Fujifilm Manager Theo Georghiades Inside View on Fujifilm’s History : “We Were Losing Connection to PROs”… and the Way to the X-series

Hireacamera interviewed Fujifilm Manager Theo Georghiades (who is also one of our friends at the GFX facebook group)… go to minute 27:17.

Theo gives us an inside view about the history of Fujifilm and talks, for example, about why Fujifilm at a certain point felt like, with their compact digital offering, they were disconnecting from PRO photographers (whom they were always strongly connected to with their film cameras).

So they tried some paths (also partnering with Nikon), and at the end they decided to go all alone with mirrorless (the X-series).

• Fujifilm was the frist to come out with a high end compact camera, the [shoplink 59478 ebay]Finepix 4700[/shoplink], the first super CCD camera.
• They also had the first camera with removable memory
• Fujifilm focussed on digital compact cameras initially, but they felt they were losing the connection to professional photographers. Theo says: “we were always in touch with the professionals” (Fujifilm always had high end film products)
• They started focussing on high end digital cameras with interchangeable lenses
• When they moved into the DSLR market, they partnered with Nikon
• At some point the question arose: “do we start a system completely on our own“
• they looked at mirrorless cameras
• They worked on the Fujifilm X100, a high end compact camera
• The X100 was needed to test the water
• Given the big interested, they continued, offering an interchageable camera, the X-Pro1 (discussion for X-Pro1 started a few months after X100 launch)

The interview starts at minute 27:17 and you can check it out at Hireacamera youtube here.