How Fujifilm’s cameras and lenses are Made in Japan | Hacker News Reader

How Fujifilm’s cameras and lenses are Made in Japan

theverge.com

108 pointsTomte19 comments

For those who found this article interesting, you might want to take a look at this article [1] detailing how Cooke Optics makes their lenses. It's a decidedly more "old world" way but interesting nonetheless.

For those unaware, Cooke makes motion picture cinema lenses that can cost tens of thousands of dollars each and they have won a number of Academy Awards.

[1]http://www.redsharknews.com/technology/item/1466-how-cooke-m...

Great timing for this post! I'm an unabashed Fuji fan and have been scouring the used market for a new lens or two. It really is incredible what Fuji has managed to do in a couple years with building out their X Mount Lens series. I have yet to find a single one that has garnered even remotely negative reviews (other than a few isolated reviews). The fact that they are still pushing such high quality products on a very fast timeline is testament to the people they have working for them.

If you're a photographer and have never dared venture from the Canikon world, I'd urge you to rent an X-T2/X-Pro2 or, my favorite camera, an X100T and see how it feels to enter the mirrorless world!

I bought an X-T10 a year ago and I don't like it at all. The lenses are excellent, and the build quality of the camera and lenses is impressive, but that's about it. Battery life sucks badly, the very proprietary and esoteric battery sucks when visiting less-developed countries where you can't buy a new battery easily, camera takes too long to boot, autofocus is too slow, fly-by-wire manual focus has an annoying lag, manual focus is awful with electronic viewfinder, jpeg colors are ugly and offensive forcing me to process raw files (I'm perfectly happy with Canon or iPhone jpeg colors for what I do). The lenses are not significantly lighter than DSLR lenses and are just as bulky.

It's too bad because I really wanted to like this camera. As I said, the optical quality is excellent, and the build quality of the metal construction is something you can't find in anything produced this decade apart from Leica.

Since I got my Fuji, I shoot my Nikon FM3a (mechanical film SLR) more. It's lighter and much less bulkier, never runs out of battery, and I am happy with Velvia 50 colors.

I want to sell my Fuji gear.

The X100T has a leaf shutter, and it's much smaller. It's a very nice camera for what it's supposed to do, but I can't justify buying a secondary camera at that price, and for me X100T can't be a primary camera. I need a SLR with interchangeable lenses (or at least a normal 50mm equiv. lens, not the wide lens of the X100T).

I feel you. I'm not a huge fan of the X-T10 if I'm honest (I think it's a decent camera, but not one I would personally get). Fuji is definitely targeting a certain segment and many people may not care for the features that appeal to that segment.

There's something hard to explain about the top X series cameras. In terms of actual "camera stuff", they're comparable to other cameras in their price range for the most part. But there's something transcendent about the products themselves that makes it hard for me to switch. I'll put it this way: I'll take my X100T with me on any trip, no matter how small since it's such a pleasure to use and handle. I wouldn't do that with virtually any other camera. It's definitely a different strokes type of thing, but it's made it so much easier to photograph everyday life and not feel like I'm slogging around a DSLR.

The Fuji lineup is a bit of a mixed bag IMHO.

The X-Pro is a bit weird for me to use with zoom lenses. You have to switch to the EVF if using zoom lenses. The larger primes obstruct the OVF ! The X-Pro2 has a control dial layout which can be a bit of an "acquired taste".

I like the X-T lineup. The X-T2 is awesome TBH.

But then none of the lovely primes have optical IS :-/

I consider the X100T, no matter how lovely it is to behold, to be the "thinking photographers' camera". And I don't understand the lens, why is it allowed to focus that close when the image is so soft at closest focus. I had the X100T for a while but didn't go well for me.

Olympus/Panasonic seem to have some very compelling bodies/lenses. With Olympus I could have IBIS and then have access to stabilized primes such as Panasonic Leica 15mm f1.7 and 25mm f1.4.

Currently trying out the X-T10 with 18-55 kit lens and that seems to be coming out good. The lens is stellar between 23mm to 35mm at f/4 and the Classic Chrome film simulation is something I can get behind.

Interesting times these are... choice aplenty we have.

The X100T is only soft in macro when wide open. Stopped down below 2.8 and it's fine. But wide open it's worse than soft - there is a kind of haze to the image.

There were similar problems when the X-Pro1 first came out, but over time firmware updates (for the camera body AND lenses) improved the shooting experience substantially.

Unlike Canon, Sigma is another manufacturer who has kept all its lens production in Japan.

https://m.dpreview.com/articles/0773575852/making-art-inside...

They also have a very strong job-for-life philosophy to try to retain skills and experience.

Fascinating pictures in the article. Everything about Fuji's lenses scream quality except the lens caps which IMO feel flimsy in comparison to the stunning build quality of their cameras and lenses.

There's no perfect camera system for everybody, but I have to say that I recently got an X-T2 and it's a phenomenal camera. I love not having to mess around with complicated menus most of the time as the physical buttons and dials let me often do just about everything I need to. The kit lens it comes with is surprisingly good and the first additional lens I got for it (16mm f1.4) is jaw-dropping.

That being said, there are numerous reasons to check out other camera systems and Fuji and Nikon and others all have their strengths and weaknesses.

I've gone through a few photography phases over the last ten years. The first two didn't stick because I got sick of carrying around a huge camera. It just wasn't practical for me. Even the Olympus 4/3 system I had ended up being too much. Last year I picked up a used X100S and it's been an absolute pleasure to use. It's small enough that I never have to ask myself, "do I really want to bring my camera with me?" Instead I just throw it in my bag and I'm on my way.

I love the authenticity of knowing where products are made, so it's lovely to see this. From an economic point of view I found it always interesting that my parents would switch to buying Japanese products because they were better and more reliable.

Somewhere during the 80s / 90s the importance of quality seemed to get lost and the importance of price just took over.

A really amazing (and not likely to happen) photo story would be "how Canon make all their world class L lenses".

This story, while interesting, was just a matter of.. yes.. it's manual, they are all wearing white robes, they are likely really skilled at what they do.. and that's it.

Canon L lenses though, that's kinda magic. At least until said photo story is posted, I guess.

Getting to see the complete manufacturing process (including glass grinding, etc) for e.g. the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM would be awesome.

Or why not the "Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM"? ($12,999)

These should be fairly average, except perhaps the 800mm - I'd expect that they might already have/need separate facilities and machinery for that lens, at least for it's front elements.

It is impressive how they pull it off with minimal automation. After all, Japanese are known to automate... everything, including processing and packaging of squids and watermelons...

I think it has a lot to do with the Japanese Shokunin culture[1][2].

[1] http://adriancheok.info/uncategorized/secret-for-innovation-...

[2] http://www.realtyninja.com/blog/the-mastery-of-ones-professi...

How can I get one of those Fujifilm jumpsuits??

I think you want it for the '... nicknamed the "bug"' logo.

Is there any reason why they don't automate the process? The articles says they use manual labor but doesn't say why.

Many assembly steps here are hard to automate. Every DSLR where I know about it is manufactured with relatively little automation, too, because there are so many tiny parts that have to be fiddled in-between-under-through something into somewhere (all those FPC cables!), or stuff that has to be soldered together in assembly (Nikon does this with the top and flash assemblies in some models).

Conversely most other electronics gadgets seem to contain much more manual labour than expected, be it smart phones or PC main boards (were parts like slot sockets are still pick and placed by hand in this day and age).

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