Update, November 19th 2018: This post was previously about the lockup bugs I experienced with my Fujifilm X-T3 cameras, but I’ve fixed all my lockups by updating to firmware 1.02. Since installing it I’ve not had one single X-T3 lockup across dozens of shoots. I’m confident now that this particular bug is solved, in 1.02 at least! :)
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Original (edited) post, September 30th 2018: I’ve had two Fujifilm X-T3s since launch day. At the time of writing (September 30th 2018) I’ve used them on six shoots and I love the improvements over the X-T2. I’ve posted some my first impressions of actually using the camera for event photography in this post.
The bad news: the X-T3’s firmware 1.01 has lockup issues; the good news: lockups are solved in X-T3 firmware 1.02!
My setup, and the lockups I’ve experienced so far: (update: all fixed for me in 1.02)
• As of today (Sept. 30th 2018) I’ve had the X-T3 ten days and used it on six shoots over 18 hours. I’ve shot around 7750 frames across two cameras, with roughly a 65/35 split usage wise. The most used camera (which normally has a long lens attached, usually the 56mm f/1.2) has, predictably, had the most lockups, but I’m going to swap the bodies over now and see if that balances out the stats.
• I’m using SanDisk Extreme Pro cards, the 90MB/s versions, in both slots and writing raw+JPG to both (backup mode); Power Boost is on; usually using Eye Sensor Mode. I can’t think of any other relevant settings I have on.
• Out of six shoots so I’ve experienced one or more lockups on five of them. Typically only one camera has been affected per shoot, and only once. However, on one occasion a camera locked up five times!
• Of these six shoots I’ve been using the battery grip on both cameras for four of them. Usually I was using two ExPro batteries in the grip and the official Fuji in the body. However, as an experiment one night I loaded a camera with all Fuji batteries to see if the battery brand was relevant, and that’s the one that locked up five times over the course of four hours – several times within minutes of each other, bizarrely.
• The only time I had no lockups I didn’t have the grips attached. However, it was a much shorter and slower paced shoot so I didn’t feel confident I’d solved it. Sure enough, the following night I went without the grips again and experienced one lockup, so the grip doesn’t seem to be a factor.
• on a forum someone asked if my cameras are upside down. Yes, they’re on either my Spider holster or my HoldFast MoneyMaker harness. I don’t see how this could be a problem as these straps and belts are widespread. I’ve also never seen camera makers advising against them, but by all means educate me if it’s a known or possible issue.
So what happens when the Fujifilm X-T3 locks up? (update: in case you missed it above, lockups are fixed by updating to 1.02…)
• When I lift the camera to shoot the EVF is black; the LCD stills shows a live image, sometimes at regular brightness and other times very dark, but there’s no other display shown; and all controls are unresponsive, including the power switch.
• So far the lockup hasn’t happened while actually shooting images. That is, it seems to happen while the camera is idle, and I only notice when I lift it to shoot with. The cameras are set to sleep after 1 minute, leading me to wonder if it’s a bug with sleep mode.
• With the battery grip attached the only fix is to unscrew the grip enough to clear the pins; unfortunately just popping the battery tray doesn’t do anything.
• Without the grip attached all you need to do is pop the battery out. This is quicker than faffing with the grip, getting me back in action in a few seconds. As the X-T3 doesn’t get a significant performance boost from the grip (other than a slightly faster fps on CH mode) I’m tempted to stop using it on shoots where a delay could be deadly, such as a wedding ceremony… /shudder
Conclusions (updated)
If you’re running 1.01 on your Fujifilm X-T3, update to 1.02 or newer as soon as possible, as this should fix any lockup bugs you’ve experienced.
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I have the very latest firmware and experienced lockup for the first time this week. Like you it seemed to be while the camera was on but idle.
Not great! I have to admit I’ve had one or two since the update that largely fixed it – but that’s across a whole year of several event and wedding shoots a week!
I experienced this lockup this weekend with my 56 at a parade after dark (all of the gear you listed matched mine). I’ve had the X-T3 since release and never had a problem with any other lenses, and took the camera out with the 100-400 the following day without issues. I was still on 1.01 at the time. Glad to hear 1.02 seems to fix it.
Yep I don’t think it’s to do with lenses, I had it happen with pretty much all my lenses. But 1.02 should fix everything for you :)
Oh, forgot to say I was also using the eye sensor but I was not in boots mode.
Hi Owen, glad I found your blog, thanks for posting, it has made me feel a bit better about my new camera. I have been shooting the past 3 days with the X-T3 (firmware 1.01) and 18-55 (firmware 3.22) original 126s battery (no battery grip) and 32GB SanDisk Extreme Pro cards writing RAW and JPEG to both cards. I also have it set to 1 minute sleep. I have had around 10 lock-ups and as you mentioned they all seem to be when the camera is idle and when I pick it up to take a shot the lcd is on with just an image, no overlay and the viewfinder is black, the only fix seems to be to pop the battery. I have also seen some evf judder as you described in a comment above but haven’t figured out if it was an issue or the metering was just struggling with a tricky scene. The only other variable I considered was the temperature is currently just above freezing but really that doesn’t seem cold enough that it should be an issue. I haven’t had a single lock up of my X-T10 in the past 3 years in all sorts of conditions and much colder than this.
Hope a fix comes soon.
Cheers Gavin
Hi Gavin, Hopefully you’re on 1.02 now – it fixed all my lockup issues! :)
Got similar problems see https://www.facebook.com/groups/1629950653987337/permalink/2115684858747245/?comment_id=2115701285412269&reply_comment_id=2115704565411941¬if_id=1538774901155784¬if_t=group_comment_mention
Locks up and renders cards useless until re-format in PC. Battery removal re-boots camera. Does it without battery grip on. Have 2 bodies maybe only happens when swapping cards around even with no pics on. Just when put card into SD slot. Not when shooting as yet. A few flashing viewfinder problems.
Intermittent seemed eventually to clear itself last night?
Fuji’s answer – only use recommended cards but I don’t think the problem relates to this and is a firmware issue.
Not had any problems like this *at all* with my cards, which to me suggests that while it may be in the firmware, it’s also related to the cards. I would take their advice and only use highly rated cards like genuine SanDisk Extreme Pro cards. If it happens again, maybe cards aren’t a factor. Only way to be sure.
Also you probably already know this but it’s not a good idea to shoot on cards that have been formatted anywhere other than the camera you’re using them with – if you need to format on the computer just to get the camera to recognise them again, sure, but definitely re-format in the camera again before shooting.
Thanks Owen, i thought I might have to return it, do you use Lightroom to process your RAW images? As I do, because I keep reading people saying it does not do a good job with the RAF files.
I carnt understand why there’s not more blogs out there with this Xt3 issue!
I wouldn’t return it just yet.
LR hasn’t been updated to work with XT3 raws yet, so it’s hard to say how well it will handle them. But yes there are certain qualities to the Fuji raws that LR doesn’t handle quite as well as other processors. There are many blogs out there covering this, and I’d suggest you could start by checking out Thomas Fitzgerald’s site for lots of insight. Mainly if there’s any issue it would be with finely detailed foliage, which LR has been known to render a little smeary. Also, typical sharpening defaults and guides that work well for other cameras don’t work so well on X-trans sensor files. It’s to do with the unique way Fuji encodes RGB data, and I can’t really get into it in a single comment. I find that a low Amount, a medium to high Detail, and medium to high Masking works well though. But overall I’d say that it’s something one could easily work yourself into a tizzy over unnecessarily, and most people viewing most well processed images at a normal distance won’t see what certain pixel-peepers point out in magnified 100% crops on forums… ;) (unless like I say you have a lot of detailed foliage in your shots).
That said, if you do find LR isn’t satisfactory (when it’s finally updated) look into X-Transformer for Lightroom for £30, or Capture One if you have £250 to spend. Or even Fuji’s EX3 software.
I have 2 Expro in my grip and a Fuji in the body, and at one point the battery indicater said my batterys where were almost exhausted which was not the case, as for the judder with the evf it somtimes happens when holding the shutter half way down on focus lock for a while or sometimes when a adjusting the diopter it’s maybe more like a side to side movement.
I do hope these are just a software problem as this is a big expense for me as this is a hobby but a very keen one.
I have a XE2 and 100f and never had a problem like this before
Yes I’d say they’re definitely software issues. I’ve not seen the judder you describe but I’ll keep an eye out.
The battery level thing IS something I’ve seen though, thinking about it. The night my camera locked multiple times the reading for the first battery in the grip showed it as on the last of five bars for about an hour, around two hours into the shoot. I was surprised but figured I’d been pushing the camera hard. Right enough this happened around the time of the multiple locks. After I removed everything and reset it all in a brief break the battery display returned to a more accurate level.
I hate to say it but the battery grip on the X-T2 was notorious for incorrect battery power readings, sometimes showing two fully charged batteries as completely flat even though the camera was operating perfectly normally.
Hi there, Ian glad I found your blog as I used my tx3 for the first time today with grip and the 18 55 kit lens, mine locked out 4 times today but I only shot about 300 frames, i think you might be right this happens when idle, I’ve also noticed the EVF image some time judders a bit, my body and lens have the latest firmware have you experienced this?
Hi Chris, thanks for getting in touch! I’m confident Fuji are going to fix this one pretty soon. Doesn’t seem like the grip itself causes it, but can I ask what kind of batteries you were using? Just curious that I had the most locks when I was using all Fuji batteries.
What EVF judder are you getting? I’ve noticed the exposure can flash bright and dark quickly under certain circumstances as it keeps readjusting, but that may just have been a challenging scene I was shooting.