Imaging Resource interviewed Toshihisa Iida and Makoto Oishi from Fuji. Fujirumors as usual did a superb job making a quick summary of the news that matters:
Market Future & Canon Predictions
- Fujifilm totally disagrees with Canon’s prediction, that ILC business is going to contract by half over the next two years
- Market will depend on innovation that will come
- Fujifilm believes there is room for further grow
- Some markets will decline, but other markets have still potential to grow (Asian market)
Full Frame
- Customers should have different options
- Currently full frame has 1/3 of the market by value
- 2/3 of market is predominantly APS-C, Micro Four Thirds, and some medium-format
- other manufacturers focus on full frame, this might open opportunities for Fujifilm as long as they keep up innovating APS-C and MF
- mainly X-T3 and GFX 50R helped Fujifilm to grow by 10% total volume growth
- APS-C vs FF is not just about sensor size, but also the lens size, lens weight, overall cost, or the speed, the 4K movies
- people judge the system more on the overall package
Fujifilm X-T3 vs X-H line
- sold better than expected
- Fujifilm X-T3 sold 40% better than X-T2 if you compare to same period since launch
- X-T3 and X-H1 have cannibalized each other
- with the new lower X-H1 price tag, X-T3 and X-H1 sit nicely next to each other
- H-series and T-series will coexist for the future, but we need to clearly differentiate the lineup without confusing customers
Lenses
- XF200mmF2 is not only for sports, but also for portraits for very creamy bokeh and concerts for example
GFX System
- Fujifilm GFX 50R sales are above expectation and factory is very busy
- Fujifilm GFX 100 design is almost final, very early firmware, and IBIS still does not work
- GFX 100 megapixel autofocus: same sensor structure as the X-T3
- GFX 100 has almost zero competition, because FF is only at 50MP and other medium format cameras are very expensive
- Fujifilm thinks at multi-shot high-res shooting mode for GFX100, but has not decided yet
- designing IBIS is a real challenge for big MF sensor
- Fujifilm has no idea about how many stops IBIS they will achieve [FujiRumors leaked internal press sheets that show they aim at 5 stops]
- Fujifilm is still improving image quality via firmware
- GFX100 launch in first half 2019 for around $10,000
- Fujifilm GFX 50S most popular lens is the GF 32-64mmF4
- Fujifilm GFX 50R most popular lens is the GF 45mmF2.8
- GFX 50S owners have more lenses than GFX 50R owners
- GFX owners complaint about the lack of more fast lenses for the system and Fujifilm is taking into consideration their feedback
- Fujifilm listens to customers and tries to make their wishes happen, but sometimes their wishes become reality is very difficult and challenging
- As bright as possible, as small as possible, as affordable as possible…
- same team works on GFX and X. One R&D budget and depending on needs they are flexible to shift their focus
Autofocus
- X-T30 has improved algorithm which will come to X-T3
- CMOS sensor is always reading by lines. So it isn’t very suitable for horizontal phase-difference […] technically we can make a cross-type system but normally, subjects are more… and horizontally-arranged PDAF pixels support them better
- Fujifilm could do vertical AF correlation, but hasn’t felt the need to do it
- 8% of pixels are phase detection pixels (high density), good for low-light and high-frequency subjects
- signal and phase pixel are read separately
- we used to have like 60 regions within each AF point, but now 240
- depending on the light level, the X-T3 can “bin” PDAF pixels together (basically just adding their contents) to get a better signal/noise ratio, and so be able to determine focus even in very dim lighting. Depending on how you do this, you’ll trade-off some ability to see the finest details, but it can really help in very low-light conditions
