Wait?!?!?

I've never pre-ordered anything, but I pre-ordered the Fuji X Pro-1 on the day it was available for pre-order, Jan 31st. Since then I've been waiting impatiently. As Tom Petty once said, "the waiting is the hardest part"

The Fuji came out in Japan on Feburary 18th (which was the announced date), and is in stock at Amazon Japan.
It seems odd that stock would languish in Japan while customers willing to buy overseas.

However, us folk in the US have to continue to wait. Till when exactly, I don't know.  Sometime in mid to late March.

• Amazon and Adorama have no information
• B&H has changed their date from March 20 to March 7 to March 28
• I've heard the generic "March" at several other places

Crop Sensors & Depth of Field

 

Smaller sensors narrow lenses angle of view. Plenty has been written elsewhere on crop factors and sensor sizes, but what is underappreciated is the impact of DOF (depth of field).

 

As sensors get smaller, the focal length that will provide an equivalent field of view to a 50mm lens on 35mm film will shrink. Shrinking along with the focal length is the ability to seperate the subject from the background.

Portraits really stink if the background is also in focus (or close to it). At shorter focal lengths, DOF is greater. Add on top of that, many point and shoot cameras have a f/3.5-5.6 lens, meaning that you will have, at most, a maximum aperature of f/4  at a "normal" focal length. Sharpness doesn't immediately fall off beyond the DOF range either. For example, the background of the Canon at 8 ft will look distractingly in focus.

This is why the Fuji is acceptable. While they have a crop sensor, their 35/1.4 lens makes up for it.  Sony's widest angle lens for their NEX-5 is f/2.8 and that is for an equivalent 35mm lens. Otherwise, you get their slow kit zoom. While Olympus offers similarly slow lenses for the E-P3, Voigtlander has come out with a 25mm f/0.95. However that lens is $1200.

 

Camera / Format	Sensor Dimensions (mm)	Crop Factor	1/2 ft. DOF at 6 feet	DOF at 8 feet, f/4 with 50mm equiv.
6x9 Medium Format	84 x 56	0.43x	105mm, f/4	0.95 ft
Full Frame, 35mm	36 x 24	1.0x	50mm, f/2	1.86 ft
APS-H (Canon, Leica M8)	27 x 18	1.3	38mm, f/1.8	1.94 ft
APS-C (Fuji, Sony, Nikon)	23.6 x 15.8	1.5x	35mm, f/1.4	2.57 ft
Sigma Foveon	20.7 x 13.8	1.74x	29mm, f/1.1	3.45 ft
Micro 4/3rds	17.3 x 13	2.0x	25mm, f/1	3.92 ft
Nikon VI	13.2 x 8.8	2.8x	n/a	5.9 ft
Fuji X10	8.8 x 6.6	3.9x	n/a	...
Leica D-Lux 4	8.07 x 5.56	4.4x	n/a	8.5 ft
Canon Elph	6.17 x 4.55	5.6x	n/a	15.7 ft
iPhone	3.56 x 2.68	9.7	n/a	Infinite

HTML Tables

 

1. To determine crop factor, divide the diagonal of the 35mm frame by the diagonal of the sensor

Repairing Light Leaks in Folder Bellows

The downside of old folding medium format cameras is that their bellows may develop pinhole leaks. Some brands are worse than others: Ansco and Agfa cameras are almost guaranteed to have leaks. Check before you buy! These are impossible to see with the naked eye, so your "I don't know anything about cameras" seller on ebay may not do a sufficient job.

 In order to tell if you have light leaks, open the back and shine a powerful flashlight  in towards the lens. If you have light leaks, you should be able to see tiny spots of light. When I say powerful flashlight, I use my Fenix high power LED with 235 lumens. Your mini-mag is likely not be sufficient.

Replacing the bellows:
Option 1: If the bellows are littered with leaks, the best thing that can be done is to replace the bellows. This can be moderately expensive and time consuming. It may cost more than camera is worth. The replacement bellow on my Ansco Speedex cost $55 and the repaired cameras is probably only worth $40.  I bought the replacement bellows from Dennis Workman. He has some instructional You Tube videos, but it still takes a few hours.

Option 2: RTV black silicone can be used to patch a smaller amount of holes. I think it would be easiest to apply the silicone with your finger (with a latex glove on). Of course, you are going to have to keep your flashlight on during work so you remember where the leaks are. Leave the camera open until the silicone dries!


My Zeiss Ikonta A (circa 1930) currently has some light leaks:


Effect of light leaks on photos:

Photos may look washed out:

You also may get ghostly streaks:

If the ambient light is low and you only quickly open and close your camera, you may not see a huge effect:

Going Digital with the Fuji X-Pro 1

After some debate and decision, I've decided to go digital with the announced Fuji X-Pro 1. Yes, it is 2012 and I don't own a digital camera (though my wife has one). With two small children, going to the developers, picking up photos, scanning was becoming too much. With one kiddo, I was done by 8:00pm. Now it's more like 10:00 pm.

Why the Fuji? Besides the hybrid viewfinder, future M mount compatibility, and style, there were three main selling points.

1. The sensor. From samples I've seen the performance at high ISOs rivals any camera out there.
2. The fast primes. Many other mirrorless lenses were just a kit zoom or a slower pancake lens. The 35/1.4 is my kind of lens
3. The hybrid finder, which is both an optical viewfinder and a EVF. Focusing my M mount lenses will be different than a split coincident beam rangefinder, but it will be useable.

What about the crop factor? Crop factor widens depth of field and changes field of view
With the 35/1.4, at f/1.4, I can get the same depth of field as a 50mm at f/2. I think that is sufficiently narrow to suit my tastes. I can get Fuji's own wide angle lenses and just live with the crop factor on the long end. After perusing some photos, many could even use a little crop.

The other options just didn't do it for me:

• M9 - $5,800 used. At first, I was thinking to go for broke and get a used M9, but the M9 isn't perfect. Even at 1600 ISO, the M9 starts to show noticeable noise. For the cost of an used M9, you could buy a new X-pro 1 and get every gadget and lens.
• M8 - $2,200 for a vintage 2005 sensor, poor ISO 1600 performance, noisy shutter, and quirky need for IR filters. No thanks
• Epson R-d1 - While some people rave about this camera, it is still $1,300 for a 2004 vintage sensor.
• Sony Nex-7:  ($1,200 once released). The biggest drawback is that their lens selection is dominated by kit zooms. They have only two semi-fast lens, the Zeiss 24/1.8 ($1000) and the portrait 50/1.8 which I would have plenty of. I like the Fuji 35/1.4, of which sony has no equivalent. I held the Sony Nex-5 and found it ergonomically odd.  (Edit: deleted statement that Nex-7 didnt have a EVF)
• Micro 4/3rds -  Smaller sensor and effect on DOF becomes more of an issue. Their lens selection is also dominated by zooms, except for the Voigtlander 25/0.95, but that is $1,200
• Ricoh GR-A12 - Will cost $1250 for the body, M mount module, and EVF. If the Fuji wasn't on its way out, I think I would be heavily considering this setup.

Fuji X-Pro 1. Photo courtesy of Dpreview