At the end of February, dpreview published a very interesting interview with Fuji Manager T. Iida. One of the questions dpreview made to the Manager, was if Fuji plans to release a Monochrome X-series camera, since “the X-Trans sensor should be well-suited to native monochrome capture.”

The Fuji manager answered: “Technically of course it’s possible but it depends on the demand, and such a camera would probably match perfectly to some of our core customers. […] I think a monochrome model might represent a sales opportunity for Fujifilm. […] I am a big fan of monochrome photography.”

Now, a couple of days ago I received this anonymous message

“It might be interesting to see how many folks would spring for a Monochrome only B&W only 24 MP  sensor version of the Fuji X-Pro2. You might be surprised!  Seems like a no-brainer.”

Yep, I think it’s interesting to see what you guys think about it. And apparently I’m not the only one. Also the Spanish site Fujistas investigated the same question. So I decided to launch two polls. Feel free to vote them and drop your considerations in the comments.

And now tell us if you think that Fuji should an alternative to Leica’s Monochrome camera.

Read about the advantages of a monochrome sensor at maxmax (thanks hmmm). “An equivalent monochrome camera will always take a much sharper image than a color camera because resolution is dependent on the color content in the picture.”

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Fujifilm invited the popular French photography site focus-numerique (translation) to visit the Fujifilm factory (1 out of 5 factories in Japan), where the X100T, X-T1 and several XF lenses are assambled.

In this specific case you can see how they assamble the XF 16-55 lens.

As a reminder, at the bottom is the video of the Fujinon Craftsmanship, shared back in October 2014. From the polishing to the mold pressing, from the assembling to the final check (where each lens is carefully checked by skilled technicians) and the packaging… and at the end of the chain, there is somewhere a happy X-shooter enjoying the great quality of the glass.

Also time to update the “favorite Fujinon lens” poll, since we now have some new entires.

NOTE: the ver.2 of the XC lenses is not included, since it’s not really available at the moment.

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Brian from Iridient just posted new Fujifilm X-Trans (APS-C) film style presets for Iridient Developer 3! The download includes a ReadMe file with detailed instructions on installation and use.

All previous styles have been updated and Classic Chrome has now been added. These styles are now saved as Iridient Developer 3 “preset” type files with just the specific adjustments necessary for the color styles so they can be used without altering other adjustments like sharpening or noise reduction. The previous (preset pack #3) styles have also been updated to the new “preset” file type and are included as well for those that want to be able to keep the identical color rendering as the older versions.

The download is a 12MB zip file and is available here:
http://iridientdigital.com/downloads/Iridient_FujiX_Presets4.zip

FujifilmXworld just launched the first episode about the popular Fujfilm’s Film Simulations. It’s just an introduction and shows the graph you can see above. They say that “starting with the next episode, we will explain each “world” in depth.”

“It is our belief that “the photos should never look unnatural even though one can easily see that they are composed with the color of Velvia or ASTIA.

FUJIFILM’s color reproduction designers prioritize the live action. They take photos of scenery that should not be taken in Velvia. They take photos upon customizing the setting that one would never think of. They would print these out and evaluate. People who evaluate are not the people who took the photos. In order for a fair evaluation, they would need the neutral eye for the job and they do that for every test.

This is the process of creating the world of color that are unique, but yet never fail.”

Of course, the film simulation are also part of Rico’s X-T1 book… he goes through each of them and also gives you some useful information and tips. So if you don’t want to wait for each episode, get all you have to know about the film simulations right now from Rico’s X-T1 book here.

Fujifilm’s film simulations (and overall the JPEG’s) can sometimes deliver such pleasing results, that they are not always easy to match in post processing…  not for nothing Fuji’s film simulation/JPEG’s are highly appreciated amongst photographers.

Rico also recommends to shoot RAW+JPEG and you can read why in his latest book