The latest Fuji financial report shows one more time, that it’s still the Fuji Instax world that keeps pushing Fuji’s imaging division into profits. Instax sells even better than expected, which is why “the targeted sales volume of instax for this FY has been raised from 4.6 million units to 5.0 million units.”
And what about the electronic imaging business (all kind of digital cameras & lenses)?
Overall the sales in the electronic imaging business decreased “due to a decrease in the sales volume with the shift to high-end models […] in the optical device field, the overall sales decreased, due to weak sales of camera modules for use in smartphones”
The report says the X-series sells strong, and a special mention goes to the Fujifilm X-T10.
“The sales of premium digital cameras X-Series centering on the interchangeable lens camera, FUJIFILM X-T10, launched in June 2015, were strong. FUJIFILM X-T10 can realize outstanding image quality and comfortable operability with a compact and lightweight body.”
Good to know that I’m not the only one, who suddenly felt an unexpected attraction to the Fuji X-T10.
The reports can be found here at fujifilmholings.
The Real Winner for Fujifilm: the brand new Instax Mini 70... with Selfie mirror!
24 Responses
I own two X-T10s now (black and silver) and I have to say, I’m really impressed. I use two, because I almost exclusively use primes. (8/2.8 (Samyang), 14/2.8, 23/1.4, 27/2.8, 56/1.2 and 90/2). OK, I also have the 18-55…but I rarely use it.
I even start to like the T10s design more than that of the T1….IMHO it seems “more retro”…
I hadn’t heard any specific numbers, but anecdotally I’ve been told by local shops that the X-T10 has been flying off the shelves at a rate no other IL Fuji body has before. To date, the only Fuji bodies that have really been significant in terms of sales and profit per body have been the X100 line and the X-T1. X-Pro, X-E, X-M, X-A, none of ’em have really made much money. (Generally, camera bodies from any manufacturer make very little profit, while a lot of money can be made on lenses.) The X100/S/T has done well over the three models and the X-T1 was doing okay, but the X-T10 has, apparently, leapfrogged the X-T1. Of course then there’s the Instax products which are essentially a licence to print money.
The growing pattern seems to be go for an extreme. Middle-ground cameras like the X-T1 or the higher-end crop DSLRs aren’t setting the world on fire. Smaller, cheaper units fly off the shelves; larger, more extravagant units don’t sell in large numbers but you can charge so much more for them, lower unit numbers are fine. Give it another four or five years and I think you’ll see the middle bodies go away entirely. There’ll be small, cheaper (<£500) mirrorless units for people who want something better than their phone's camera and then there will be the real high-end bodies (D4s, 1D X, Phase One, 645Z, etc) and almost everything in the middle will be phased out. The gap between the cheap bodies and the middle bodies is almost nothing now. When you look at the X-T1 and X-T10, you're basically looking at the same camera with just a few features' difference that only a very small percentage of people will actually notice in the field.
What I hope will happen is this will make manufacturers focus on lenses even more, putting out a wider range of lenses than rehashing old models. In a bid to keep people buying, when bodies are becoming a harder and harder sell, I hope this means things like IS, constant apertures on zooms and weather sealing will become more and more standard and cheaper as manufacturers put more money into lens production.
edit: Oh, and for the record, I have now sold my X-T1s, X-Es and I'll probably sell my X100S if there's ever a mk II of the 18mm or another 23mm lens comes out which is smaller. I still want a 70mm f/2, too, but in any case, the X-T10s are doing everything for me. If some of the things I and we have heard about the Pro2 come true then maybe I’ll pick one of those up, but for the foreseeable future I think I’ll just be working with the X-T10s until the X-T2 comes out. Even then, there will probably be an X-T20…
” the X-T1 was doing okay, but the X-T10 has, apparently, leapfrogged the X-T1.”
I don’t know where you have this from.
But its utter crap and far from the truth.
F.Y.I.
The store I work for still sells far more X-T1’s then X-T10’s.
X-T1 probably saved the X-series and was a spin-off to ultimately create the X-T10 as a knock off 14 month later, just to keep sales going.
All because there was no foresight for a quick release of the X-Pro anytime soon back in may.
I am not saying the X-T10 is a bad camera and I think its priced as it should be. But its definitely NOT selling any better then the X-T1.
Please don’t make things up, its just not true what you tried to tell the world.
On Amazon ratings X-T1 is nothing to be found. At least X-T10 in #20. No wonder, it is half the price for almost the same thing.
I think AceFlibble’s connections are a bit more reliable and representative than your observations in a single camera store. I’m pretty sure he’s not making this stuff up.
My sources are owners & managers of four local stores—two of which are chains which report a similar sales pattern throughout the rest of the country—as well as additional anecdotal remarks from professional photography press; living next to the central offices of the largest publisher of hobbyiest and special interest magazines in Europe has its uses. Anything I say here I say with 100% confidence.
So, you may find that in your particular store, another body has continued to sell in larger numbers, but that is nowhere near as indicative of line performance overall as the information I have access too. And, I’ll say again because apparently you skipped reading it the first time, this is anecdotal evidence, which for those hard of understanding means I am not claiming it to be infallible but simply the trend of the area as I have heard it to the extent of my very good connections.
For what it’s worth, shops here are no longer keeping more than two X-T1 bodies in store at a time, whereas they are stocking four X-T10 bodies. For further comparison, the Canon 5DS is only being kept in single or two units, the Sony Alpha series is being kept in units of two to four per model, and the Leica Q system is being kept in two at a time. So maintaining a stock level of four X-T10s shows you how well that body is selling compared to other recent releases. (Though the biggest mover is still the Canon 6D and 7DmkII, which makes sense as the cheapest new 35mm DSLR body on the market and the primary action/sports/wildlife body, respectively; neither has much competition so even with Canon’s falling sales, those two are still doing very well.)
The point is the Fuji XT10´s price is the right price for what fuji has to offer at the moment. And as far as i am concerned the Xt10 has everything i need. A faster AF will be nice though
No surprise, definitely the best price vs features Fuji package to date.
Question for Rico, Patrick or anyone else that may be in the know: What is going on with the X-T1 4.10 firmware update that was being said to be available on or about Thursday, October 29th?
I guess it will take about 12 more hours, then it will be online
When I first saw (here on FR) the X-T10 I thought was a very ugly camera without right “feel”. Well, after I touched it and used it a little bit I was totally in love with her 😉
So, long story short, I sold the X-E2 and bought an X-T10 for myself. I’m very happy about my choice. Really great camera!! 🙂
Why sell the xe2? Such a nice camera with very good handling. Was the difference worth the trade? Please explain your experience, many people here should be interested.
Yes of course. The main problem with the X-E2 compared with the X-T10 is the lacking of tilting screen. For me (mainly landscape photographer) it’s a great advantage to have a tilting screen. Besides this: the ring for choosing shooting mode (Single, continuous, etc) is fabulous.
Another point is the AF: it’s a lot faster on X-T10, above all on low light. Maybe the future X-E2 firmware can address this issue.
And for my tasting is a lot better to have the controls and EVF on reflex form-factor then the rangefinder form factor. But obviously this is a personal taste.
In the current ratings, X-T10 occupies only position 20, behind even Nikon 1 J5.
a6000 in various configurations basically takes all the cheese. Although E-M10 kit is in position 2. And there is something in common – they are competitively priced now. A very simple lesson – unless you make something at least somewhat ground-breaking like A7rII, PRICE MATTERS! Price even a little above competition like Fuji (and Oly and Pana with newer cameras do), provide lower value – and your sales basically disappear.
I totally agree with you, and I make my living out of analyzing such data.
Keeping track of Fuji’s Amazon rankings, Fuji sales ranking goes from “does not sell well” to “doesn’t sell at all”.
See the highly regarded XF90mm lens. a week or two after release it dropped to the ~300ish place, today it’s ranked #876.
#876 in lenses translates to 1-5 sells a month
Price is extremely important, and I believe a major cause of drop in camera sales- especially the most recent crop of high-end point and shoots from most vendors. The manufacturers tell us smart phones are the cause of loss of sales of Fuji XG2 and Canon Sxx and Nikon PXX lines, but they don’t mention that those cameras enter the market at $550. See, blaming an external force like smartphones excuses product marketing and its wish price points.
Hard to understand the high prices for 135 format cameras for that matter. Why $3000+ for Sony A7xx body, or Nikon D810/Df bodies?
The other damaging factor is also related to price. Product marketing launches the product with too-high prices, figuring they’ll just skim the price down every six months to take the next tier. This is not an accident, this is not “the law of the universe for electronics,” it’s all planned. The upshot is that your camera sells for significantly less a year after you bought it, so why not wait next time? Worse, the residual value of your camera is in the pits. Again, not the law of nature the interwebs will use to explain it away, nor does the interweb meme of “don’t worry, you had a year of taking good pictures out of it” help.
There is a cumulative human effect on consumers being left feeling like saps, coupled with product quality sufficiency, and too-high prices, and consumers are ready to throw in the towel.
All cameras are good right now. Some haven’t got better in years. Why buy more?
Another aspect is that economic classes that could buy the cameras at those high prices already bought them, but economic classes, especially in developing nations that did not still cannot due to overly high prices. And due to rapid churn of new models, nobody really wants to buy things two or more generations behind.
Cameras are for all consumer purposes electronic goods, but refuse to behave like electronic goods. UHD displays cost $10K or more 2 years ago, and now they are below $1K. Phones of the $400 level 3 years ago are $90 now. Do you see a D4s or D810 doing the same?
And smartphones turned a necessity (if you wanted memories you had to have a camera) into luxury toy.
So other electronics gives much better incentive to buy it as a toy or a gift, improved better over last year model and possibly much better value for value-seekers among last-year models.
And new lenses of any decency are priced just atrociously. Especially on-brand. Everything $1K or more, $3k+ for the new stuff people actually want. With yen so low. In developing countries with low camera penetration, it is annual salary for most. They price themselves out of the market.
Soon China will get to this market and kill Japanese camera industry. First lenses started to come.
No surprise here. Rangefinder style is a niche style (for this generation of consumers) and Fuji will succeed based on the sale of SLR style as well the Instax products. In this way they can (hopefully) subsidize the Xpros and XEs, etc.
I totally agree with you, and I make my living out of analyzing such data.
Keeping track of Fuji’s Amazon rankings, Fuji sales ranking goes from “does not sell well” to “doesn’t sell at all”.
See the highly regarded XF90mm lens. a week or two after release it dropped to the ~300ish place, today it’s ranked #876.
#876 in lenses translates to 1-5 sells a month.
I still consider Fuji’s X-series business model to be extremely confuse. All X-series have a nearly identical internal concept only the form factor and VF-concept differs. One after one a model is being released and hyped while the previous ones fade away in importance until they are even fully neglected in FW updates, is still somehow on the shelfs. As a collection item maybe? A decent flash line and many accessories are also still missing. We have two 35mm’ FL’s now, the cheaper and slower one seems – according to some reviews – to be outperforming the more expensive F1.4. I see other weird overlaps in the lens range and Fuji’s OIS choice is not very consistent. Where is the red line? It just gives the impression they keep on diversifying gear to surf for a few months on small opportunities in the market while we are still missing a strategically so essential 24MP sensor able to withstand in the current FF-HQ & ISO wave. Something’s missing and I don’t think this kind of micro-range management has a real future unless, very maybe, they come with something very state-of-art soon. Five years ago I suddenly noticed how several photography-related friends got extremely enthousiast about Fuji after buying the X100 and pretty soon they couldn’t resist the X-Pro1. Today NONE of them is still using a Fuji X-series except myself (some went to Sony, others to Leica) and though Fuji released in this time gap a few interesting concepts I’m still not feeling very convinced the X-series will still be around over the next 5 years – ‘even the old school camera full of buttons and scales’ gimmick is getting a bit ‘deja vu’ versus cleaner and more feature-focussed concepts.
X100 and X-PRO1 were groundbreaking back in the day. Since then only the X-T1 was special. Not because it was really special/good/unique but simply as it solved all the problems the previous models had (to an exeptable level.)
The original low light capabilities were comparable with FF. Now, even a tv and smartphone manufacturer can do better with an 28mp APS-C NX1 ( + that actually does shoot propper video).
The continues support with FW upgrades was like magic, but then suddenly the anticipated support for older models just stopped.
The key elements and what made the system unique seem to have gone lost.
Except for the Lens quality (and Jpg quality) and looks, I cannot find other things in which Fuji now truly stands out anymore.
1 Noise performance – at pricepoint others perform better
2 EVF – others have better
3 Focus – although improved, others have better
4 dynamic range – still very good but not near 14 stops of others
5 software support for raws – still not realy good
6 video – just still crap
These are some of the things that irritate me in how I use the camera. Maybe some other will dissagree. But the overall story for me is, Fuji really outperformed others 5-3 years ago but now, nearly all those things are gone.
“The continues support with FW upgrades was like magic, but then suddenly the anticipated support for older models just stopped.”
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It didn’t come to your mind, that this could not go on for every old model forever?
“The key elements and what made the system unique seem to have gone lost. Except for the Lens quality (and Jpg quality) and looks, I cannot find other things in which Fuji now truly stands out anymore.”
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Seriously? Firmware-upgrade-wise Fuji still is lightyears ahead of most of the competition. Would you get an electronic shutter for an already purchased camera from CaNikon – for free? No, they would tell you to buy the newest model. The same with Sony, I guess. Olympus seems to have found the Fuji path lately though…
Maybe the formulation was somewhat harsh on the FW upgrade part. Having the X-Pro I expected that even small improvements like colour of focus peaking would find their way from newer models to the X-pro or find it faster at the least. Mainly also as Fuji indicated the x-pro will remain the flagship.
It is just logic that they will stop support of older models at some point. Especially if the successor is already on the market. X-pro, not the case however…
Sony now actually did release new firmware for some models with improvements that are major to some. Olympus is doing quit well indeed. CaNikon are like dinosaurs, just boorish and a pain in the ass of further evolved and innovative brands.
Yeah, you are right about the X-Pro1…And I was really impressed with Olympus’s recent firmware updates. Especially Focus Bracketing is a really groundbreaking new feature (and it works…). I actually think about getting an O-MD E-M10 Mk II and the ED 60/2.8 Macro just for macros. I love my Fuji X gear but still lack a decent macro solution. Thanks to the MFT crop factor I could live with a 60 macro and I have the strong feeling that the whole setup would not be more expensive than the “coming” Fuji 120/2.8 (rather cheaper).
I was quite amused to see the “feature list” of the D810 FW-update that came out just yesterday…only bugfixes… ;-(