Fujifilm Photography News and Rumors

Image resources added a new interview with Mr. Udono, Mr. Iida, and Mr. Toshi Iida the now former General Manager Optical Device & Electronic Imaging Products Division at Fujifilm. Below is a summary of the lengthy interview:

• Fujifilm’s supply chain has been restored and manufacturing is back to the usual since COVID-19
• There was a huge drop in sales due to COVID-19, but the market has been recovering and still feels like it is getting better
• Fujifilm thinks they outpaced the market’s recovery thanks to the X-T4
• Fujifilm X-T4 has very strong demand
• Fujifilm X100V also had stronger than expected demand
• “Customers buy cameras even under difficult situations, if the products are unique and innovative.”
• Fujifilm doesn’t expect demand to fully return this year, but the holiday season should be good
• Fujifilm’s camera profits are still pretty good
• CIPA is predicting a 20% year over year drop in the industry, but Fujifilm thinks that it pessimistic
• Fujifilm thinks high-end cameras and mirrorless will be a small portion of that drop, which will mainly impact DSLR cameras
• The Fujifilm X-T3 continues to sell has strong demand
• The Fujifilm GFX100 is still selling better than expected
• Fujifilm did well ignoring full-frame and focusing on GFX and APS-C cameras
• Fujifilm thinks the high-end full-frame market is limited to $3,000 to 5,000 and they are pursuing it with GFX
• Fujifilm wants full frame photographers to upgrade to medium format
• GFX has lots of good AF and NonAF adapters for a variety of lenses
• 70-80% of photographers picking GFX are coming from non-Fujifilm camera systems
• Fujifilm thinks the number of switchers is staggering because they are dumping DSLR for GFX
• If you’re finally leaving DSLR than why not step up to a larger sensor in your mirrorless camera
• GFX50R photographers are shooting street while GFX100 photographers are doing Fashion, commercial, fashion portrait…
• GFX is also generating a lot of inquiries from B2B industrial-type customers for archiving at museums and libraries
• GFX100 outsells the GFX50R and GFX50S every month
• GFX100 Sales volume is 50% above expectations
• Fujifilm is working hard to catch up and keep up with the demand
• They think the attachment rate is 3 or more lenses, with GFX100 having the highest and GFX50R the lowest
• GFX has a higher attachment rate than X cameras
• Fujifilm thinks most are switching to GFX for the superior image quality over full frame
• Full frame photographers love the medium format look
• GFX50R and GFX50S design can use tweaking and there is a balance going on with size, weight, etc…
• GFX100 is the perfect GFX camera and it was made with no compromises which is why they made the camera bigger to include IBIS
• GFX100 customers want no-compromise quality that they can shoot handheld
• Comparing the X-T4 to X-H1 will help you understand what can be done with a few years of R&D
• AI will help with more than just AF in the future but they can’t talk about it now
• Fujifilm’s current processors aren’t fast enough for AI but future cameras will come with chips powerful enough
• Fujifilm doesn’t think 5G will be very useful beyond local stuff before consumer
• X cameras use IBIS and OIS combined, but GFX doesn’t need to combine the tech to reach peak stabilization
• Most image stabilization choices are made due to image circle limitations, which the GFX doesn’t have compared to X
• Fujifilm is transparent about how many stops each lens can provide because of the combined limitations
• 
• The X-T4 IBIS (left) is 30% smaller and 20% lighter than the X-H1 IBIS (Right) unit because they removed the three coil springs and went magnetic in addition to improving other small details like the circuitry
• The Fujifilm X-T4’s IBIS unit is also 8x more accurate thanks to their new gyro sensor this provides more stops of IBIS (8x more detection accuracy of vibration than X-H1)
• The new IBIS allows for the correction of blur at even the edge of the image circle
• Three aspects improved the Fujifilm X-T4’s new shutter
  • New Coreless DC motor with quicker starting/stopping and more torque
  • Analyzed the X-T3 shutter and changed out any weak materials like the shutter material and plastics, which changed the way they filled molds to improve the strength of their glass fiber plastic
  • The springs were improved to absorb shock by using new materials and different tension
• X-T4’s new shutter lasts twice as long and is one third the volume of the X-T3
• The new shutter also improves shutter shock
• Using springs to attach the shutter also greatly cut down on the sound of the new shutter
• It would be hard to fit the new IBIS unit from the X-T4 in the X-Pro4
• Fujifilm is still investigating and keeping their mind open about what to do with an X-H2
• After the launch of the X-T4 Fujifilm received a lot of interest asking for the X-T4 in a bigger body with the command dial etc…
• Fujifilm needs a breakthrough for X-H2 so it seems they like to introduce new features to their cameras via this product line
• There is a lot of internal debate at Fujifilm about how a camera should be held and what buttons are needed, which lead to the removal of the 4 controls on cameras that they might be accidentally pressed
• Fujifilm doesn’t think GFX photographers want as much glass as X mount
• Fujifilm keeps listening for more lenses to add
• Fujifilm dropped the XF33mm f/1.0 for the XF50mm f/1.0 due to size, but also they believe the 50mm f/1.0 has more beautiful Bokeh
• The X-Pro3’s flip-down screen further differentiates it from the X-T4
• They know the flip-down screen is 50/50 love or hate
• Customers that hate the flip-down screen went X-T4 and those that love it have no alternative option
• The Fujifilm X-T3 will be produced as long as people are buying it and the price will continue to fall
• The Fujifilm X-T4’s hybrid digital stabilization system likely won’t show up on other cameras as digital stabilization because it uses the gyro

Fujifilm GFX100: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX50R: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX 50S: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

Fujifilm X-T4: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

Fujifilm X100V: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

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via Image resources