Fujifilm X-E2 firmware 4.00 brings X-E2S features and interface

straylightrun;

You are the smartest people we have not seen from years.

NO?

A product needs to sell in sufficient numbers to gain decent ROI. If it can't sell hundreds of thousands at launch, then it can sell tens of thousands per year over a few years to recoup.

The only company that can afford to take a huge hit in development costs was Sony, but since it spun out its camera division the camera division now has to consider ROI too. I wasn't that surprised the delays to the A6300 came about and I wouldn't be surprised if the A7 development cycle slows as a result.

What slows down tech developments are lack of funds and what creates lack of funds is a lack of people buying into the tech itself. More than brands disappearing, that's the real dark side of the great camera downturn.

I also don't think Fuji's engineers did a lousy job. They did a fair job beginning from a standing start, under the circumstances. Sony, OTOH, threw R&D budget at the task and came up with something understandably remarkable as a result. The more interesting time comes now, when the amounts the two companies can spend on development and development times become more equal.

People seem to think Sony has some magic powers to develop better products than its rivals. Those magic powers were called deep pockets, and those deep pockets are not as deep any more. I wonder if Sony will continue to have a creative advantage, or if products like the A6300 show its now taking its foot off the gas pedal?

Well the X-E2 had some things the A6000 didn't do as well.

The Fuji has a better EVF. Nicer built body and a damn fine kit lens.

That last argument is particularly powerful since the 16-50 PZ is pretty much unuseable for good images.

>You buy the camera because it's a good camera at the time you buy it, not because it will become a better camera later.

This is wrong. If you buy cameras from Canon or Nikon, they are full featured cameras with current half done firmwares. With Fujifilm in the past, you knew the FW had bugs and glitches, and expected it to be fixed via firmware updates.

If only more camera manufacturers made cameras with fully completed firmwares, and didn't rush them to get them out as quick as they can without doing proper QC checks.

Nah. Doing right by customers is always right.

This is akin to not liking PROGRESSION on a new model; that comes out, right after we bought the last. As much as that suck; what ya gonna do? Stop progress. No. Any suggestion (not that you did); that the manufactures should hold back is ridiculous. Even when we get "stuck". Think about it. It's a good problem to have. Now think about the alternative. We have far too much of that now. Great new wiz bang stuff that amounts to little.

Every software-based device is effectively late beta-tested by the end-users. Largely because we do not behave predictably and do things the software developers would never dream possible.

If we waited for fully bug-free firmware, we'd be just about expecting the arrival of the Apple QuickTake sometime soon.

All soft/firmware has issues and all of it needs a good and regular STABLE (over time) upgrade. Nothings perfect. Excellence still needs care.

Anything employed and that does not have (smooth/stable) future upgrades planned will atrophy. It needs to be vetted well before release and vetting again in the masses. The classic testing and stable tiers. Never static. Fuji has the right idea.

I would much rather buy a camera with complete feature filled firmware, than a camera with half a firmware and be a beta tester for the benefits of the manufacturer and hoping they fix all the problems later down the line. I feel sorry for Fujifilm users that own the X-E1 and X100. They really got the short end of the stick, and had to pay a premium for it as well.

@heypek: agreed. what's more pathetic is the way (some) users justify it.

Of course many fanboys prefer the Sony way - upgrade the firmware with the new camera altogether...

@heypek: agreed. Sold my crappy X-E2, bought a GX8. Perfect happy out of the box, no need to hope and pray for firmware fixes.

Well, I'm glad you are happy with the GX8, but what made you buy a camera you thought 'crappy' in the first place? Self-flagellation?

You can't test all the features of a camera in 10 min. in a sales-store. The X-E2 got - maybe - a working AF with firmware 4.0 and it's a shame that Fuji held this firmware 9 months back to generate a difference to the X-T1. Shame on you, Fuji!

I will never ever buy Fuji cameras.

Astroturfers at work? Go to the forum and look at real users. They don't seem to complain about the old firmware being broken.

If the old firmware wasn't broken, why did Fuji release a new version and advertise points like:
o) Improvement of AF accuracy
o) Auto Macro mode
o) Phase detection AF support for Instant AF

The answer is easy, because the PDAF was unusable in low light. With the old fimware PDAF ended by +2.5EV, now it will work till +0.5EV.

By the way, Sonys, Olys AF works till -3EV even to -4 EV, with no fixes straight out of the box.

In fairness, Operator said he used an X-E2 for a year and a half before he switched to Panasonic. But OTOH, I didn't find the X-E2 to be unusably slow before the FW upgrade either.

So I don't know where to stand with this. Personally, if I found a camera system had a flaw as fundamental to me as not being able to focus properly, I wouldn't take a year and a half to return it, and if I'd thought the Fuji wasn't equipped with a working AF system when I tested the system, I'd have probably not switched from Nikon, so I'd say there is some exaggerated tool-blaming going on.

That's fairly typical, though.

Usable auto iso with min shutter speed
Eye detection without another button
Startup within 1 sec
Electronic shutter
Actually get out of your way when taking photos

But hey it's in the a6300

Auto iso was always in manual mode, use that.

Eye af/face detect was already on in the cameras

There was a firmware to speed up startup times.

The worst thing about Sony is the minor things that could be simply fixed in a firmware update, but instead they make it new body exclusive only, forcing you to buy that to get the fix.

For example having silent shutter as a programmable shortcut on the a7s: you have to buy an a7sII to get this feature. And having a maximum ISO setting on the a7r: you have to buy an a7rII for that feature. No doubt the next thing is going to be having a shortcut for APS-C Crop mode: expect that shortcut to be included in the a7 Mark III models only. It's almost like Sony are intentionally crippling their current generation models and using it as an incentive for your next upgrade purchase.

@NomadMark Canon made such great update once, with 7D, didn't it? Sony is doing much better now, improving AF speed and adding better codecs(as they've done with A77-2), uncompressed RAW, and so on

So what about the electronic shutter EthanP99. Sony could easily do that with the a6000 or even the nex 6. Uncompressed Raws? You said only one thing but I gave you two. Pretty sure the sony locks 50fps to pal and 60fps to NTSC models (they do on my nex6 for sure).

Yes Canon did it once. Indeed with the original 7d.

Fujifilm does it a lot more frequently. Samsung did too with the NX-1 which is unfortunately history.

Sony did add uncompressed raw to the A7rII and a few others by firmware. Added Xavc-s codec to the A6000 and RX10 by firmware.

So wouldn;t judge Sony here either. Panasonic isn;t doing that much in this compartment but their camera's seem fully loaded on release. They did add some 4k video features by firmware. Such as macro stacking.

Olympus is mostly adressing issues such as shuttershock. similar approach as panasonic a handy feature drops in here and there

Canon and Nikon FW uogrades are 99 out of 100 times insignificant.

The A6000 had a 1440k dot EVF which was fraction of the size of the one in the XT-1
The XT-1 is also weathersealed. Then Fuji has an actual Apsc lens-line up worth mentioning. Something we don't see at Sony back then now nor in the upcoming future.

Yes it was considerably more expensive. But as a system also considerably more capable.

People buying Fuji have learned by now that you don't have to upgrade to the latest and greatest. These upgrades will come as long as the hardware is capable. Often an old model get's a substantial FW upgrade while there is already an successor on the market. Yes it may take time. But what do you expect from a small company like Fuji.

Even a large company like samsung can't keep their cellphones up to date. It can take ages before a new android version rolls out on all brands.

We got so much additional functionality and fixes out of firmware updates for the original X-E1 that it felt like a new camera. I'm not going to sook because they have treated us very well.