When I recently rated all Fujifilm 2025 releases, I gave the Fujifilm GFX Eterna 55 the worst rating.
Well, I feel like some misunderstood my reasoning, and more importantly, there are some facts that passed unnoticed, but that I think justify my worries.
First off: the problem is not the camera itself. I am sure filmmakers who’ll use it will also love it.
But you see, Fujifilm operates with a relatively small R&D team and limited resources. And the GFX Eterna is not just another camera—it represents a major commitment to an entirely new product category for the company. That inevitably means a huge allocation of time, people, and money. My original fear was that this effort would drain resources from other X and GFX projects.
Of course, I also hoped that some of the technologies and improvements developed for the Eterna 55 would trickle down to other Fujifilm cameras, as I wrote back then. But so far, we haven’t really seen any meaningful benefits.
But maybe I’m just overthinking this.
Maybe Fujifilm planned everything perfectly, and the GFX Eterna isn’t draining resources from other projects at all.
After all, do we have any real evidence that Fujifilm underestimated how complex and resource-hungry this project would be?
Well, while we don’t have hard proof, there is something that largely went unnoticed—and it might be a subtle sign that things aren’t going entirely according to plan.
Here it is:
In a recent CineD interview, Fujifilm stated that the GFX Eterna 55 will receive a massive number of firmware updates throughout 2026, including many major new features. On paper, that sounds great.
But Johnnie from CineD—being the sharp and attentive interviewer he is—asked the manager obvious question: is the GFX Eterna 55 consuming more resources than Fujifilm originally anticipated? The Fujifilm manager, unsurprisingly, answered “no.”
Still, the question didn’t come out of nowhere. The whole situation gives the impression that Fujifilm rushed the camera out to meet its self-imposed 2025 timeline, even though many key features were not ready yet—and will only arrive sometime in 2026.
I tend to agree with Johnnie here. If everything had gone according to plan, those features would already be in the camera today. The fact that they’re not strongly suggests that the project required more time and resources than expected. And that, in turn, means fewer resources available for other products.
I don’t know who convinced Fujifilm that launching a dedicated cinema camera was the right move—but personally, I think it was a mistake. The GFX Eterna 55 appears to be absorbing an enormous amount of energy and resources, and the rest of the system seems to be paying the price.
But maybe I am wrong. Maybe the GFX Eterna 55 was Fujifilm’s best move in years and it will turn out to be a massive success for them. I certainly hope so for Fujifilm. But as of now, I consider it one of the most R&D wasting projects Fujifilm has ever launched.
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