X-T1 or not?

What is the point of having weather-proof lens without weather-sealed camera? In fact, the weather-sealed Fujinon XF18-135mm lens is sold out in my favorite camera shop. In other shops I have to add $100+, about 15% premium. I guess Fuji X-T1 & XF18-135mm kits are available. In fact buying the kid will save about $200 over separate purchases. I can get X-T1 & XF18-135mm combo for $2k (Australian dollars). It is a good price for the camera and lens, but it is still $2k... Reviewers are very positive about X-T1.

The text below is just a personal runt written in order to sort out "things".

Significant advantages of Fijifilm X-T1 over X-E1:
- weather-sealing
- better external control (more dials, it is possible to set up camera for shooting with external controls)

Minor advantages:
- better battery life / more shots per charge (mentioned by some reviewers, but the difference is negligible in official specification)
-  tilting screen

Features I am curious about
- wireless connectivity
- external flash

Irrelevant improvements:
- viewfunder (I usually use the screen because it is more comfortable to my eyes)
- autofocus (I am satisfied with autofocus on X-E1)
- screen resolution

Negative:
- price (the camera priced fairly, considering all the features, but it is a big chunk of money to me)
- weight (it is 100 grams heavier than X-E1)

Potentially negative:
- not sure about the hump in the middle. It can be good because the flash sits higher.

To sum up: on one side we have the excellent external control layout and weather-sealing, on other side the camera costs a little fortune and adds extra weight.  And what to do with the existing X-E1?

Leopard tree. Fuji X-E1 & XF55-200mm

Availability of Fuji X-T1 in Australia

Fuji X-T1 is expected to be in Brisbane "after mid-March" (source: Digital Camera Warehouse).
Here in Brisbane the CameraPro shop hold "Fuji X-T1 launch" presentation today, and their prices of Fuji products usually are very competitive.

Test photos from Fuji X-T1

DPReview posted the test images from Fuji X-T1 camera. Additional four megapixels on Canon 70D are visible, but both are inferior in resolution to might Sony Alpha 7R.

Fuji X-T1 in Australia

Australian price for Fuji X-T1 (body only) is $1659 (Aussie). Source: Digital Camera Warehouse (check Mirrorless cameras). I don't know if the camera already available in Brisbane but these guys are among the first in Australia for new products. Their prices are very competitive, and the Brisbane team is really passionate about photography and cameras.
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Update: In Australia X-T1 is expected in mid-March.

Photos of Fuji lenses in development

Polish site Optyczne.pl posted a detailed review of Fuji X-T1, with many very interesting illustrations, such as comparison of EVF in X-T1 and and X-E2, and some others. The review contains several photos of recently announced lenses and weather-sealed lenses currently in development including high-end zooms with constant F2.8 aperture:
XF56mm F1.2 R
FX10-24mm F4 R OIS
XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R OIS WR
FX16-55mm F2.8 R OIS WR
XF50-140mm F2.8 R OIS WR

Weather-sealed Fujinon XF18-135mm is a fairly compact lens. It seems it takes 67mm filters.  

Predictive autofocus on Fuji X-T1

Rico Pfirstinger posted a very interesting review of Fuji X-T1 on Fuji Rumors. It seems that X-T1 utilizes some kind of predictive autofocus (predictive object tracking), and it works quite well on moving subjects in continuous autofocus mode. If true, X-T1 has the most advanced autofocus among mirrorless cameras from Fuji. The display lag on X-T1 is 1/10 of than on X-E2. It is also significantly smaller than on Olympus E-M1.

Fuji X-T1 made to top 20 best selling digital cameras at Amazon

Recently announced Fuji X-T1 is currently in top 20 best selling digital cameras at Amazon. Among all digital cameras, not just compact system cameras (in this category X-T1 is #1). Fuji X-T1 with XF18-55mm lens made to top 100 (all digital cameras). Well done, Fujifilm. This is the most expensive camera in the top 20 list. As with Sony RX100, people are ready to pay a premium price for a good product.

With such demand we may not see this camera in Australia for some time. It is also possible that X-T1 will repeat the life cycle of Fuji X100: it was hard to get X100 for very long time because of overwhelming demand despite of some issues with the camera upon the release. As a result, the price was maintained for very long time. 

There were no any systemic issues with the latest cameras such as X-E1, X-E2, X-M1, X-A1, X100S, so no nasty surprises are expected from X-T1. In addition, Fujifilm has a decent collection of very good prime and zoom lenses.

Announcement of Fuji X-T1

Fuji had announced X-T1, the first weather-sealed compact system camera with X mount (link to the DPReview first impression article). Essentially all specs of the camera were leaked earlier, but the DPReview team provides an very interesting opinion on X-T1.

Some news on X-mount lenses. Mirrorless  Rumors site has some images of coming weather-sealed Fujinon zoom lens for Fujifilm X mount. The lenses are:
XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS
XF16-55mm F2.8 R OIS - filter size 77mm
XF50-140mm F2.8 R OIS - filter size 67mm
The latter two lenses have aperture values on the ring (constant F2.8 through the zoom range). It seems that XF18-135mm is not very big. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out the filter size...

Zeiss announced (link to DPReview) Touit 50mm F2.8 macro (1:1) autofocus lens for Fuji X mount. The lens can be pre-ordered in some shops.  Here in Brisbane it cost ~$1,500 (AUD). Fujinon XF60mm F2.4 macro is available for $660, but it is not 1:1, with very slow autofocus on Fuji X-E1.

X-T1 or not X-T1

I made some changes to pages on this blog. The Fuji X-E1 page was split into Fuji X system and Fuji X-E1, and added a new Fuji X-T1 page. I want to have the second X body, and Fuji X-T1  with all these switches and dials looks like a perfect camera for me, so I will add some links to this page after the release of the camera. I thought about getting either X-M1 or X-A1, mainly because of the price. It turned out that I barely use the EVF on my Fuji X-E1 (except for a very bright sunlight), but very often shoot from very awkward positions, and in such situations a tilting screen would be very useful. However, I don't like dials and external controls on both X-M1 and and X-A1. On other hand, Fuji X-T1 got the external controls I really like, plus a tilting (non-fixed) screen. It is also weather-sealed, a huge plus for my occasional trips to a local rainforest. Obviously, such beauty comes with the price tag...  I would prefer a bit less pricier camera with similar controls but without build-in viewfinder, sort of Olympus E-Px line.

Fuji X-T1

Even the DPReview site posted images of yet to be released Fuji X-T1. Obviously, these guys are under NDA, and cannot say much before January 28, but it seems that the leaked specs for the new camera are correct. It will have a slightly higher continuous shooting rate and better electronic viewfinder, and as DPReview pointed out, it will be the most capable X camera build so far. It seems that Fuji is working on improvement of manual focus assist function, but it is unclear if it will be implemented in X-T1 upon the release or added later by a firmware update. 

Fujifilm has a very interesting approach with their cameras. The company uses the same sensor in several cameras, so the image quality is essentially the same in these models, while camera bodies differ significantly. User interface is a very personal thing, which is very hard to measure or compare: some people like touch screens, some prefer buttons and wheels, and so on. And for sure, Fuji X-T1 will make many people happy...

High quality images of Fuji X-T1

The Photo Rumors site got very good images of yet to be announced Fuji X-T1, included an optional grip. The body is packed with various controls. I hope it is not very small, or at least it is as comfortable as Fuji X-E1 or X-E2 models. The camera is expected to use the same sensor as X-E2, so there is no questions about the image quality.

It would be logical for Fujifilm to put the same controls (extra switches for selection of the shooting modes and metering, as well as ISO dial) on X100-like camera. Just imagine: essentially all most important settings would be controlled through the switches or dials, and it is possible to shoot using the optical viewfinder... 

Fuji did it again

Mirrorless rumors posted leaked images of of forthcoming Fuji X-T1. Camera got several additional external controls compared to X-E1 / X-E2. The most interesting are the "double dials", something similar to high-end Nikon DSLRs models. The shooting mode switch is under the left (iso) dial, and the exposure settings switch is under the shutter speed dial. The additional switches and iso dial would cover essentially all most frequently used camera control parameters,  without screen. It would be possible to setup the camera in the sleep mode, or even on turned off camera, or just check the parameters in sleep mode. For me, external control on this camera is close to perfect. 

The camera got a tilted screen, too. It turned out that I can get very sharp photos using Fuji X-E1 & XF55-200mm combo at arm length, and tilting screen in this type of shooting would be very useful.

Fuji announcement on January 28.

Fujifilm posted a teaser on their X-system site with picture of a new (mirrorless and presumably weather-sealed) camera:
http://fujifilm-x.com/teaser140128/en/
The camera does have a prominent hump in the middle. The compensation is now extended to 3 stops (X-E1 got 2), and there is a small red button instead of Fn, probably a dedicated 'movie' button. The camera got an extra dial on the top left, and it looks like a dedicated iso dial. This would be really cool thing to have but I am not sure how this would work with custom modes where it is possible to select iso as a custom parameter. Anyway, the new camera looks very cool. According to the rumors, Fuji made additional improvements in autofocus for X-T1 compared to X-E2. Frankly, I am very happy with the autofocus speed on X-E1 and two zoom lens, XF18-55mm and XF55-200 (I do not take many pictures of fast moving subjects). I am unhappy with performance of the macro lens (I mean the autofocus speed).

Duck and ducklings. Fuji X-E1 & XF55-200mm (crop)