Fuji new “body cap” lens

(Petapixel) Fuji’s New XM-FL is an X-Mount Body Cap Lens with Built-In Photo Filters:

Fujifilm has announced a strange new lens over in Japan. It’s called the XM-FL, and it’s a 24mm f/8 body cap-style pancake lens that features built-in photo filters that can be accessed by turning a dial on the side.

Very light, totally “dumb” (ie no electronics), for ~$100, can make for interesting experiments on your Fuji X.

From Fujifilm Japan (in Japanese)

Similar in principle to the Olympus body cap lens in 2013.

Fuji X100T First Looks

Zack Arias has had his hands on a Fuji X100T, at least a pre-production model. We know how he loved the first one, how he loved the improvements of the second generation, how he love the X series. Faster, better wifi, classic chrome, better buttons standardized on the rest of the X-series, new hybrid viewfinder.

Petapixel today: Fuji Unveils the X100T with “Electronic Rangefinder” Function, Improved Controls and More gives us some news from the product announcement.

It is great to see Fuji iterating over to improve things and the hybrid viewfinder improvement are, I hope, a shape of things to come for the 2nd generation X-Pro1 that is rumoured.

Fuji X round up

Zack Arias take on the Fuji X-T1: Yep. It’s A Fuji (archived from the original).

Conclusion… I have zero regrets about selling all of my Canon gear and going Fuji. Zero regrets.

I have to admit, I’m not a pro like him, ie I don’t shoot for a living (also I’m less talented), but since I have my X-Pro1 I haven’t used the Canon much nor even lusted on any piece of gear for it.

Last week I have had my hands shortly on the X-T1 and the EVF is absolutely so much better than the X-Pro1. Non-withstanding the other advantages. If only I could try it longer.

Also don’t miss his Mystical Marrakech video (on YouTube) that he did for Fuji:

Things about the X-E1

Tim Bray wrote a love letter to Fujifilm:

He starts with the conclusion:

It’s the best camera I’ve ever used: Light, wonderful in the hand, perfect controls, astounding lenses, pleasing pictures. So if you were thinking of buying a Serious Camera, this is totally one of the ones you should look at. Or maybe the X-E2; more on that below.

I’ll let you read the rest.

As an X-Pro1 owner I can tell that almost everything applies to it too.

Fuji XF23mm f1.4

Fuji announced the Fuji XF23mm f1.4 for the Fuji X series (like the X-Pro1)

This lens will provide a fast 35mm-like lens ; one of the favourite field of view of street photographers.

Thinktank Retrospective 5

Jorge Ledesma call the Thinktank Retrospective 5
The Best Street (Casual) Photography Bag for the Ricoh GR and Companion
.

I’ve tried quite a few bags, too many to name, but let me tell that the Thinktank Photo Retrospective 5 has stolen my heart and the hearts of my two primary photographic tools — the Ricoh GR and the Pentax K5 IIs. Its like this: you know how you fall in love with a certain comforter and that’s what you like to sleep in all time. Well, its like that for the GR/K5IIs and the Retrospective 5. I can’t think of any other bag that has all the features that one needs to have while on the field photographing.

While I don’t have a Ricoh GR, I bought this bag over a year ago to use with my Fujifilm X-Pro1 – after having bought the Retrospective 30 – and I love it. It even fits the 5DMkII with the 24-105 or the 40mm pancake.

Leica M typ 240 review

Highly anticipated, the Leica M type 240, aka Leica new M as announced in 2012, is starting to appear in the hands of various photographers.

Ming Thein, a Kuala Lumpur based photographer, reviews the new M:

First off: the M 240 is an enormous leap forward ahead of the M9 in every area; in fact, it feels like several generations have been skipped.

He even ask about the relevance of the rangefinder design, whether it is still the best today.

I actually wonder if the appearance of the EVF on an M camera means that the rangefinder’s days may be numbered; the reality is that the system requires very precise calibration, is prone to drift, is limited when it comes to zoom lenses, long lenses or off-center subjects, and is manual focus only. […] Perhaps Fuji is going in the right direction after all.

In my opinion, the Leica is about the rangefinder, but Fujifilm has shown the way to the best of both world with the X100 and X-Pro1, except it is not yet a rangefinder, and is not as accurate as one. But do we need one or do we just need a good focusing system for mirror less systems?

Also read Thein’s B&W with the Leica M Typ 240.

The Fujifilm Baby box

At a time where people mostly use digital cameras for family pictures, with phone becoming more and more the prevalent tool to snap family memories, Fujifilm is trying to bring the instant film back to fashion, outside of the niche market by offering the Baby Box as Tokyo Camera Style is telling us back in November. The Baby box is meant to help you document the early days of your child.

The box encourages parents to take a photo of their child every day to document their first year of life. Rather than just a bunch of digital files on their mom’s iPhone, these lucky kids will actually end up with an actual album of actual photographs to look back though for the rest of their lives.

Let’s hope people realize the importance of the physical picture that generations discover in shoe boxes and albums – and don’t require the complicated maintenance that electronic archive need.