Armanius
Bring Jack back!
- Location
- Houston, Texas
- Name
- Jack
I was reading DPR's preview of the XE2, and the writer was lauding Fuji for vastly improving the AF performance of the XPro1 since its launch in early 2012. And how Fuji's support for its product builds customer confidence.
I was chewing on those statements for a little bit. But I can't seem to bring myself to give so much credit and kudos to Fuji. I like a responsive company, but I would much rather Fuji spend more time on R&D and give me a great product on day 1. I understand that there are bugs that may go unnoticed, and those need to be addressed after launch. But issues such as poor AF performance and aperture blade chatter should be resolved before consumers get a hand on the product. At least in my opinion.
When I got the XPro1 at launch, many people (including me) complained about the annoying aperture blade chatter. Some (including me again) also complained about the lackluster AF performance. I exchanged a few messages with Fuji "front men" such as the Fuji Guys, and was told that the chatter was not a big deal, and I should just learn to live with it. And that the AF performance was nowhere nearly as bad as people were portraying it to be (compared to the EP1/2, it wasn't). Weeks later, Fuji started trickling out various firmware updates addressing the chatter and then the poor AF performance.
Did Fuji not do its homework during the testing period? Did Fuji really think those were non-issues? Did Fuji think that users wouldn't care about that? Was Fuji's expertise not up to resolving a simple chatter issue back in early 2012? Did Fuji not have the engineers and programmers that could produce a fast and reliable AF system back then?
I am glad that Fuji has improved the X line since launch. And Fuji definitely deserves kudos when firmware updates give the user new features. But I'd rather have it right from the get go when it comes to performance issues, instead of getting firmware updates 1, 2, 3 or more months down the line. I gave up on the XPro1 about 3 weeks after getting it. I've been dabbling back into the ILC X-line up in the past month or so.
Anyway, my point is that I am not too keen on patting Fuji on the back for addressing problems that should have been addressed prior to launch. I don't want to wait several months for the product to finally reach its full potential. Yeah, I know it's weird to hear such a statement from a gear head that is always an early adopter of products.
I suppose if the world was perfect, Fuji would be like Oly or Pany at launch time. And then Oly and Pany would be like Fuji when it comes to providing new features to an old product, or responding to complaints (like banding when using the 20/1.7 on Oly cameras). And Leica's would be affordable. And all cameras would have a more sophisticated auto-ISO implementation. And everyone would get along. Etc, etc, etc … blah blah blah ...
I was chewing on those statements for a little bit. But I can't seem to bring myself to give so much credit and kudos to Fuji. I like a responsive company, but I would much rather Fuji spend more time on R&D and give me a great product on day 1. I understand that there are bugs that may go unnoticed, and those need to be addressed after launch. But issues such as poor AF performance and aperture blade chatter should be resolved before consumers get a hand on the product. At least in my opinion.
When I got the XPro1 at launch, many people (including me) complained about the annoying aperture blade chatter. Some (including me again) also complained about the lackluster AF performance. I exchanged a few messages with Fuji "front men" such as the Fuji Guys, and was told that the chatter was not a big deal, and I should just learn to live with it. And that the AF performance was nowhere nearly as bad as people were portraying it to be (compared to the EP1/2, it wasn't). Weeks later, Fuji started trickling out various firmware updates addressing the chatter and then the poor AF performance.
Did Fuji not do its homework during the testing period? Did Fuji really think those were non-issues? Did Fuji think that users wouldn't care about that? Was Fuji's expertise not up to resolving a simple chatter issue back in early 2012? Did Fuji not have the engineers and programmers that could produce a fast and reliable AF system back then?
I am glad that Fuji has improved the X line since launch. And Fuji definitely deserves kudos when firmware updates give the user new features. But I'd rather have it right from the get go when it comes to performance issues, instead of getting firmware updates 1, 2, 3 or more months down the line. I gave up on the XPro1 about 3 weeks after getting it. I've been dabbling back into the ILC X-line up in the past month or so.
Anyway, my point is that I am not too keen on patting Fuji on the back for addressing problems that should have been addressed prior to launch. I don't want to wait several months for the product to finally reach its full potential. Yeah, I know it's weird to hear such a statement from a gear head that is always an early adopter of products.
I suppose if the world was perfect, Fuji would be like Oly or Pany at launch time. And then Oly and Pany would be like Fuji when it comes to providing new features to an old product, or responding to complaints (like banding when using the 20/1.7 on Oly cameras). And Leica's would be affordable. And all cameras would have a more sophisticated auto-ISO implementation. And everyone would get along. Etc, etc, etc … blah blah blah ...
