d2f

Speaking only for myself, I believe this decision by Adobe will eventually lead to their downfall. In the trade space they placed to much weight on profits over customer satisfaction and loyalty which has been their cornerstone since the beginning. They are betting the house on the perception that they hold a monopoly while assuming that customers will blindly give up their current software suite licensed versions for something totally out of their reach (in the clouds) and control, in the name of having the latest release with more features that few will use or need outside of the professional market.

Adobe will only reverse this decision if their profit margin drops below their expectations. Along with that I also suspect changes on their board shortly afterwards in the form of early retirements and or firing a select few members who pushed for this half baked idea in the first place.

By then the damage will have already been done and be irreversible.

I did not read anywhere that the new lens are AF, are they?

"If you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear." This is the motto at Google and now the American government. Privacy left the building some time ago. Social media outlets, camera phones, security cameras, satellites, monitoring of email, web surfing, bank transactions, phone conversations, TV shows watched and things beyond those have done away with any sense of privacy. Now Glasses technology will invade your homes, work place, bathrooms, etc. etc. You will not know if and when somebody with Glasses is recording you and posting it to the web. The end user maybe surprised to find someday Glasses recording their actions without their consent. While people are focused on drones invading their privacy outside their home, with Glasses they will lose it everywhere, in and outside their homes. Since Glasses technology and drones are coming, the question is not privacy but instead who watches over the watchers, and can you trust them with your privacy?

Camera technology issues aside, it will be interesting to see how end users this device will interface with the local laws of privacy, especially with businesses where video and still photography of their interior is prohibited. Here in the united states where the number of teen driver deaths are on the rise, due to distractions like their operating their cell phones while driving, I wonder how many teens will lose their lives to this device, before law makers pass a law prohibiting its use while driving. That has to be a morale booster for Google engineers where their motto is, do no evil.

Cost aside, it is interesting and has a future, but maybe not in the current near useless format. Just thinking outside the box here, what if the entire view of field was used and the interface included hand gestures. Imagine if it could see in HD stereo IR or boosted light levels for night vision, or darkened for bright sunlight conditions. Imagine Iron man type of overlay displays that could be designed by the end user. Imagine if it could replace glasses, by providing corrected images, and even with color correction for those who had some degree of color blindness. Imagine if it were linked to your digital camera eliminating the camera LCD and viewfinder screens. Or better yet replace the camera as we know it. Imagine if there was an app that could read faces and tell you when somebody was lying. Is Apple listening?

I think Fuji has been serious about staying in the game and listening carefully to their customer feedback and reviews of their products. With each generation of X camera we can see measurable improvement. No camera will please everyone and Fuji is not taking that road, but instead they are creating their own niche and I wish them all the best on that path. If the reviews of the X100s are good I plan to buy one myself.

d2f

The company name is a good one since the lenses should produce magical wide open depth of field compared to the competition and OEM selection. The cameras that host them are functionally single lens reflex in nature, in that you see what the recording media will capture, either by a electronic viewfinder, LCD screen or other means. While I do not expect perfection from any lens, especially wide open, it will be interesting to see how this lens line up performs. I have no doubt they will represent a good value and have no problem finding a market and my 5N camera bag.

d2f

Like a few Leica owners, I would venture to guess that some people, with deep pockets, will buy the camera because of the brand name, independent of the functionality and price. It just follows that old saying, "a fool and his money are soon departed". Lets hope that we do not do likewise with our purchases of expensive camera gear.

d2f

Nice camera but limited buffer size may spell poor sales for this flagship.

d2f

I wonder how the old school Samyang lens will compare to the Sigma 8-16 lens. Since the Sigma has AF, supports a electronic interface and has a zoom range that provides another level of control. I know it produces great images since I own one. Given that current DSLR cameras have high sensitivity and the depth of field of a wide angle lens is significant is there is any real need for a 2.8 lens? It is my opinion that current DSLR cameras are fairly difficult to focus manually, since their focusing screens are not optimized for manual focusing, unless there is a focus confirmation, which appears to be missing on this lens, with maybe the exception of the Nikon mount. Also this lens does not appear to have a old school depth of field scale on the lens barrel, which may limit its usefulness when it is needed.

d2f

We live in greatest period in the history of photography.
We have wonderful tools available to us to choose from and convenient means to make photographs that we envisioned.
Over the last forty years of pushing the shutter release of my Canon and Nikon time machines, I am very happy to see a camera from Fuji that captures the past and present with style.

I did think of an idea for David's device:

David's device could expand a camera's high speed buffer depth, provide wireless, IR remote control, USB3 and GPS capabilities to cameras that do not currently offer those interfaces and functions.

d2f

IMHO:
It is one thing to hack the camera code and activate or adjust existing features in the code or at best add a custom function. It is unrealistic to expect hackers to fix bugs in that code. Installation of that patch would be like adding a OEM update to the existing firmware. Hacker firmware modifications carry risk of rendering the camera inoperative and incompatible with future OEM patches.

Likewise it is unrealistic to expect to import third party code such as LR or PS into a external low power & much slower standalone microcomputer & small memory capacity and expect a quick results. Current or future wireless or cabled interface to computer or hand held device would be more efficient and convenient to most photographers who require such functionality. The later solution allows for greater flexibility when it comes to LR and third party add on SW upgrades.

When you add it all up there is no need or purpose for the device built by David hunt.

We could be looking at another paradigm shift. Just as sheet film to was to wet plates; as roll film was to sheet film; as digital was to film and Photoshop was to the darkroom. We should not assume for a minute that this is the last innovation to the field of photography, instead we should see it as just another development along the way.

IMHO, we live in interesting times, as the field of photography is advancing faster than it has ever done before. Eventually we will have no more excuses left for not creating the perfect images that we think we can create if it were not for the current imperfect gear that we possess.

That may force a lot of photographers to sell their gear and call it quits and stop posting serious comments on dpreview. ;^)