Fuji Variable shutter lag issue: how to report to Fuji

AJ37

Rookie
Hello, Rico -- Last Saturday I was trying to do some studio photography of dancers using my X-Pro 1 and 56mm lens, and ran into infuriating inconsistencies in trying to anticipate the peak of their actions. I have a lot of experience at this type of photography, and normally have no problems compensating for a camera's inevitable "shutter lag." When using the X-Pro, however, it seemed that the lag was varying randomly from one shot to the next, making it almost impossible to get consistent results.

I thought I might be imagining the issue, or that it was caused by some strange factor such as how I was positioning my finger on the shutter button. Tonight, though, I discovered a thread on this forum that contained careful tests showing that this is a consistent, repeatable issue that affects several Fuji bodies.

Since I do a lot of peak-action photography, this issue is so serious that it impacts my plans for expanding my Fuji system. My question for you: How should I go about making Fuji aware that this is a genuine problem? Are there technical-support resources to which users can report this type of experience? If not, what do you suggest?

Thank you for any info. The original thread is here: https://www.fujixspot.com/showthread.php?t=4193
 
Sure, definitely report your findings. Contact the service and support staff of your regional office. They will collect and forward issues for further investigation. The more, the merrier.
 
Btw, key action with the X-Pro1 and autofocus is not possible, as the camera is not equipped to focus track moving targets. You can of course use the famous "shutter mash" AF trick (it works well with the X-Pro1), but that will take away control over the precise timing of the shot, or you can pre-focus on a point or zone of the scene, half-press the shutter button to prime the camera and fully depress it (w/o noticeable lag) exactly when the target crosses this point or zone.

For tracking action using the AF, an X-T1 (or X-E2) is mandatory. But even then, PDAF requires a certain amount of light and contrast (it's looking for vertical lines) to work. CDAF pretty much always works, but requires more time to focus, increasing the autofocus lag.

Of course, these techniques are detailed in my books if you need further input, but the X-Pro1 certainly would not be my camera of choice for this specific application.

The issue at hand only affects manual focus under certain circumstances.
 
Btw, key action with the X-Pro1 and autofocus is not possible, as the camera is not equipped to focus track moving targets.

I'm sure that's true of irregular, unpredictable actions such as those seen in sports. However, mostly what I photograph are dance and theater performances, in which the action is along a more predictable path, and the timing challenge consists of catching the most significant moment along that path. For this type of use, the X-Pro 1's autofocusing works reasonably well (although I have to unlock and re-lock it frequently) and its blackout-free optical finder is an important advantage that for me outweighs the X-T 1's PDAF. Maybe in the future X-Pro 2 we'll get both!
 

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AJ37 - did you know that there is a long discussion of shutter lag at Dpreview? It's better than the usual Dpreview forum quarrels: a user called Easycass has tried to measure the shutter lag with different lenses and different X-series cameras.

His initial conclusions:
Whilst under test conditions it is possible to somewhat predict might happen at a given aperture, with a given lens, at a certain focal length and focus distance, the huge number of variations and combinations of these parameters made it impossible to come up with a general rule to allow one to predict the lag under normal shooting conditions.
[---]
The 56mm lens exhibited a lot of change in lag to the focus adjustments performed, at most apertures. The lag was 100ms wide open, about 200ms when stopped down, and about 400 to 500ms when influenced by a focus adjustment. This is the worst performing lens.​

The discussion starts here: Close examination of Fuji X-series lag time

EDIT: Now I've seen that you've had a similar thread here.
 
AJ37 - did you know that there is a long discussion of shutter lag at Dpreview? It's better than the usual Dpreview forum quarrels: a user called Easycass has tried to measure the shutter lag with different lenses and different X-series cameras.

His initial conclusions:
Whilst under test conditions it is possible to somewhat predict might happen at a given aperture, with a given lens, at a certain focal length and focus distance, the huge number of variations and combinations of these parameters made it impossible to come up with a general rule to allow one to predict the lag under normal shooting conditions.
[---]
The 56mm lens exhibited a lot of change in lag to the focus adjustments performed, at most apertures. The lag was 100ms wide open, about 200ms when stopped down, and about 400 to 500ms when influenced by a focus adjustment. This is the worst performing lens.​

The discussion starts here: Close examination of Fuji X-series lag time

EDIT: Now I've seen that you've had a similar thread here.

My understanding is that AJ37 complains about AF lag. The thread you are refering to is for MF. It may be or may be not the same issue...
 
No, I'm experiencing variable shutter lag in manual-focus mode, the same issue easycass has been documenting. I'm doing some testing using a slightly different method than easycass used, and hope to report some results soon.
 
No, I'm experiencing variable shutter lag in manual-focus mode, the same issue easycass has been documenting. I'm doing some testing using a slightly different method than easycass used, and hope to report some results soon.

Have you tested Fuji cameras with non-Fuji lenses?
 
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