Why fuji 'gets it' with the X series

gavinlg

gavinlg

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Fujifilms prime lens lineup for 2012/2013:

- 14mm (21mm) f2.8
- 18mm (28mm) f2
- 23mm (35mm) f1.4
- 23mm (35mm) f2 (x100)
- 27mm (40mm) f2.8 pancake
- 35mm (50mm) f1.4
- 56mm (85mm) f1.4
- 60mm (90mm) f2.4 macro

I've bought into many camera systems in the last few years, and sold off many. The mirrorless cameras in particular have showed great promise to me as they have all the attributes I like in a camera - small size, quiet, in built viewfinders, high quality/small lenses. I bought into the original e-p1 m4/3 camera for these reasons, but gave up waiting for good prime lenses to come, seeing announcement after announcement from both Olympus and Panasonic for slow super zooms and consumer telephotos. For what its worth, between 2 major companies and a few smaller ones, m4/3 STILL doesn't have a fast 35mm equivalent autofocus lens - neither a smaller prime on the ultra wide (21mm or under) end. Sony and Samsung have sweet little in the way of anything fixed focal length at all.

This post isn't to flame m4/3 or other systems though, I just wanted to point out how comprehensively Fujifilm has covered the lens lineup for photographers, not soccer moms with their latest lens roadmap, and in a very short period of time. Hopefully the other manufacturers take note of the buzz created and follow suit.

Roadmap.jpg
 
Yes, its SO great to see this! After so many years of waiting, and waiting, and waiting(!!) for a manufacturer to step up and make something other than a big black blob DSLR with big fat zoom attached OR tiny, hard-to-hold, unsatisfying super-zoomed P&S cameras.
 
Jamie Pillers said:
Yes, its SO great to see this! After so many years of waiting, and waiting, and waiting(!!) for a manufacturer to step up and make something other than a big black blob DSLR with big fat zoom attached OR tiny, hard-to-hold, unsatisfying super-zoomed P&S cameras.
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The Panasonic GF 1 was so close and then came the GF 2 what a disappointment. The Ricoh gxr with m module for those who want to use legacy m lenses gets it right.. But the Fuji line up x100 followed by xp1 and now this lens roadmap not only shows that that got it right but they did their market research well..

With Fuji heritage in RF.. Xpan to their Texas Leicas, they could have done a m9 clone, but they went to essentially the digital version of Contx G2. The lens line up far exceeds the G2 in two years. This shows they are agressive and in it for the long haul.

Gary
 
I think Fuji "gets it" too. I'm glad I bought my X-Pro 1. This is my third digital camera, and the first one I've actually liked a lot. Aside from the poor frameline accuracy in the OVF, it's a great camera. I bought the 35mm and 60mm lenses, but I skipped the 18mm because I wanted to wait and see the 14mm first. I'll get one or the other, but not both. I'll likely get the 23mm f/1.4 when it comes out too. I'm not a big fan of zooms, so I doubt I'll get one of those when they come out.
 
fast 35mm equivalent... my fav focal length, i love the 23/2 on the x100 and having an extra stop would be really, really good. more expensive, sure, but we'll see if it's worth the $

21mm equivalent in 2.8 should be a very useful lens, pairing it with the 50mm equivalent one can get a pretty good range of fields of view, it's a combo i really like.

i'm really glad to see Fuji bringing such great camera/lens options to those not very fond of DSLRs.
 
I think it's not the question of whether Fuji gets it or not, it is just that Fuji is targeting the demographic that is willing to pay for quality, whereas everyone else is targeting the mass market.
 
NazgulKing said:
I think it's not the question of whether Fuji gets it or not, it is just that Fuji is targeting the demographic that is willing to pay for quality, whereas everyone else is targeting the mass market.
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Fuji gets a certain market (wideangle primes, optical viewfinders, retro styling). Quality is not the point, there are enough quality offerings in the m4/3 lineup, too.
 
GaryLH said:
The Panasonic GF 1 was so close and then came the GF 2 what a disappointment.
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Only in the way the Canon T60 was a disappointment for T50 owners. Those were completely different cameras, the GF2 priced 30% less. The successor of the GF1 is the GX1, not the GF2; if you've been disappointed by the latter, you've probably just fallen into the trap of version number arithmetics.
 
NazgulKing said:
I think it's not the question of whether Fuji gets it or not, it is just that Fuji is targeting the demographic that is willing to pay for quality, whereas everyone else is targeting the mass market.
Click to expand...

I work part time at a large aquarium in Melbourne - you'd be really really surprised how many X series cameras I see - x10/x100/x-pro1. A lot of them used by dads/moms and young(er than me!) adolescents.

Everyone just assumes that market research is correct and companies should bring out super zooms and ultra compacts, but I firmly believe companies are better catering for the consumers who are more likely to become loyal to the brand/system and act as a 'halo' product and user for the system. If you take a look at the fashion/style/technology blogs and magazines aimed at young adults and fashionable people, they don't feature point and shoots or super zooms, they feature luxury products like leica's and hassleblads and the fuji X cameras. These are the cameras people aspire to/think of before they fall asleep at night. The thing fuji has very cleverly done is made a 'luxury' product, that also caters for real pros and serious photographers, and is also on the same price level or cheaper than equivalent DSLRs so the regular person can afford it.

As I said before, you'd be surprised how many normal people are toting an X series camera - I regularly see them in the aquarium and around melbourne city.
 
gavinlg said:
I work part time at a large aquarium in Melbourne - you'd be really really surprised how many X series cameras I see - x10/x100/x-pro1. A lot of them used by dads/moms and young(er than me!) adolescents.

Everyone just assumes that market research is correct and companies should bring out super zooms and ultra compacts, but I firmly believe companies are better catering for the consumers who are more likely to become loyal to the brand/system and act as a 'halo' product and user for the system. If you take a look at the fashion/style/technology blogs and magazines aimed at young adults and fashionable people, they don't feature point and shoots or super zooms, they feature luxury products like leica's and hassleblads and the fuji X cameras. These are the cameras people aspire to/think of before they fall asleep at night. The thing fuji has very cleverly done is made a 'luxury' product, that also caters for real pros and serious photographers, and is also on the same price level or cheaper than equivalent DSLRs so the regular person can afford it.

As I said before, you'd be surprised how many normal people are toting an X series camera - I regularly see them in the aquarium and around melbourne city.
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Define normal. Melbourne is the financial hub of Australia if I am not wrong, with naturally the wealth that it brings.

Market research or not, loyalty to brands is quite cheap these days, and people are just going between systems when it suits them.

rxmd said:
Fuji gets a certain market (wideangle primes, optical viewfinders, retro styling). Quality is not the point, there are enough quality offerings in the m4/3 lineup, too.
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I would hope that their wides are better in the next iteration though. The 18mm/f2 show quite a bit of softness at the edges even at f2.8, which is not something one would like when shooting landscape.
 
gavinlg said:
Everyone just assumes that market research is correct and companies should bring out super zooms and ultra compacts, but I firmly believe companies are better catering for the consumers who are more likely to become loyal to the brand/system and act as a 'halo' product and user for the system. [...] The thing fuji has very cleverly done is made a 'luxury' product, that also caters for real pros and serious photographers, and is also on the same price level or cheaper than equivalent DSLRs so the regular person can afford it.
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You are right. And one of the problems with market research is that when done wrong, it can confirm the bias that one puts into it. Look at all the market research that was done by Kodak. The efficiency of market research is basically a management problem.

I'm interested in how Canon will enter the mirrorless market. They have a lot to lose, but they also have a tradition of coming to a market late with well-implemented, sometimes radical cameras (both their FL/FD and their EOS SLRs really) Their entrance, when it comes, will say a lot about the quality of the market research they've done, as well as their corporate outlook as a whole. You can see that they are preparing for a differentiation of their camera line and have been testing the waters a lot. The new offerings have been either extremely high-end cameras and lenses for the professional video and photography market, or entry lenses with features for video; and they've been testing the waters for a lot of technologies that are applicable for good mirrorless cameras, like hybrid autofocus, touchscreen interfaces and fast autofocus motors.

(However, the real key question is - when will there be a silver version of the Fuji? 😀)
 
Fuji didnt go Sony path, with otherwise very similar specced camera. it positioned somewhere between NEX and Leica M. hope they do better than Contax G for example.
 
Rxmd

Actually no. GF 2 to GF 3 were all disappointments. Look how long it took them to come out with the gx 1. Yes the gx 1 is the final successor to gf1, but for me too little too late... I moved on. Btw I still have my gf1 with the 20mm lens.

But te Fuji X series has won me over.

Gary
 
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