There is a rumor relating to Fujifilm, from the Chinese forum dc.home (translation). It has been spread by joofei, whom you probably still remember from the Wild Rumor Series (wild rumors 1, wild rumors 2 and wild rumors 3).

Joofei says, that Fujifilm, Panasonic & Toshiba are going to announce something before mid-September 2015… and once more, wild guesses started, related to organic sensor or the rumored Medium Format camera.

Everything joofei shared so far, has still be verified. So take it with the mandatory grain of salt.

WHAT WE KNOW

TOSHIBA: Fujifilm is already cooperating with Toshiba… they make the Fuji X-Trans 2/3 sensors

PANASONIC: Fujifilm is cooperating with Panasonic on the Organic Sensor

WHAT COULD BE

Is it possible, that these 3 companies joined forces to break Sony’s sensor hegemony? I don’t know, and we will probably soon see if joofei is reliable or not.

But today I want to share with you an older rumor, which I never shared in the past (yeah, I know, my obsession for beeing as reliable as possible ;) ).

The rumor I’ve received said, that the next generation of X-Trans sensor will be made by Toshiba (until now, Fuji’s APS-C sensors are made by Sony). This partnership change should be the reason for the delay of the X-PRO2.

It’s anonymous, so take it with a grain of salt. I share it today, because it could be another element of discussion in addition to what joofei said at the Forum. Anyway, since I’ve shared the Toshiba rumor, I’ll include it now into my big rumor check.

So, time again for wild specualtions !

stay tuned,
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PREFACE

1) Current APS-C Fuji cameras feature a Sony sensor (with special Fuji X-Trans design).
2) Fuji can use the latest generation of Sony sensors only about half a year after Sony itself implemented it in one of their cameras.
3) Therefore, any Sony A7000 sensor rumor could potentially be interesting also for the X-PRO2
4) No rumor until now says, that Fuji is going to use the Sony A7000 sensor for their X-PRO2

The Rumor

Ok, then let’s talk about the rumor SonyAlphaRumors just shared. According to the rumor of SAR, the Sony A6000 successor will hit the market soon…. very soon, maybe on the first half of September.

And here are the sensor specs:

– Best in class low light performance (backlit sensor and RGBW pixel array)
– internal 4k video recording with full sensor readout in 60fps
– extremly fast autofocus system

There is a Sony press-release of 2012 that explains how the RGBW Coding works.

The built-in “RGBW Coding” function which adds W (White) pixels to the conventional range of RGB (Red-Green-Blue) pixels has realized higher sensitivity, enabling high-quality shooting with low noise even in dark indoor or night settings. While the addition of W (White) pixels improves sensitivity, it has the problem of degrading image quality. However, Sony’s own device technology and signal processing realizes superior sensitivity without hurting image quality.

Also a Fuji patent of 2012 shows a sensor with enlarged green and  white pixels (see here). So Fujifilm at least investigated the possibility to make it. If it will become true soon, we will see.

CONCLUSION

– If it’s true, that the X-PRO2 will feature the same sensor of the A7000 (just with special X-Trans array)
– If it’s true, that Fuji has to wait about half a year before being able to use that sensor
– If it’s true that the A7000 will be announced early September

then this means that the Fuji X-PRO2 could hit the market around February/March.

stay tuned,
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