Everybody Wins

After a couple of mojito’s on a Carribian island, the guys who had the brilliant idea to make tons of money by giving away meaningless awards, came up with enough categories to assign prizes to all companies who were so generous to buy the brag-rights to their past awards.

And if you think I am kidding, of course I am. I mean, to come up with categories that differentiate between “expert” and “professional” you have to take harder stuff than just mojitos :D.

• Can We Trust Any Award – A true Story that Involves Fujifilm

TIPA

After a brutally hard selection and extensive tests, TIPA has selected the winners of their 2023 awards.

Here are the Fujifilm products that won:

• Best Expert APS-C camera
  Fujifilm X-T5
• Best Professional APS-C camera
  Fujifilm X-H2s

RedDot

Also RedDot asked ChatGPT to make an extensive list of random products they can award to make money has tested tons of gear on their design and usability and came up with a list of winners.

Fujifilm was able to gain the humble amount of 23 RedDot Award. The photography related gear is this one:

• Cooling fan “FAN-001”
• FUJIFILM X-T5
• Fujifilm X-H2
• Fujifilm X-H2s
• FUJINON XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR
• FUJINON XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro
• FUJINON XF 56mmF1.2 R WR
• FUJINON XF18-120mmF4 LM PZ WR
• FUJINON GF 20-35mmF4 R WR
• Tripod grip “TG-BT1”
• Vertical File Transmitter Grip FT-XH
• Vertical Battery Grip VG-XH
• INSTAX mini Link 2
• INSTAX Square Link

Well done Fujifilm. This means you are a very healthy company if you have money to throw away for these awards.

Fujifilm Japan has shared a video on their YouTube channel, where they introduce their Fujifilm X and GFX gear factory, with the focus on lens manufacturing but you can also see some Fujifilm cameras assembly.

It’s all in Japanese, so activate the automatic Google translation tool. But even without understanding the content, it’s still nice to see how much manual work and care goes into manufacturing our gear.

If you don’t want to go through the hazzle of reading the automatic translation, the Japanese site dclife.com has summed up the video here, which I share google translated below:

An easy-to-understand explanation of the lens manufacturing process (lens polishing, glass molded lenses, composite aspherical lenses, grinding aspherical lenses, surface coating, lens frame processing, interchangeable lens assembly, lens engraving, lens resolution adjustment, etc.). The camera body assembly is also explained, and it is manufactured from an electronic base. It seems that the imaging sensor is positioned at the micron level.

The strength of Fujifilm Optics is…

• Technical ability to create things from 1
• It is possible to make software and jigs and tools in-house.
• Accumulation of optical technology cultivated over many years
• In addition to processing technology, optical assembly and adjustment technology, we also prepare our own measuring instruments to evaluate them.
• I can always be involved in new things.
• You can actively challenge new things.
• You can be involved in cameras and lenses used all over the world from the prototype stage.
• The attractiveness of being able to consistently produce Fujifilm products

…and the staff who are actually working are talking. Finally, Fujifilm Optics said, “By continuing to refine our unique technology to control light, we will surely meet the high demands in the imaging field of remarkable technological innovation, and aim to contribute to the development of the industry and create new value.”

BHphoto listed a new FUJIFILM 400 Color Negative Film on their website.

Key Features

• Consistent and Accurate Colors
• ISO 400/27° in C-41 process
• Rich Saturation, Optimized Skin Tones
• Fine Grain, Wide Exposure Latitude

FUJIFILM 400 Color Negative is a high-speed, daylight-balanced, 35mm color negative film offering a wide exposure latitude for greater versatility as well as a fine grain structure with consistent and accurate colors. With a nominal sensitivity of 400 ISO, this versatile stock can serve a multitude of applications under a wide range of lighting conditions. From sun-drenched vacation snaps to a flash-lit night scene, this color film is designed to produce quality prints.

Panasonic has now stated that their organic sensor is close to practical use and that they expect to use it in commercial devices “in a few years“.

“In a few years” might not sound that close for many of us, but considering that the announcement of the organic sensor development was made 10 years ago, being let’s say 2 or 3 years away from the finish line can be indeed perceived as “close” for engineers working on it for so long.

Also other companies work on the organic sensor (for example Samsung), but Panasonic says they lack behind in the development and Panasonic is leading in this case.

Back in June 2013 Panasonic and Fujifilm announced that they are developing the organic sensor together. The last time we heard of Fujifilm being still involved in the development was back in October 2018.

At this point, in 2023, I don’t know if Fujifilm is still involved or not.

via dclife via monoist

The Organic Sensor Novel – A Summary: