Now that July is just about over with, only one month and a few weeks separate us from the start of Photokina on September 18th. And as the wait becomes progressively shorter, speculation about who may be announcing what is gradually ramping up. The most recent batch of speculation has to do with Fuji and the fact that the X100 is now showing up as discontinued on Crutchfield, as well as $200 off at both Amazon and B&H. Read more…
Ritz Camera and Image LLC officially filed for bankruptcy last Friday for the second time in three years. And while bankruptcy and financial trouble in general are, unfortunately, not uncommon in the world of photography these days, Ritz is making headlines because of their major unsecured creditors. Amon the biggest names on the list are Nikon, Sony and Fuji, all of whom stand to lose quite a bit of money as Ritz prepares to restructure. Read more…
After announcing plans to stop production of APS last July, the time has finally come to say goodbye to Fuji’s Advanced Photo System film. The 24mm cartridge film hasn’t been a big seller for some time, and after Kodak stopped production last year it was only a matter of time before it disappeared for good. And even though (metaphorically speaking) there probably won’t be a long line of mourners at the APS funeral, at the very least the film’s memory will live on in the APS-C sensor format that borrowed its name.
Bad news if you’re a film shooter and Fujifilm is your brand of choice: the company has announced that it will be increasing the worldwide price of its entire line of photographic films starting in May 2012. In the announcement, the company blames demand and economics for the decision:
The demand for film products is continuously decreasing, yen’s appreciation and the cost of production, such as raw materials, oil and energy, continues to rise or stay at high level. Under such circumstances, despite our effort to maintain the production cost, Fujifilm is unable to absorb these costs during the production process and is forced to pass on price increases. To sustain its photo imaging business, Fujifilm has decided to increase the price of photographic films.
Fujifilm remains committed to photographic products and asserts that even with the new price. Its photographic products remain exceptionally good value compared with other system products.
While the announcement doesn’t mention how much prices will increase by — they state that it will vary depending on market — Fuji Rumors reports that it will be an increase of over 10%.
If you’re a fan of Fujifilm’s X100 and X10, then you might want to brace yourself: the company’s next camera might be the one mirrorless camera to rule them all. Fujifilm’s upcoming mirrorless camera will likely have the same sleek styling as the X100, but with one colossal difference: a revolutionary new “organic sensor”. Fuji has been developing the technology for years now, and the new camera — supposedly named the Fujifilm LX — is rumored to be the first to pack the sensor. Read more…
Fujifilm is set to release an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera — likely styled like the X100 and X10 — in February 2012, and details about the camera are already starting to leak onto the Internet. Six photos that appear to show the upcoming camera were leaked on Chinese forum Xitek, but were quickly taken down. PhotoRumors writes that the new camera will be called the Fuji LX and will pack an APS-C sensor. Read more…
Over the past year, major movie camera manufacturers ARRI, Panavision and Aaton have all quietly stopped manufacturing film cameras — a tough blow to film, and grim news for film photographers. Debra Kaufman over at Creative COW writes,
Can the continued production of film stock survive the twin disappearance of film acquisition and distribution? Veteran industry executive Rob Hummel [...] recalls when, as head of production operations, he was negotiating the Kodak deal for DreamWorks Studios. “At the time, the Kodak representative told me that motion pictures was 6 percent of their worldwide capacity and 7 percent of their revenues,” he recalls. “The rest was snapshots. In 2008 motion pictures was 92 percent of their business and the actual volume hasn’t grown. The other business has just disappeared.”
Panavision’s Executive VP Phil Radin states that, “Film will be around as long as Kodak and Fuji believe they can make money at it.” With their revenues from the movie industry drying up, Kodak and Fuji are going to have a harder time keeping their film businesses profitable. If you want to see film survive, then you can do your part by buying film and encouraging others to shoot analog as well!
Fujifilm’s press event yesterday wasn’t just to announce that they’re working on a new mirrorless system camera: they also announced the X-S1, the first non-retro styled camera to appear in the X lineup. The camera looks like a DSLR with a kit lens attached, but actually uses a fixed 26x f/2.8-5.6 lens and an electronic viewfinder. It uses the same 2/3-inch sensor size as the X10, which has about 1/4 of the area of a Micro Four Thirds sensor.
It’s strange that the company decided to add a camera like this to what was a pretty unique X Series lineup, but maybe there’s something special about the camera that hasn’t been announced yet…
Here’s a glimpse at how selecting an autofocus point works on the upcoming Fujifilm Finepix X100. The hybrid viewfinder — which overlays an electrical viewfinder view over the optical view — provides a rich user-interface previously impossible for fully optical viewfinders.
