X100 - Un-intuitive?

[Aspidistra]

You can't have ISO 100/12800 if you're in RAW mode.

I think that's because they aren't native ISO settings but extended. Wouldn't make sense to have them in RAW.

That's what I figured, but until I worked that out I thought my camera had some sort of software fault. It's not something that's mentioned anywhere in the manual as far as I can see, and being a lightroom user I only ever shoot raw, which means I'd never put the camera in a mode where they were actually available.

 

[lbjack]

Mine is on order, and you're giving me cold feet. For me the great strength of Japanese work has been attention to detail. Your impression of the X100 seems to be "sloppiness".

There's talk about the X100's great "build quality". Well, why shouldn't features that don't work or are poorly implemented be "build quality" issues?

 

[Jon Rty]

The real difference is that software issues can be fixed with updates.

Mine is on order, and you're giving me cold feet. For me the great strength of Japanese work has been attention to detail. Your impression of the X100 seems to be "sloppiness".

There's talk about the X100's great "build quality". Well, why shouldn't features that don't work or are poorly implemented be "build quality" issues?

 

[dmartin92]

In April, this fine man passed away...

http://larkabout.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/careful-observations-miroslav-tichy/

I look at tool he was using, not exactly a Canon 5D, and I think to myself that he did fine enough too with what he had.

 

[rattymouse]

The real difference is that software issues can be fixed with updates.

Yes, but as long time Fujfilm users know, Fuji has a terrible record fixing issues with firmware updates. You can count on one hand the number of serious problems that Fuji has fixed in the past 5 years. Most Fuji firmware updates fix the most trivial problems, often ones not even known by the average user.

--

http://fujifilmimages.aminus3.com/

 

[TEBnewyork]

But if they take that attitude with the X100 they don't have a chance of getting the hype or selling the X200. Spending time to do these fixes is seriously in their very best interest. I just hope they realize that....it is not rocket science.

The real difference is that software issues can be fixed with updates.

Yes, but as long time Fujfilm users know, Fuji has a terrible record fixing issues with firmware updates. You can count on one hand the number of serious problems that Fuji has fixed in the past 5 years. Most Fuji firmware updates fix the most trivial problems, often ones not even known by the average user.

--

http://fujifilmimages.aminus3.com/

--
terry

 

[frelwa]

In April, this fine man passed away...

http://larkabout.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/careful-observations-miroslav-tichy/

I look at tool he was using, not exactly a Canon 5D, and I think to myself that he did fine enough too with what he had.

RIP Miroslav Tichy. He did more with less than anyone else I can think of.
--
42

 

[Viramati]

I'm finding this camera one of the the most frustrating I have ever used. there is so much to love about it but then there is a lot to hate as well with some things that real make it difficult to use where it should really shine.
--
David

http://www.dpsampson.zenfolio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viramati/

 

[rattymouse]

But if they take that attitude with the X100 they don't have a chance of getting the hype or selling the X200. Spending time to do these fixes is seriously in their very best interest. I just hope they realize that....it is not rocket science.

You are quite correct and I hope that Fuji works differently with the X100. However, seeing so many half A$$ed problems with the X100's firmware really makes me doubt it. This camera so much needed to be right from the beginning.

The real difference is that software issues can be fixed with updates.

Yes, but as long time Fujfilm users know, Fuji has a terrible record fixing issues with firmware updates. You can count on one hand the number of serious problems that Fuji has fixed in the past 5 years. Most Fuji firmware updates fix the most trivial problems, often ones not even known by the average user.

--

http://fujifilmimages.aminus3.com/

--
terry

--

http://fujifilmimages.aminus3.com/

 

[steelneck]

Yes, but as long time Fujfilm users know, Fuji has a terrible record fixing issues with firmware updates. You can count on one hand the number of serious problems that Fuji has fixed in the past 5 years.

The problem with FW updates are that the manufacturer has no really good incentive to do it, apart from avoiding bad PR. The cameras are sold, they have got our money. They may fix the most obvious quirks making bad PR, but with everything else it is better business to make a new camera after a year or two, making many of us cough up a big pile of money once again.

What could be better business, and better PR, and a better scheme for camera users, is to release the sourcecode of the FW and making it free.

Fuji would be the first camera maker ever to do this. Among people with programming skills and hackers, this would mean the very best PR a camera maker has ever got, it would mean a milestone in the evolution of cameras. This would mean a 1000 software engineers around the world doing programming for free for Fuji and all its users. Most quirks would be fixed in a matter of days, in some cases even hours, there would also exist different versions of the FW solving things differently. All Fuji has to to do is to set up a CVS with the code, setup a developers mailing list and appoint a maintainer. After a while, competent people will start to use the code, fixing bugs and add/change features, compiling better FW for them self, scratching their own itch, then sending in patches to the FW-project and the maintainer committing new code to the CVS-tree. This is how free software is developed, and more than 80% of the servers around the world are now running with free software. It is a very effective way of doing development, and i think this would be especially good for the FW of complex consumer hardware, like cameras.

 

[gava]

I agree that open-sourcing the firmware would be very cool.

However, There is so much IP in the chips and processing pipelines that they would be very worried about what could be reverse engineered.

But it sure would make more sense for a "smaller" player like Fuji, instead of Canon or Nikon.

--
X100 blog -> http://peri.org.uk/wp/?tag=blog

 

[rattymouse]

Yes, but as long time Fujfilm users know, Fuji has a terrible record fixing issues with firmware updates. You can count on one hand the number of serious problems that Fuji has fixed in the past 5 years.

The problem with FW updates are that the manufacturer has no really good incentive to do it, apart from avoiding bad PR. The cameras are sold, they have got our money. They may fix the most obvious quirks making bad PR, but with everything else it is better business to make a new camera after a year or two, making many of us cough up a big pile of money once again.

Yep, that is the standard practice of Fuji and most other cameras. Some like Ricoh have a very extensive history of firmware updates that are very effective. Other's like Fuji, not so much.

What could be better business, and better PR, and a better scheme for camera users, is to release the sourcecode of the FW and making it free.

While I agree with you, it is never going to happen. Japanese camera companies are beyond secretive when it comes to their products. They would never, ever allow themselves to lose control, which is what would happen if the firmware went open source.

--

http://fujifilmimages.aminus3.com/

 

[steelneck]

While I agree with you, it is never going to happen. Japanese camera companies are beyond secretive when it comes to their products. They would never, ever allow themselves to lose control, which is what would happen if the firmware went open source.

I would not say never. I is about money, if they somehow could see that making the FW open source and free would make them more money, they will follow that route. Big companies like IBM do not put huge resources into free SW because they dislike capitalism, they do it because it is good business. They sell more hardware and services because of it. I think Fuji would too, but Asia at large is quite a bit behind the western world when it comes to free SW.

Just look at RAW files from the X100. I could process and open them with a patched version of Dcraw the first of Mars, long before the camera could be bought in a store. The RAW converting SW actually did not need much change to handle the X100 files, a few rows of code only changed in the patch. But thanks to the free software community, free SW was first to open X100 files, all it took was a couple of RAW files to escape out on the net for hackers to hack on (later the long list of commercial apps that builds on dcraw, as most third party apps do)

Without this ability to open RAW files from the X100 i would not have ordered it to begin with, and i am definitely not alone in this.. I do not use anything else then free software in any of my computers, the X100 would almost become a worthless brick without the ability to open its RAW files. With the FW open and free, a lot of people will buy it just because of it, and this is many people with a combined knowledge that exceeds the knowledge at Fuji. It works like an ant colony, where the collective intelligence superseed any single contributor.

I think we will will see free FW in future cameras, but it may require a generation shift in the leadership at the companies first. But it will go follow that path once any of them start, then the others will follow out of pure competition.

 

[nuance]

BTW: in shutter priority, can one set shutter speed in 1/3 steps with the lever like in aperture priority mode?