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[UPDATE: Dajerling just sent me this comment via FR-twitter: “Some test shots Raw or SOOC. I’m really impressed of this X30. Flickr ” ]
It seems that $70 price drop were not enough for top rated ebayUS store cameraland to get rid of 16 Fujifilm X30 (8 black and 8 silver). NOTE: Open Box Items
In fact, the store decided to lower the price for $20 more dollars, so it is now available for $509 ($90 price drop). This further rebate seems to work, as they sold a few cameras. But there are still some left, so check it out at cameraland: [shoplink 28918 ebay]black Fujifilm X30[/shoplink] and [shoplink 28919 ebay]silver Fujifilm X30[/shoplink].
I told you on the pre-order day: don’t pre-order, wait, there will be price drops soon… and here we have the first serious one (although on Open Box Items). 509 bucks… do you think that’s a fair price for the Fujifilm X30?
22 Responses
That’s as expected. Wait another month and it’s gonna be $449 😉
Still $599 🙂
There really isn’t a good price for it. The target audience for this type of camera, by and large, don’t want this camera at any price. Even if it’s a great camera, it is perceived as crippled by the sensor.
The key word here is “perceived” as every initial images show the exact contrary. Add to that all the refinements (evf, layout, overal speed …) When these deals come to Europe I’ll grab one.
People should just see for themselves, the x-e1 was described as a so-so camera: slow, with a terrible af … and I really enjoy mine and its results.
You are generalising and I can assure you most people who already have a ‘better’ (read larger sensor) system camera or DSLR will happily pay for this regardless of its sensor size. The image quality coming out of these sensors is more than sufficient for any non-professional purpose and given enough light for professional use as well. What you and most people knocking this camera fail to realise is that Fuji is not interested in producing the smallest camera in the market, they are more about handling and control and the experience of making a picture. The Sony RX100iii does not in fact appeal to the same user, as good as it is the main issue with it is also it’s drawing card, it’s just too small to be a comfortable camera to use. Sure it has better high-ISO performance but not much point if it takes longer to change settings to take advantage of. The LX100 is closer to the X30 in terms of handling as it’s almost the same size in the hand but, and it’s a big but… it’s over $300 or more than 50% more expensive than the Fuji. Nobody is arguing that the Pana or Sony produce better results in certain circumstances but they can’t compete with dedicated system cameras with larger sensors and that is the market Fuji is targeting with this camera. As for it being crippled by the sensor, not a year ago cameras like the x20 and lx7 etc were praised for their image quality… somehow I don’t think that image quality has suddenly changed because there are bigger sensors out there now. By that logic these newer cameras are all crippled as they use tiny sensors compared to FF and medium format. It’s all where each chooses to draw the line in their quality/price equation.
If you read the description, you’ll find that these are open box items.
“This great camera was opened for an instore event. After the event they was put back in the box. It comes with all of the Fujifilm supplied accessories and the USA warranty. Because it was opened we will not sell it as new, never opened”
So it doesn’t strike me as bad news, at all. I challenge anyone to make a non-laughable argument that an open-box item should sell at the same price of a brand new item.
the point is, that they tried to sell it for $529 for a couple of days without success, so they lowered further the price to 509. But it’s true, cameraland often sells such “open box” gear for a good price.
My reply is directed more to all the doomsayers, but to be frank you seem to be among them. Nowhere do you point out that it’s an open box item; the clear implication is that new, in-box X30’s are selling so badly that the price has already been reduced $90. You ought to indicate that somewhere — clearly, and in the headline, not merely as an aside, or update.
that’s true. I just took it for granted, as cameraland always has such open box deals. but it’s definitely my fault, and I added it in the article now.
I often said, the X30 is the most sophisticated Fuji camera (along with the X100T), and I also said that, despite the look (but that’s just a matter of taste), I like this camera. But the market trend seems to be to pack always bigger sensors in small cameras, and the X30 went, in part, the opposite trend, bigger camera with the same relatively small sensor.
however, the X30 takes wonderful images, that’s why I also updated the post with a comment and a Flickr link just sent to me by a FR-reader via twitter. But I’m afraid “the market” will focus just on the sensor size, which is a pity, because the X30 is in many other aspects superior even to my X-E2.
Therefore, I’m afraid that we will see price drops. But, if I’m wrong and the sales are good, I’ll write a post where I say that I was wrong… and I’ll be happy to do that.
What is the fasted sync speed for flash? Can it shoot high speed with an external flash attached?
Thanks to the camera’s leaf shutter, flash sync works with shutter speeds up to 1/1000s and beyond.
Fuji really screwed up by keeping the same X20 sensor.
What fujifilm has expected with this big and rather ugly box that has a tiny sensor? And it is even made in China. The question is: if Fujifilm is able to recognise what are users and marketplace needs? I do not think it can. X30 and X-100T prove it.
$399 sounds reasonable.
For what in store event did they have to open 16 cameras?!? Multiple locations perhaps. So $509 or $449, those sound better to me.
The event must have been bigger than photokina 😉
Oh turns out to be eight total, the 3 black ones are gone, one silver remains
I am pissed, I put in the order when you first mentioned it a couple days ago thinking it was new item now I find out it’s open box. I wish you had mentioned that the first time. I tried to cancel and they told me it is too late
every cameraland gear I’ve always linked to is open box.
in my country in Europe I can return any item within 2 weeks and get my money back… don’t you have something like this in USA?
Can you tell me when exactly you placed the order? Because, at least following the “ebay countdown” of sold items, cameraland sold the first 3 X30 (silver) yesterday for $509. since you purchased earlier, I wonder why the sale didn’t show up on their site… very strange from ebay
However, I got feedback from other people who grabbed “open box” items at cameraland, the product is new, and perfectly working. They probably just write “open box” in order to be able to sell it for that price. I think that not even at photokina Fuji had to open 16 X30 boxes to show the cameras to customers.
I just got an email from camera land and they said the same thing, product is new. This is my first Fuji, I am a canon guy currently own the Canon G12. Thanks for reply.
OMG, everyone could have known this… Here in Germany list price for the X30 is EUR 549. There are a lot of stores which sell them for this price. Got mine for EUR 499. Just had to wait a little bit. Early adopters pay more…
I’m an x10 owner and while I really like the camera, these incremental improvements are of little interest to folks like me. In other words, anyone who wanted one of these cameras probably already has one.
Sony and Panasonic are leading the way now with bigger sensors in smaller bodies. Fuji doesn’t seem to be competitive in this space anymore. Crazy how fast camera tech has moved.