FR-Reader Wishlist Corner: The One Thing Where Leica Q3 Beats Fujifilm X100VI and More Firmware Wishes
FR-reader Wishlist Corner
Recently we published a bunch of gear/hardware related wishes we have received from the Fujifilm community.
Now it is time to share a bunch of firmware wishes.
by Oli
Here is a link to my blog post about my experiences with the X100Vi and the WCL as a “poor man’s Leica Q”.
I guess you might be able to read German: shashindo.de/fuqi/ (google translated).
There is actually ONE reason why the Leica Q3 is “better” than the Fujifilm X100VI: The handling of the metadata!
Leica writes the crop focal length and crop pixel size in the metadata!
It’s too bad that Fujifilm doesn’t also set the crop focal length in the metadata!
It would also be nice to find the name of the custom setting (aka film simulation) here in the EXIF data. Well, you can still have wishes…
Thought you might be interested ;-)
Or in case you do have access to Fuji Development department somehow, maybe you can drop this there… :-D
by Keith
I am hoping you share and will share with others my wish for a wireless remote shutter release for a Fuji GFX100 II, that does not require a transmitter and cable connection, and does not require a phone.
On the GFX 100 II I am forced to use a Fuji cable, with adapter required :( It is unreliably recognized, perhaps since it uses the same outlet as the microphone.
As a landscape photographer, I have no free hands to juggle a phone. Bluetooth selfie remotes are available for most cell phones. Canon has wireless remote BR-E1. A website entitled “The NowherePhotographer” claims to have built a bluetooth one for Fuji cameras, and gives free plans. A firmware update, and a press release from Fuji would be a solution I would pay for. I would also pay $$ for a standalone wireless remote (*again, not if it needs a transmitter connected by cable; tolerable for studio, necessary with flash; terrible outdoors, as is phone based release).
Had same problem with GFX 100, and used the Fuji cable, which was more dependable, but still bad relative to, e.g. Canon wireless, or even Sony IR based.
by Steve
I’d like to see Fuji offer a couple manual focus lenses like 1.4 35mm and 1.4 23mm. I realize the autofocus lenses can be operated manually but it’s just not the same. The focus by wire doesn’t feel as good and autofocus lenses are bigger. I can see why some of us gravitate to Leica but financially my only option is 3rd party lenses and some of them are okay but I would like a lens that is fully integrated with my Fuji cameras.
by Paul
Nikon has a feature where if you zoom in on an image, you can see the histogram just for the zoomed in portion. This would be very useful for portrait folks who use a gray card in measuring flash exposure with a gray card rather than a flash meter. It seems that this could be a firmware enhancements as it just recalcs the histogram for the visible portion of the image.
by Jeff
During my film shooting days, I was taught to frame my subject matter tightly. This worked well for “slide shows” with physical transparency slides. I rarely made prints. But in order to improve my technique, I’ve come to appreciate how important it can be to make large inkjet prints to evaluate things like critical focus, depth of field and the like. But there’s a problem, because unless I always print in 3:2 format, I end up having to physically trim the the excess, unprinted margin(s). There is no option to select image ratios—and associated bounding/framing rectangles in the viewfinder to match commonly available inkjet paper sizes. This brings me to my question:
Are there after-market firmware extensions available to add the missing image frames to the viewfinder? If not, why is Fujifilm resistant to adding this flexibility to the firmware?? I’m no programmer, but it seems to me that it would be an almost trivially simple programming task to add the very small number lines of firmware code to implement this modification. Absent this added functionality, one is left to guess at which sub-portion of the image matches/approximates the desired inkjet paper format.
If such third party firmware modifications aren’t available, I’d appreciate it if you could post a submit-your-vote questionaire on FujiRumors.com to assess user interest in such firmware modification. If I tried to make the case as a single user to Fujifilm, I have no doubt that I’d be ignored. But you could catalyze a much larger group of users to motivate FujiFilm to make code the necessary firmware updates.
by Anton
Do you think there is any chance of a wider Fujifilm GF f1.7 lens?
First we had GF 80mm f1.7, now we have GF 55mm f1.7.
I wonder whether we might see another very fast GF prime lens, possibly a GF 40mm (which would be a really interesting focal length, just like the previous two have been interesting focal lengths). A GF 40mm would be desirably a little wider than a GF 45mm lens (which can be often restrictive in field of view and otherwise not long enough) but without the familiar and known perspective distortion of a 28mm equivalent lens like a GF 35mm would give. This GF 40mm lens (at 31.6mm FF equivalent) would provide a novel and very functional field of view that would arguably be far more interesting than the 28mm or 35mm equivalent fields of view).
It would also be interesting if they managed to create a GF f1.4 for the next one, this hopeful GF 40mm lens, which would more directly challenge the f1.2 full frame lenses? It would also make sense to give the shorter focal length a wider aperture so that it can still successfully achieve excellent bokeh as part of this very fast prime lens series. Indeed Laowa and others are producing lenses that are both shorter in focal length (moderately wide not ultrawide) and very fast.
Given the weird focal length equivalences of the GF 80mm and the GF 55mm, it makes sense for Fufjifilm to do a novel, cool, as well as very functional and versatile focal length like a GF 40mm, doesn’t it?
by Paul
First up, there are multiple problems with how the Fujifilm X-T2 handles the XC 15-45mm when compared to other Fujifilm X bodies.
- The X-T2 does not remember the focal length the XC 15-45mm was at when you review an image on the camera, and then go back to take another photograph. This is very frustrating, as it doesn’t occur on the X-T30 nor the X-A3 …
- The X-T2 does not recall the focus distance the XC 15-45mm was at when you review an image on the camera, and then go back to take another photograph. This is very frustrating when photographing still life images, as you have to refocus. Once again, this problem doesn’t happen with the X-T30 nor X-A3 …
- The X-T2 keeps resetting the XC 15-45mm to its default retracted size when you go to review an image – this is an unnecessary waste of battery power, as the lens has to extend again, when you go to take a new photograph. This slows down the shooting experience terribly, and as you probably guessed, the X-T30 and X-A3 don’t have this problem …
Note: I’m using the latest XC 15-45mm lens firmware 1.10, and latest X-T2 firmware 4.40
Fujifilm will say that the lens is “working as designed” on the X-T2 … but if that was the case, then why make these crucial improvements to the firmware of the X-T30 & X-A3 which address these design issues. It seems very unfair to loyal X-T2 users, who have not seen a firmware update since 17th September 2020 … despite their cameras being superb & reliable in 2023 !
In addition, I’ve been hitting the Fujifilm service centers with 5 very simple, “easy to do” firmware updates for the X-T2 in 2023, as other bodies have these features already, they don’t require any unnecessary processing power nor do they conflict with any unfair functionality marketing advantage:
- LCD & EVF color balance controls: the X-T2’s notoriously have LCD screens that can have a yellow-greenish cast, making what you see in the EVF different from what you see on the LCD. Most users have to tilt their X-T2 downwards at 25-30 degrees to get a better LCD colour tone representation … because they can only adjust the LCD brightness and colour saturation :-(
- Custom setting auto-save: the X-T2 requires you to manually trawl through the menu options to save any tweaks you’ve made, instead of auto-saving any changes you make on the fly, like other X bodies.
- WB shift save per custom setting: the X-T2 only saves the WB shift per WB mode, not per custom setting = inflexibility with film recipes
- 0.5 step increments for shadow & highlights like the X-T3 onwards, which is an easy modification but offers a massive improvements in jpeg image nuance insead of the current 1 step increments
- White-balance (WB) lock assignment to a function button, a simple feature available on other camera models along with AF-L/AE-L, and low-effort to implemen
NOTE: Fujifilm gave the following reply to Paul:
Unfortunately, the FUJIFILM X-T2 does not support the XC15-45mmF3.5-5.6 OIS PZ focal length hold function and lens hold function when switching playback.
https://digitalcamera-support-
Therefore, the desired operation cannot be performed.
I am sorry, but please understand.
We will pass on your feedback to the department in charge as a valuable opinion.
by Viktor
Isn’t about time for Fuji to release a firmware update that allows pixel mapping for videos? I mean, Sony has being doing this for years now. I was shocked to see the H2s without this feature.
by Mark
About Film Sims, here is my idea. Is it worth discussing in the forum?
Best way to handle Film Sims is to use FUJIFILM X RAW STUDIO.
It would be fantastic if Fuji would allow us to REPLACE some of the built-in sims. I never use the monochrome or sepia sims, for instance.
That’s 5 of my own I could have instead. We wouldn’t have to give up one of the precious custom settings just to have a film sim.
We could use them the same way we use the built-in ones, simply select it. (Even add option for short description😊 )
If using Fujifilm X RAW Studio, it could be very easy to reset or replace your custom sim with the original if needed. Factory reset would also reset any custom sims to the original.
Just think about such a feature for VIDEO!!!
I just thought of another possibility: Being able to BRACKET our own recipes.
by Felipe
I saw some videos about the new Panasonic cameras and their Real Time LUT features. This brought me some questions that might be good community discussion material.
If more companies make cameras with realtime LUTs like the new Panasonic S5 II and G9 II, what would the community think about the position Fujifilm has with their unique SOOC colors?
What if in the future we get to have successor cameras to the Nikon Z f, Canon R5, Lumix GX9 or Ricoh GR with the capability to load LUTs that would allow any of these cameras to shoot classic film stock simulations or your own personal styles.
There’s already a marketplace for color grading and film simulation color profiles. Maybe the only difference with Fujifilm’s Film simulations is that they are very carefully crafted color profiles that are calibrated to each sensor generation, but not much more than that. What if some very talented people could achieve similar results by themselves?
Maybe there’s some convenience having a limited number of Film simulations that you know and love, compared to an overwhelming number of color profiles that require tinkering and management.
What do you think about my ramblings?
by Gregor
I have on simple Idea, which would make Fuji-Cameras outstanding on the market.
A Pic Backup-Function. For example. I shoot with an X-H2 and X-E4. The Idea ist, to connect a usb-c ssd (or something other) an I can copy all the images from the memory cards to the SSD. This would be a nice function for travellers, and it should be easy to implement.
by Mattia
So, got my new brand X-T50, and unfortunately I’m getting some issues that other people have.
First: Manual focus. When in manual focus, the focus peaking doesn’t work. Tried with Samyang 8mm, never had an issue on the X-T30. If I use other AF lenses in manual mode no issue (tested the 16-50 kit lens, and the 50f2).
Also, I don’t know if it’s the screen resolution or they changed it, but the dots of the focus peaking are definitely harder to see! In the X-T30 it’s totally easier, in the X-T50 I sometimes don’t even understand if something is highlighted or not without the magnification. Kind like the dots are less and smaller, I don’t know…
Secondly: CUSTOM settings
In a custom setting (C1-C7) now almost every option is saved.
I get it could be useful in a certain scenario or for some people, and for certain option is personally very useful, but I think it should just work differently.
They should just make it work in a kind of “hybrid” way.
That means, you can set the global settings and in the custom profiles you can decide to just set “global” for options, especially in the AF/MF Setting section, Shooting setting section, Flash setting section….
It´s ridiculous that you have to go through to change certain things for EVERY custom profile you would like to use.
I mean, I install a manual lens and I should go through EVERY custom profile to edit the “mount adaptor setting”? Really?
I find it very frustrating.
Also, they call them “custom setting”, would be more user friendly to call it custom profile I guess, in which you have your set of custom settings…
What do you think about it?
Worth to make a post to see how many people encounter the same frustration/issue?