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Need for a much more informative manual

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HeatherJG

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Am I alone (as a new person to the X system in all its X-T3 glory) in waiting impatiently for that (non-Fuji published) guide to the X-T3, due out in June?

The reason for this is that, although the user manual does say (briefly!) what each button and setting does, it doesn't exactly ILLUMINATE. And, though I've looked in at YouTube videos, joined X system forums (which tend to major on "what lens should I buy" posts)? etc, I still have many unknowns and many questions.

I've taken photographs for 55 years. I think I know photography well enough. But the X system and it's menu and settings differ from previous experience in many respects.

Fujifilm would do themselves and users a BIG favour if they paid a really good photographer/writer to produce a fine guide to their new X cameras, to be offered as an extra to customers who would find it useful. In my view, that would make Fujifilm just perfect@
 
Getting an X-T2 guide will give you 90% of the information and hold you over until an X-T3 guide is released.
 
The XT2 and 3 are very similar so as a start while waiting for the XT3 manual you could read the 120 expert tips for XT2

The video part of the T3 is so rich that a dedicated video manual is necessary to explore and understand all specs and video options

Bob
 
Heather,

I hear you and we XH-1 shooters wish Fuji elaborated a bit more on the two IBIS settings (Shutter and Continuous), but the manuals are OK. A lot of it is just pure photography knowledge. There no requirement for Fuji to teach us what an ISO dial is, or what an aperture ring does. The Exposure Comp dial is just straight-up EC and Fuji should not have to give a lesson on when and how to apply EC. Same with aperture and shutter priority modes. Same for Matrix, center-weighted, area or spot metering (just use Matrix).

The dials are all self explanatory and the Fuji menus are fairly simple and intuitive compared to other brands (although like all menus. there are some weird quirks but those are rarelyt required and easily discovered with a quick Google or look at the manual).

Just read, study photography, play with the camera, shoot a lot and ask specific questions on this Board and we will help you.

For example, I had to come on here ten months ago when I got the XH-1 and ask how to set it up for a non-Fuji Rok-12 lens. To make it work with IBIS I had to dive 3 layers deep into the menu's and do some weird stuff. Within 5 minutes, someone had linked me to a detailed explanation.

The Fuji ergo of old-school dials and aperture rings is as simple as it gets. As far as some of the more "advanced" stuff like custom settings? Guess what Heather, you might not believe this but I have never used custom settings and most of us don't (but I shoot raw). I don't even reassign the functions buttons (well, maybe a couple but it is simple to do).

Do this. Read Rico's books on Fuji for whatever camera you have. He goes into some detailed explanations of basic photography and the dials, plus explains all of the quirks of Fuji cameras. He explains everything.

Then sit in the park (or in your living room) or go on a walk with the camera and shoot 300 images using different settings and see the effects. Just learn the camera by shooting.

Never stop studying photography. You will grow to love the Fuji ergo. All of us old-school shooters do.

Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas

Greg Johnson’s albums | Flickr

www.flickr.com www.flickr.com
 
When will you publish your book il senior gregorio , :-)
 
This is obvious. But heck, why not. I can honestly say that there has never been a question, not clearly answered in the manuals, that someone on this forum hasn't been able to answer within a couple of hours. This is the best manual!!!
 
David Mintzer said:
This is obvious. But heck, why not. I can honestly say that there has never been a question, not clearly answered in the manuals, that someone on this forum hasn't been able to answer within a couple of hours. This is the best manual!!!
Click to expand...
I have a question. Why doesn't Fuji make the holes in their lugs bigger so we can just slide the V4 PD cords through them without doing brain surgery or having to use those damn metal triangles like I just did on my 50r?


Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas

Greg Johnson’s albums | Flickr

www.flickr.com www.flickr.com
 
Greg7579 said:
David Mintzer said:
This is obvious. But heck, why not. I can honestly say that there has never been a question, not clearly answered in the manuals, that someone on this forum hasn't been able to answer within a couple of hours. This is the best manual!!!
Click to expand...
I have a question. Why doesn't Fuji make the holes in their lugs bigger so we can just slide the V4 PD cords through them without doing brain surgery or having to use those damn metal triangles like I just did on my 50r?

Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums
Click to expand...
This is a design question . I've already brought this up with the people at Fuji and they essentially told me to pound sand and read the manual. You see--how long did that take?
 
No, but it’s only because I haven’t bought an X-T3 yet :-). If I had, then yes.

I have never seen a clear camera manual from a manufacturer yet, and like you, I’ve been shooting a long time. I’ve had to beat my way through Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, and Fuji manuals. None are clear.

One of the reasons I like the Fuji system so much is I don’t need a manual to shoot the way I generally like to. I set to mf, use the af button for focus lock, aperture priority or manual exposure, set the iso and go... I rarely if ever use the Q menu. I turn off touch screen. I’m seldom in the menus after initial basic setup. And my basic setup is pretty easy to do in the Fuji menus.

Doug
 
While this forum is wonderfully supportive and has got me out of a hole many times with excellent and speedy advice, I do agree it would be nice if Fuji showed the way to the others and gave us a more detailed and informative manual in the first place!

However, all the advice on coping until a decent book is published is sound, practical and very useful.

The only things I can add is to suggest setting aside an hour or two to go through all the menus to see what hidden treasures - and possible pitfalls(!) - they contain and ask if anything is not clear.

Then re-configure the quick menu and assign the function buttons to suit the work you do (making a written note, should your memory be as be poor as mine).

By the way, it is very useful having lots of dials, but I've found they can get knocked and so I've tried to develop the habit of quickly checking them regularly.

Good luck – I’m sure you’ll quickly master the Fuji way and go on to make the most of one of the most enjoyable to use cameras on the market.

Phil
 
I think Fuji's woefully inadequate manuals are designed explicitly to bolster the independent manual writing industry. there is a lot of redundancy and very little explaining. telling me that the "Z" button does something in bold, as a section heading, followed by the same thing in lower case as text is simply a waste of ink. when there are options for a particular setting, it would be helpful for the effect of the various options to be explained.

example -

options re sensor cleaning could include "clean sensor when starting up and shutting down" adds 200ms to the camera startup cycle".

or

"increasing the number of AF points will allow for more precise autofocus but may increase the time for the camera to focus"

as I recall, my old Nikon manuals had two sections; section 1 defined everything, section 2 went into the effect of the various options in detail.

Fuji clearly could do better.

oh, when they update the camera firmware, it would be nice to integrate the update into the manual, rather than leaving us with the original pdf and the update, requiring ping-ponging between manuals.
 
Bruce Hyman said:
I think Fuji's woefully inadequate manuals are designed explicitly to bolster the independent manual writing industry. there is a lot of redundancy and very little explaining. telling me that the "Z" button does something in bold, as a section heading, followed by the same thing in lower case as text is simply a waste of ink. when there are options for a particular setting, it would be helpful for the effect of the various options to be explained.

example -

options re sensor cleaning could include "clean sensor when starting up and shutting down" adds 200ms to the camera startup cycle".

or

"increasing the number of AF points will allow for more precise autofocus but may increase the time for the camera to focus"

as I recall, my old Nikon manuals had two sections; section 1 defined everything, section 2 went into the effect of the various options in detail.

Fuji clearly could do better.

oh, when they update the camera firmware, it would be nice to integrate the update into the manual, rather than leaving us with the original pdf and the update, requiring ping-ponging between manuals.
Click to expand...
I think Fuji could do a lot better. I thought they updated the on-line manual with FW updates. Don't they?


Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas

Greg Johnson’s albums | Flickr

www.flickr.com www.flickr.com
 
I’m also new to the Fuji X system. I recently got an X-T2 and got Dan Bailey’s “Fujifilm X Series Unlimited” book which is simply excellent in explaining every setting and why and when I should use it. It has drastically reduced my learning curve. If you can’t wait till June, his book is a good option to get now.
 
Greg7579 said:
I thought they updated the on-line manual with FW updates. Don't they?
Click to expand...
the online manual may have been updated...i was referring to the pdf of the manual that came with my camera and the pdf of the latest upgrade on my computer; i would have preferred a consolidated pdf.
 
Greg7579 said:
Heather,

I hear you and we XH-1 shooters wish Fuji elaborated a bit more on the two IBIS settings (Shutter and Continuous), but the manuals are OK. A lot of it is just pure photography knowledge. There no requirement for Fuji to teach us what an ISO dial is, or what an aperture ring does. The Exposure Comp dial is just straight-up EC and Fuji should not have to give a lesson on when and how to apply EC. Same with aperture and shutter priority modes. Same for Matrix, center-weighted, area or spot metering (just use Matrix).

The dials are all self explanatory and the Fuji menus are fairly simple and intuitive compared to other brands (although like all menus. there are some weird quirks but those are rarelyt required and easily discovered with a quick Google or look at the manual).

Just read, study photography, play with the camera, shoot a lot and ask specific questions on this Board and we will help you.

For example, I had to come on here ten months ago when I got the XH-1 and ask how to set it up for a non-Fuji Rok-12 lens. To make it work with IBIS I had to dive 3 layers deep into the menu's and do some weird stuff. Within 5 minutes, someone had linked me to a detailed explanation.

The Fuji ergo of old-school dials and aperture rings is as simple as it gets. As far as some of the more "advanced" stuff like custom settings? Guess what Heather, you might not believe this but I have never used custom settings and most of us don't (but I shoot raw). I don't even reassign the functions buttons (well, maybe a couple but it is simple to do).

Do this. Read Rico's books on Fuji for whatever camera you have. He goes into some detailed explanations of basic photography and the dials, plus explains all of the quirks of Fuji cameras. He explains everything.

Then sit in the park (or in your living room) or go on a walk with the camera and shoot 300 images using different settings and see the effects. Just learn the camera by shooting.

Never stop studying photography. You will grow to love the Fuji ergo. All of us old-school shooters do.

Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums
Click to expand...
Thanks Greg. I started taking photographs and processing film and enlargements about 65 years ago, and I was well taught in the basics. So yes: of COURSE I know what Exposure Compensation etc means.

But the Fujifilm menus are NOT always clear when coming from a different ecosystem (Canon in my case, for the past 15 years anyway - Olympus before that). There are odd quirks that can take ages to figure. I'm not the only experienced photographer to discover that.

But thank you. I know your advice was well meant.

Heather
 
David Mintzer said:
This is obvious. But heck, why not. I can honestly say that there has never been a question, not clearly answered in the manuals, that someone on this forum hasn't been able to answer within a couple of hours. This is the best manual!!!
Click to expand...
I accept that. Here and the Fujifilm X FB groups. I still think the manual w the camera could be more helpful.
 
David Mintzer said:
Greg7579 said:
David Mintzer said:
This is obvious. But heck, why not. I can honestly say that there has never been a question, not clearly answered in the manuals, that someone on this forum hasn't been able to answer within a couple of hours. This is the best manual!!!
Click to expand...
I have a question. Why doesn't Fuji make the holes in their lugs bigger so we can just slide the V4 PD cords through them without doing brain surgery or having to use those damn metal triangles like I just did on my 50r?

Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums
Click to expand...
This is a design question . I've already brought this up with the people at Fuji and they essentially told me to pound sand and read the manual. You see--how long did that take?
Click to expand...
Yup.
 
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