Eduardo Soteras Snaps UNICEF Photo of the Year 2022 with Fujifilm APS-C X Gear

© Eduardo Soteras, Argentina, AFP (Agence France Press)
© Eduardo Soteras, Argentina, AFP (Agence France Press)

Eduardo Soteras has just been awarded with the UNICEF Photo of the Year 2022 for the image you can see above. The story is this one:

Although destroyed, the library in this elementary school in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is where two children have taken refuge in books. This little moment of happiness shows in their smiles. It is a rare moment. Because of the armed conflict with the central government, 5.2 million people in this region in northern Ethiopia are suffering from violence, displacement, malnutrition and a shortage of drinking water.

[…] The desire to discover and learn new things is often so great in children that it makes them forget the threat of a situation.

That is the message of the Unicef ​​photo of the year 2022,” said Unicef ​​patron Elke Büdenbender, wife of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“The winning image challenges us to do everything we can to ensure that children can play and learn even under the most adverse circumstances.

Because this is the only way they can maintain their hope and confidence in times of war and other crises.

Given the importance of this image, little it matters that the EXIF data shows it has been taken with the Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR.

Here on FujiRumors we just want to congratulate with fellow X shooter Eduardo Soteras for his important recognition and for making the best possible use of our beloved Fujifilm gear: encapsulating meaningful moments and important messages into a single powerful image.

You can read more about this image and Eduardo Soteras at the dedicated UNICEF page here.

Thanks to Daniel Stocker (instagram) for letting me know about it.

And in case you are being brainwashed by some YouTubers that you can only get real Pro work done with Full Frame gear, check out the articles below.

Not enough? Well, then know that photographers using Fujifilm cameras also…

  • won the world wildlife photography award (story here)
  • made the cover of the TIME magazine (story here)
  • won the World Photography Arts&Culture Award 2015 (story here)
  • won the First Prize of the World Press Photo Category “Stories (stroy here)
  • made the front page of the Wall Street Journal (story here)
  • were good enough for God’s work (story here)
  • captured America’s most hated man (story here)
  • distracted a French presidential candidate during his interview (story here)
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Avatar: The Way of Water: These Unbelievably Good Fujinon APS-C Lenses were Used to Film Large Parts of the Movie

After this article, tons of Forum heroes and YouTubers will cancel their ticket for Avatar: The Way of Water.

Why?

Because once they find out that important parts of the movie where shot using the totally unprofessional APS-C format (Super35 cameras) in combination with not crazy fast Fujinon APS-C zoom lenses, they will know that this movie must be a technical disaster, and they’ll rather invest their precious time into creating Full Frame f/1.2 masterpieces in their basements.

But there will be those, who will watch the movie anyway. And today’s story is for them.

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER director of photography Russell Carpenter talks with Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli about the making of the film and using the custom-made 3D Sony Venice [also used with Sony Rialto Camera Extension System] – video below.

At some point they talk about which lenses they used for the movie, and here is where the praises for these prosumer Fujinon APS-C lens start.

Everything was done to get it as light as we could.

We didn’t need to work with a Full Frame sensor, that would require very big lenses. We wanted to work with zooms so we didn’t have to change lenses all the time.

We did a lot of testing and research, and we ended up with these prosumer Fujinon lenses made by Fujifilm [the Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 and the Fujinon MK 50-135mm T2.9].  Each one is about 2.2 pounds and about 8 inches long, which is ideal for being on a rig.

The amazing thing about these lenses when we tested them, was that even though they were not as fast, at their wide open aperture of f/2.9 they were super super sharp. We thought we did something wrong with our test as they were as sharp as lenses that cost 10 times more.

We shot 90% of the movie on the MK18-55mm T2.9. In the world of 3D you get much more sense of depth if you shoot wider.

Russell Carpenter literally says they shot 90% of the movie using the Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9, but my guess is that he refers to the underwater scenes in the movie, although he did not specify that. He just said “movie” not “underwater parts of the movie“.

So, not only the backstage images of Avatar were taken with Fujifilm gear (as we reported here), but also the movie itself was shot using Fujifilm APS-C gear!

You can watch the podcast in the youtube video down below (automatically starts on the part where they talk about the Fujinon lenses).

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New Firmware for Viltrox 23mmF1.4, 33mmF1.4, 56mmF1.4 and 85mmF1.8II – Fujifilm X-T5, X-H2, X-H2s Support and AF-C Improvement

Viltrox has released firmware updates for their 23mmF1.4, 33mmF1.4 and 56mmF1.4.

The firmware adds support for the Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2s and Fujifilm X-H2 and it improves AF-C speed.

You can find all details and download links below.

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Dear FUJIFILM, We Decided: Make These 6 X-Mount Lenses Next!

It’s pure sadness.

I mean, if you look at the current X mount lens roadmap, it is just sadness, with only one X mount lens stoically standing all alone trying to keep up excited about the future.

So we decided to help Fujifilm in gathering some ideas, and you guys dropped hundreds of lens suggestions for the future here, which I then summed up in 40 options to vote on here.

Well, here are the results:

TOP 6 LENSES OVERALL:

  1. XF 23mm f/2 Pancake (fan made rendering here)
  2. XF 16-55mm f/2.8 MK II
  3. XF 18mm f/2 MK II
  4. XF 12mm f/1.4
  5. XF 16-35mm f/2
  6. XF 11-30mm f/2.8

There were really a lot of suggestions in the wide angle zoom range. So many, that I decided to give 2 options to vote on, the XF16-35mm f/2 and the XF 11-30mm f/2.8.

But if we were to merger even those two lenses into one single lens, we could get something like the XF 14-30mm f/2.0. In that case, we would have the following result.

  1. XF 14-30mm f/2.0
  2. XF 23mm f/2 Pancake (fan made rendering here)
  3. XF 16-55mm f/2.8 MK II
  4. XF 18mm f/2 MK II
  5. XF 12mm f/1.4
  6. XF 70mm f/2 (fan made rendering here)

TOP 6 PRIMES:

  1. XF 23mm f/2 Pancake
  2. XF 18mm f/2 MK II
  3. XF 12mm f/1.4
  4. XF 70mm f/2
  5. XF 10mm f/2
  6. XF 35mm f/1.2

TOP 6 ZOOMS:

  1. XF 16-55mm f/2.8 MK II
  2. XF 16-35mm f/2
  3. XF 11-30mm f/2.8
  4. XF 16-70mm f/2.8-4
  5. XF 16-135mm f/4
  6. XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 MK II

And if we were to merge the two lenses as we did above, we would get:

  1. XF 14-30mm f/2.0
  2. XF 16-55mm f/2.8 MK II
  3. XF 16-70mm f/2.8-4
  4. XF 16-135mm f/4
  5. XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 MK II
  6. XF 23-55mm f/2

CONCLUSIONS
Wide Angle Reality vs Telephoto Dreams

When you go around in forums, you’ll often see people complaining about Fujifilm not offering enough long lenses.

And to a certain degree I agree with you: long primes especially are needed!

But then there is the reality.

And the reality is that the vast majority of Fujifilm shooters simply do not see long lenses as a priority. What they really want is the total opposite: more wide angle zooms and primes.

We have to be clear about this: any of the lenses that made it to the top of the list in our survey would outsell by a large margin any long prime or zoom lens Fuji would launch.

That’s something Fujifilm knows (and has openly declared here).

And yet, there is at least one lens I feel Fujifilm must give us: the (already patented) Fujinon XF 400mm f/4, which made it in the top 15 of our list and fellow FR-readers already made mock-ups of and it is consistently your top wished telephoto lens.

So, even though it did not make the list, I strongly advice Fujifilm to give us a long prime lens.

Fujifilm X-T5

Your First Fujifilm camera was… Vote Now

We Are the 5.9%

Marketing research data says we Fujifilm X and GFX shooters make up 5.9% of the entire digital camera market.

So we are certainly not the top dog in the industry, but it is still better than the 0.1% we were back when I started this blog over 10 years ago.

Slowly, but steadily, Fujifilm was able to carve out its niche and some cameras even got some decent mainstream success, leading Fujifilm to be the third most popular mirrorless camera manufacturer ahead of Nikon.

And this number, 5.9%, made me think… how did it all start for you?

I mean, which one was your first Fujifilm camera that you bought intrigued by the X/GFX system and hence made you become part of those 5.9%?

If you want to satisfy my curiosity, then you can vote the survey down below.

POLL

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Fujifilm X-T5 Owners Manual Available

The Fujifilm X-T5 owners manual is now available for download in PDF here and in HTML here.

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Rumors and Discussions

Fujifilm Managers Interview: About Internal Camera Memory, X Pan Aspect Ratio, ISO Button Gate on X-H2/s and More – FujiCast

In the lastest Fujicast episode, Kevin and Neale have, among the others, a talk with Fujifilm UK manager Andreas Georghiades and they also go to the Fujifilm headquarter in Japan and talk to product planers.

Needless to say, the talk mostly gravitates around the Fujifilm X-T5. Down below is a summary as well as the podcast to listen.

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Blame the Fujifilm X-T5…

Have you noticed that cameras like the Fujifilm X100V, X-E4, X-T30/II, X-Pro3, X-S10 are out of stock in many places?

And why is that?

A sudden brilliant influencer marketing campaign by Fujifilm?

Nope. ;)

You have to blame the Fujifilm X-T5 for that!

In 2022, Fujifilm has launched three crucial cameras for their future: Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2s and Fujifilm X-H2.

And why are they so crucial for Fujifilm?

  • X-H line can potentially bring more new customers into the Fujifilm X system
  • the X-T* line is Fuji’s bread and butter
  • higher end cameras have more profit margin than cameras that cost $1,400 or less
  • niche cameras like X-Pro3 don’t make nearly as much money as more mainstream cameras

So what Fujifilm did is simple: they knew that by March 2023, when the Japanese fiscal year ends, they absolutely must ship out as many X-T5, X-H2 and X-H2s cameras as possible. And given the parts shortage, they had to reserve most of the remaining parts for those three cameras.

And especially the Fujifilm X-T5, Fuji’s most important camera, is one that can not fail on the shipping front.

That’s why Fujifilm is extremely well prepared with the Fujifilm X-T5, and that’s why B&H Photo will be able to ship out all pre-ordered X-T5 cameras on day 1 (and they still have X-T5 left in the warehouse).

That’s valid also for other vendors, who will very likely also have a decent stock (but I did not talk to other vendors, so this is just my guess). Except for certain retails for the reasons I explained in the comments to this article.

In short: if you are looking for an X-Pro3, and X100V, X-T30II and X-E4 or any other camera you can’t find in stock, then blame the Fujifilm X-T5 for that.

X-T5 USA Pre-Orders

Fujinon XF30mmF2.8 Macro Pre-Orderrs

  1. USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
  2. Worldwide: AmazonCA / Amazon of Your Country
  3. UK: AmazonUK / WexUK / ParkCameraUK
  4. EU: AmazonDE / AmazonIT / AmazonFR / AmazonES  / CalumetDE / FotoErhardt / Fotokoch / PCHstore

X-T5 Other Countries

X-H Cameras

FR-Readers Wishlist Corner: Firmware Suggestions, Video-Less X-Pro4, Fujinon XF16-160mmF3.5-5.6 and More

Wishlist Corner

I am terribly sorry…. terribly sorry that many of you had to wait so long to be featured.

But no matter how hard I work, especially in a crazy 2022, with 3 higher end cameras coming out and 4 XF lenses coming out, I simply could not find time to collect all your wishes and share them.

So I’ll do it today… I grabbed a large beer, took a deep breath, and worked to organise the wishes I have received over the last few months in this article.

So… down below it is: the FR-readers wishlist roundup

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