Happy Birthday: Fujifilm Turns 88 Years Old Today

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January is a month full of celebrations;

Well, today, 20th of January, we have to celebrate another important milestone: Fujifilm turns 88 years old today.

Few companies had a more exciting journey with incredible heights and lows like Fujifilm. But even in the darkest hours, they always found a way out of it.

Fujifilm has proven to be a creative and innovative company also with the Fujifilm X series.

At the time Fujifilm started to offer mirrorless cameras, there were already lots of other MILC systems out there from Sony, Panasonic, Olympus etc.

Fujifilm did join more or less at the same time with Samsung. And while I remember the huge marketing effort Samsung did to become popular with their MILC system and some groundbreaking cameras like the Samsung NX1, Samsung failed, whereas Fujifilm succeeded.

As opposed to Samsung, Fujifilm did not deliver cameras with groundbreaking specs nor did they spend tons of money into marketing their cameras. What they focused on was to look for what was missing for us photographers, and that was reasonably priced cameras that looked great, had lots of dials for manual controls and were fun to use.

The whole system was designed for a niche that appreciated feel, form, function and fun over mere specs.

So, the Samsung NX1, which tried to compete with Sony & Co in terms of specs (and it did beat them at that time) failed, whereas Fujifilm carved out its niche. A niche that grew over the years, also thanks to more mainstream cameras like the X-S10 and GFX100S, so that it now became the third most sold mirrorless camera system.

Look, I run FujiRumors since 10 years now, and the X system had been called dead since ever by all possible influencers. Every time a new full frame camera came out, many influencers said sensor size matters and hence APS-C is dead. And when Fujifilm launched a system with a 70% fuller sensor than full frame, the same influencers rushed out to scream that suddenly sensor size does not matter, and GFX will die.

And despite all death predictions, here we are, alive, healthy and strong. Maybe too strong, as the only real problem Fujifilm has at the moment, is to deliver what people order.

88 years of Fujifilm. 10 years of X mount. 5 years of Fujifilm GFX.

And trust me, Fujifilm intends to celebrate all this in a big way. Don’t miss the mega X summit in May 2022 and well before that all the rumors here on FujiRumors. We have something exciting to tell you.

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Celebrating 5 Years of Fujifilm GFX Series

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5 years ago Fujifilm’s decision became obvious to all of us: unlike everybody else, we are going to skip full frame, build up the best APS-C system in the known universe and offer as an alternative to full frame a medium format mirrorless system. The result: the Fujifilm GFX system.

And well, the Fujifilm GFX series turns 5 years old today.

It all started with the launch of the original Fujifilm GFX50S on January 19 and the slogan “The Game has Changed”.

I remember at that time lots of skeptical comments, especially by influencers who believe that only full frame matters.

But looking back, I guess much of that skepticism has dissipated by now, given that Fujifilm is now offering medium format mirrorless cameras (GFX100S) that are smaller than some full frame mirrorless cameras (Panasonic S1 series) and offer more megapixel at a more affordable price than some full frame mirrorless cameras (Sony A1).

Sure, all the cameras we mentioned above have other strengths, such as video or speed, but all I want to say is that the Fujifilm GFX series is finding a solid ground on which to flourish.

So here we are, 5 years, 5 GFX cameras and 13 lenses later (with more to come) to celebrate a wonderful system that has a terrific potential for the future, as I explained here.

Congratulations Fujifilm.

 

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Fuji Guys Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO First Look (and My Personal Instax Love Story Unveiled)

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My Instax Love story started in Chiang Mai, my favorite city in Thailand.

Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand, far away from the wonderful islands of the South, which are stunning, sure, but also way more crowded than the North of Thailand.

My original plan, after traveling all the way from Cambodia through Laos (by local bus and motorbike, no plane) was to turn right to get to Vietnam after visiting Luang Prabang. But as every solo traveler might have experienced, plans are made just to be changed. And at the end I didn’t turn right to Vietnam, but I took a 2 days slow boat along the Mekong river – which claimed the life of my X-E2 as I briefly told here – to reach Northern Thailand.

I ended up in Chiang Mai, the most beautiful South East Asian city I have been to along with Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

So what has this to do with Instax?

Well, I arrived in Chiang Mai around New Year. I had an X-T1 and my Instax Mini Smartphone printer. New Year was amazing, with thousands of floating lanterns flying in the sky. A magical atmosphere.

I was alone and did what I love most to do: taking pictures. Mostly with my X-T1 and XF35mmF1.4 (as it survived my survival swim in the Mekong, whereas my XF18-55 and X-E2 died).

But this was also my first travel with an Instax Printer.

So here is what I did: I took pictures of the people celebrating New Year (without them noticing me taking pictures), and after I took the images, I printed one for them. Without saying anything, I just gave it to them as soon as the printer spit it out and walked away.

From the distance, I could see their faces looking at the film developing, and then being surprised and happy to see themselves in the image. I will share one of the images I took (and gave away) on that evening below for you guys.

So this is it.

This is where my love story with Instax started. And it never stopped. Giving away some little prints is one of the things I enjoy to do most.

Recently I bought the Instax Mini Wide, but I will also get the Instax Mini EVO once available here in Italy. Because it’s true that it’s nice to make a present to others with a little print, but it is also nice to enjoy the process of taking images and printing, and from everything I have seen so far, the Instax Mini EVO, with its vintage look and retro operation (push the lever to print, turn the lens ring to change settings etc), is what suits my taste best.

So what can you expect when you get the Instax Mini EVO? Well, Fuji Guy Francis is giving a first look to the Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO hybrid digital camera/printer.

  • very nice looking camera
  • 28mm f/2 lens with 3.2x digital zoom
  • lens ring around allows to navigate through various lens filters
  • FRONT OF THE CAMERA
  • LED flash
  • front shutter button
  • selfie mirror
  • TOP OF THE CAMERA
  • film dial allows to navigate through different film options
  • cold shoe
  • another shutter button
  • print lever: crank the print lever to print an image
  • strap locks
  • BOTTOM
  • tripod mount on one side
  • on the other side micro USB charging port and micro SD card slot
  • BACK
  • nice big screen
  • FEATURES
  • lens filter: access to 10 different lenses (like “half frame” and “double exposure”). Rotate lens ring to access the various options
  • film dial: rotate to navigate through various film filters (retro, vivid, blue tone, red tone, monochrome, etc)
  • rich mode (more vivid colors and natural mode (a bit more true to life)
  • you can force flash, turn off, or make it AUTO (camera evaluates if it needs to flash or not)
  • Macro: get as close as 10cm
  • you can use it also as a smartphone printer
  • you can also transfer the images you printed on your Mini EVO to your smartphone with an Instax border
  • the Instax Mini size is perfect for giving to other people, because it fits in their wallet and people can carry it home safely

Get Yours:

 

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Fujifilm GFX100S vs Canon R6: Is Medium Format Worth It? This Guy Says “No” (and My Thoughts)

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Alex Barrera wonders: is medium format worth it?

In an attempt to figure out the answer, he shared a blind test using the following gear:

In the blind test, all images marked with “A” belong to one camera and all images marked with “B” belong to the other camera.

I did my the test myself, and honestly, right at the very first image comparison (see image below) I thought “oh please let “A” be the the Fujifilm GFX100S“. And lucky me, camera “A” is indeed the Fujifilm GFX100S.

Megapixel had not much to do with my preference. It’s a compressed youtube video, how could that matter. Megapixel matter more when you work with the files in post, or when you print.

My preference had more to do with the output of the Fujinon GF80mmF1.7 lens itself, which is very similar in terms of shallow depth of field to the RF 50mm f/1.2 L, but the bokeh looked just more pleasing in my eyes. Then there are other subjective elements like the colors (Provia in this case) and so forth. Overall, I mostly picked A (GFX100S).

But what about Alex? Is medium format worth it?

No, it’s not worth it, and here is why:

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