[shoplink 30112 ebay]
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The shipping of the [shoplink 30112 ebay]Nissin i40 for Fuji X just started in Asia (Hong Kong).[/shoplink]. There are some available at top rated seller [shoplink 30112 ebay]pro1digital[/shoplink] .
BHphoto is still marking the Nissin i40 as available at the end of December.
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Thought: If Fuji is soon going to ship a new flash with wireless control (per trusted-source rumor of Nov. 17) then it would be silly to pay this much for a flash that will be obsolete almost immediately because it won’t be compatible with that feature.
Even if you don’t think you’d use wireless much, there’s no advantage to NOT having it. The Micro Four Thirds version of the i40 has wireless remote capability, and sells for exactly the same price at B&H as the non-wireless Fuji version, so it’s not as if you’d be saving money.
Reading the specs at the above BHphoto advert it is said it will work as wireless slave and can do high speed (will it be for real?).
Looking at the images of this flash it doesn’t seem to be able to work as wireless commander but for the time being the cameras are likely to need an update to allow it too and you only need that functionality if you have another flash at least. Therefore, by the time you can buy one that does the job and this one will continue to be useful.
Another matter is if you consider it too expensive to the power and you expect a flash from the manufacturer soon and meeting or offering more than this one does.
The Nissin manual says:
i40 has a wireless remote flash system as a slave unit. You can enjoy creative
flash photography with multiple lightings from the various directions. 2 slave modes are provided, Slave Digital (SD) for digital pre-flash system; Slave Film (SF) for analogue flash system.
SD: In this mode, i40 synchronizes to the pre-flash system. The master flash is to be set at TTL mode.
SF: In this mode, i40 synchronizes to the traditional single flash system. The master flash is to be set at manual mode. Studio lighting system synchronizes to this mode. This mode is also available for open flash, and for a standard flash in the market.
The manual says:
i40 has a wireless remote flash system as a slave unit. You can enjoy creative flash photography with multiple lightings from the various directions. 2 slave modes are provided, Slave Digital (SD) for digital pre-flash system; Slave Film
(SF) for analogue flash system.
SD: In this mode, i40 synchronizes to the pre-flash system. The master flash is to be set at TTL mode.
SF: In this mode, i40 synchronizes to the traditional single flash system. The master flash is to be set at manual mode. Studio lighting system synchronizes to this mode. This mode is also available for open flash, and for a standard flash in the market.
Strange (and frustrating) given that it’s still not available for purchase at Nissin’s own site… http://www.nissindirect.net/item_detail/itemCode,40C/
It seems that Nissin is raising the price for i40 in Japan on December 1st due to the inflation of the yen (by 7% to make it about $200 again), so perhaps the Fuji version is ready, but they won’t make it available (at least in Japan) until after they’ve raised the price.
I saw it in a store already in stock here in Hong Kong at HKD$1,900 that is about $245 USD.
Mine arrived yesterday morning from Wex UK 🙂
Please do get back with your experience. Thanks.
When I have to believe so many bloggers here, DSLRs are dead but they can still handle any job including those requiring dedicated reporter flashing in a breeze. Fuji is having the X-series about three years on the market now. And the only solution is a way overpriced and under-spec’d third party flash device (…and the fanboys are already spending, spending, spending once again, look how much cheaper these new MLICs are). The Fuji-range of rebranded Sunpak flashes is some kind of amateur stuff delivering a nearly acceptable result for a small family party. Don’t let uncle John move too much, or you’ll miss him, because no IR-assistance in the Fuji-world. To be honest I used the EF-42 only three times, and the last one was so disappointing (I had a terrible color cast) it never left my bag again. I hear some people say ‘flashing is bad, just increase that marvelous ISO range available in your X-series’. Again some kind of joke. Here the X-sensor doesn’t really perform like the recent gen of professional DSLRs. Whatever the solution might be for low light, Fuji doesn’t have it. I don’t want to sound harsh but precisely this were the reasons why my Fuji gear stayed on the shelf unless for travel purposes and where I started understanding this premium looking gear is in fact nothing more than something developed for non-professionals. Once again, Fuji, do something serious with that X-Pro2, drive up the real ISO competence and surprise us with a credible professional reporter-flash solution.
I love my X-T1 and I’ve sold my DSLR and m43 cameras, but….yes they do need a nice flash system and yes they do need to improve high ISO performance in the next high end model. Cameras like the D610 and D750 have superb image quality and I’d like the Fuji cameras to improve more and have sensor performance like those cameras I mentioned. Lots of dynamic range and great high ISO. And no, you can’t always rely on high iso. Sometimes you absolutely do need flash for certain situations and for your intended creative look. I really only use flash indoors (bounced) and outside for fill so I don’t get raccoon eyes.
Those cameras have full frame sensors. Crop sensors will always lag behind a bit on high ISO, although I have found very few situations where this causes a problem.
Is it just me, or have the camera companies started employing people to go on these forums (and canon rumours etc.) to moan about other camera companies gear?
Sounds unlikely, but this is what political parties do, so maybe it’s the same for camera companies now?
Just look at LCN’s profile. He never has a good word for fuji, and he spends hours berating everything they do. On the other hand, he’s got plenty to say about how fantastic Sony are! Despite this, he claims to be a pro photographer and use fuji cameras for weddings. LCN is not the only one, there’s a horde of these twerps.
I am very suspicious about the motivation of these people.
Dear Studio1972… completely wrong. Since the seventies, I’ve been working with almost every brand and I’ve praised Fuji quite a few times. I’m owning X-series cameras and lenses since ever they appeared on the market. I’m not a wedding photographer but I frequently shoot event-like stuff as a side kick of my daily job. Well…I regret that I appear to be such a ‘moaner’ but I’m not fully getting over that love-hate relationship. In my eyes it doesn’t make sense to be an unconditional fanboy… if WE don’t tell to Fuji what’s wrong, what is to be improved and which directions we expect them to go versus what we feel and see today – WHO is going to do it? Being around in this world for photography about 40 years now, my fear is indeed they are not on a good track, I’m not loving Sony – not at all – but at least in their MLIC-range they seem to be having a clear view and making progress. Fuji is just too much busy with micro-management around a truly exaggerated niche-filling series of models – unfortunately they seem to care too little with the core technology that has to bring them to the next level (to that area belongs also a credible pro-flash-range 😉 ). Maybe, I’m wrong, let’s hope that’s the case – let’s see that the X-Pro2 brings something nobody expects. Because something else I learned over all those decades is that a lot of camera manufacturers – including some like Contax that almost made dreams come true – are no more due to something that Fuji also seems to be missing, a market vision.
Well I’m sorry if I got you wrong LCN. But it seemed to me this site used to be populated by people who like the Fuji system, and although they might want improvements of course, most people had a generally positive attitude. But recently there are some people who seem like evangelists for other systems.
Personally, I’m a professional wedding photographer. I have taken and edited over a hundred thousand images with my fuji cameras since switching from Canon full frame DSLRs. I am well aware of the pros and cons of both systems, and I made a positive choice to switch.
Since then, we’ve had the X-E2, X-T1, 56mm, 56mm APO, 23mm, 14mm, 50-140mm and more from Fuji. The X-T1 is head and shoulders better than the X-E1 cameras I started with, and no doubt there will be even better cameras soon enough.
As for flash, I agree they are not as good as the Canon system for example. In fact, apart from a single EF42, I still use canon flashes. I use them off camera with radio triggers and manual settings. This works great for me, and the EF42 can do on camera TTL when required.
I’m sure Fuji are aware that there’s room for improvement in there flash system, and we have this new flash being released, and a rumoured new Fuji flash on the way.
Now you say they have no “market vision”, I think you’re quite wrong. It seems to me that Fuji are building a system for photographers, not camera collectors and pixel peepers. Their cameras have great manual controls, the best EVF in the X-T1, and fantastic lenses (far better than Sony, for example). These are things that matter to real photographers.
One thing that disturbs all the time is that people want to see Fuji so much as something replacing DSLRs. In my eyes, it are still very different tools, different purposes. I notice that quite a few ‘convertors’ are originating from Canon. Canon has really come to a kind of uncomfortable technology standstill, the 5D MkIII was not fully the expected dream machine and even the new 7D mkII is not having a very compelling sensor either – while they’re really seriously overpriced. Nikon still moves and not in wrong direction. At the end of the day investing hugely in a niche market (MLIC still is) with tremendous R&D-effort including lenses to come to just reach a mainstream kind of performance @ no margin isn’t wise to keep the stock-value on the rails. One day, the MLICs and DSLRs will come together in one concept again – no doubt about that – and all the early MLIC adopters will have paid tons of expensive money to discover that in fact, nothing changed except maybe the size and weight of their camera.
My wife suffers with carpel tunnel, so the size and weight were a big issue for us in switching. The other major advantages for us are:
– Less obtrusive for documentary style wedding photography
– Our kit bags are a lot lighter, as the bodies and the lenses are so much smaller.
– Prefer the dials to DSLR ergonomics
– So far this system has been 100% reliable for us, we used to spend on average £1000 per year fixing & maintaining canon L lenses and bodies.
As for the cost, the X-T1 is much cheaper than a 5D3, for example, so not sure what you’re getting at there.
The Nikon/Canon thing. The reason more Canon people have switched is because there are many more pros using Canon than Nikon. Those 2 systems have their pros and cons, bit I wouldn’t say that Nikon is better in any significant way. Both are dinosaurs in any case.
To say mirrorless and DSLR will merge makes no sense. Either a camera has a mirror, or it doesn’t. There is no reason to have a mirror any more, so DSLRs are heading for extinction, get over it.
Look at the OM-D. The X-T1. The A7. The NX1. MLICs manufacturers are doing a lot of effort to look like a mini-DSLRs. On the other side, we’ve seen translucent mirrors, coming very close to the MLICs. What is the difference if one day if the mirror disappears and the pentaprism becomes… an OLED device? The mirror and optical adjustment as such is something many like me still prefer over a purely electronic viewer – it doesn’t obstruct me – I dare even to claim I still have a better feeling and view om my composition, in particular in low light situations. Nikon is not at all a dynosaur and they’ve have used much better sensors than Canon for a long time now. I see most people around me – pros – advanced amateurs and fine art photographers – using Nikon and not Canon, for already a long time, the D800 has really been very mainstream. A FF D equiped with primes isn’t btw really even so different in size and weight compared to the so much proclaimed leaner and meaner MLICs. A lot of hyping and marketing is going on in this area. If this ‘retro’ is such a must, put an X-T1 or X-Pro1 aside of a Df with a 50mm. Well, you’ve ever seen in it? Feld it? Not so much difference, not really, more perception than anything else and the Df has a kind of sensor that is really only in ISO outperforming anything else in the MLIC-world (except maybe the A7s).
I agree with LCN. Fuji’s flash sucks. So for you to counter his point, why don’t you offer your opinion that proves otherwise?
does this have AF assist? coz my crappy sunpak ef-42 does not. love my x-e2 but pls Fuji fix da broken flash system.