As you know, back in February our sources expected the X80 to be announced by the end of 2017.

However, I started getting reports of delays, and our sources told us an X80 is no longer scheduled for 2017. Everything has been postponed to 2018 (for now).

So why the delay?

A possible answer comes from Gordon from Cameralabs, one of the most respected and professional reviewers out there, who often test pre-production gear and has some great insights into plans of camera manufacturers.

While talking about the possibility of having an X70 successor (the Fujifilm X80) with X-TransIII sensor and X Processor Pro, he said at dpreview here:

“As a professional journalist of over 25 years I have close access to camera designers and manufacturers and when I asked Fuji’s engineers if we would see X-Trans III in an X70 successor, they told me the sensor and processor are too power-hungry for the smaller battery and form factor of the X70.

My personal take on that then is that it would be possible, but the battery life would be too short to be useful. A shame as I’d have liked an ‘X80’ with X-Trans III.”

So what will Fuji do now?

• Fujifilm might have to think at other solutions such as making changes to the original X70 design to manage heat better and fit in a larger battery. However, that would go against the purpose of the X70 line, to have an ultra-compact APS-C camera.
• Fujifilm could completely drop the camera line, if they realize too much R&D would be required make X-TransIII and X-Processor work on a compact X80, especially considering that the Fujifilm X70, despite being a little great camera, was a failure for Fujifilm and they might no longer be motivated to keep the series alive.

Thanks a lot for the reader, who send me the link to this 1 month old comment… you guys are great… what I miss, you find it for me :) .

Fujifilm X70: BHphoto, AmazonUS, FocusCamera, Adorama

Dear readers, sorry to bother you with it, but I just got a message from an anonymous source. It came to me anonymously via rumor box, so I have no idea, who it is and how to contact it. My only way to contact the source is via FujiRumors. I hope you don’t mind.

To the Source

thanks a lot for sharing the rumor via rumor box a few minutes ago. If possible, I would like to discuss this with your further.

To discuss it further, you could use your private email (which, of course, I would keep 100% confidential). Some sources created a fake email account for this purpose. But also Direct Messages on Twitter and Facebook could be a way to talk to me.

If you decide to use the rumor box, that’s perfectly fine and I’m very grateful, but I won’t be able to interact with you. So just feel free to drop me some information in case you have more details. And to use a nick-name, if you want.

Again, thanks for sharing. I will work on the rumor and share it… and just in case, I’d be happy to talk with you further behind the scenes ;)