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Fotolibra explains why disabling the GPS functionality of your photo gear has merit.
“Many cameras and smartphones now come equipped with a GPS sensor which broadcasts the precise location of the device. A brilliantly conceived piece of work, and useful in all sorts of ways.
Except one.
If you use your GPS-enabled camera to shoot wildlife — you could be helping poachers to shoot wildlife.
”
Pictured here are the two most coveted devices in their respective categories: the sumptuous Leica M (240) camera (left); and the decidedly un-square Astell & Kern AK240 DSD-capable hi-res digital media player, (right).
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The original FujiRumors article references two trusted sources, a sign that, in abject defiance of Betteridge's Law, X-T1b may be real. A smart, customer-oriented, brand-conscious company would establish hard release schedules, keep to them, and defy rumours. It would look to the future and build perfection. It wouldn't rely on prototypical designs that mould paying customers into beta testers.
But let's face it, Fujifilm is a Japanese camera manufacturer in a rudderless Japanese camera market. If true, this could be the first concrete example of Fujifilm pulling an Astell & Kern-esque market ejaculation.
The terms, being all the rage and jumping on the bandwagon describe the psychological responses of consumers, or individuals. They do not describe manufacturers's dilemma. Olympus are not jumping on the wearable camera bandwagon, as DPReview claim. Their patent describes the intent to enter a growing consumer market and carve their own niche.
Investopedia defines 'bandwagon effect' like this: "A psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override."
Wearable technology, a decades-old market, got a shot in the arm when phones smartened up. Olympus, and other companies entering that market is evidence of sustaining innovation. Prices will fall, technology will improve; inevitably the market will saturate.
Eventually, disruptive innovation will pitch the current market to one side, at which point DPReview or someone else, will call a related patent or product, a bandwagon. Will it be a Google Glass-like device like the one described in this patent [found by 4/3 Rumors]? Are we ready for conspicuous wearable technology?
I picked up the X100s Limited Edition two days ago from Yahoo! Auctions. (Yes, I know, it's a dangerous bid. But I did it and I'm glad.) All in all, I've put about 300 exposures on the tiny camera, and for the most part, enjoyed every second of operating it. While the above photograph isn't properly lit, it was focused automatically, something that is completely new to me. And, the same image represents one of the first images imported from the X100s onto my computer.
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Mike Croshaw's reactionary treatise straddles the line between cautious and provocative. It is an enjoyable read. But his calling out of X critics and sidestepping of the X-T1's most serious problems does no one any good.
Read moreGenerally, I cover events with a couple of trusty F-mount Nikkor Ai/S lenses. But last week I had a wine event that needed a bit more class than a Speedbooster. And, let's be honest, the EVFs can get fiddly in the dark, especially when mated to fully manual lenses. OIS would come in handy.
Read moreSome say the X200 will sport a 35mm full frame sensor. Others reckon it will adopt a flip screen. Many of us are waiting for a 24 megapixel sensor, and/or more. So far, every rumour focuses on technology, not implementation. Not one considers the Xx00 series' target customer- that is, if it even has one. I hope for all X fans that it does.
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The crowning achievement of Fujifilm's X series isn't its X Trans technology. It isn't its lenses. It isn't its film simulations. It isn't even the quality of the images its cameras and lenses produce. Each of those, while important, is ancillary to brand cohesiveness.
Brand cohesiveness comprises many small things that combine to form a gestalt. Having lived in Japan since the end of 2011, I have noticed a distinct lack, or rejection of, gestalt. This lack pervades almost every market-successful Japanese company. In the world of Japanese cars, a specific model is recognisable as a Toyota, or a Honda, or a Suzuki by its badge, not by the look or feel of a car, or by the people who choose to purchase it. Without the badge, you'd be damned to guess which car belongs to which company. For the most part, the camera world is the same.
What is unique about Canon? Nikon? Pentax? Who are their customers? The same could be asked of Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, etc. Each one is tackling one thing: gaining market share. And in order to gain market share, they must carefully hone a single benchmark: price/performance. While there are many levels in which price/performance is important, in the long run, it creates an incestuous market.
A fixation on price/performance thrusts one's attention away from one's customers. If your competition is doing X, in order for you to maintain competitiveness in a price/performance market, you must do the same thing. If your competition has penetrated further into a certain market, you must follow. Failing to follow, or to meet the competition, results in loss of market share, loss of brand awareness, and ultimately, loss of revenue.
Ultimately, the creation of unique items for a unique customer base is unimportant. Company expansion is all that matters. And in order to expand properly, you must catch attention at all price points, in all market segments. Eventually, you are selling 65 different car models, or 5 dSLR lines, a languishing mirrorless system, and still trying to coax life out of the compact camera division. And every one of your products has an equivalent from your competitor.
You have stopped creating. You have stopped designing. Your brand has ceased to be anything but a metro bus. Customers hop on when you build something great, and hop off when someone else does. You have competition, not customers.
You are the victim of the incestuous, competition-aware market you helped create.
It should be the other way around.
What I appreciate about Fujifilm's X series is cohesiveness. There isn't another camera manufacturer in Japan that cares as much about operational design, about physical layout, or about culling specific users from the larger customer base. Their cameras polarise. That is how it should be.
Of course, it is facile to claim that no other Japanese camera manufacturer cares about the their customers. But even under heavy review, it isn't hard to see the detrimental outcome of the price-is-everything market- a market that Japanese camera makers created, and have nursed, for decades.
With the X100 and X-Pro, Fujifilm have built something different. On either side of the lens, interacting with each camera is unique. They require less hands-on than the rangefinder cameras they emulate, but boast the same approachable-ness, timeless, and haptic simplicity. They are not sports cameras. They are not wildlife cameras. Neither one is a still life camera.
But neither one is pretending to be any of the above. Both cameras were purpose built for specific tasks and with specific customers in mind.
Fujifilm's camera division now rests in the hands of the X series. Unfortunately, even the X series is full of listless cameras and lenses. It isn't as tight of a system as it once was, or should be. Fujifilm lack the focus, the history, the brand awareness, and the customer loyalty of Leica. But I believe that Fujifilm possess the introspective fortitude to be the leader that the Japanese camera market needs. No, I don't mean market leader, or best-seller. Those outcomes are the icing, not the cake.
If Fujifilm can foster a specific, loyal customer base by the creation of unique, purpose-built, and stringently pruned camera systems, they will be the first camera maker in Japan to shed the image of the Japanese camera as the cost-effective alternative.
DPReview reader, ChevChelios, took it upon himself to design and tool a clever thumbrest for his Fujifilm X-E1.
“Modelled from wax directly on the camera surface.
Casted in CoCroMo (Prosthetics-steel) and finally Glasspearl-blasted.
Glued some “leather” from an old Minolta X-300 on it and mounted it via 2-comoponent glue to the Fuji.”
Tsukuba, Japan