Thoughts on the Upcoming Fujifilm X-T30 II | Hacker News Reader

Thoughts on the Upcoming Fujifilm X-T30 II

fujixweekly.com

16 pointsdsego14 comments

This reeks of Plan B or desperate stopgap to me. I bet they didn't want to do this, but had a supply chain breakdown. How much do you want to bet that the old display is unobtainium?

Sometimes hard choices have to be made. This is ugly but seems better than no X-T30s for sale!

> Also announced was the X-T3 WW, which is an X-T3 without a battery charger, and a $100 cheaper price-tag. The X-T3 and X-T3 WW are 100% identical. If you don’t need a battery charger, this might be a good option to save a little money.

This is mildly infuriating. The X-T3 is nearly two generations old, why bother? Also you're telling me that the price of my camera was $100 more because of the damn battery charger?? I've literally never used it. X-T3 has USB-C charging, which was frankly the reason I bought it. Why not just go full Nintendo and stop shipping battery chargers altogether?

I always use the external battery charger for my X-T3. Plugging a charging cable into the camera itself feels incredibly cumbersome? I'm supposed to put my camera on the floor somewhere near a wall socket for a few hours while the battery charges? What if I've got multiple batteries and I want to use the camera while one battery charges? What if there's a short circuit and it fries the camera?

Give me a dedicated external charger any day of the week! Anyway I'm happy with the firmware upgrades the X-T3 received so far, bringing it up to the same AF performance level of the X-T4. Fujifilm has always spent it's firmware update efforts mainly on the X-T* range, all other bodies (x-pro, x-e, X-T*, x100) typically get abandoned shortly after release.

> Plugging a charging cable into the camera itself feels incredibly cumbersome?

I've... never found this to be the case. Almost everything I have charges by USB-C. In particular, being able to charge the camera on the go with a battery in my backpack while I'm shooting is a huge feature for me. If I'm capturing video I already have the door open (or removed) and an external monitor/capture card plugged in, so there's nothing unusual about an extra cable.

I have multiple batteries, but I typically also use the grip to charge them via AC adapter so it's the same deal.

Do you always put your phone on the floor near a wall socket while you charge it? My phone wasn't too much cheaper than my camera, and I don't really concern myself with shorts/electrical damage when charging.

Besides, I don't really need multiple batteries (aside from the grip) because I can just use an external, portable, universal battery, of which I have several.

I love my X-T30, so this really stings. The photo quality and ergonomics are fine for me, so it's a bummer that I can't get the extra neat film simulations that Fujifilm is known for.

Outdated: https://www.dpreview.com/news/8588318416/fujifilm-x-t30-ii-o...

X-T30 II has more memory and a better LCD compared to the X-T30.

That's not much of a difference. Seems like a negligible spec bump. I think Fuji Weekly still makes a good point. There is also an addendum to the first post here:

https://fujixweekly.com/2021/09/02/additional-thoughts-on-th...

After the update, actually, their point doesn't make any sense.

They admit that the firmware upgrade can't be applied, at least in the form that it's been produced. The X-T30 II is therefore a minor upgrade, which is nothing notable.

Great irony: the author has no clue about what the firmware actually improves. So he's essentially written a rant about expecting something he doesn't what it is.

Indeed. The essay was written before the X-T30 II came out, speculating that it would be nothing more than a firmware update, and demanding that all firmware updates should be free. When the X-T30 II came out, it updated its memory and display, so it’s not possible to just give the older X-T30 the newer camera’s firmware.

Personally, I apply film simulation modes to a picture on my computer in post to the RAW file, because I don’t have time, when actually taking pictures, to decide which film simulation will work best for a given shot.

> demanding that all firmware updates should be free

Now that's a bit dishonest. When you buy a camera you invest in the system. Spending 1k euros on the body alone and and the same on various lenses and then getting shafted on one or two film simulations that won't be added to your camera because it's now old after 1 or 2 years, it leaves a sour taste. Esp. since mobile phones and other electronics get software updates regularly.

> Personally, I apply film simulation modes to a picture on my computer in post to the RAW file,

Great for you, but then one appeal of the Fuji system is the SOOC quality and experience. But if they don't care about that, it's making me loose interest.

Fujifilm makes okay cameras...however, what I don't like about them is that almost all of their cameras seem to be the same product with a new name and a minor tweak. New arrangements of buttons and knobs are not innovations.

Sure, they have the GFX series with huge sensors, but that is a niche market.

They should do something like the APS-C equivalent of Sony a1 with a fast-readout sensor for their format, and maybe remove the mechanical shutter for good. What they've been doing for the past few years is just boring and plain.

They're apparently going to have a stacked sensor like in the a9/a1 in their next generation. Still not very interested in crop cameras but it's not a bad system overall.

That's been the game in cameras for ages. They use the market to sift product configurations and then apply scaling to the ones that win out.

And they really let "non-winners" rot. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic when every camera maker put out a "webcam software"?

Fuji did, too. And to this day it does not support the X-E3, but does support the X-T3, which is basically identical, save for a different viewfinder placement and a few very minor things.

Back when I bought a new camera I also pondered whether to buy the X-E3 or the X-T3 and… chose the future loser, of course.

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