The Fujifilm X30, X100T, XT1 Graphite, XF50-140 f2.8 and XF56 f1.2 APD Malaysia Launch (phew!)

The Invitation

One thing I like about being a Fujifilm photographer is that I get to attend their product launches. The last one was the launch of the X-T1 and two weeks ago I got this special invite in my mail box. I immediately signed up as I just had to try their new XF 50-140mm f2.8 lens, but the event start time was rather odd, at 5pm.

The Event

I won't bore you with the details of the location, except that it's at the top most floor of a new hotel here in KL. There was also the usual hotel fried rice, fried mee, sandwiches and coffee. The registration was cool, as we get our own Instax photo taken with their Evolution to Revolution poster and that becomes our "name tags" sans the name. Oh, and in our goodie bag comes a free Toshiba 8GB SD card, to store our sample photos taken later with their new gear. Nice!

There was an area with exhibition which looks like stuff they took from Photokina lately, such as the mock ups of the 2015 lenses and the dissected XF50-140 sacrificed for our viewing pleasure. Around the corner was counter to do a quick check on your camera and a couple of printers to print photos you took from the event. 

XF16mm, XF 90mm, XF16-55mm and XF 140-400mm mock ups 

The sacrificial lens

Typical of Malaysian events, although the invite said 5pm, they started their launch at about 5.45pm.

Awaiting the launch

The event started with a talk by Keitaro So, a Fujifilm regional marketing guy with a funny sense of humor. Kinda reminds me of Nobita all grown up. He talked about the new technologies, lenses and bodies and did a good job capturing our attention. I won't say much here, everything has already been revealed in Photokina. But I was sold by two things: 

1. The new film simulation mode called the Classic Chrome which apparently Zack Arias himself sent So a personal email with his very positive feedback.
2. The OIS on the XF 50-140mm compared to a competing 70-200mm f2.8 FF lens' IS (he made us promise not to tell which brand C**** it was!). Shows very impressive results that it can take sharp pictures even at 1/10s while the FF lens was all a blur already.

Keitaro So san, really entertaining guy actually

But he did reveal some SRP pricing for the Malaysian market, as follows:

• XF 50-140mm f2.8 RM5,988 - available in November 2014
• XF 56mm f1.2 APD RM5,688 - available in December 2014
• X-T1 Graphite Edition RM4,988 - available in November 2014
• X100T RM4,388 - available in November 2014
• X30 RM2,288 - available since September 2014

Later on, was a pro photographer Louis Pang who gave his personal experiences with the X-T1. Can a pro use Fujifilm X for pro work? Definitely.

Gear Test!

Then came my favorite time of all, which we can actually test all the new toys! We were led to the pool area and there were some models for us to shoot.

For me, my goal was to test the XF 50-140mm f2.8, and I managed to do just that. There was only ONE test lens and boy was I happy to find it. So-san was raving all about the OIS and it's 5 stop capabilities, so I was looking forward to trying it out. Here are some photos I managed to get out of it. The first picture was taken with my XF 18mm f2, to give a overview of the location. All unedited photos.

Shot with my XF18

Shot with XF 50-140mm f2.8 at 50mm, f2.8, 1/42secs

Shot with XF50-140mm f2.8 at 140mm,  f2.8, 1/42secs

Shot with XF50-140mm f2.8 at 54mm,  f3.2, 1/38secs

Shot with XF50-140mm f2.8 at 140mm,  f2.8, 1/45secs. Sorry for the cheesy smile. 

My observations with the XF 50-140mm f2.8

Although a brief time with it, I have already some opinions of the lens. 

1. While it looks huge on my X-M1, it's surprisingly lighter than it looks
2. OIS works really well, and although I did not test it beyond 1/42 secs at 140mm the LCD was very stable when composing
3. Focusing was fast and accurate even on my X-M1. Definitely faster than my XC 50-230mm lens.

The XF 50-140mm f2.8 on my little X-M1. Surprisingly it feels pretty comfortable for it's size.

My X-M1 travels through time!

Can't wait to see how my camera would look like on Fujifilm's future lenses, I mounted these mock-ups to see how it would fit. 

The XF 140-400mm super zoom on my Fujifilm X-M1. See how tiny my XF 18mm f2 looks like beside it?

The XF 16-55mm f2.8 from the front on my Fujifilm X-M1

The XF 16-55mm f2.8 on my Fujifilm X-M1

Observations

• The XF 16-55mm f2.8 may look big, but like it's telephoto brethren, it's quite comfortable to hold 
• The XF 90mm f2.0 is HUGE for a f2.0 aperture lens. I used to own a Samyang 85mm f1.4 which looks a tiny bit smaller, but of course that lens had no OIS or AF
• The XF 16mm f1.4 looks like the XF 14mm f2.8 to me

Tired of boring old images? Can't get creative? Try this.

Final Words

Lucky draw but only for one lucky guy

The event ended at 8.15pm, which was 45 minutes over scheduled, though everyone stayed back for the lucky draw vying for the X30 prize. Unfortunately, I did not win, but everyone did go back home with a really cool "Evolution to Revolution" t-shirt to remember the day.

Many thanks to Fujifilm Malaysia for the invite. Always a pleasure attending your events. :)