The prestigious magazine TIME has named the Instax Pal as one of the best inventions of 2023 in the Special Mention section.
TIME’s annual list of THE BEST INVENTIONS features “200 extraordinary innovations changing lives” and 50 Special Mention inventions.
SPECIAL MENTION: These days, snapping photos with your phone is so universal it’s almost boring. If you’re looking for a more tactile experience but still want to keep things simple, the pocket-sized FujiFilm Instax Pal camera offers the benefits of a digital camera—like the option to add filters or share your photos—as well as the ability to print out mini snapshots in 15 seconds.
I guess these things happen when you let ChatGPT do your work.
So it happens that for all those, who wanted the X-E4, the only option now is to look around at the second hand market, where, as reported by asobinet, the price in some countries can be higher than what the X-E4 did cost brand new. And digitalcameraworld has an article up here, where they explain how they sold their X-E4 for more than what they originally paid for it new.
Now, recently Fujifilm France hinted that there is no market for the X-E line. But if that was the case, I wonder why people are buying it second hand and overpriced, similar to what is happening to the Fujifilm X100V.
Anyway, I strongly hope the X-E line will continue. It’s a great alternative to those who want an X100-alike experience (minus OVF) but with the possibility to change lenses. Although I don’t really change lenses much on my X-E3, where this lens lives glued on it.
I still love using my X-E3, as you can see in my video here, but it starts to show its age, especially now that I also own the X-T5 with a terrific boost in terms of autofocus and features.
I would probably jump on an X-E5 on day one if Fujifilm would ever make one, just to get access to the new autofocus power and more film simulations (Reala included). Better if with 40MP, but I could also live with the Fujifilm X-S20 solution, so the 26MP combined with the new X Processor 5.
So please, dear Fujifilm, don’t axe the X-E line. Give us an X-E5, produce it in decent numbers, and you’ll see you’ll be rewarded for that.