Fuji interview: New Lens roadmap to be released in 2019

Newsswitch interviewed Fujifilm Manager Toshihisa Iida. Here is a summary of the interview I blatantly copied from Fujirumors.com  :)

Fujifilm GFX System

  • Fujifilm GFX100 orders in the first month were more than twice than expected
  • GFX100 got attention of high-end amateurs
  • The GFX100 has features such as high-pixel, high-sensitivity, and wide-gamut video shooting that can be used in a wide range of applications
  • Weight and slowness are the challenges of cameras equipped with medium-sized or larger image sensors
  • The GFX100 is also valued for its improvement

How to revitalize the market

  • Expanding the APS-C X System
  • evolve the existing models
  • market demand for high-performance products is increasing
  • High end gear is becoming more expensive and heavier
  • It is important to meet the expectations of the high-end customers
  • demand for video will grow
  • smartphones are evolving with computational photography, but for background blur or shooting in a dark place, interchangeable lens cameras are still superior
  • Toshihisa Iida thinks that struggling digital camera sales it is not only because of the popularity of smartphones, but also because there are no products that are more attractive than smartphones. He would like to revitalize the market by creating a popular type of camera that can attractive for smartphone users

How to Overcome Challenges

  • Proceed with efforts to improve production efficiency and reduce costs
  • it is difficult to increase the efficiency of lens production
  • Automation technology is incorporated into the Miyagi factory. Some interchangeable lenses are also automated, but the human eye is absolutely neccessary for the adjustment process

Future Roadmap

  • The roadmap is updated once a year. To date, we have announced an average of 5 or 6 new products each year. We are not going to slow that pace

Fuji GFX100: Will this camera change Medium Format?

Ted Forbes:

The Fujifilm GFX 100 is the new 100 megapixel flagship from Fujifilm. It features a newly designed sensor which offers some of the best dynamic range I’ve seen on any camera to date. This medium format camera is also unique in that it has features not found on any other medium format camera such as in body image stabilization (IBIS) and the ability to record 4k video.

Compared to other camera such as the Hasselblad X1D, Pentax 645Z, or Phase One XF IQ3 – Fujifilm represent a serious change not only in possibilities with the camera, but also in price point.

Fuji officially annunces the development of the X-PRO3. Here are the images!

Today Fuji did announce the development of the new X-PRO3. Fujirumors reports:

Fujifilm says the announcement will be on October 23, with worldwide “Fujifest” events to try it out on October 24.
Along with the Fujifilm X-Pro3, they will introduce the a new Classic Negative film simulation
It will come in three colors, the classic black as well as a DURA black and DURA silver
It will be built out of titanium, which will make it 10 times tougher than steel against scratch, almost level of sapphire.

Fuji also announced that it will make a XF 50mm f/1.0 lens instead of the previously announced 33mm f/1.0 lens. This  will allow them to make the lens 35% smaller! Here you can see the new 50mm lens versus  the much bigger 33mm lens:

Here is the official presentation video:

 

Lens rumors: Olympus working on a 500mm MFT lens, Nikon on a 12mm f/2.8 Z lens and Sony on MANY lenses :)

A couple of lens news for you:

1) Shigemi Sugimoto from Olympus told in an interview with Newsswitch that  thewy are developing a new 500mm MFT lens with 2x teleconverter
2) Nikon has patented a new 12mm f/2.8 Z lens
3) Sony said they have multiple lenses on their roadmap
4) Tamron will launch 1 new FE zoom (70-180mm f/2.8) and three FE primes in October