You cant claim how fast your new camera (X-E1) can focus as a feature and just ignore the slow performance on your premium flagship. FujiFilm has an amazing reputation for taking care of their customers and cameras after they have been announced starting with the X-100 and fixing many of its flaws months and months after its introduction.
Version 2 has been announced for the X-Pro1 and it was done at the perfect time, side by side with their new X camera model, the X-E1. The update does improve the autofocus speed but also has a few more fixes to earn it the 2.0 title.
Editor’s Note/Update: On Twitter, the Fuji Guys stated that with the firmware update, the camera is as fast as the XE-1.
Fuji says this about its improved autofocus speed:
“Focussing in challenging lighting conditions, where light is low or bright, will now be much faster in Auto Focus mode. The focusing distance has also been improved, allowing you to get closer to the subject and capture a great shot without switching to macro mode.”
No word on if it is now the same speed of the newly announced camera but I have heard that the lenses will each need an update as well. From what I have read the motor of the new lenses are faster and I assume that the camera will not be able to take advantage of these speeds. No word officially from Fuji has been seen.
Other improvements brought on by the new firmware is faster manual focus performance. Since the cameras focussing is done by “fly by wire” the entire system was designed to be controlled electronically. It seems like they have sped up the responsiveness of the lens ring which will allow you to focus faster than you could previously. The second improvement to manual focus is the fact that you will soon be able to check the image at 3x magnification while taking the photo. The camera came with the ability to check focus at 10x but having more options are always welcome.
Fuji also claims that with the update the camera “at maximum speed can now write to memory card twice as fast as before”. With the current software you would have to wait for the image to be processed before you could preview it in some instances. With version 2 you will be able to “preview the image less than one second after pressing the playback button”. These numbers and speeds will all change based on what speed card that you have.
Fuji Guys on twitter made sure that users of the X-Pro1 knew that their settings would be reset on the camera so make sure you write down and memorize those. The new update will be available September 18th, read the officail press release here.
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