DPR: CP+ 2019: Fujifilm interview

DPReview interviewed some Fujifilm senior executives at CP+. Below are some excerpts:

GFX and The Market

Medium Format and Full-Frame will exist side by side
The GFX50R expanded the medium format audience
Full-Frame is about 1/3 of the market
Medium format was 1% of the market and Fujifilm has doubled its size
No target for the size of the market
70% of GFX buyers were coming from other brands DSLRs
20% of GFX owners are professionals the other 80% are not
Fujifilm wants to increase its appeal to professionals
The GFX100 gives photographers a look at the future of photography
Full-Frame can probably reach 70-80MP
GFX lets Fujifilm surpass Full-Frame’s limitations and shows off their glass, which was designed for 100MP
GFX100 will be released before the end of June
GF lenses are heavily influenced by X lenses more than their other large format offerings
GFX100 is targeted at commercial photographers and fashion/landscape, but will also it will help full-frame photographers on other systems see GFX as a serious option for their work
X Photographers tend to be general purpose and GFX photographers like the look of medium format
GFX100 is one of the first cameras to have 16-bit RAW but you will only really notice it at low ISO in dark shadow details
16-bit RAW has 4x the information and will take longer to edit
16-bit isn’t really appropriate for APS-C

APS-C

Fujifilm plans to keep up with their pace of innovation and will be focused on speed going forward
X-Series offers speed/size/weight advantages over Full-Frame
Fujifilm doesn’t consider if their firmware updates harm sales their goal is to support the customer so they trust the brand

Fujifilm on Video

4 or 5 years ago Fujifilm ignored video and as they slowly improved the feature customers asked for it on cameras like the X-Pro2 unexpectedly where users wanted 4k instead of 1080p
Fujifilm might consider a dedicated video camera in the future
Fujifilm sees a market for their MK glass and they designed it for X and E mount to make it a better investment
You need good glass designed for video for good video so Fujifilm will continue to support their video features with glass designed for video
MK lens sales were in line with expectations
MK lenses are selling to the rental market and directly because of there reasonable prices

Lens Design Discussion

Fujifilm designs their lenses to minimize digital corrections and maximize optical quality
This makes their lenses bigger, but any digital correction has an impact on image quality
Fujifilm only turns to digital corrections if a lens design gets too big or heavy
The original XF35 f/1.4 had great optical quality, but slow AF because the entire optical assembly had to move to focus
If Fujifilm released a new XF35 f/1.4 they would take a different approach and balance the optical quality and AF, because they have new actuators and optical tech today
Fujifilm is using more automation their assembly line now
First generation X lenses didn’t have Nano GI coatings they also weren’t designed for video
Fujifilm wants to be a major player in sports and wildlife photography
Fujifilm is tweaking everything for speed now, which will benefit them

X100

There are many opinions about how the X100 could be improved
The top request is probably better optics since they are still using the same lens as the original 12MP X100 with a 24MP sensor
The second most requested is probably a tilting screen
Then maybe 4k and weather-sealing
Photographers just don’t want the style/size of the X100 to change at all
X100 has a big customer base and Fujifilm doesn’t want to let them down

X-Mount

No reason to open X-Mount because they already have 31 great lenses
Fujifilm is not against choice for customers and understands lens makers reverse engineering their mount to make AF lenses

Big in The Future

Global shutter is one big thing coming
More computational AI tech in cameras will improve photography too
Modular GFX joke
Global shutter would give Fujifilm more freedom to design and no rolling shutter so more shooting possibilities
AI and deep learning will let photographers just press a button and let the camera do the work
Cameras without controls could be created with AI and deep learning

You can read the full interview at DPR here.

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