Fujifilm Manager: GFX Triumph and Full Frame Attack Strategy, Shrinking IBIS, AI Future, Fuji X-H2 Needs Breakthrough, COVID and More

September 4, 2020
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Imaging-resource published a long and very interesting interview with various Fujifilm managers, including Toshihisa Iida).

Here is a summary:

COVID-19:

COVID: all back to normal now. Chinese factory was closed for 2 weeks in February and the factory in the Philippines was closed in April
due to closed retail shops, April was the worst month in terms of sales, now slowly recovering
Fujifilm did better than the market trend, due to Fujfilm X-T4 and X100V launch
demand for X-T4 is very strong
in 2020, probably demand will not go back to the same level as last year
when Fuji presents its fiscal reports, in the imaging division report there is the section “Electronic imaging” and this is almost 100% digital cameras and interchangeable lenses
overall for the imaging segment, the profit is still relatively OK
CIPA predicts a further 20% drop this year for the camera industry, but Fujifilm thinks that is too pessimistic
Fujifilm focuses on high end devices and hence the drop should not be as bad
GFX100 sales much higher than Fuji predicted and X-T3 demand is strong
Fujifilm ignores Full Frame, which makes them different to all other companies
instead of doing what everybody does, Fujifilm went a different path

GFX Triumph and Strategy

top full frame cameras are priced around $3,000-5,000. Fujifilm targets those customers to expand customer base
at that price point, people can choose full frame or upgrade to medium format GFX
as flange distance is different, XF lenses can’t be adapted to GFX cameras
you can adapt DSLR lenses to Fujifilm GFX with smart autofocus adapters
70-80% of GFX customers were coming from non-Fuji cameras. Most probably from full frame DSLR cameras
GFX 50R targets street photographers. GFX 100 is more serious or professional photographers: Fashion, commercial, fashion portrait…
high requests for GFX cameras also among museums and libraries for archival purpose
Fujifilm GFX100 is currently the best selling GFX camera. GFX50R is close to GFX100 sales. GFX50S sees half the sales of GFX50R.
GFX sells 50% better than they predicted
GFX lens attachment rate: about 3 lenses per 1 GFX camera
Fujifilm X system has a lower lens attachment rate than GFX system
GFX system is really good business for Fujifilm
the medium format look is striking to full-frame customers: 3D-feel, higher resolution, dynamic range, lenses than can resolve 100MP
GFX is best for image quality
size, weight, price… Fujifilm is looking on how to make medium-format attractive and realistic as a choice for customers
the success with the GFX50R was its smaller size
But with GFX100 Fujifilm wanted to make the perfect GFX camera, hence put IBIS into it for best usability, which made the camera bigger
for GFX100 users portability is not as important as usability (for example handheld 100MP shooting thanks to IBIS)
for the future, GFX has to become smaller and cheaper

AI / IBIS / new X-T4 shutter

Fujifilm is investigating what AI can do to help future picture-taking
current processor is not powerful enough to deal with AI, but Fujifilm thinks it will be included in cameras in the future
IBIS in X-T4 and X-H1 can cooperate with the lens OIS
But for the GFX 100 Fujifilm doesn’t have the cooperative stabilization because OIS can deliver almost all the stabilization performance
the IBIS on X-T4 can exceed the OIS performance of the lens, hence up to 6.5 stops stabilization on X-T4
Some lenses have a big image circle, so the IBIS unit can move further to stabilize the image.
in order to make IBIS smaller, Fujifilm removed all 3 coil springs and replaced them with magnets
X-H1 has six magnets. Three for sensing, and three for moving position. X-T4 has only three magnets doing both jobs
this made IBIS 30% smaller and 20% lighter as well as 8 times more accurate thanks to a new gyro sensor (8x more detection accuracy of vibration than X-H1, making it possible to correct blur even at the edge of the image circle)
current IBIS unit still too big for X-Pro body
X-T4 impressive 300,000 actuations thanks to: new coreless DC motor for quick starting and stopping and more torque. Fuji changed the position of the injection into the mold for more rigidity. Newly-designed spring to absorb the shock

Fujifilm X-H2

Fujifilm continues to “investigate future X-H cameras”
X-T and X-H are two clearly different lines. What is the difference? “Difficult to say now; we need some sort of the breakthrough, probably.”
it’s not enough for the X-H2 to be an X-T4 with bigger grip, “we have to have something more revolutionary.”
X-H2 is where new technology will enter the product line

D-Pad removal & mixed

some cameras have no D-Pad to avoid misoperating
X-Pro3 has hidden tilt LCD to differenciate more from X-T4

Lenses

GF requires a smaller number of lenses compared to the XF lens lineup, because with the XF we need big telephoto zooms, for example, to meet the demand for sports photographers
XF33mmF1.0 was too big. Fujifilm went for the XF50mmF1.0, which also has much more beautiful bokeh than the XF33mmF1.0

Firmware

X-T4 has digital image stabilization. Older Fuji cameras won’t get it via firmware update, because it probably requires the new gyro sensor present only on the X-T4

You can read the full and comprehensive interview at imaging-resource.

XF50mmF1.0: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera
Fujifilm X-T4: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, FocusCamera

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