Half a year of rumors is over, and it was probably the most successful we ever had on FujiRumors.
With a total amount of 44 rumors shared, we are currently sharing more rumors than ever in the years before.
The Fujifilm X-T4 was without a doubt the big one in 2020, and I frankly can’t remember if FR ever leaked so much about one single camera, as we did with the Fujifilm X-T4.
At this point BIG thanks to all our sources, for helping me to keep the Fuji X community on fire. Being a Fuji X/GFX shooter is just more fun, if every now and then we get something hot to talk about… ;).
But…
Sharing rumors is one thing, sharing accurate rumors is another. And since we don’t want you to believe in fake rumors like the death of Fujifilm X-H2 or fake X-T3 firmware leak 4.00, we try to honor the time you decide to spend reading FujiRumors by delivering dry and verified rumors.
Did it work out well so far in 2020?
Let’s check it:
497 blog post published so far in 181 days (about 3 blog posts a day)
44 rumors shared in 181 days (2020)
9 rumors still to be verified and 2 rumors not in ranking (details below)
UPDATE: I have just been contacted by FR-readers, and I have been told that the latest firmware 1.02 for Fujifilm X-T4 improved autofocus during video with older lenses. Philip’s video was recorded before that. Would be fantastic if Philip could repeat the test to verify that.
Philip Bloom wonders, can you trust the Fujifilm X-T4 autofocus for video?
In my opinion, Philip did a great job, and this video is very helpful to figure out which lenses are best for video autofocus tracking and especially which settings are best for which lens.
Before the usual video summary, for those of you, who have no time to watch it right now, I’d like to highlight a few things from the video:
inconsistency: Some lenses work very well and reliably (such as the XF16-55mmF2.8), other were a complete nightmare (for example XF56mmF1.2)
settings nightmare (AF speed + Tracking sensitivity): some settings work great on a certain lens, but use the same settings on another lens, and you get totally different results. You must hence fine tune the settings differently for each lens
older lenses: older lenses are clearly not designed for video autofocus. Newer lenses work better
pulsing & jumping: that’s an issue that occurs with many XF lenses. On some lenses you can mitigate it a lot by changing settings
Confusing Settings: with AF-Speed, the higher you set the number, the faster the AF speed (logical). With tracking sensitivity, the higher the number, the slower it is (not logical).
Eye AF: can lose eye easily, especially if you wear glasses
Internal vs External recording: Record externally, and you have terrible results. Better record internally for best video autofocus
Overall: X-T4 is a fantastic camera (in fact his favorite camera close after the GFX100) and has all the power it needs for great video AF, but it’s the lenses that are holding it back for video AF.
I feel like lots of this is something that Fujifilm could improve via firmware update, even with older lenses, and I am confident Fujifilm will.
I personally used the XF18-55mm a lot for my teaching-vlogging, and it worked well on my X-T4. And in fact the 18-55 is one of the lenses that performed best in Philip’s tests.
Down below you’ll find the summary and the video, so you can see which lens worked best and which settings he recommends.
Philip Bloom did well to highlight all this, and of course here on FujiRumors we report about it, as I believe this is valuable feedback for Fujifilm.
Fujifilm USA has just announced a change in their Fujifilm X Photographers program and they included a guide on how to become an official Fujifilm X Photographer.
You can read all the details below. In short:
Step 1: become a Fujifilm Collaborator
Step 2: become a Fujifilm Creator
Step 3: become a Fujifilm X Photographer
Fujifilm will launch a special “creator website” in August 2020, where you can learn more and start your journey to become a Fujifilm X photographer. From 2020 to 2024, you’ll have the opportunity to become a Fujifilm Collaborator first, and then a Fujifilm Creator.
Then, in 2024, Fujifilm Creators can apply to become a Fujifilm X photographer and Fujifilm will select some of them.
Also, the Fujifilm X photographers program will get a 4 years cycle, giving greater opportunities for new talents to have their turn.
But there is more!
Fujifilm will already select 10 new Fujifilm X photographers within October 2020 among the initial group of FUJIFILM Creators.
AF assist lamp on the front of the camera will turn on when battery power is low
no audio when camera is connected to computer. Best pick up a high quality microphone
max. 720p @ 30p
Down below you can read what is different by using Fujifilm X Webcam compared to the X-A7/X-T200 solution described above.
You must install the Fujifilm X webcam software in order to use your X/GFX camera as a webcam
more settings to change in camera: set drive dial to “S”, in connection settings set USB-AUTO, set Pre-AF ON for focus, recommended setting is Single AF
you can enable face/eye detection if you want (but also keep it disabled)
So, Fujifilm X Webcam gives you still more control, but given how reliable Fuji’s eye autofocus has become (and I talk from experience, as I used it a lot for my video-online lessons), I would feel totally confident to go full auto.
However, having a webcam that outputs ETERNA and higher qualiy video is great.
So, between the two, I’d still go with Fujifilm X webcam, and make the few extra setting changes in camera.
But hey, let me know what you guys prefer by voting the survey down below:
The software is available only for Windows, but as Fuji Guy Billy said in his X-T200 and X-A7 firmware video here, that the Fujifilm X webcam will be available for Mac in mid July, too. Fujifilm has also issued a press release you can read below.
Setting for the function that the camera can be used as a web camera (*1) is added when it is connected to a PC via a USB cable.
Set to “USB WEBCAM” in the Setup Menus>CONNECTION SETTING>USB MODE (*2) and then connect a USB cable to the camera. When your PC recognizes the camera, “FUJIFILM X-T200” will appear.
*1: The web camera feature is supported under Windows 10 (x64), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), and macOS 10.15 (Catalina).
*2: The current “USB IMAGE TRANSFER SETTING” in the Setup Menus>CONNECTION SETTING has been changed to “USB MODE”. With this change, select the “USB CARD READER” when you transfer images from a camera to a PC or a smartphone via a USB cable.
Setting for the function that the camera can be used as a web camera (*1) is added when it is connected to a PC via a USB cable.
Set to “USB WEBCAM” in the Setup Menus>CONNECTION SETTING>USB MODE (*2) and then connect a USB cable to the camera. When your PC recognizes the camera, “FUJIFILM X-T200” will appear.
*1: The web camera feature is supported under Windows 10 (x64), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), and macOS 10.15 (Catalina).
*2：The current “USB IMAGE TRANSFER SETTING” in the Setup Menus>CONNECTION SETTING has been changed to “USB MODE”. With this change, select the “USB CARD READER” when you transfer images from a camera to a PC or a smartphone via a USB cable.
According to a chart published somewhere, you get 0.05% sharper images using lens x vs lens y
No, wait… that’s not that kind of post… today we fly high… and we fly far… we are going to meet the wonderful diversity on this world.
And who could introduce us better to post like this, than big tech vloggers Michel de Montaigne, my most loved author ever, who once said:
Travel is in my opinion a very profitable exercise; the soul is there continually employed in observing new and unknown things, and I do not know a better school wherein to model life than by incessantly exposing to it the diversity of so many other lives, fancies, and usances, and by making it relish a perpetual variety of forms of human nature. The body is, therein, neither idle nor overwrought; and that moderate agitation puts it in breath.
In the spirit of Montaigne’s quote above, I share a Fujifilm X travel images roundup that hopefully inspires you to go out, meet, embrace the wonderful diversity there is on this planet.
You want more of Montaigne? Then what about this one:
It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we do not know what it is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we must still walk on our own legs. And even on the highest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own ass.
But since it’s a really fat book (that I have read all), maybe you better start with the wonderful Michel de Montaigne biography by Sarah Backwell, “How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer“.
You might fall in love with Michel’s work, just as Friedrich Nietzsche did, since he said:
That such a man wrote has truly augmented the joy of living on this Earth.
And now, travel images… of course all taken with Fujifilm cameras.
I would like to send a big hug to those, who have come that far in reading the text. If there is a group of “rumor-readers” that can appreciate such articles, then it’s definitely Fujifilm X/GFX shooters. Thanks for the time you dedicated to this blog post.
It’s done, I made it. An unreal school year is over.
It was A LOT of work for me, to teach online, but I took it also as an opportunity to explore new creative ways of teaching.
And surely it came to my help, that I can use Final Cut Pro X, I have several tripods and cameras etc, as this allowed me to have the tools and skills to translate into video my creative ideas.
But in a part of Italy, where a German minority lives (video of my province). This is why I speak both languages, Italian and German, fluently.
Also, I am a primary school teacher, so I teach German to kids that belong to the Italian language group. Hence German is their second language.
And since my “customers” are kids, I’ve tried to always throw something fun into my lessons, just to put some lightness into a situation that was very hard for them.
For example, in one video, I triplicated myself and made up a fun conversation between three Patrick’s during Grammar lesson, as you can see from the screenshot here.
That’s something I could have never done in the classroom, and only the online teaching allowed me to do.
I started by filming everything with my X-E3, but once I got the X-T4, I switched to it as my main camera, and it has surely served me better than my X-E3, because:
the selfie screen was useful and practical
ETERNA was glorious
longer recording times
better video quality
more creative tools (like super-slow motion)
IBIS for when my wife had to film me handheld for stable footage
solid battery life
So, my first impact with the X-T4 was pure love! Everything I needed, it did it better than my X-E3.
But life is not only video…
X-T4 for my Passion
Last weekend I drove down to Tuscany with my wife (it’s a 4 hours drive only from my home), as a little reward for a frankly extremely busy time.
On that trip, I used the Fujifilm X-T4 only for photography.
Here is what I liked, and what not.
Loves
overall performance… it’s a beast
shutter sound is so buttery smooth
battery life: it just kept running, and running, and running… awesome!
I have my ISO dial back
oh… a D-Pad, how nice is that
Hates
no more one handed operation (on my X-E3 every button and dial is on the right side of the camera and can easily be operated with the right hand only)
bigger and heavier (although with some lenses this is actually better)
for reviewing images on LCD, I always have to flip screen out. On the other hand this helps to review images less, like with the hidden X-Pro3 LCD
And the Selfie Screen?
Well, the selfie screen deserves a special chapter.
I found some unexpected love for it, as well as one hate.
Loves
keep it tilt inwards protects the screen
keep it tilt inwards makes the camera look so wonderful vintage
keep it tilt inwards and you’ll review images way less, like on X-Pro3
keep it tilt inwards and you won’t accidentally activate the touch screen, which happens to me now and then on the X-E3 (I keep the touch LCD always deactivated on my X-E3, but it activates if I accidentally touch the upper right part of the screen)
for my video lessons, I just loved it
unlike the X-T100 screen, the X-T4 can tilt also in portrait mode
Hates
I use the Peak Design Leash camera strap, and when I tilted out the screen, sometimes the strap covered the screen, so I had to move the strap behind the screen. Hence, not only it takes a bit more time to tilt out the screen (as opposed to only flip it out on X-T3), but then also fiddle around with the strap. This was probably the most annoying aspect of the selfie screen. So much so, that I think I am considering to get Peak Design Cuff camera wrist strap and solve the “problem”
Conclusion?
Well, if it wasn’t for the selfie videos I had to do, I’d still consider the X-T3 and X-H1 screen design superior for my needs. But on the other hand the selfie screen has some advantages, that you can’t get with X-T3 screen, especially if you use mostly the EVF and want to keep the LCD tilted inwards.
Hence, I am happy with the X-T4 screen.
Images Anyone?
So, how was my Tuscany mini-trip?
Awesome!
And although we had only one day of good weather, and the other two were rainy and misty, I had lots of fun to be simply out and photograph again.
I shared one image on my Instagram page already, where I tested Classic Negative.
Classic Negative is great. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all, but when it works, it’s just awesome. In street photography it will surely shine, but also in landscape photography, as you can see below, it can give lovely results.
Now I have to get some paperwork done for the end of the school, and after that, I might share more images of my trip on Instagram… and bring you with me on my summer holidays, where so far I have planed nothing actually, except to climb my beloved Dolomites.
take care and have fun with your photography,
Patrick
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