According to a new source, there will be a new firmware coming soon for the X-T1, which will improve the AF-performance. When exactly will it come? The source says that it could come as early as next month and that at the moment the release is set for Monday, 11th of May.
Firmware releases are very tricky, as postponements are possible in any moment (remember X100 firmware update).
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84 Responses
hope they get their algorithms right, poor autofocus performance under certain conditions is basically the only thing i hate on my x-t1…
What I really hope they improved in auto focus on the X-T1 is being able to use single point auto focus when shooting video. The continuous auto focus (in video mode) keeps hunting even when you think it is locked on your subject, so it is useless. Have to shoot manual focus which wouldn’t be that bad if the focus ring on the Fuji lenses only needed 360 of rotation to take you through the entire focus range … but they require approx 4 full rotations to do that which makes it horrible to manual focus when doing video. The video quality may not be ‘broadcast’ quality, but it is pretty good. To at least use the single point auto focus of image capture while shooting video (via the rear AFL botton) would be an excellent addition to the features. Keeping my fingers crossed ….
I wouldn’t even describe it as “pretty good”. I work with video professionally and I would choose to use my iPhone for video over my X-T1 in most scenarios.
That is because you are looking at it as a professional in that industry. I’m looking at it from the perspective of the average Joe. They are two very different views/requirements.
New refinement to the operation of a camera is always a good thing. This ongoing refinement is what Fuji do very very well. I’m please to hear of this new update. 🙂
Oh boy, just bought 2 X-T1 within the last month. And now they get even better.
I’d love to know if this is just a small improvement or if the really interesting things: real subject tracking beyond one AF Field are coming with this update.
I hope they add the eye-detect auto focus found on the X-A2. It makes the face detection autofocus actually useful.
nice
The rumored new Fuji flash system already flushed as the X100s firmware update on 18th Jan. 2015? Shall I buy i40 or MK320 to my X100t and forget the rest of the flashing-world?
the flash rumor said it would come in spring.. so still time to see this rumor come true… although it’s part of the rumor that it will be made by Metz. I hope their troubles do not affect the flash release
Its also said that Fuji was planning to have their flash system made by Metz. As you may know Metz went broke late november last year.
They have restarted business, but it may well be possible that Fuji decided to hand it over to another OEM partner.
In both cases a delay due to these circumstances is very well possible
Single AF is very good on X-T1, AF-C performs so so even in good light, but an improvement X-T1 really needs is focusing in lower light and in any subject movement. I used onece X-T1 and X-E2 for wedding and majority of shots in low light were missed, horrble experience if you loose so many images compared do DSLR, but this has to happen with camera which AF sensitivity is 0EV. I doubt firmware upgrade can make it focus down to -2EV, probably only new sensor with more sensitive AF point is needed, anyway it’s nice Fuji improves AF. Hope new cams – X-Pro2/X-T2 will focus down to -2EV at least, like many other mirrorless cams (Panasonic/Olympus/Nikon).
same here, focus in low light is the biggest problem, but single af in good light could also be improved. I don’t want to have to switch to my Sony a6000 for any low light shooting
Unfortunately that’s going to be limited by hardware, and how sensitive the sensor is to light. It’s something that might never match DSLRs, due to DSLRs having the advantage of a separate sensor.
Is there hope that they will update the x100s autofocus via firmware update?
If this is true it seems that Fuji is creating a two-class system. X-T1 customers and the stupid rest. Sad.
What would be better – not improve the X-T1 at all ?
If this is true, and the XT-10 benefits also, I’ll ditch my xe-1 (or convert it to IR) and buy a xt-10 as a second body
Except not everyone likes the X-T form factor and would appreciate Fuji to maintain support for the models that made the system a success.
I agree with you. I am surprised too at the emphasis on the X-T1, but I believe that Fuji must have a good reason besides solely a marketing one (e.g. the X-e2/X100s are not that close to the X-T1 hardware wise than we thought making updates difficult/impossible or far too expensive) ; and it looks to me as if the X-T1 is used as a test bed for the nextgen bodies (read X-PRO2) , may be they are testing ideas / new algorithms whilst readying for launch
Yes given the X-E2 is a very similar camera in a different form factor I think Fuji should have made some of the same firmware updates to that camera. It was strange it didn’t get the electronic shutter and other upgrades. I had assumed this camera was the brother of the X-T1 not its inferior.
More like the brother no body talks about during family gathering 🙂
I am much more disappointed about this. I really wish they would couple spot metering to the focus point. Then I wouldn’t be stuck in manual mode all the time. I bought the X-E2 a month or two after the X-T1 was announced. It was only about $250 Australian dollars cheaper at the time. I ‘chose’ it because I dislike the X-T1’s form factor and don’t need a mammoth viewfinder or weather sealing.
No, I’m really happy that Fuji is improving the X-T1! I just dislike the fact that everyone else is being left behind (even X100T if this rumor is correct – at least for a while).
X-T10 might (question mark!) benefit but who knows that. And that still won’t make older cameras any better. I just hate it when you are “forced” to buy a new body even when the old one is still perfectly fine and they would just need to update the software.
My iPhone 4S is serving me very well and Apple lets me get all the updates the hardware is capable of. This strategy has been serving them very well so why is nobody copying it?
I agree with you I think the key here is ‘the hardware is capable of’ (that probably does not stand for the X100T, quite possible for X100s and X-E2). That aside I believe it is still a very good thing that a photo manufacturer keeps improving a current model – not just bug fixing. It is not as brilliant as before, but still fairly unique.
Seriously, the X100S is just over two years old. That’s nothing. If it is really not possible for Fuji to make it better anymore they were extremely short-sighted when making it. I mean the fact that even a single camera in 2013 would be released without Wifi and Bluetooth modules is purely ridiculous and shows that most camera companies have no idea of where technology is heading (or they just want to milk their customers – neither makes me confident in what they do).
And hardware is just one side of the coin. There are definitely other updates that are software only (direct AF point control, Classic Chrome, customisable Q-Menu, waxy skin and more).
true
It may not be impossible but likely unprofitable. There’s a never ending list of things that could be done when most mirrorless functions are software based. Not to mention a lot of choices are inherently arbitrary. That’s the good and bad of it.
Like I said: the company with by far the best and longest support for old models (Apple) is right now the most profitable company in the world. I think it is underestimated how important brand reputation and resale value are for a company in the long run. People are much less likely to buy a product if it becomes obsolete (read: no more support / updates) in less than two years (like the X100S).
But apart from that it really can’t be that expensive to copy the code from your new model to the old model and sell it for 20 bucks. If you think it will hurt your sales too badly you should think about whether your hardware team is innovating enough.
It kind of depends on the parts bin. Sometimes it really is that easy, sometimes it isn’t. I totally agree that supporting older models well is a good thing. Fuji corporate certainly has the money to subsidize the work effort but I’m not sure Fuji imaging could make the case for money to be spent that way.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t love to see it but the Japanese camera manufacturers truly don’t seem to understand the benefits of a well designed operating system and updates.
They (the camera industry) probably think along the lines of a lot of Android devices: get it out the door and don’t look back unless you have to.
Apple is the most profitable company in the world because the produce their hardware for minimal cost in China, pay their workers there like shit and charge a multiple of production cost for their devices, that people seem to be crazy about. Even when they design a phone with an antenna that does not work when you hold the phone in your hand, nobody seems to care.
In contrast to a smartphone, which is essentially a computer, the hardware in a camera is a lot more specialized. And in case of the X100/X-E2/X-T1 also the physical interface (ISO-dial, drive mode dial,…) is very different.
There is still support for all of the Fuji X-cameras. Even the very old X100. But support means upgrades to make the devices work with new accessory, like new lenses or flashes or the conversion lenses in case of the X100 series.
That is really all you can ask for in a camera.
Operating systems on a smartphone on the other hand come with thousands of bugs usually. And if you leave them without support you have a major security problem in no time. So updating “old” phones for apple is nothing but a pure necessity if they don’t want 50% of the planet’s iphones to become bots for a bunch of hackers.
Oh Dirk, let’s not get into that. If you want to protect Fuji from any criticism I’m okay with that, but at least be honest.
Samsung and every other major tech company does exactly the same thing (treat workers like crap and pay nothing) so why aren’t they as profitable? And if you only take the production cost and leave out the R&D, then obviously Apple (who invests a ton of money in perfecting their products) is ripping everybody off.
Did you ever use an iPhone 4? I know nobody who actually had problems with the antenna in real life. Just tech geeks who freaked out mainly.
Why should it be more expensive to produce a CPU that is specialised compared to a general-purpose one? It’s not. And dials? Really? You know how much dials cost, right?
No, that is not all one can ask for. It’s all most people are asking for because we’ve for some reason accepted that most camera companies treat us like sh**.
If Apple only updated security features on old phones you’d have a point. But you know as well as I do that they update and improve all sorts of stuff and security is just a tiny portion.
It comes down to this: why are people willing to pay a large premium for Apple products? Only because they are hyped (which annoys me as well)? No, it’s because people consider it a better investment to buy a product that will be supported for many years with impressive updates and that will not completely lose its value if one decides to sell it after a few years (like most Android phones). And that’s what would happen with camera companies: people would pay a premium price if they get a truly great product that is supported for years to come.
Of course there is more to apple’s success than cheap labour. But if it was so easy to copy their success, by free firmware upgrades for example, many companies had done so already. But as you said, let’s not get into that.
And I am not here to protect Fuji. But I do understand, why they focus function and feature enhancing firmware upgrades on their newest and most expensive model.
I think they the guys that do the code for new software have their hands full at this time. As the new cameras come out they may update what they can?
You’d think. We don’t know how many people they have writing firmware. From my past when I worked in a company that wrote its own firmware for its devices I can guess it’s probably 2-3 people max writing the firmware for all their devices. Probably hand coded for each device, too, rather than being modular.
The chip probably can’t make use of the incoming info? who knows but Fujifilm has a history of bettering if it can or partly updating partly if they can’t do a full.
“My iPhone 4S is serving me very well and Apple lets me get all the updates the hardware is capable of” That is absolutely not true. I don’t remember the specifics but I think it was the 3G or 3GS that someone proved could handle the latest Apple updates at the time without any problems but Apple didn’t allow it.
Well you do realize there’s a difference between “working” and “working well enough so that Apple will release it”.
Apple sets very high standards for their own products. If an OS update or a new feature will not run “okay” on an old model they will not allow it because they don’t want a ton of customers complaining that the new OS has made everything so slow. It makes business sense if you want to maintain a good reputation.
My 4S already has quite a few hick-ups running iOS 8 and I really wouldn’t want to try it on a 3G or 3GS. Seriously, it wouldn’t be any fun to use. So I’ll bet you nobody proved it could handle the updates “without any problems”. Handle, yes, without any problems, no way.
Astonishing that there’s a rumour about Fuji improving the focussing on the XT1 and we have people complaining!!
Nothing astonishing about it. I’m happy for every X-T1 customer out there. But I am annoyed that for those who can’t afford the top-of-the-line X-T1 or prefer another form factor there’s not even bug fixes anymore.
I’m pretty sure if you owned an X100S with quite a lot of bugs left (like me) instead of an X-T1 (I assume you have one), you’d be annoyed as well.
Sell it and buy a XT1… If you can… Or wait for the xpro 2. But I think fuji SHOULD get rid of all bugs before stopping firmware updates for any model.
a) too expensive for a student with wife and child
b) I love the RF form factor and the HVF
Fully agree on that last part!
If the X-T1 is too expensive for you, just buy a camera that you can afford.
Did you even read a single word of what I wrote in the previous comments? No comment…
What bugs?
Is that a serious question?
Absolutely. I recently used an X100S for a couple of days and did not notice any.
Okay, here are the main ones:
– EC dial doesn’t affect Auto ISO when setting aperture and shutter manually
– Waxy skin starting at ISO 3200 (all current Fujis)
– OVF cover sliding in and out all the time for no reason
– Lots of read errors with older images which slows the camera down a lot when browsing images
Some more, but those are the main ones.
Sounds like there is a problem with your SD-card.
I would not call the rest bugs. To me a bug is a clear malfunction of the software. Not something that could be differently or better implemented.
Been there, discussed that.
If memory serves, Rico was hinting at a big software update before the summer for the X-T1 this could be it!
Yes! I hope indeed that two things will be improved concerning AF:
1) Detection of the Eye in face detection
2) Better sensitivity in low light down to -2EV with better speed!
Wow, I just ordered a X-T1 and a 35mm just before I read this. I hope its a good update.
We all hope for the same. 🙂
My wishes: AF eye-detection and limitation of the AF range by menu (for example: 1-2m or >5m) for shorter lens-ways.
The Macro position already does that – doesn’t it ?
I want a function like the hardware-switch at the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L II. But even better, to set the range between any distance I want.
I would love a very simple thing. Just a image counter. Like the one I have in my Canon DSLR. I never know with my X-T1 how many images I have in the card. In my Canon you can see (without navigate in the menues) for example if you shot 122 images you can see as default in the screen: 1/122 (where “1” is the image you are seeing, and “122” the images you have in your card. And when you are going forward you see 2/122….3/122….4/122, etc
If you can talk with someone in Fuji, please, tell them about this, or at least the can tell you why they hide this feature.
Great Kaizen news ! This is FUJI !
I am still hoping that maximum number of shots could be set in CH mode.
I always end up having too many images where I only want 3 or 4 in a single burst.
Its one of the few things I really miss on my Fuji compared to my Nikon D4.
I hope this is the firmware update Rico hinted at a while ago. I’d love some AF improvement. Hopefully there will be a bit more love to the E2 since I have both cameras. Still, I can see that Fuji may be wanting to make clearer distinctions between models and product lines. Most of those are arbitrary and software based anyway. Nikon and Canon have done that for some time.
I still hope that Fuji can figure out one of two possibilities: a paid upgrade system for substantial and meaningful after-sales firmware updates or (and more preferably) designing their firmware to have a programmer-friendly API and let us write our own code additions to run on the camera. That would be significant and shake up a stagnating market.
That paid firmware will be posted on torrents the minute it hits the market. To make any profits from selling premium FW updates, Fuji has to figure out a way to make it bind with the camera’s serial number.
Right, I was assuming that. The GPS navigation system software in my car works that way. Requires a unique activation key from my car and they sign the software accordingly.
Sony’s paid Apps are only available through the camera’s web store app, which gives a lot of pain but prevents illegal sharing. But before thinking about how to prevent sharing, Fuji has to decide whether paid FW is a good idea or not. I don’t want to see certain functions being individually priced. Sony sucks here.
You have a point, but considering the amount of shi* you find on torrents, would you run the risk a getting a big fat virus in your camera turning it into a brick just to save a few €, £ or $ ?
I would not, not worth the risk.
I don’t understand the paid upgrade suggestions. They would eventually have stop offering upgrades and consumers would be even more upset thinking they were going to be able to buy into new firmware. I wonder what the next X-M1 firmware would cost? The real solution is they need a more efficient quality control system for most of these firmware changes.
Releasing the API would be an amazing and intelligent move. Customized firmwares would allow features not liked by Fuji to appear like complete shutter speed adjustments with front dial ( to be able to not having to take the eye from the viewfinder to adjust exposure). Display blinkies on large preview and not only minimal view with 3 colour histograms. Allow bulb through wifi to set >30 sec exposures. Exposure bracketing >1 stop, and >3 for those who like that. And many others probably…
I think the only AF improvement I’d really like to see (because it’s already fine as is for the most part) would be something like a focus tracking system like the Sony a6000 has….where you can lock it onto a target anywhere there is a focus point and then the camera will track that subject as you move the camera. That is helpful for me sometimes, but not really a necessity for my style and subjects. It would be nice though.
Agree, this is about programming hard code, for new and better algorithms.
I doubt that tracking will be a part of it. The a6000 has far more PDAF points than the X-T1 does so tracking is totally different. I’d prefer continuous autofocus mode not to constantly hunt while on a target. It makes it feel like it’s not working even when it likely will work fine on shutter release.
I agree. I’ve waffled between Sony and Fuji for a while now–the a6000’s continuous AF, with face detection, is amazing. It almost always focused on what I wanted, and the center button allowed instant AF-S override. I left it in AF-C all the time, which I’ve never done on any other camera. I’ve settled on Fuji for a variety of reasons, but I’ll be thrilled if/when a Fuji cam can match the a6000’s continuous AF.
i’d be okay if it were at least as fast as my GX7. for only having CDAF, it’s dang fast.
GX7 focuses down to -4EV and XT1 to 0EV. Big difference
Well, I think now we know the release date of the XT-10… makes sense that they would update the XT-1 firmware to match the new algorithms that will be coming with the XT-10, don’t you think? If not the exact release date then pretty close…
I am curious if X-T10 will focus down to -2EV at least as most mirrorless cams (Olympus, Panasonic, Nikon goes down to -3EV -4EV), because X-T1 focuses only to 0EV, what is the reason of its poor AF performance in low light.
I would love the tracking of the A6000
get the a6000 is the best solution. AF sensors are built into the cmos. Software upgrades won’t boost performance in such a degree. You need a fast focusing lens as well. So go for the Sony is the most reasonable choice, although emotionally it might not be.
I’m both an a6000 and X-T1 user and this is exactly my sentiment. The a6000 has better AF for sure but I just love using the Fujifilm so much more.
I have A7 and X-T1. I totally understand how you feel.
A6000 has better af (including in low light) than most Dslrs on the market (I tested in very low light). The problem is that e mount zooms are too dark f4 at most and no e mount primes faster than f1.8 until recent). However af of a6000 is amazing
Very happy to hear you’ve still got the Fuji Ian, I wasn’t sure if you’d detected completely ;-). Someone get this man an XF 16mm 1.4 so we can see how it really performs on a night sky.
I’d like to see all of the cameras get a feature that ties focus assist (magnification and/or focus peaking) to face/eye detect for use with legacy and manual focus lenses.
Another thing turbo may mean is fuji increasing fps from 8fps to say 10 or 11fps to be in line with Olympus em1 and Sony a6000. That’s easy to do by firmware, Olympus recently did it with em1. That’s what “turbo” may mean
This is not something software alone could make a change. You need larger buffer space for 10 fps since you can’t dump raw files into SD cards fast enough. On the other hand, fast AF is needed to keep objectives in focus. And fast AF replies on responsive AF sensors on CMOS of mirrorless cam and fast AF motor in lens. Therefore, it is easy to give this option in software, but physically it will never be reached, unless the camera was initially designed to do this, just like A6000 and MFTs.
for fast AF (Sony A6000, Panasonic m43 cameras) you need fast hardware – readout times. it is all about speed of readout. Can’t fix it with firmware