There's a good chance you're sick of reading about Fujifilm this week. But with the fever-pitch buzz surrounding the release of the X-T1, it's not often that we consider the business behind these popular cameras.
Let's take a moment to reflect on the unique history of the Fujifilm X-Series, and the ways in which it reinvigorated both the company that created it and the camera industry as a whole.
Fujifilm lovers rejoice! It looks like you have a brand new X-Series interchangeable lens shooter coming your way at the end of this month.
Despite many a rumor of a new X-Series camera coming at CES, Fuji didn't have a brand new shooter up its sleeve -- at least not that we know of. Instead, the company is debuting the much-requested all-black version of the X100s, and a super fast "portrait perfect" XF 56mm f/1.2R premium lens.
One of the common complaints people hesitant to switch to mirrorless systems have is that there just isn't enough glass for this that or the other mount. Micro Four Thirds cameras don't really suffer from this problem, but proprietary mounts like Sony's E-Mount (especially full-frame) and Fuji's X-Mount certainly don't offer the kind of selection you get from Canon or Nikon.
The good news is, they're catching up. And a great case in point is the Fuji X-Mount 10-24mm f/4 lens announced today.
Recently there’s been a fair bit of hullaballoo about these new cameras Fuji has been bringing out – the X-series. X100, X-Pro 1, XE-1 and most recently the X-M1 or something like that. All touted as great cameras – the perfect blend of retro styling and cutting edge sensor technology, paring away anything extraneous to the act of shooting.
The Fuji X series – peerless walk-around cameras that can be adapted for wedding work, editorial work heck, even commercial work. Photography bloggers whom I respect and admire all clambered over each other to shout the praises of these lightweight wonder-cameras. They could do no wrong on the digital camera review sites, and quickly developed a cult following which exploded into a massive fanbase. The Fuji X-series. Messianic.
It seems the retro design movement has finally begun to infiltrate something other than the mirrorless market. In a move that makes its Instax line of instant cameras look a lot more like the X-Series line, Fujifilm has just announced the retro-styled Instax Mini 90 seen above.
A month ago, we heard some rumors that Fujifilm was working on an entry-level X-Series camera for those of us who didn't want to spend on the X-M1 but wanted something better than the X100. Details were (and to some degree still are) a bit thin, but now we have what seems to be the first leaked photo of the upcoming mirrorless camera.
Fujifilm's newest creation, the X-M1, was outed last week when photos of the entry-level X-Series interchangeable lens camera (ILC) leaked onto the web. But while the photos did reveal that the camera would pack a serious punch in a tiny package (in large part due to the lack of a built-in viewfinder), many of the camera's specs and features were still unknown.
Well, the day has arrived for Fuji to make the camera official, and along with some high-res press images, we're also getting a full breakdown of specs, pricing and an expected release date.
Fujifilm's upcoming "entry-level" X-M1 X Series mirrorless camera was outed today after photographs of the camera were leaked onto the Web. We now know what the camera will look like, but many of the camera's specs and features are still unknown. The size and weight of the camera haven't been revealed yet, but it's actually possible to determine the relative size of the camera to other X Series mirrorless cameras using just the leaked photos.
Rumors emerged last month that Fujifilm would be announcing an entry-level X Series mirrorless camera this summer. Looks like those rumors were spot on.
Photographs of an upcoming Fujifilm X-M1 mirrorless camera leaked today, showing a sleek and minimalist camera that looks like a stripped down version of existing X Series cameras.
There are currently two interchangeable-lens rangefinder-esque cameras in Fujifilm's X-Series lineup: the X-Pro1 and the X-E1, both of which contain APS-C sensors. Owners are gushing over the cameras, which are actually quite similar aside from the viewfinders (hybrid vs. electronic only). They feature sleek, retro designs that are very similar to Leica's classic M-line of rangefinders. A common sentiment that I've heard is that the X-Series would be absolutely perfect if the company simply introduced a full frame body.
That time might not be too far off.
In addition to the new X-E1 announced this morning, Fujifilm has also unveiled its upcoming version 2.0 of its X-Pro1 firmware. Autofocus has been a much-griped-about feature of the X-Pro1 (and the X100, for that matter), and the new firmware addresses that issue by improving the AF capabilities of the camera in different ways.
Fujifilm’s press event yesterday wasn’t just to announce that they’re working on a new mirrorless system camera: …