After the Colossal Fujifilm X100VI Success: Fixed Lens Cameras to Storm the Market, but X100VI Will Rule Them All – and Here is Why!

Share

The rumors about future fixed lens cameras from other brands are intensifying.

And I get it that other brands might be interested in launching their own fixed lens cameras considering that:

  • the Fujifilm X100VI is the best selling camera of the last 15 years at least
  • the Ricoh GRIII is so successful, that Ricoh decided to stop to take orders in a couple of countries
  • the Leica Q3 is enjoying great success too

Now, out of the three cameras mentioned above, the Fujifilm X100VI is the best selling camera by a very large margin.

But, if the rumors are accurate, there might soon me much more competition coming for the Fujifilm X100VI and certainly this motivated Fujifilm to rapidly increase production of the X100VI in order to sell as units as possible before more competition hits the market.

But as much as I welcome future competition, there are two crucial advantage that the Fujifilm X100VI has over other brands.

Film Simulations:

Every brand has its color science. And every brand has its color profiles in camera.

But what Fujifilm has that no other brand offers, are the film simulations, hence color profiles that carry the name of original Fujifilm film stock (Acros, Reala, Provia, Velvia etc.).

Film simulations are the digital incarnation of Fujifilm’s incredibly vast experience when it comes to color science.

It’s this legacy and photographic culture that motivates Fujifilm to take care of and work on colors more than any other brand. And as of today, Fujifilm is widely regarded as offering the best colors among all brands, as well as the widest offering (20 film simulations) and customisability (you can fine tune film simulations to your own taste by setting lots of different parameters)

Photographic culture, history and legacy matter. And the film simulations are the perfect way to bring this heritage into the digital era.

If other brands want to compete in this regard, then I think Andrea of SonyAlphaRumors is right, when he repeatedly says Sony should buy the rights from Kodak to use their film stock names and use them in their own cameras.

Hybrid Viewfinder:

There are many photographers, who truly appreciate and love it.

Many others instead might call it a gimmick.

But look, even if it was a gimmick for you, I think you’ll agree that the hybrid viewfinder is one hardware aspect that makes the Fujifilm X100 line look incredibly sexy.

I mean, compare the look of the Leica D-Lux7 (to get replaced soon) vs X100VI. Which one looks better to you: having an optical viewfinder on the front, or a red Leica logo instead of it?

And since the beauty of a camera is a significant part of its appeal (and sales success), Fujifilm does well to keep the hybrid viewfinder.

The hybrid viewfinder is a win: those who love to have an optical viewfinder can use it, those who don’t need it, still get a much nicer and vintage looking camera thanks to it.

Conclusion

Film simulations and hybrid viewfinder are, in my opinion, huge and unique selling points in favour of the Fujifilm X100VI and the main reason why the X100 line will always remain on the very top of the premium compact camera market sales by a very large margin.

However, every competition has to be taken seriously and will more or less have a negative impact on X100VI sales anyway.

This is why it is a wise move that Fujifilm made the strategic choice to ramp up production of the X100VI, aiming to capture a much share of the compact camera market as possible and further establish its dominance in that segment.

Share

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases