Here’s What It Took to Get Your Hands on a Limited Edition Fujifilm X100VI
Getting a regular Fujifilm X100VI is challenging enough, with Fujifilm struggling to keep up with massive demand. However, acquiring the X100VI Limited Edition camera? That’s next to impossible.
With just 1,934 units available worldwide, Fujifilm fans in the United States had a short window to purchase one of the 300 X100VI Limited Edition units allotted to the region. The initial plan was to spread these out over three days, with 100 up for grabs daily on Fujifilm USA’s web store. It predictably crashed the website, and when the dust cleared, many units found their way into the hands of scalpers and bots.
Fujifilm investigated the purchases and found that about two-thirds of them were fraudulent or otherwise suspicious, and then canceled them. The cameras, with a new lease on life, were then put into a raffle system. This approach allowed fans to sign up for the chance to purchase the X100VI Limited Edition, and one lucky PetaPixel reader, Alex Phan, shared that he was one of these winners.
“I just wanted to inform you that I was able to get the limited edition X100VI thanks to PetaPixel‘s article,” Phan tells PetaPixel over email.
Phan has already received his special, rare new X100VI Limited Edition camera and has been happily shooting with it. However, the purchasing experience he describes is well worth a closer look. Fujifilm seemed to take no chances with its second attempt to sell the X100VI Limited Edition, and made prospective purchasers jump through some unusual hoops.
“So on April 25, I got the email saying I won a lottery spot,” Phan explains. “In the email, it said to wait until April 30; there will be another email that contains the link to purchase.”
Phan says that this initial email warned him there would be a short 48-hour window to complete the transaction; otherwise, he would lose his spot.
On April 30, the promised email arrived and Phan completed the transaction online. The following day, Fujifilm North America emailed the photographer asking for a selfie alongside his driver’s license to verify his identity.
“I had a ‘WTF’ moment,” Phan says. “What threw me off is that the email address that sent out [that request] is not from Fujifilm, but from FNAC ShopUSA. I went online and Googled it to see if anyone else got the same thing as me, but I couldn’t find anything. I got to the ‘eff it’ mode and took a selfie with my driver’s license.”
Fortunately, the email was not a scam — FNAC is Fujifilm North America Corporation. But it’s easy to understand Phan’s skepticism, as typically, sending a photo of yourself and a government-issued ID to people online is a bad idea.
“A few days later, I got the FedEx tracking email. Phew!”
As Phan says, Fujifilm was very rigorous in ensuring that the cameras didn’t find their way into the hands of scalpers — and Phan certainly isn’t a camera scalper.
“I’m a crazy person that takes a selfies with my driver license,” he laughs.
Image credits: Alex Phan
