Let’s Talk Kaizen: about What Changed, What Didn’t, and The Choice Fujifilm Had to Make

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Recently a Fujifilm manager said that they are committed to bring X-H2S autofocus features as much as possible to older models (X-T3/X-T4).

So what, is Kaizen coming back?

Well, Kaizen never left. It was just on semi-pause for a while, and for an excellent reason I might say.

Let me explain.

Fujifilm vs The Rest

Fujifilm was the one company that started the whole notion of Kaizen applied to digital cameras.

  • Kaizen = firmware that does not fix only bugs, but adds new features, too

And let’s talk clearly: Kaizen has an immediate negative impact on the company for two reasons: it costs a lot to develop firmware that brings new features to older cameras and it can withhold people from upgrading to the latest and greatest gear as their older cameras will get improved via firmware anyway.

The advantage of this approach is more a long term one: you hope to create loyalty among your customers and that therefore they won’t switch brands.

But here is the thing: other brands took note from Fujifilm and started to do exactly the same thing. This means, Fujifilm’s strategic Kaizen-advantage is gone.

Did Fuji Kill Kaizen?

In the last 2 years, the belief spread among the Fuji community, that Kaizen was basically dead as Fujifilm started to have a more profit-oriented approach. Save on firmware updates and kick out new cameras that will “force” people to buy new gear in order to get the latest and greatest features.

And while I can agree that it might have somehow slowed down compared to the past, if we look back at last year we can’t really say that Kaizen was dead in the Fuji world.

So, that’s the Kaizen reality check, and we can see its by far not as dramatic as people in forums go around saying.

But it’s also clear to me: with the rapidly growing number of X series cameras, the costs to keep them all updated with the latest new features would be unsustainable. Fujifilm can’t release major firmware updates all the time to the X100, X-A, X-M, X-E, X-T*, X-T**. X-T***, X-E, X-H, X-Pro and X-S line of cameras as well as all the GFX cameras.

The Choice Fuji had to Make

We talked earlier how other companies started to make Kaizen updates, too. And that’s great. That’s one of the extraordinary things of competition: it motivates them all to do better and work harder to please customers.

But while Fujifilm could keep up the Kaizen battle easily, there was one area in which they struggled big time: Canon, Nikon and Sony had superior autofocus performance and features.

And here is the reality check:

Fujifilm’s team responsible for firmware updates is not massive. In fact, the whole photographic segment of Fujifilm is rather small.

And they had to make a choice: keep going extreme with Kaizen love, which would mean drain their resources to update older cameras, or go all-in and allocate most of the money into catching up in terms of autofocus with other brands.

And I believe Fujifilm made the right choice: they decided to slow down the whole Kaizen-love thing and they told to their team: “Our next camera has to be as good in terms of AF as the best brands out there. Take a break from Kaizen, and here is the money to work just on that“.

What we got is the Fujifilm X-H2s, which even is on par with the best cameras out there.

The Future

It cost Fujifilm a lot of time and a lot of money, but finally they got there! Autofocus is on par with Sony and Co.

And aren’t you happy about it, even if that means that Kaizen did have to slow down for a while?

And now that the new algorithm is written and done, it will surely find its way in all future 5th generation X cameras, including the nice vintage Fujifilm X-T5, or even the ultra-retro X-Pro4 or the classic X-T40 and the stylish X-E5.

Moreover, with this huge investment now done, it could be also possible that Fujifilm will say to their development team: “You did a great job with the X-H2S. We caught up with Sony & Co. Now here is the next bunch of money we will allocate for firmware. Your job: bring as much of the X-H2S goodness as possible to older X-Trans cameras“.

And that’s what the German manager said: with the new algorithm written and done, now Fujifilm is looking into what they can (or can’t) bring to older cameras of that AF goodness.

To be clear: I have no rumors about future Kaizen updates and I am aware that the older processor on X-Trans IV cameras can be a limiting factor. But I would also not be surprised if now Fujifilm has freed up resources again that they can re-invest into bringing more Kaizen firmware updates also to older cameras. That’s at least what also the German manager suggests.

The Conclusion Poll

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