If you don’t have 1.5 hrs to view the new Fujifilm Camera Punk 2019 documentary I created a summary below. Fujifilm is a very unique company with a unique team of people that really love photography and it shows through in this documentary. Some might even call the creation of this documentary a bold move, but it does a good job of representing their philosophies as a company.
- Takashi Ueno creates digital cameras, but he doesn’t like digital cameras which gives Fujifilm its unique style
- Kunio Aoyama the 2nd of triplets and he’s a rebel that uses his bosses to make what he loves and he almost joined a car company but decided to join Fujifilm
- Toshi Hisa Iida (General Manager for Optical Devices and Electronic Imaging Products Division) is Kunio’s boss and he’s dedicated to one wife, one daughter, and one company and he treats the company as his wife and works too hard.
- Toshi Hisa Iida gives employees a lot of freedom to innovate because he trusts his employees
- Yuichi Fujimura spent months refining the feel of the new trigger of the X-Pro3 along with its layout, which comes from the mechanical design so if you touch an X-Pro3 you’re touching his design
- Mindy Tan is an X-Photographer that helped Fujifilm refine the X-Pro3
- Shin Udono thinks X-Photographers help show the cameras spirit or concept
- As of March 13th 2019 Fujifilm has 20 cameras, 39 lenses, and 250 firmware updates and counting which is an impressive achievement
- Omiya is where Fujifilm cameras come together and from drawing board to production the X-Pro3 is expected to be completed within one year
- Fall under Toshi Hisa Iida
- Fujifilm makes broadcast, cine, security, projector, and automotive lenses
- Fujinon used to be its own company, but they merged with Fujifilm
- Electronic Imaging is X and GFX
- Manufacturing is responsible for quality and cost and Product designers want to have beautiful products, but you have to strike the right balance between cost design and features
- Without consensus, they do not get good results, which is different than compromise
- Cameras phones became a thing in 2006/2007 and Fujifilm thinks in the near future people will not need point and shoot cameras anymore so they are focused on the professional market as entry-level cameras die
- If they cant transition the might die
- Fujifilm was one of the last legacy brands to transition to digital and there were no cameras with a traditional design so they tried to fill the niche
- The X in X series means unknown or experimental
- Fujifilm tries to develop impressive cameras that no one else has
- The X-Pro3 came from Kunio Aoyama
- The X-T3, X-H1, X-A5, and X-T100 were designed by Jun Watanabe
- Makoto Oishi is in charge of every GFX along with X-T30, X-E3, all other compacts, and X100
- The product planning team decide the concept, target user, price point, specs, and features
- Product planning meets with R&D weekly about products
- They are like a family and have a lot of trust in each other
- Designers and photographers are behind the design of every camera because Fujifilm is always talking with them to see how they can make things better
- The X100 is very artistic
- GFX100 is one of a kind and they are very confident about its image quality
- Before the X-T Fujifilm just has a rangefinder-style camera the X-Pro1
- Jun Watanabe is a big part of the X-T series because he wanted them to diversify instead of sticking to one style
- X-T series is like an educated person that can do anything
- Jun Watanabe, Makoto Ooishi and Kunio Aoyama are the three musketeers of Fujifilm cameras
- The X-Pro series is the range finder that defines the Fujifilm brand so the X-Pro3 is very important to them
- X-Pro1 really began the X Series
- The X-Pro3 has to be special and it is a masterpiece for snap-shooters (street photographers) that want to be discreet with high-end quality
- Shooting X-Pro is like a jam session played by photographers with street objects
- The X-Pro shouldn’t be flashy because it will stand out on the street
- Generally, design is emphasizing or decorating something, but it is not the essence of design
- Design is to brush up a product, not to dress it up
- It was hard to improve the X-Pro design which they try to make operational without looking at the dials so that you can blindly control the camera
- You can change the pertinent settings on the X-Pro3 without looking away from your subject
- X-Pro1 had many problems at launch, but a lot of potential so it was difficult to sell due to things like slow AF
- Mirrorless cameras are small so at the time rangefinder-style was an ideal fit, but the optics are hard to fit in the form factor, which is why it is a little more expensive than X-T
- Fujifilm wants to make cameras that people can use without manuals
- You can’t really design analog cameras anymore, but you can make digital cameras more like analog
- X Photographers told Fujifilm they love X-Pro1 from the start
- X-Pro2 was the camera they really wanted to make
- Fujifilm employees love analog cameras too much
- Some see analog cameras as real cameras, but not digital for them this mindset changed after X-Pro2
- It took 4 years to go from X-Pro1 to X-Pro2 and now 3 years later we have the X-Pro3
- They talked to some X Photographers about what they wanted when designing the X-Pro3
- Eric Bouvet wanted it to have no buttons, no screen, nothing
- Eric Bouvet also said if you love your camera it will show in your work
- When approaching the design of the X-Pro3 the three main ideas were change the finder, the exterior material and put a tiltable LCD.
- The sub-LCD came later which came from the desire for a shot indicator
- When looking at LCD’s for the task they only had a color one that fit and the size reminded them of the film window on the back of the camera so that’s where the film indicator feature came from which was at the end of last year
- It was time to use Titanium because it is a very functional material that is very strong, very durable, and very stable.
- They just got access to the titanium they needed for the X-Pro last year
- Over the past 10-20 years of digital cameras, only a few cameras have used titanium and they were point and shoot cameras
- Titanium is the body armor for the X-Pro3 to fight in
- The hidden LCD leads users to the finder and the OVF charms the shooter because it is a message from Fujifilm
- Playback action disturbs the rhythm of shooting
- The X-Pro3 makes the experience more analog-like which changes the entire mindset
- Salespeople challenged them on the X-Pro3 design
- Salespeople could see that is was cool, but didn’t think it would be popular
- Over a beer, they would say personally they love the camera, but you’re not going to change their mind
- X-Pro is a product of hobby and not logic, but the heart
- The heart makes the decision when buying a camera like the X-Pro
- X-Pro3 is not a tribute to analog, but a new camera that pays homage to analog
- The passion of photography has been forgotten in the age of the digital camera and Fujifilm is trying to bring it back
- Most analog users do not care about specs they care about the feel and passion of shooting
- They wanted the same passion to come back to photography and to digital cameras
- X-Pro is a fusion of digital and analog
- From here the people involved talking a little about their personal roles in creating X-Pro3, which is interesting, but not overly informative without watching the totality of the video since they are largely speaking in general
- Balancing request from product planners, designers, and specifications is very difficult
- Fujifilm has 500 X photographers around the world and the program kind of happened by accident
- When the X100 came out no one knew where it fits or the X-Pro1 a year later and the use of them professionally confused Fujifilm
- X-Photographers are like volunteer ambassadors
- Fujifilm doesn’t just make cameras they look at photography
- Fujifilm cameras are designed with and for photographers, their cameras are not just digital devices they are cameras
- There is a lot of respect that goes both ways
- They take feedback seriously and if you point out the placement of a button it could be changed on the next camera or if you want a feature in 6 months it might show up in a menu
- Fujifilm builds a lot of its products on trust
- Every model has at least 10 improvements
- Firmware updates are also important, but hardware improvements are more important
- Fujifilm has responded to AF requests and video requests they have also created new devices and software improvements based on requests which can lead to new directions
- In the beginning they hard performance issues but now that they have improved they can propose more new features
- They will share new features even with older cameras whenever they can even if they didn’t sell well because X series is about the customer because if the customer loves our product we should respect them with firmware updates
- Toshi Hisa Iida’s first hobby was photography when he went to Jr. High School, he was 13 and his father offered to give him something for passing an exam and he picked a Nikon DSLR camera which his father generously bought him
- Toshi Hisa Iida didn’t have much money so he bought rolls of film with friends and they share everything to save money, which was 10 years before he joined Fujifilm
- Toshi Hisa Iida stayed in the photographic business in charge of photography at Fujifilm for 28 years and in his words “Fortunately or unfortunately “
- The decline of film from 2005-2010 hurt Fujifilm a lot costing them almost 60% of their core business
- This cut the camera department in half during their restructuring to save the company
- At that time they didn’t have a good camera line up especially for autofocus
- Day by day and step by step they grew to know and trust each other which lead to a strong team
- When you ask 10 customers you get 10 different opinions so it can be hard to design a camera for everyone
- Sometimes instead of asking the customers you just have to make a decision so X-Pro3 is how they feel the X-Pro line should go.
- If they kept asking they couldn’t reach a final LCD design and Fujifilm has a passion for new things
- Not seeing the image on the back puts your brain back into photography
- If you’re new to photography, you will learn from the camera, but if you are old to photography, you will love this camera. It’s very nostalgic, it’s very analog-type. You use it like using Film.
- The X-Pro3 brings back the true essence of photography
- They listened to all the requests, but later ignored them to make what is a great camera that can capture great photos
Fujifilm X-Pro3 (Pick Your Trim): B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
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