more

Protect your Fujifilm X100, X100s and X-Pro1 lenses with the S-Cap. Read this article here.

Who’s the winner of Fujifilms studend award of December? See it here at ephotozine.

PREORDER

X100S: AmazonUS / Adorama / B&H

X20: AmazonUS: silver and black version / B&H: silver versionblack version / Adorama: silver versionblack version

Europe: UK: Wexphotographic X100s for £1099 / X20 silver and black for £599

Or sign in www.slidoo.com , decide your parameters, save your search and get notified when it’s available. It’s easy!

 

 

Amazon Surprise: XF14mm lack of availability

This is the text many FR-readers send me via email:

From AmazonUS

Hello,

Due to a lack of availability, we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order: “Fujifilm XF 14mm F2.8 Lens Wide Angle Lens”. We’ve canceled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience. If you see a charge for the canceled item, we will refund you within 1-2 business days. If you are still interested in purchasing this item, it may be available from other sellers.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department

Why this? I don’t know, but I suppose that Fuji is producing a lot of X-E1 and XF18-55, and now has to produce also the new X100s and X20. Maybe it’s simply too much right now and there could be another delivery delay. In Europe the 14mm lens should not be available before mid-end february.

B&H expected availability is still for January 31, see here.