Fuji Fuji XT-1 - new top dog Fuji X or over-festooned retro?

You wouldn't know it from all of my jumping around, my tour around the camera world over the past couple of years has actually confirmed how happy I am with the current state of affairs. The ONLY advance that will likely make much difference to me (and maybe only me) going forward (other than continuing inevitable improvements in sensors of all sizes) is whether really good fast full frame lenses can be scaled down to about the size of APS lenses currently. I think almost every new camera of reasonable size (I don't like 'em too tiny or too big) is at the point of being excellent in terms of interface and performance. This wasn't the case 3-4 years ago but it is now.

I think shooting with a DSLR for the past month or so has confirmed for me that I like 'em well enough but I really prefer a good mirrorless live view / EVF setup than a great OVF with a barely useable live view. And I'd imagine that full frame sensors will always be more capable than APS or m43 sensors. But I can't imagine I'm ever going to be willing to shoot with fast full frame lenses at the scale they exist today, particularly at the longer and wider focal lengths than the 50mm neighborhood (where they've been making good fast ones at a reasonable size for many years). Which means for my purposes, there's not all that much difference between full frame and APS by the time you compare the slower full frame lenses I'm willing to use against the faster APS lenses with a "slower" sensor.

I might be willing to go with somewhat larger lenses with a small mirrorless body than I am with a full frame DSLR body - I'm OK with the size of the Df, but only combined with smaller lenses, even their faster 28 and 35mm primes are getting past my tolerance, let alone their really wide and long lenses. We'll see as the full frame mirrorless thing continues to mature or not with the A7 / A7r and any competitors it may spawn. For now, though, I'd love to shoot with full frame but not with the lenses I'd have to use to gain a real meaningful advantage over APS. So I'm gonna stick with APS and m43 and keep my eye on mirrorless full frame developments. I have my doubts about what's possible but I maintain some amount of optimism due to the really small APS primes Pentax has managed to develop for it's APS DSLRs. They're not all that fast, but they do seem to have defied the laws of physics to some degree so maybe Sony or someone else can do the same with full frame mirrorless?

If that one can be solved, I'll probably jump to some full frame system at some point. If not, I'm happy enough with current APS and m43 offerings and will be happier yet as the sensors continue to advance. But short of smaller full frame system components going forward, my past year with the RX1 and month with the Df may have just been a really interesting experiment. I loved the RX1 with it's 35mm f2.0 lens, and if I don't like the APS Fuji with the 23mm f1.4 as much, maybe I'll buy some similar fixed lens full frame camera going forward, depending on what they may come out with. But if I like the results with the Fuji as much at 3200 as the RX1 at 6400 (which I'm sure will be close enough), I'm probably staying with the crop sensors until some miracle of full frame lens sizing happens...

-Ray

I understand your reasoning and can`t disagree with it. Except, maybe, that there is a small number of cameras out there, whith something more up their sleeves than just the sum of specs. The RX1 and DPMerrills are in that small group and maybe the Df. The X-T1 with the 23mm, at least on paper, should match the low light capabilities of the RX1 and its slower lens. However, I doubt that the technically competent Fuji lens draws as magically as the f2.0 Sonnar coupled with the Sony FF sensor does. You mention your tour around the camera world over the past couple of yours. Trust me, my closet, and unfortunately the bank account, have seen too many cameras and lenses come and go in the last few years. The good thing is that technology has know reached a level which should allow to fight back on GAS and focus more on photography.
 
I understand your reasoning and can`t disagree with it. Except, maybe, that there is a small number of cameras out there, whith something more up their sleeves than just the sum of specs. The RX1 and DPMerrills are in that small group and maybe the Df. The X-T1 with the 23mm, at least on paper, should match the low light capabilities of the RX1 and its slower lens. However, I doubt that the technically competent Fuji lens draws as magically as the f2.0 Sonnar coupled with the Sony FF sensor does. You mention your tour around the camera world over the past couple of yours. Trust me, my closet, and unfortunately the bank account, have seen too many cameras and lenses come and go in the last few years. The good thing is that technology has know reached a level which should allow to fight back on GAS and focus more on photography.

Yeah, you're right about those special cameras and the RX1 definitely is one. I may come to regret selling that because I liked it as much or more than any camera I've owned. The DPMerrill I didn't develop that feeling for, but I know how good it is. And, for me, the Nikon A is also one of those... But I always felt a lot of that with the X-Pro / XE1 as well, with the 14mm and even the 18mm (despite some definite measurable weakness in the 18). Having given up on Fuji's implementation of the OVF (as it seems they have too, more or less), I think the XT1 will probably be a bit of improvement to the bodies I was already pretty satisfied with, I'll still like those lenses and may like the 23 and 56 as much (or more, given I won't get quite as much use out of those focal lengths). If worse comes to worse, I can always buy a used RX1 back in another six months to a year for less than I sold mine for. The odds that I won't but it's an option if I really want it...

But I think your key point is the last. It really has gotten good enough in the last year or two to get off the gear chasing merry-go-round and just focus on the photography - three years ago we weren't and even two years ago I didn't recognize it yet although in retrospect we've been there for a year or two (although the lens options have continued to improve a lot in both Fuji and m43). I've tried enough of it now to have a much clearer idea of what I do and don't like - that's not a bad place to be...

-Ray
 
well to those points:

1-your comments didnt seem at all 'caricatural', rather they seemed a tad mean spirited and condescending to me.

2-good luck 'hiding' an xp1 or xt1 coupled with any lens other than the fuji 18! that is most assuredly not hideable hardware, though you personally may feel so.

3- there seems something overtly self defeating about a european criticizing non europeans for buying european products. and again it comes off vaguely mean spirited and condescending.

finally, i will 'lightheartedly' spare you my personal 'caricatural' musings on the smug european personality, partly in order to maintain the appearance of cordiality. let me suggest you do the same regarding the worlds other cultures. we're all better off here sticking to photography.

Dear fellow

Thanks for your comments. It is a fact that I do not care much about "political correctness" (this expression drives me crazy), and try to put some humour in my writings. But they are just meant to be spirited, not condescending, and much less offending. We all know that it is wrong to generalize. Yet stereotypes, although wrong, often have (or had) an element of truth - you just have to be intelligent enough not to take them at face value. I like to read humorous pieces about the americans as much as I like to read humorous pieces about the english, the germans, the japanese, or - more than anything - the portuguese (i.e., my fellow contrymen). Assuming they have no ill intentions, your musings on the European personality shall definitely amuse me, and make me think about the way we are seen from across the Atlantic. And they shall probably have an element of truth.
English series always make fun of the Italian males, whom they always depict as somewhat hysterical, and obsessed with clothing and conquering women. The hysterical is because latins speak a lot with their hands, and talk loudly. The preoccupations with dressing and women are stereotypes with a lot of truth in them - the italians are proud of both things. On the other hand, Italians think that the english cannot dress properly, and care more about gardening than women. Again, stereotypes, with some truth in them. Italians know how much older Italian culture is, that Britons go to Italy to improve their culture and enjoy a good life, and that English architecture is in a large part a poor pastiche of what the Italians were doing much before. And I never saw Italians worried about english series - they love them as much as I do.
Also, I think it can be interesting to drift a little bit from discussing how many grams a camera weighs/how many lines per millimeter a lens sees, to other related, but more general subjects. But maybe that is just me.

I do not find the X-T1 hideable, just significantly more discreet and light than a digital SLR. Easier to put on top of a dinner table. I am not selling my Panasonic LX7, nor my Panasonic GX1. And I would buy a Panasonic GM1 if only it had a port for my LX7/GX1 electronic viewfinder, which I would carry in a searate pocket. Panasonic, are you listening?
 
visual-dialogue coupled satire exhibited on an entertainment medium is as easy to understand as satire as it is to cull a condescending tone from the written word. like i said, lets stick to photography.
 
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