It’s concerning hearing these problems you had with these Fuji gears, I don’t know if it is just bad luck or not, as I have not heard of many other people with similar issues. I myself have been using Fuji since 2017 and have accumulated XT2, XT4, XH2, XF16 1.4, XF 18 1.4, XF23 1.4 (V1), XF33 1.4, XF35 1.4, XF50 F1 and XF90 F2 - all bought brand new from Fuji authorised dealers. And so far to this day, have zero issues with any of the hardware. I was a little disappointed with the Continuous Autofocus and Face/Eye tracking with the old XT2, XT4 and those old first generation lenses. But AF performance have dramatically improved with my XH2 and upgrading to the new 18 1.4, 33 1.4, 50 F1 as well as the 90 F2. The only thing I really hate about Fuji is just the mobile app, which is SHIT (and this putting it mildly) and also if they can somehow improve on the AF software experience, it will be great. Just for context, I am a professional performing arts evens photographer and portrait photographer, using Fuji gear full time for work as well as for fun
1) I mostly buy my (any) photographic gear in my country, so I get full warranty without additional costs. If I buy abroad I risk it, I know, so the cost has to be significantly lower to equal the risk. That's the name of the game... 2) Especially if you undertake a working trip, especially somewhere far away, there's a saying - BACKUP IS EVERYTHING! Saved my skin too many times... 3) 56mm f1.2 isn't WR, so there's (too many) ways for anything to enter the lens. With that being said, my copy still looks (almost) as a new one. The only problem I ever had with it, is that the AF motor stops working after some time in a really, really cold whether, where I do shoot often in a winter. No other Fuji lens did that to me, ever... 4) Hmmm...the only problem with Fujifilm cameras that I have is with my X-H1, but only in combination with the 16-55mm f2.8, when sometimes the focus point walks on its own to the left upper corner and remains stacked there. Usually turning the camera off and on agin solves the problem, but a few times I had to remove the battery and put it back in the camera after 10 seconds or so. Hopefully new firmware for the lens will solve that problem... 5) Never lose the sight from your camera, ever. Period. 6) And for the end, yes, I had broken Canon lenses too. Not even Canon makes their lenses as they used do... Gruß
In my case, 5 years with Fuji, XT2, XT3, T200, X100V and XT5. And lenses, 18mm 1.4, 56mm 1.2, 33mm 1.4, 16-80mm f4, 70-300mm, 35mm f2, 50mm f2.., NOT a single problem with any of those (minor freeze with X100V with an early firmware). Some average use, others heavy use. Have also friends using Fuji and we haven’t talked about any problem. What we have here I think is misuse, not Fuji problem.
I'm glad to hear that you haven't had any problem. But I somehow doubt there was any sort of "misuse" in neither of these cases (two failures from a total of 10 lenses.). Both were intact and treated like newborn babies from the first day. I wonder though how could any user produce such issues.
Fuji quality has dropped significantly over the past few years. It coincided with the shift in manufacturing from Japan to China. X-T3 was the beginning.
No. Actually, my XT4 and XH2 both made in China have better build than my XT2 which was made in Japan. All the dials and buttons and screen hinges were better built than the XT2. As for lenses, my 18 1.4 and 33 1.4 both built in the Philippines have just as good a build as my 50 F1 and 90 F2 both built in Japan. Having said that, Fujifilm needs to tighten their design and manufacturing of their aperture rings - each lens have a different stiffness and feel to them and this is really annoying for me when I keep changing lenses. I do not agree with you that the build quality dropped as they moved to manufacture somewhere else in Asia. Look at Sony, the A1 made in Japan has the same build quality as the A74 which is build in both Thailand and China.
