Fujifilm Managers Interviews: About Competition and Alliances, Dreams of Modular and Fixed Lens GFX and More

image courtesy - phototrend
image courtesy – phototrend

There have been two interviews with Fujifilm managers, one in French (the more comprehensive one) and one in Japanese (short).

I will sum up both of them, but the Japanese one only because it involves Koji Matsumoto, the president of Fujifilm Imaging. It does not say much at all, but if we hear from his mouth that X-H2 and X-H2S are selling better than Fujifilm thought, than it has its value.

The French manager was definitely much more talkative and if you don’t speak French, our summary below will cover it all.

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Fujifilm Designer Talks about GFX: “I would Love to Evolve the GFX50R Rangefinder Series” and More on GFX Series Development

Fujifilm design manager Mr. Masazumi Imai (the guy we are all very grateful to because he designed the original X100 – read the story of his inspiration here) gave an interview in Japanese to MapCamera.

As usual youtube struggles with live video translations, but down below you can find a summary in English of both videos as well as the videos themselves.

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Fringer NF-GFX Smart Adapter Almost Ready and Video Demo

The development of Fringer NF-GFX smart autofocus adapter is almost complete. Now it’s in the beta stage and will be released soon.

Fringer also shared a video showing the Finger NF-GFX at work.

Here are the key features:

  1. Built-in aperture motor. Support electronic aperture control for both mechanical and magnetoelectric aperture lenses (AF, D, G, E lenses).
  2. Autofocus (AF-S & AF-P lenses only). Support phase detection AF (on GFX100/100S and optimized lenses only).
  3. Build-in lens profiles. Support LaCA correction (optimized lenses only). Support vignetting and distortion correction (selected lenses only).
  4. Support lens VR or IBIS (not at the same time). User selectable.

Fringer adapters can be ordered at B&H Photo, AmazonUS and Adorama.

List of Smart Adapters

Johnnie at CineD: “Fujifilm X-H2 is Fuji’s Best Video Camera Ever Made and I Prefer it over X-H2s”

When I shared the first rumors about Fujifilm launching two X-H cameras (over 1 year ago!!!), many concluded that one will be the video centric and the other the stills centric camera.

But I insisted that this is not the difference to make.

  • Fujifilm X-H2
  • Fujifilm X-H2S

We must think in terms of “speed” and “resolution”, as both X-H cameras are excellent hybrid cameras, and the depending on your needs you might want more speed or resolution in your videos or stills.

Incredibly though, even after the release of both cameras, many still insist that the X-H2S is the video camera and the X-H2 the stills oriented body.

So you know what I’ll do?

I’ll give the word to a videographer we all know, appreciate and trust: Johnnie Behiri from CineD (one of the very few youtubers I trust for being honest in their reviews, but also honest with how they present themselves to their audience… you know what I mean).

Anyway, after filming short documentaries with both, the Fujifilm X-H2s and the Fujifilm X-H2 (hence after really using both cameras on the field rather than just in a basement), he decided that the best video tool for his needs is the Fujifilm X-H2.

Why? Well, he explains it this way:

“Personally, the X-H2 is the best camera for video FUJIFILM has ever made! I’m sure it will also cater well to those who need to produce video next to photo content as the 40.2MP sensor is sufficient for such a “dual task”. With so many resolution options (Full HD – 8K), next to a robust internal recording 4:2:2 10- bit codec (ProRes), good IBIS, and good autofocus performance, I predict that this camera will be a hit, especially considering its attractive price ($1999). Add good audio and lowlight capabilities and there you have it – a very versatile working tool! So the bottom line is, after filming with both, the X-H2S and X-H2, the latter is my preferred option. Not because I don’t appreciate Open Gate, High Frame-Rate recording, or fast sensor capability, but I can simply live with those shortcomings and in exchange earn greater recording flexibility and good IBIS performance (which is essential for my documentary work).“

He ends up calling the Fujifilm X-H2 the “Swiss Army Knife” in Fujifilm’s lineup.

It is interesting to note that he mentions the vastly improved IBIS on the X-H2 over the X-H2s, which can make huge hopes to Fujifilm X-H2s shooters to get an improvement via firmware update.

And despite the high-density pixel sensor, the noise performance on the Fujifilm X-H2 is really good. He writes:

“One of the things that caught my attention is how well the camera records in lowlight situations despite having a 40.2MP sensor.”

To me it looks like Fujifilm actually did quite a miracle here. At least for stills, everybody was sure the Fujifilm X-H2 would perform worst than the X-T4 or the X-H2S, but that does not seem to be the case at all. No idea how the heck the Fuji engineers were able to achieve that and I hope that down the road some Fujifilm manager will give us a more technical explanation for that.

Make sure to read the full CineD X-H2 first look here.

Fujifilm launches Mirrorless digital camera “FUJIFILM X-H2”

Fujifilm Introduces FUJIFILM X-H2 mirrorless digital camera

Equipped with the new, 40.2MP “X-Trans™ CMOS 5 HR” sensor to deliver the highest image quality in the X Series lineup

Full Press Release

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Let’s Get Serious: The Hasselblad X2D is Awesome, But Don’t Call it a GFX Killer – and Here is WHY!

Fujifilm GFX Shooters, Rejoice!

After a long wait, DJI (the owner of Hasselblad) launched the Hasselblad X2D.

Great specs, phase detection autofocus, IBIS and many more lovely features that make it a worthy and much needed competitor to the Fujifilm GFX system.

All Fujifilm GFX shooters (me included) should rejoice right now, because competition is a good thing and if the GFX system finally gets some serious pressure in the medium format realm, Fujifilm will be forced to step on the gas even more to keep dominating the market.

The Dubious Design Choice

But as much as I think the Hasselblad X2D is an awesome piece of gear, in its very same design philosophy lies a choice, that some might love, but many others might consider a dealbreaker and a flawed idea to start with: it has no mechanical shutter.

What this means is that you either rely on the electronic shutter (which is not the best choice on medium format cameras with slower sensor readout) or you use the native Hasselblad XCD lenses with build-in leaf shutter.

This choice Hasselblad made has two major downsides:

  • you can’t use older legacy glass on the Hasselblad X2D (except you use only electronic shutter, which is not recommended and rather limiting due to the slower readout of MF sensors)
  • you have to pay for the leaf shutter every single time with every lens purchase

And something I have noticed going through our Fujifilm GFX group, is that GFX owners LOVE to adapt vintage glass on their camera. It’s fun and it can give unique and very characteristic results.

Sadly, by not having a mechanical shutter, the Hasselblad X2D is simply the less ideal tool for this purpose than the Fujifilm GFX.

A GFX Killer? Let’s check it

Now the forums are quickly flooding with statements that the Hasselblad X2D is a GFX killer.

Really?

Well, let’s check one of the most important (if not THE most important) aspect: Price!

So let’s do just that, let’s buy the Hasselblad X2D as well as the Fujifilm GFX100S with 3 comparable GF and XCD lenses.

with

with

with

All in all, in order to build up a similar system (1 camera with 3 similar lenses) you’d spend:

This means you save $7,474 by buying the GFX system over the Hasselblad.

With the money saved you could add to your GFX system the Fujinon GF 80mm f/1.7, the Fujinon GF 23mm f/4 and something like the Fujinon GF 45-100mm f/4. And you’d still have some money left to buy a spare battery and SD-Cards.

So, with a budget of about $20,000 you can buy:

  • X2D with 3 lenses
  • GFX100S with 6 lenses
    + still a couple of hundreds of dollars left to invite your better half to a romantic weekend, take lovely images with your new gear and show her/him that only 100 megapixel can make justice to her/his beauty

One might argue that the Hasselblad X2D has 1TB internal storage. Not really an argument, as I guess we all have plenty of SD-cards at home, so by buying the GFX you don’t really need to add SD-Cards to it as we can just use the ones we already have.

But even if we were to buy the equivalent storage in terms of SD Cards, let’s say we’d add four SanDisk UHS-II SD cards, you still end up saving $6,200 over the Hasselblad X2D system, hence still plenty of money to invest in lenses.

There is still no comparison. The Fujifilm GFX100S is the objectively better choice in terms of features and price.

However, buying decisions are not only made rationally. There is also a very subjective aspect to it. So if you really love the design of the Hasselblad system, then you are obviously better off getting the X2D over the GFX100S.

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RUMOR, NEWS and COMMUNITY

Fujifilm Managers Talk 100 Megapixel GFX-R, XF56mmF1.2 MKII, How to Train the New Autofocus, Updated Camera Remote APP and More

image credit - Dave Etchells at imaging-resource.com
image credit – Dave Etchells at imaging-resource.com

Dave Etchells from Imaging Resource met five Japanese Fujifilm managers: Yujiro Igarashi, Makoto Oishi, Jun Watanabe, Kuniko Åo and Shu Amano.

And when 5 managers are needed to answer the questions of 1 single person, you know it’s going to be a very in depth and technical talk.

In fact, it ends up in a 8,000 words interview that I have summed up down below in 1,470 words.

Some notes and considerations ahead of it:

  • Fujifilm says they are working on updating the camera remote App, especially to make it work better with older cameras. They did NOT say they are working on an all new App. But FujiRumors has already shared a rumor that there will be an all new App!
  • Fujifilm aimed to make the GFX system smaller, and the GFX50R served that purpose. Now the GFX100S is perceived as small enough, and so they see “less need for something even more compact“. But they also add “we always look at the market to see if there’s a need to introduce something“. My impression based on this interview is that they currently have no plans for a GFX100R, but they don’t entirely want to rule out this possibility. And in fact, given how well the GFX100S is selling, Fujifilm has no hurry at all to take decisions right now.

These are just two personal notes on what you’ll read below. But there is really a lot more interesting stuff… like how Fujifilm did work to train the new AF and much more.

The Interview

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DPRTV: Fujifilm X-H2S vs Panasonic GH6 for Video Shooters

Released within months of each other, at similar prices, the Panasonic GH6 and Fujifilm X-H2S are some of the most compelling mirrorless cameras available for video shooters. Jordan Drake takes you through the strengths and weaknesses of these outstanding cameras.

Here is a summary:

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A Tale of a Hiking Fuller than Full Frame, a Sony Shooter Lusting after Fujifilm Colors and a Rumor Storm to Come

I Was Gone… Fuller than Full Frame!

This summer my Fujifilm APS-C X gear dominated and found its way in my camera bag most of the time.

May it be my X-T4 used during my holidays on the Elba island in Tuscany with my wife and son, or my top-combo X-E3 with XF27mm2.8 R WR used in many of my short 1 day family friendly mountain hikes.

But not this time!

In fact, I just came back from an extensive multi-day mountain hike in the Dolomites, and this is what I packed:

So how did it go?

Well, the reason I mostly instinctively grab my X series gear is because, in addition to offering a great image quality, compared to my GFX gear it is simply lighter and more compact, plus there are some lenses I truly love in that system, like the XF35mmF1.4 R (which never stops to stun me), the Fujifilm X-E3 with XF27mmF2.8MKII (my go to combo to document my everyday family life) and the XF18-135mmF3.5-5-6.

But the lightness and sheer perfect balance of the APS-C X system made me forget one thing: how portable and flexible actually also Fujifilm’s medium format system is!

As you can see, this is how I hiked for several hours a day: a medium format camera and lens on my hip, the tripod most of the time in my camera bag as IBIS took care to compensate for my tired and shaking hands… and in my heart the certainty that no matter how tricky the light will be, no matter how challenging the conditions, no camera will be able to handle it better than my Fujifilm GFX100S does (unless you use one of those monstrous digital MF cameras, but good luck hiking with those… if you can afford it!)

So we can only be grateful to Fujifilm for making medium format so accessible in terms of size and price.

A Sony Shooter Lusts after Fujifilm Colors

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