For us long time Fujifilm lovers, Fujifilm manager Toshihisa Iida (the manager who said Fujifilm will NEVER go Full Frame) was arguably the most representative face of the Fujiflm X/GFX series of the last 10 years.
Sadly for us (but congratulations to him), Toshi left the electronic imaging division once he got promoted to President and Managing Director at Fujifilm Europe back in 2020.
I must admit I was a bit worried when the Toshi left, as I felt that the Fujifilm X/GFX series was in safe hands as long as he was in charge.
He did run the business with huge dedication, passion and vision, as can also be seen in this in this brilliant documentary (MUST WATCH !!!), that gives an intimate look into his life and work as imaging director.
I honestly thought it would be hard to replace a manager like Toshihisa Iida.
The data is based on affiliate sales made via Amazon and BHphoto.
Sadly I don’t use the data of Adorama, as I have not found an easy way to display and rank the products. All I get is a list of numbers like “1236.5478.701164” and then I have to click on each number to see which product it is.
For the sake of my mental health, I can’t do that.
Finally the custom X hot shoe covers are widely available on Amazon, and it seems people love them (I own them too).
As for Nr.2 and Nr.5 on the list, these items definitely profited from the launch of the Fujifilm X-T5 and X-H2/s as for many of you, those cameras were also their first X series using the newer battery.
Interesting:
Most people went for the original battery as opposed to the third party options (just as I recommended in my article). I’ve even made the sum of the best selling third party NP-W235 battery options (Smallrig, Poweextra and Wasabi), but even in that case, the original battery has a distinct and safe advantage.
I make a prediction: the Fujifilm X-T5 will be matched in terms of sales only by the Fujifilm X-T6. The only camera that has a chance to even come close to it, would be an eventual Fujifilm X100V successor (the Fujifilm X200, or X100Vs, or X100VI or however they are going to call it).
In a normal year, the X-H2 and X-H2s would have been celebrated as top sellers with respectable sales number.
But 2022 was not a normal year: it was the year of the Fujifilm X-T5!
The X-T5 came here to do what it has to do: demolish the internal competiton and establish itself one more time as the top tier in the Fujifilm lineup. In fact, it was responsible for 65.5% of total camera sales via FujiRumors.
A pity for the Fujifilm X100V, which is basically out of the ranking just because it hasn’t been available most of the time. If supply would have been normal, I think it would have made it into the top 4 positions.
Well, it has been beaten by the Fujifilm GFX50SII, but only by 1 camera. So it’s basically a head-to-head. That’s astonishing, considering that the GFX50SII was in offer basically for the entire year with several more or less massive rebates, whereas the Fujifilm GFX100S saw it’s first time ever rebate only very recently.
So, despite Fujifilm being much more agressive with the GFX50SII, the GFX100S stands its ground and is actually about to pass the GFX50SII thanks to this sweet deal.
The explaination is simple: the XF16-80mmF4 (as well as the XF18-55mmF2.8-4) enjoyed a substantial sales push because it was offered in bundle with Fujifilm X-T5.
But this alone would not be enough.
Fujifilm also initally shipped out way more X-T5 kits than body only, so if we wanted to wait less for our new camera, we had to grab the X-T5 kit. And this makes Fujifilm more money.
Cynical?
Probably, but Fujifilm is just a business as many others, and other companies are no different. And yet, I wish Fujifilm would have done differently.
Anyway, the good thing is that if you bought it with a bundle, you got the lens for a discounted price. That’s already nice. And you always have the option to sell it “like new” so you should get back most if not all of the money you’ve invested in the lens. Or simply use it and enjoy the lens :).
We have a rocksolid performance for the XF56mm f/1.2 MKII. No need for deals or bundles to push that one.
Excellent sales (and very close to grab the second spot) is the Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8. Looks like a wise decision by Fujifilm to make it smaller, lighter and more affordable thanks to its f/8 on the long end.
Oh… and I made the mistake to enter a photography store with my wife… here is what happened.
So, the lovely new 30mm Macro enjoyed great sales, too. I handled one in store myself, and if my wasn’t for my wife being in the store with me, I probably would have left the shop with one for myself. But my wife just asked “don’t you already own a Macro lens“? And since I had no brilliant answer to give, I passed. Please guys, advice me on what to say next time ;).
On Nr.7, an all time favorite for many of us, the lovely Fujinon XF27mm f/2.8 R WR.
In the GF world, the new GF 20-35mmF4 is selling strong.
A crazy good deal is also pushing the GF35-70mm to great sales. For 500 bucks you get a compact allrounder zoom lens capable of resolving 100+ megapixel. It would be too good to pass also for me, if I’d not already own the GF32-64mmF4.
And yes, I know there is an unwritten rule that every list should end with the Nr.10, but the sales of the lenses on the 11th position were so close to the XF16-55mmF2.8, that I felt I need to include them.
For Fujifilm, I guess the biggest disappointment are the sales of the video-centric Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4 PZ. I guess it’s a niche lens within a niche brand, so one can not expect all too stellar sales.
There was a time, when the third party ranking was dominated by manual focus lenses. But those times are gone.
Since Fujifilm took the (long delayed) decision to open their mount, other companies like Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Viltrox, TTArtisan and Samyang started to offer X mount AF lenses. A decision rewarded by Fujifilm X shooters, who now prefer to grab third party autofocus lenses over the manual versions.
DPRTV teamed up with Ted Forbes to predict the future of the Fujifilm system for 2023.
They predict two cameras:
Fujifilm X-Pro4 with 40MP
dedicated video camera
I won’t make any comment on anything at the moment, because as you can imagine, I am looking deep into 2023 already, and when the time has come and all the checks are done, I will drop 100% accurate rumors for you.
So for now take their predictions as what they are: fun speculations and wishes.
For the X series the most wished camera is indeed the Fujifilm X-Pro4 followed by the Fujifilm X100VI (or X100Vs or X200 or however Fujifilm is going to call the Fujifilm X100V successor).
For the GFX series, the top wish could be summed up with one word: speed!
There is a tendency to prefer more megapixel over more speed. And as a Fujifilm X-T5 owner myself, I can understand why: the X-T5 is plenty of fast enough for most of us thanks to the brand new processor. Plus, the 40MP sensor gives us the best dynamic range on any X series camera.
But most importantly, the list is dominated by rangefinder cameras.
So, after a year full of DSLR styled cameras (X-T5, X-H2 and X-H2s), people are hungry to see something happening on the rangefinder front… and I am totally with you guys!
Conclusion for GFX series
Stacked sensor makes the top of the list. Which means that contrary to the X series, for the GFX series people desire more speed rather than more resolution.
In the lastest Fujicast episode, Kevin and Neale have, among the others, a talk with Fujifilm UK manager Andreas Georghiades and they also go to the Fujifilm headquarter in Japan and talk to product planers.
Needless to say, the talk mostly gravitates around the Fujifilm X-T5. Down below is a summary as well as the podcast to listen.
Fujifilm X-T5 BHphoto* (win $1,700) / AmazonUS / Adorama * EXCLUSIVE SWEEPSTAKES: If you pre-order the Fujifilm X-T5 at BHphoto using the FujiRumors affiliate link, you will have the chance to win $1,700 (1 Winner selected. US residents only). Additional details and the full T&C can be found at the dedicated B&H Sweepstakes article here.
higher end cameras have more profit margin than cameras that cost $1,400 or less
niche cameras like X-Pro3 don’t make nearly as much money as more mainstream cameras
So what Fujifilm did is simple: they knew that by March 2023, when the Japanese fiscal year ends, they absolutely must ship out as many X-T5, X-H2 and X-H2s cameras as possible. And given the parts shortage, they had to reserve most of the remaining parts for those three cameras.
And especially the Fujifilm X-T5, Fuji’s most important camera, is one that can not fail on the shipping front.
That’s valid also for other vendors, who will very likely also have a decent stock (but I did not talk to other vendors, so this is just my guess). Except for certain retails for the reasons I explained in the comments to this article.
In short: if you are looking for an X-Pro3, and X100V, X-T30II and X-E4 or any other camera you can’t find in stock, then blame the Fujifilm X-T5 for that.
traditionally Fujifilm launched its most important cameras between January and March (GFX100S, X100V, X-T4, just to name a few), because that’s the last quarter of the Japanese fiscal year and Fujifilm wants to push sales with its biggest hits before showing up with the final figures in front of investors
Given the two reasons above, the speculations came up that we are likely going to see a Fujifilm GFX100S successor in the next few months, latest by March 2023.
And since I also got this question via email a lot today, here is what I can say so far.
I have received zero rumors about a Fujifilm GFX100S successors.
And not only that.
I have also zero hints, whispers, indications, nothing of nothing at all.
So we have two options now:
the Fujifilm GFX100S successor is Fuji’s best kept secret of all times
we won’t get a GFX100S successor anytime soon and certainly not within March 2023
Not a rumor, but based on 10+ years of rumor blogging, I’d say that in 99,9% of the cases option 2 is the correct one and everybody thinking the GFX100S successor is imminent will be terribly disappointed.