Amateur Photographer reports that “the company plans to launch more mirrorless system cameras this fiscal year, Tanaka said in the Nikkei interview.” This one more time confirms that our rumors about new entry level X cameras coming soon are correct. And “Fuji tells AP it is ‘extremely pleased’ by the public’s enthusiasm for its higher-end compacts – a market in which it plans to focus its future compact camera resources. Fuji hopes to get its camera division back into the black by 31 March next year.”
Ap also writes: “Hiroshi Tanaka, general manager of Fuji’s Optical Device and Electronic Imaging Products Division, explained that bottom-end models have a low profit margin and will be axed from the firm’s line of around 20 compacts.”
This isn’t really a surprise. Smartphones are eating up the compact camera market.
news found via ThePhoBlographer.
21 Responses
Dear Fuji,
how about speeding up the release of your lenses for the customers who showed you trust early on?
Starting to get disgusted by the constant delays while releasing camera after camera.
Can’t agree more with you. I’ve got an X-E1 in December expecting to get 23mm by the beginning of summer and now, on the 4th of June, it’s not even known when precisely will it be released. Only a vague beginning of 4th quarter 2013 estimate which probably means that we’ll be lucky to get it this year at all.
Fuji still has the best first two years of lenses line up, they are provinding focal lengths which Sony users can only dream of and all of that in a high quality, they barely released the 14mm and you guys are already whining about it? I think it’s too soon for this type of complain.
Yeah, first world problems. And the grass isn’t as green in sonyland but at the same time the only proper lens beside Touits released for NEX is 35mm equiv…
The 35mm, 50mm and 10-18 are all very proper lenses.
They already have all the lenses I would ever need. I for one hate the fact that they still didn’t fix auto iso a hell of a lot more.
Yeah where are the 23mm and 27mm!? get on with it now, don´t listen to the Muppets at the marketing department that wanna move the 100S first, that+s not how things works.
Yeah where are the 23mm and 27mm!? Get on with it now, don´t listen to the muppets at the marketing department that wanna move the 100S first, that´s not how things works.
The real problem is: To bring the lenses faster to the market, apart from finishing the development faster, you need more production capacity. But once the initial run for the products is over you are left with factories that will drown you in unsold lenses and go bankrupt. Is that what you want for Fuji?
It takes longer than promised because demand is higher than estimated, I guess. But from a long-term perspective this is a good thing and increases chances of the X-Mount staying around for a long time!
When exactly does this fiscal year ends?
From my info, the Fuji fiscal year is 1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014 so yeah, I bet they’ll launch more cameras in this fiscal year, but that does not mean that one or two are right around the corner – of course, it does not mean they aren’t, but still :).
Ok thank for the clear answer! I guess just wait & see then 😉
20 current compacts is crazy. Even 10 will be crazy. They are behind the curve. X20, XF1, a couple of underwaters (good, with X20 sensor, and a simple one) and a couple of superzooms (ditto) – nothing more is needed.
For a company like Fuji, any more than 3 compacts is overkill IMHO. An entry level model that retails for $250 and can be discounted to sub $200 if necessary. A better model at $450 and a high end model competes in the RX100 space around $650. Then there should be three larger sensor mirrorless cameras – the X100 class, the XE class and the X-pro class. Fuji should concentrate on being excellent in those 6 models and not waste their time with anything else on the digital camera front. This crazy proliferation of models among all of the Japanese camera companies is nuts and is not in the best interest of the customer, who is confused, nor the company which as massive additional costs to keep up with a lineup of 20 or more cameras. Less is more for just about anybody but Canon, Sony and Panasonic (yes even Nikon should not be playing around with a dozen or more cameras – only the multi business conglomerates can absorb that for any period of time). Make an excellent product line at clearly distinguished, and logical price/feature points.
Your camera class grading scheme is flawed. X100 isn’t mirrorless camera, it’s high-end large-sensor compact. Having a one more mirrorless camera below X-E1 wouldn’t hurt anyone either.
Actually it is a mirrorless cameras as are all point and shoots and all mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. The X100 just happens to be a fixed lens mirrorless camera, not an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera. I did say “larger sensor mirrorless camera” which the X100 is since it uses the same APS-C sized sensor as the XE-1 and X-Pro 1. Not flawed at all if you read exactly what I wrote 😉
It’s nice to get confirmation that engineering manpower from the compact division is being redirected to the X division. This will speed-up firmware updates and feature development/improvement. It’s better to be great in a few sectors than mediocre everywhere.
Agreed! I just bought the X-Pro 1 a few weeks ago and I must say it is a joy to use and is a fantastic camera. That said, I hope they finally direct attention to provide a firmware update to introduce minimum shutter speed settings in auto ISO and perhaps focus peaking.
Please, please a FF point and shoot. EVF, built in flash, manuel time/aperture w knobs. 35-38mm equivalent. Will Fuji be the first to kick in this open door? Still rocking it w my Contax T3, Nikon 35 Ti and Fuji Natura S. Find it so funny that camera manufactures have no idea about what they did some 10.15 years ago – muppets.
First? How about RX1?
First to do it right…
I agree that the RX1 is a big step, but really they just happen to be the first to put a FF in a small P & S. It´s a bit like Apple when they did there MP3 player, there were tons of people out there Apple just did it right and crushed the rest. Fuji is on the right path w the X line, but they could own the P&S too if they payed some attention.
Here is what I do think is till not there,
– No Viewfinder, which I personally prefer. To be honest, this might be worth loosing though.
– Flash is too weak.
– Would prefer it even smaller which i guess would be possible. Lens feels a bit to chunky. Important here is to make it more pocketable.
– set up of controls could be even more intuitive IMHO.
– Video – who cares? Sure bonus, but I need a high end Pro camera that delivers. No cute puppy capture tool.
You shot w a T3 or Fuji Naura S? Their controls is by no standards “perfect”, but the simplicity and to be honest certain limitation makes them very good at doing just what they are suppose to do, nothing else.
At the end of the day though I am considering the Rx-1, but there will and should very soon be better ones coming, Fuji should get on it. I am sure they are already.