I even use their film still. Granted they are discontinuing most of their film lines this year but still a very relevant company, especially with their mirrorless cameras
I've been expecting this for a while and have a good stash of film tucked away that will carry me for quite a while. I have about 150 rolls of various slide films in 120 and maybe 200 rolls of B+W in 120 and 35mm. I'll probably still try to tuck away another 100 rolls or so in the deep freezer if I can. Unlike FP-100C, slide+negative films can be stored for a long time (practically indefinitely) if kept cool/frozen.
At this point I am getting worried about how long E-6 processing will be around though. There are DIY kits but they are not archival-grade stable.
Fuji is also terrible at communicating these discontinuations to their customers. Several times now it's simply been "oops, we're out, this will be the last shipment", and only to their Asia distribution chain at that.
I can see why they are doing this and Kodak isn’t but it is sad. I’ll probably end up buying up a bunch of Fujifilm and freezing it as well. A lot of the film from Fuji I see in stores is set to expire late 2019.
One of the reasons I love the series so much is that they're so unassuming, almost looking like fashion accessories because compared to other ranges they just look so good. So people don't shy away from them like they do if you walk around with some giant DSLR like a tourist or some wannabe vlogger. And yet they are capable of just gorgeous pictures, so there's this wonderful nexus between aesthetic form and function that I don't see from any other major manufacturer.
And the pictures they take... one of the little joys I get as a casual photographer is when I take a photo of someone, and they love it so much that they immediately post it as their profile picture. This happened more often with the x100 than any other camera, by some combination of having the thing present in the first place, people not being scared of it, and the charming pictures it takes. Good feelings.
I've been pretty tempted by the X100F and if there's an update this year I may not be able to resist. No-one ever complimented my Sony...
The small size almost positions the X series as a modern day Leica rangefinder. It's perfect for vacation and street photography, even for more intimate things like weddings... but Nikon and Canon have the autofocus thing locked up (probably with a mountain of patents). Unfortunately if you're shooting weddings you'll want that extra low light capability of a full-frame sensor and mature phase detection AF. If you're doing studio stuff, you probably don't care too much but you would miss the ubiquitous Canikon accessories.
Me? I shoot concerts (which is probably why I don't wax nostalgic about film too much). I'd love something inconspicuous like an X series, but I'm almost always shooting at high ISO. If I'm using a manual focus lens I'd miss the instant feedback of an optical viewfinder. If I'm using an AF lens I'd miss the performance of the current crop of full frame DSLRs. In general I'd miss the selection of native lenses available to the dominant DSLR lens mounts.
If there's any worry about the longevity of Fujifilm it would be interesting to contemplate a Fuji/Sigma or Fuji/Cosina merger IMO. Sigma's got some crazy sensor technology, and Cosina's got a recent history of making some amazing lenses. Or Fuji/Ricoh/Pentax.
Despite the name ("X-Pro2") I don't think Fujifilm are actually targeting "real" pros with this range. They're not workhorse cameras and even the X-Pro makes obvious concessions to functionality in favour of aesthetics. But they are not toys! I'm having trouble thinking of who their market actually is off the top of my head. A certain kind of enthusiast. People who seriously care about both form and function. The kind of person who would never use a factory camera strap (i'm thinking Artist & Artisan). I don't know, maybe I'm projecting :P
I know exactly what you mean about high ISO (i have an a7sii) and you're right that any of the X-series would be a poor choice - that's not really their bag. It's the camera you'd take backstage, though, and that wouldn't be confiscated by security...
But my Fujifilm XE-3 is what I take with me the vast majority of the time if I'm not shooting action or long tele/very wide angle. And, yes, it's in part because it feels like a rangefinder in a lot of ways. (Never had a Leica but used a Kodak Retina for many years along with various other cameras like Olympus XAs.)
And, yeah, there were plenty of rangefinders (even Nikon and Canon made them)... but I referenced Leica because Fuji is targeting an enthusiast market with the X series that Canikon are largely ignoring (counterpoint: the Nikon Df).
https://mirrorlesscomparison.com/preview/fuji-x100f-vs-xpro2...
X100F fixes almost all the flaws in the X100 plus gives you a digital converter and more film simulations.
With the two physical converters that I already had for the old X100 I can now cover a range of 28mm-100mm eqv. which is perfect for travel.
I'm sure you already know the sorts of tricks the leaf shutter will let you do. Well on the X100F you can use the on board flash in manual mode now too.
Oh and as an added bonus you can stick an EF-X20 on the bottom and slave it off the on board flash for a tiny twin flash camera in a tiny package. It works perfectly in full sunlight (manual only though).
(In case anyone is wondering the twin flash thing is for flat on-axis fill similar to a ring light in bright sunlight. So flat light but with no shadows as you'd get from a single fill flash).
Lovely stuff.
If I wasn't so heavily invested in Nikon glass I'd have an X-T2.
Well .. true, but mostly because that is a HUGE size for a digital sensor. The only "medium" format digital I'm familiar with is the pentax 645, it is smaller than that old film and yet still 50MP (!). The tech will only improve.
I wouldn't hold your breath for any sensor of the size of the old film you're talking about. There's a certain threshold above which there are diminishing returns. I suppose there are some cinema sensors being made at 70mm but they are very niche and ruinously expensive. My money might be on the 645 size becoming standard, and it's a reasonable one.
> not even real medium format
To be fair there is no "real" medium format. It basically means "bigger than 35mm".
as i mentioned there is a clear market for actual digital medium format using digital backs you can plug on old hasselblad or equivalent twin lenses models. So this is not fiction or something. And sensor size is not about pixels, you get a very different depth of field with medium and large format. thats is why we still use them.
The 645z and x1d are delivering the medium format DoF right now. Things can be improved upon, sure, but insisting on a certain sensor size is misguided. That size was necessary simply because of the limitations of film chemistry. Remove this limitation and the sensor size becomes less relevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field#Relationship_of...
Film doesn't even need to be cold-stored unless you're wanting to store it long term. It should last until the expiry date (usually a year or two) at room temperature without any ill effects.
But unrelated note, get an upright/freestanding/chest deep freezer. With a normal fridge/freezer, when you open the door all the cold falls out. The upright freezers form a "well" that keeps the cold in much better. They will hold a freeze for at least 24-48 hours if you don't open the lid, although much longer and you would probably want to be looking for a generator.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/9503675822/analog-revival-incr...
https://www.dpreview.com/news/1282034127/kodak-alaris-is-bri...
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/gr...
Fuji just can't get their act together, and to be honest they've never been a very well-run company. Amazing products (best-in-class film, cameras, lenses, etc) but extremely shitty marketing and distribution, particularly outside the Asia market. They're finally sorta getting it together with the digital side of the company (the X-series are great and have a big following in NA/Europe) but the film side has been a mess for 50+ years. Probably a lesson in there for the entrepreneurs of HN - along with the importance of producing the appropriate amount of product.
The really aggravating thing is their instant packfilms (peel-apart Polaroid film) - they literally are making the emulsion anyway for their Instax series (which have been selling like crazy for years), they just need to produce different sizes of film, which has traditionally not been A Big Deal for film companies, up until Fuji made it one. They could increase their volume quite a bit if they would just restart production of the standard film sizes that Polaroid, MF, and LF shooters have been using for decades, but they only make the proprietary one that fits their cameras.
This is a more than strange statement to make in a thread mentioning Kodak, where one of those two companies successfully managed the transition from film to digital, and the other went bankrupt.
https://leaderonomics.com/business/kodak-vs-fujifilm-success... is the first hit on "fujifilm vs kodak", but there's quite a few there with the same message...
https://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/01/how-fujif...
Not to take away from their cameras. I use them and am a fan but they're pretty much a niche.
They probably shuttered the production facility years ago and are just running out their inventory. It might actually be quite lucrative, if evil, to buy some for later resale.