What do you think of the new rumored dedicated Film Sims dial on the X-T50?

[DJF55]

I shoot RAW. Nead I say more...

Morris

No, except that I think Fujifilm is losing it. That is them, the photographers that once were attracted to Fuijifilm X.

 

[jerclarke]

For reference, here's my ongoing X-T50 bingo card compared to X-T5 and X-T30:





Personally, I don't think the overall body is ugly at all. If you think a thick grip is ugly, I guess you hate the X-T5 too?

The big image of the front is unflattering in every way so I'm not judging the materials based on that. It seems like a reasonable upgrade with a thicker grip and a new spot for the front dial that looks ergonomic.

The only thing that strikes me as ugly is the film sim dial. One, merely for existing, but also for being so overwhelming and noisy. There's too many things on it despite still not actually having all the options that make up the feature.

And what is going on with that "FILM" text in the center of the new dial? If that's a customizable button then great, but if not, why is it like that, and why on earth would it say "FILM" at all, regardless of what it is?

Will they update the other wheels to match?







--
Peace and love to all beings, may our hobbies bring us joy and never conflict <3

 

[jonikon]

I shoot RAW. Nead I say more...

Morris

Apparently for you and other RAW only shooters you must set the FILM dial to C and make sure it stays there. For those shooting JPEGs only or RAW+JPEG any setting on the dial should be fine, except C.... I think.

 

[jerclarke]

I shoot RAW. Nead I say more...

Morris

Apparently for you and other RAW only shooters you must set the FILM dial to C and make sure it stays there. For those shooting JPEGs only or RAW+JPEG any setting on the dial should be fine, except C.... I think.

I don't think RAW shooters have to keep it on C, they just need to set it to whatever film sim they like by default. I always shoot Astia and change it in Lightroom if needed, so I'd just set it to the "S" position and leave it there.

You set it to "C" if you want to use a film sim that isn't on the list (there are many). So I could also set it to "C" then program in Astia on the display.

In both cases I now have to worry about it getting moved to something I don't want, but at least with RAW there's no real risk.

Re: "FILM" label in the center

I wonder if the inner circle of the button is a lock like on the X-T1, where you have to hold it down to spin, or like on the X-T5, where it locks and unlocks the wheel. That would explain the inner ring that is unlike anything on the X-T30 drive dial.

Still hoping it's a custom button that I can map to drive mode



--
Peace and love to all beings, may our hobbies bring us joy and never conflict <3

 

[architekt_1]

It would be great if Fuji add a button to add wide white frame borders to your master piece. May be X-T60

 

[Morris0]

I shoot RAW. Nead I say more...

Morris

Apparently for you and other RAW only shooters you must set the FILM dial to C and make sure it stays there. For those shooting JPEGs only or RAW+JPEG any setting on the dial should be fine, except C.... I think.

I don't think RAW shooters have to keep it on C, they just need to set it to whatever film sim they like by default. I always shoot Astia and change it in Lightroom if needed, so I'd just set it to the "S" position and leave it there.

You set it to "C" if you want to use a film sim that isn't on the list (there are many). So I could also set it to "C" then program in Astia on the display.

In both cases I now have to worry about it getting moved to something I don't want, but at least with RAW there's no real risk.

Re: "FILM" label in the center

I wonder if the inner circle of the button is a lock like on the X-T1, where you have to hold it down to spin, or like on the X-T5, where it locks and unlocks the wheel. That would explain the inner ring that is unlike anything on the X-T30 drive dial.

Still hoping it's a custom button that I can map to drive mode

Yep!

Morris

 

[Samuraidog]

I'm not a fan of the new dial. It sounds like a good idea until you realize that you miss out on something else. Only room for so many dials.

 

[cafe snapper]

Customer who wants unmarked dial may already want to use a6700 instead, I think X-T50 is a great fun camera

Judging by the rumoured price, X-T50 is no longer 'a little brother' of its bigger sibling, but more of 'the cool brother' of X-T5.

Many people on YT seem to use their old X-Tx0 as jpeg only casual shooters, so maybe that's what Fuji is going for here: casual and fun but with pro level IQ.

 

[GreatOceanSoftware]

Maybe it came from their market analysis, but I think X-T line should be classic with consistent UX and such experiments should be tested on X-S line.

Thing is, you know where I think this dial would be the most perfect thing? On a Leica M-D. You know, the ones with no screen. Just an ISO dial, a shutter speed dial, and a button.

They only record raw, but adding a JPEG engine controlled by a dial like this would be utterly analogous to swapping film.

Honestly, I think if you stripped away all the other controls and left just this one*, its value would become completely obvious.

As it stands, it’s like just about every camera other than a Leica: the number of available interactions exceed the number of controls by orders of magnitude, which means you can’t please everyone.

* and call it the X-Pro4, please

I had a similar thought. Film is the last major variable from cameras of the past: aperture, shutter, ISO, and film choice. It makes perfect sense. It’s like tearing off the film box flap and putting it in the holder.

Another thought is that hipsters will love this feature. Those that just want to put it in Auto mode, choose a film, and snap.

 

[michaeladawson]

I'm calling it rumored because I find it hard to believe Fujifilm would dedicate an entire dial to just Film Simulations on one of their cameras. I rarely change Film Sims, so this would be a negative for me. Why not just provide an unmarked dial that can be reassigned to something else like the X-S10/20. Maybe Fujirumors got this wrong and it is just a spoof?

Not a chance this is a wrong rumor. Sure, it could be. But FujiRumors is rarely wrong. The admin there is too chicken to go out on a limb for a rumor without solid confirmation. He should change the name of the site from FujiRumors to FujiNews.

--
Mike Dawson

 

[trapezoid]

I own an X-S10 and this feature (a film sim dial) exists. The dial itself is unlabelled but is doing exactly as is suggested here.

All I can say is meh.

That’ll be all.

 

[jonikon]

I own an X-S10 and this feature (a film sim dial) exists. The dial itself is unlabelled but is doing exactly as is suggested here.

All I can say is meh.

That’ll be all.

Well not quite the same thing. The X-S10 does not have a dedicated film simulation dial. Instead it has a Function (Fn) dial which can have any one of 30 settings assigned to it by the user, which includes film simulations. I have my Fn dial set to AFC Custom Settings.
It's possible the labeled film simulation dial of the X-T50 will also allow the user to assign different functions to it , but if so it would be better if it was unlabeled to avoid any confusion, IMO.

--
~ J

 

[michaeladawson]

And what if they ever add a new film sim through. firmware update? Send you a new button?

Perhaps this is an admission by Fujifilm that there will be no new film sims through firmware updates for the X-T50. ;-)

 

[biza43]

Given that film simulations are one of the things that makes Fuji famous, it makes perfect sense.

 

[biza43]

Deeply horrible change IMO. Huge disadvantage to serious photographers, both because film sims are useless if you shoot RAW,

Many Fuji users shoot JPEG to benefit from the Fuji film simulations, which have a good reputation and are a strong selling point.

and because having quick, convenient and reliable access to the drive modes is very important if you are shooting action/wildlife.

I doubt it that serious photographers for wildlife and action would use the XTxx series...

Also being able to switch to video in a hurry is very important (an entire dial on the X-T4/5!!!)

This single-handedly makes me reconsider my plan to insta-preorder the camera. Along with the price, it makes the X-T5, despite being heavier than I want, look like a good deal all of a sudden. I don't even want an ISO dial, but having a film sim dial always there being completely worthless is offensive to me.

I bet it is useful for many others.

Am I being fussy? Yes. Why do I even buy Fuji cameras in the first place rather than cheaper technically-superior full frame cameras? Because I am fussy.

We haven't seen the whole camera yet

This is still just a rumor, so I wish I could think it's fake, but it seems real.

Still, it's possible there's another drive wheel on the camera somewhere, such as if it replaced the "auto" toggle switch under the shutter speed dial. It's probably not under this film sim dial, because that's where the flash release goes and I doubt they changed that.

If there is a drive wheel, that will help this decision not be such a train wreck, but the film sim wheel is still a really bad choice for serious photographers.

Dials are for quick changes

Suddenly having a fast subject and needing burst mode, or suddenly wanting to capture a video, comes up a lot in my experience.

Suddenly needing to change the film sim without lifting your eye from the viewfinder: Never.

Dials should be for things that you need to change quickly, not for things that you ponderously change when you are feeling bored, and can change in post-processing.

This dial should be customizable

As someone else said, this would be better as a blank dial because film sims are 100% useless to RAW shooters, though personally a drive dial strikes me as worthwhile.

We can dream that they will do the right thing with this dumb film sim dial and allow us to get the same effect as a "blank dial" by customizing it to act that way.

With the "C" position, it definitely looks like a wheel that can spin forever, so they should let us make it into a third generic wheel who's outcome we see on the screen. Letting us customize it this way would mean we also regain a custom button from elsewhere on the camera, since most of us probably have that "most important other thing" on a button somewhere.

I would probably make it control ISO, e.g. to shift between the three auto-iso modes by turning the dial.

You could also have it control drive mode, assuming there's no other physical control for that.

AF modes (wide/zone/point) would be another option you could switch between using the dial.

Honestly if they work that out, it will save this dial in my mind. Yeah it's ugly but as long as it's useful, I can forgive it.

Of course, they could have done the same with the drive dial if they thought it was useless, but they did this instead. I don't think they'll make this dial configurable, only that they absolutely should.

Hope the people who like this change really love it, because for those of us that use Fuji cameras as tools, this is a really big downgrade and waste of space.

Good that there are many other cameras that operate the way you want. buy one of those.

 

[biza43]

Well I have to be honest and say that I change film simulations far more often than I change drive modes. I think I’d have to live with it a bit before I could say for sure that I like it better.

If this rumor is true, then Fujifilm obviously didn't design this camera for RAW shooters.

Why not? I shoot Raw only, and could see myself using the XT50. What is the problem?

 

[pifilos]

Hate it.

As a RAW shooter, not only do I never change film sims but, if I did, I'd still much rather press a single button to scroll through a list of customized recipe presets anyway, not waste a dial that already had a useful purpose to what? Scroll through some of the basic sims?

This, of course, means those Drive Dial settings will now have to be assigned to a (likely non-existent) new customizable button.

Beyond stupid. And now they haven't completely ruined just the X-E cameras, but now the X-Txx cameras too.

I haven't even seen what they've done (or haven't done) with the rear panel yet, but I'm already pretty sure that I wouldn't trade my old X-T20 for this thing.

Disappointed, again.

What Eric said. I use recipes a lot more than I thought and I still hate that film sim dial.

All I need to do with my X-T2/20 is push the rear dial which opens my recipes then scroll and pick which one I want without moving my finger at all. It is damn quick. Plus I still have a drive dial.

The more years go by the more I appreciate the functionality of my X-T20 among small fuji bodies.

 

[max2331]

A more interesting question will be if the dial also works with Filmsimulation recipies.

Most of the jpeg shooters dont just choose a film simulation, they change much more image settings. If the Dial just switches between the Film simulations without changing the other settings like Highlight/shadows or WB than this is stupid.

I see that on the dial there seem to be 3 custom banks for programmable film simulation recipies but lets see what fujifilm does with these.

The X-S10/X-S20 have also a left dial whoch is originally programmed for changing film simulations. I changed it immediatelly to ISO so i have a ISO dial, and with the to other control dials i change aperture and shutterspeed.

For me the biggest bummer is by far the price. Its rediciulous!

 

[Jeff Biscuits]

All I need to do with my X-T50 is push the rear dial which opens the drive menu then scroll and pick which one I want without moving my finger at all. It is damn quick. Plus I still have a film sim dial.

Please excuse my cheeky editing, I couldn’t resist

 

[pifilos]

All I need to do with my X-T50 is push the rear dial which opens the drive menu then scroll and pick which one I want without moving my finger at all. It is damn quick. Plus I still have a film sim dial.

Please excuse my cheeky editing, I couldn’t resist

Haha true true !!

However, I use custom settings (recipes) not just a film simulation. If it turns out to be able to store additional jpeg settings then it would make more sense.

Still though, it doesn't include every simulation compared to setting a button for that, at least from Fujirumors pictures. Also, I have 2 recipes for classic chrome for instance. Even if it stores additional settings it would limit me to 1 just for classic chrome. I guess I could use the custom ones but that is in a different position leading to a lot of fiddling around.

That is compared to a drive button which is more straightforward in terms of what it includes.