What's up at Fuji - PMA 2008

sitemistic said:
Just what the world needs, another MF film camera. As if there aren't enough languishing on eBay now.
Click to expand...

You've meant instruction manuals for them, haven't you?
I see dump of fashion studio SLRs and wedding TLRs there, that's right, but RFs are rare.
 
palec said:
You've meant instruction manuals for them, haven't you?
I see dump of fashion studio SLRs and wedding TLRs there, that's right, but RFs are rare.
Click to expand...

Yep, there currently seems to be a steady demand for medium format RF gear that extends beyond this forum. Let's see what this prototype from Fuji turns out to be.

I agree with Sitemistic the pros are out of the game with everyone in the business expecting a digital work flow. Pros studio photography burned through quite a bit of medium format film back in the day.

For myself, as an amateur that shoots film as well as digital, I might as well shoot with the better quality of medium format when I can.

Hence, my film gear is heavily weighted towards medium format and 6x9 in particular. I'm grateful to Fuji for over the year having supported 6x9 medium format photography - to the point of owning one of their cameras.

To digitally scan 6x9 film is time consuming and a memory hog on the PC, but if you have a darkroom enlarger, each frame prints in a few minutes. So, in effect I'm scanning onto photographic paper by using the enlarger.
 
Last edited:
jamning said:
I'm very excited about this and will be looking to buy it if its a SLR Medium Format with good lenses.
Click to expand...

If they are Fuji lenses, they will be good for sure.

I wonder if they are contemplating a medium format they can manufacture a digital back for? I sure also wonder what size MF. 645, 6x6, 6x7 or 6x9?
 
sitemistic said:
Nick, whether or not Fuji believes medium format film to be superior to to digital full-frame 35mm size cameras is irrelevant. The huge majority of pros walked away from medium format film cameras several years ago and aren't going back again. It's a pipe dream.

Large format film cameras had clearly superior image quality when 35mm came along and killed the 4x5 rangefinder. There has been no renaissance of 4x5 film rangefinder cameras.

Should Fugi ever actually produce the camera, the target would no doubt be the same one that will pay Leica $5,000 for a lens.
Click to expand...

We hired a former "pro" where I work, recently. Had his own studio for a long time. Did commercial work, graduating from weddings. Had a long chat about cameras. Loved the GSN on my desk. Anecdotal - yes, but he said there's no comparison from a quality standpoint between film and digital. He seemed to dislike digital (and this was a pretty young guy) and alluded to being forced into it. Quality "good enough", but quicker turn-around for clients. He said the difference is clear as prints get larger, and he did a lot of large prints. Film? No worries. Not so with digital. In fact, digital conversion was one of the reasons (not the only reason) he got out. He said he was spending more time in front of a computer futzing with digital files, which he found unrewarding, and less time shooting.

As an amatuer, I don't have to worry about clients wanting to see pictures five seconds after I shoot them. So, I'll go with the "superiour quality of tradition film" (what Fuji said) since I don't have that constraint imposed on me. As far as "who abandoned what" and "what's more popular" - could care less really. Most like their tuna cooked. Bleh. They're ruining it. I'll take it raw, thank you. Sashimi-style with some soy and wasabi. Britney Spears is far more popular than Coltrane, but I can still get a Trane CD. I'll watch nearly any NHL game over the Superbowl. Most people wear quartz watches. I refuse. I'll take a cheap Timex mechanical over an expensive Omega quartz - 100 out of 100 times. I have no problem getting new or old mechancal watches if I want one. Most people prefer automatic transmissions. Only a small percentage of drivers use a stick. I'm with that small percentage of drivers. If automatic transmissions didn't "kill" manual trans back in the 40's, and 70 years later you still have no problem finding a manual transmission even though they represent something like 10% of the cars on the road, film will be around too - just like manual transmissions, just like mechanical watches for those of us who "know better". Sam applies to film and digital.

As for availability, I get whatever I want ordering on-line. There's still more films than I can shake a stick at, I can buy Kodak High Def, or Fuji at a dozen places - literally, w/in a mile of my house, and can get them processed at about 1/2-dozen places. Medium Format - eh, I have a 2 mile drive and I don't live in New York, I live in a 'burb of Philly.

The gals - "Jenn", where I get my C41 processed apologize. Nick, we're swamped today, she shouts to me from the C41 machine, negs dangeling about. Can you come back in a few hours?

I tell her I love it when she says that.
 
Last edited:
I can't wait to see what they've come up with!😎

But even more importantly:

The world's most famous cat says "cheese" as he makes his debut on the new Garfield™ One-Time-Use camera. Garfield follows a list of celebrity characters that have become a core part of the QuickSnap marketing strategy, making photography fun for picture takers of all ages.
Click to expand...

😀
 
NickTrop said:
As for availability, I get whatever I want ordering on-line. There's still more films than I can shake a stick at, I can buy Kodak High Def, or Fuji at a dozen places - literally, w/in a mile of my house, and can get them processed at about 1/2-dozen places. Medium Format - eh, I have a 2 mile drive and I don't live in New York, I live in a 'burb of Philly.
Click to expand...

I live in a town, middle of Oregon, 80K population, 150miles from anything bigger. I have a processor (not a one hour BB store, but a real processor who takes custom requests) about 7 blocks from my home. They process a 120 roll of film for me to the negative or transparency stage for $6 in about 2 days. Why would I shoot anything else?
 
kuzano said:
I live in a town, middle of Oregon, 80K population, 150miles from anything bigger. I have a processor (not a one hour BB store, but a real processor who takes custom requests) about 7 blocks from my home. They process a 120 roll of film for me to the negative or transparency stage for $6 in about 2 days. Why would I shoot anything else?
Click to expand...

I live in a metro area with about 2 million people and the nearest real lab is 30 miles through traffic.
You are lucky.
-------------
How about an updated Zi with a faster lens?
 
I think it is cool! I do not think it will be a $500 model. Rather a $2-3K model. It will not drive used gear prices down, but it will build its price on top of the used gear prices. It will not target popular professional but rather artistic martkets. A series of 6x9 folders (wide, normal, tele) will have my attention! But, I was never right guessing before :-(
 
My guess is that someone in Fuji's 120 film business unit realizes that they need a new camera to keep 120 sales at some profitable level. The higher-ups in Fuji are probably testing the waters with this new prototype to see if there is any interest.
I can't imagine that there will be sufficient interest at PMA to make this a viable product.
I hope the product fairs well at PMA but I don't think it is likely.
Fuji will have no choice but to face the reality that Kodak has come to grips with. Films sales are declining far more rapidly than anyone would have dreamed even three years ago.
Eric
 
Oh joy. Another "film is dead" thread. :bang: Many corporations seem to be unable to come to grips with the reality that all markets are now niche markets. Production runs for everything are going to be measured in the thousands, not millions.

Development and tooling costs drop every day. Newer manufacturing lines are able to produce multiple products simultaneously, to supply demand at the finest granularity and do it profitably. Companies that don't move to keep up with this trend and harness the power of these new technologies will go the way of the dinosaurs (buh-bye, Kodak).

I expect that - barring a comet strike or some other unforeseeable end to civilization as we know it - my grandkids and their kids will still have the option to shoot film.
 
I would think that it would be a larger negative size, like 6x9. With the 1DsIII at 20+mp, I would think that 6x4.5 would be not viable, unless there is a digital back coming sometime.

I'd love a GX690, but I kind of like the ring of a folder with a wide angle lens. Have to be something off the beaten path.
 
they already have the fuji gx645af, so i'm thinking an interchangeable lens rangefinder. but what format?
 
All bets are off on Fuji needing to test market

All bets are off on Fuji needing to test market

Fuji has proven time and time again that they can introduce new products into the marketplace and create new markets for their products. Look at their current product line and all the cameras they have intro'd in the last 20 years. All have been innovative to some degree and relatively successful. I think they owe that to the fact that their lenses cannot be faulted and their film success provides a sound base for them to try things that other mfrs will not do.

I would bet that PMA will be an announcement and not a test. Why do a test when the market is favoring digital so highly?

My support of Fuji is based on their committed successes. Not the "toe in the water" tentative gestures of many other manufacturers. They are committed to digital, but obviously feel strongly about both analog and digital. Hooray for them. Open mindedness prevails at Fuji.
 
Doug-
Why did you have to remind the rest of us about the HasselFuji family of current production cameras? We were all dreaming away so nicely of handy cameras with out mirror slap measured in thousands of foot pounds. And you've spoiled it for us!
 
Sorry, Bryce! It just occurred to me to wonder what current Fuji products might be leveraged into useful profit. 🙂

I'd think it unlikely for them to bring out a camera competing with Hasselblad, but perhaps a dedicated film body compatible with the system? Might help sell some Fuji film... Hasn't Hasselblad discontinued film backs?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom