Who is…

If I am looking for unbiased, objective and competent reviews about anything electronics related, I often look at recommendations of Stiftung Warentest, a “German consumer organisation and foundation involved in investigating and comparing goods and services in an unbiased way. It was founded on 4 December 1964 by the Federal Republic of Germany as an independent foundation under civil law*”

Stiftung Warentest even gets €3.5 million a year from the German state as “compensation for the fact that it does not carry any advertisements in its publications because this could compromise its independence*“.

In short: those guys are not been flown around the world by companies in order to possibly get favourable reviews ;).

And now let’s come to today’s story, which we start with the easy one, the X100V.

Fujifilm X100V

Stiftung Wartentest declared the Fujifilm X100V the best fixed lens compact camera. That’s an easy one, as there is simply nothing that comes near to the X100V in terms of price, features and performance in this segment.

• Fujifilm X100V: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

Fujifilm X-T4

Out of all the mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras they tested, Stiftung Warentest declared the Fujifilm X-T4 their best allrounder camera, with a rating of 1.4 (max 1.0). You can read their test in German behind a paywall at their website here.

This is a nice “revenge” for the Fujifilm X-T4, a camera that has been a bit mocked by Fujifilm itself in their Fujifilm X-T5 launch promo ad.

Now, you know my take on this:

the Fujifilm X-T4 had to carry the flagship burden, hence it was forced to be exactly how it is (bigger, heavier, etc). But now that the X-H2/s finally came out, the Fujifilm X-T* line could go back to its roots again with the wonderful Fujifilm X-T5, hence it could become smaller, lighter, offer a 3 way tilt screen and overall just be more photography centric.

If it wasn’t for the selfie screen, I could have loved my Fujifilm X-T4 almost as much as I love my X-E3. But sadly even after years of use, I simply could not grow fond of it, even though I occasionally could appreciate the advantages of a fully articulating screen (even for photography only).

So I am happy to see the Fujifilm X-T4 getting this important recognition.

It is still a wonderful camera, and for some even preferable over the Fujifilm X-T5. And right now you can also get it with a discount.

• Fujifilm X-T4 body – save $150: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
• Fujifilm X-T4 with XF18-55 – save $150: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
• Fujifilm X-T4 with XF16-80 – save $150: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
• Fujifilm X-E4: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment

Oh, and in the 12th position of this ranking we find the Fujifilm X-E4 ;).

• How the Fujifilm X-H Line SAVED the Fujifilm X-T5
• Selfie Screens better for Video? Just a Myth!
• So What, Did FujiRumors Fall in Love with Fully Articulating Screens?

* source – wikipedia

X-T5 USA Pre-Orders

• Fujifilm X-T5 Black Body
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment
• Fujifilm X-T5 Silver Body
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment
• Fujifilm X-T5 Black with XF18-55
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment
• Fujifilm X-T5 Silver with XF18-55
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment
• Fujifilm X-T5 Black with XF16-80
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment
• Fujifilm X-T5 Silver with XF16-80
  BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Moment

Fujinon XF30mmF2.8 Macro Pre-Orderrs

1. USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
2. Worldwide: AmazonCA / Amazon of Your Country
3. UK: AmazonUK / WexUK / ParkCameraUK
4. EU: AmazonDE / AmazonIT / AmazonFR / AmazonES  / CalumetDE / FotoErhardt / Fotokoch / PCHstore

X-T5 Other Countries

• Worldwide: AmazonCA / Amazon of Your Country
• UK: AmazonUK / WexUK / ParkCameraUK
• EU:AmazonDE / AmazonIT / AmazonFR / AmazonES  / CalumetDE / FotoErhardt / Fotokoch / PCHstore

Just as we did for the top X series camera wish for 2023, we now launch the same survey for the GFX series.

Sure, there are not so many options in this case, since at the moment we have 3 different camera bodies: the GFX100 with integrated battery grip, the GFX100S/50SII and the GFX50R.

And considering that Fujifilm has even stated that they no longer see the need for a GFX50R successor (although later on other managers expressed their wish for that line to continue), we risk to remain with even less options in future.

But this is our space. Here we can wish whatever we want. So I will add a few options that are not impossible for Fujifilm to manufacture (leaving out the modular GFX, as that one needs the global shutter, and that seems to be still far away to become a regular feature in digital cameras).

So we will vote on the following cameras, assuming Fujifilm would use the latest generation sensors (which are the 26MP stacked and 40MP non-stacked sensors we find on our APS-C cameras, just the bigger MF version of it)

• Fujifilm GFX100S with stacked sensor and PSAM Dial
• Fujifilm GFX150S with non-stacked 150MP sensor and PSAM Dial
• Fujifilm GFX100T with stacked sensor and RETRO Dials (basically an X-T* with GFX sensor, as shown by Fuji’s own mock-up here)
• Fujifilm GFX150T with non-stacked 150MP sensor and RETRO Dials (basically an X-T* with GFX sensor, as shown by Fuji’s own mock-up here)
• Fujifilm GFX100R with stacked sensor (rangefinder styled)
• Fujifilm GFX150R with non-stacked 150MP sensor (rangefinder styled)
• Fujifilm GFX100 with stacked sensor and integrated battery grip
• Fujifilm GFX150 with non-stacked 150MP sensor and integrated battery grip

 Loading ...

And because it fits with our wishlist article today, I will share a mock-up made by Aperture Value on how he imagines the next Fujifilm GFX camera. You can see his video that includes the mock-ups down below.

Fujifilm has published the results for the second quarter of the 2022 fiscal year (July 1 to September 30, 2022).

The main digital camera launched in these months was the Fujifilm X-H2s, which Fujifilm says sold “strong”. The results for the high resolution Fujifilm X-H2 will be visible only in Q3 of FY2022, since it started shipping only in late September/early October.

Instax

Instax keeps rocking.

Instax alone made more revenue (¥119.1 billion) than Nikon’s Imaging Products Business (¥114.5 billion).

A special mention goes to the INSTAX mini Link 2 and the INSTAX SQUARE Link.

Digital Cameras

Good results also for Fuji’s professional imaging division with a revenue of ¥64.3 billion (+18.6% YoY).

Forecasts

Given the good numbers, Fujifilm changed their previous FY2022 forecasts (announced in August) for the imaging segment (numbers in billions of yen)

• Revenue Forecast: from 360.0 to 390.0 (revenue for FY2021 was 333.4)
• Operating Income Forecast: from 42.0 to 52.0 (operating income for FY2021 was 37.0)

And the best has yet to come for Fujifilm, with the sales of the Fujifilm X-T5, which will push the revenue of Q3 and Q4.

R&D

R&D expenses for the first half of the fiscal year were 4.8 billions of yen (was 4.1 in first half of FY2021). So a good sign also here, as Fujifilm seems to be gradually increasing the R&D resources for the imaging solution.

Summary