On paper, it looks to be a great lens. Fujirumors members already are bashing it. Too expensive. Too big. Too heavy. Where's the marked aperture intervals? Yadda yadda yadda.

First, the contention that this lens is expensive is ridiculous. Fujifilm should be free to charge whatever they want for their products. If they want the X series to be a premium set of cameras and lenses, there is only one way to ensure it: price accordingly. If you want the puppy dog and toenail photographers, make your stuff as cheaply as possible and hoard a ridiculous and uncontrollable market.

True, Fujifilm could charge less for the 10-24. They could price it according to, say, performance alone. There's a tactic. Yay! The market at work. Samyang do that. And look at how their products are lusted after. Do the Samyang thing, but in Toyota style. Literally support 60+ models of cameras, just so that you don't miss anyone. Don't have a vision of your own. Down cultivate that vision. Don't aim high. Don't design for consistency.

Go for the toenail group.

The problem is that Fujifilm is a Japanese company. Over here in Japan, the only thing that matters is large distribution. Focus in your lineup and focus on a specific market are completely foreign to Japanese corporations.

Toenails!

Fujifilm have already released a couple of cheap X cameras that prove that they are going after everyone and everything. And they have a whole range of crappy point-and-shoot cameras that, for all intents and purposes, could be made by any camera company out there. So now, Fujifilm have to answer to the toenail group.

When the X100, and later the X-Pro 1 was released, I had hoped that Fujifilm would abandon a silly past, that they would aim high and focus on perfect haptics, on simplicity, and most important, on cultivating a mature, loyal, and percipient market.