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To be very frank with all of you, I don’t think that we should necessarily look at Fujifilm as an innovative company in the future. Do they do cool things? Yes — but we can also all agree that their identity is now inherently linked to how trends on social media play out. Their Neophilia is also inherently part of what’s defining the trends on social media. And I truly have to congratulate them — where photographers tend to scoff at Sony users, Fujifilm fanboys have the respect of so many people. For a while, I was saying that camera companies need to look at the luxury and fashion world for advice and guidance. And like Leica, I think that Fujifilm is also going the way of the watch world — as an enthusiast company meant to cater to a lux audience.
The reason why I’m saying this is because Fujifilm doesn’t really go after the higher end professional photographer like Sony, Canon, and Nikon. You can say that they do with medium format — but medium format will only appeal to so many of us. By all means, Fujifilm is realizing that most people don’t need cameras. Instead, they simply want them. That requires a completely different kind of thinking and it kind of shocks me to say that it has taken the Japanese camera manufacturers nearly a decade to figure that out.
Fujifilm is one of the reasons why I often say that APS-C interchangeable lens cameras are dead—especially when you can get a full-frame camera secondhand for a comparable or better price. That’s how I bought my Nikon Zf special edition in gray. But if the company made more fixed-lens compact cameras, then I’d understand it a bit more.
When the Fujifilm X100vi launched, they specifically targeted it to the TikTok world in many ways. When the Fujifilm Instax Mini 41 launched, the company was very much talking about it being a fashion accessory. And I think that in many ways, we could say the same thing about the Fujifilm GFX 100RF. It’s essentially a high-end camera that photographers will take with them, and maybe they’ll do a little bit of work with it. That’s similar to the Leica Q3 and the Ricoh GR series of cameras.
This, essentially, is the new point and shoot that photographers have been asking for more of since the early 2010s. But when companies were really getting into this, they didn’t totally understand the market.
For anyone raging at this article, just remember that someone else enjoying a camera in a different way than you isn’t stealing your joy away. There are so many cameras on the market these days, and jumping camera systems is much easier to do than it ever was before. This is how I felt when the company introduced what’s essentially the Fujifilm X100V Mk II and then didn’t give the Fujifilm X Pro 3 any more love. At this point, I don’t think anything would get me to buy the X Pro 4 because there are so many good full-frame cameras and lots with a beautiful retro look to them.
But in many ways, Fujifilm and I have grown apart. I wouldn’t be surprised if you felt similar. Their film simulations can more or less be given to any camera on the market these days. So I can put them on all the cameras that I use for work — and the only reason why I’d buy a Fujifilm camera personally is for the vibes. With that said, I’d probably buy the GFX100RF.
But probably not in this economy.
