We recently shared a comprehensive review/comparison of the Fujinon XF500mmF5.6 vs XF100-400mm for wildlife photography in this article called “Fujifilm Equipment for Wildlife Imaging: An Evolving and Compelling Choice for Serious Photography“.
Petapixel shared the X-Pro related part of the interview they had with Fujifilm managers at CP+. You can read it here.
In short:
Fujifilm is aware of demand for X-Pro3 successor
New X-Pro will come, but Fujifilm does not want it to be just a small “boring” update
the new X-Pro needs something which would satisfy the expert users
it would be boring to just put the 40MP and X Processor 5 in the X-Pro and call it X-Pro4
it should be a worthy upgrade
X100VI got IBIS and 40MP, hence introduced noticeable changes to the X100 line
Fujifilm has spent lots of time in thinking about X-Pro4, and during that time expectations kept expanding, making it harder for Fujifilm to live up to those expectations.
“the longer it takes to develop it, the more difficult it will be to please fans of the series“
“we probably made it difficult for ourselves, because we perhaps made the X-Pro too special.”
Time to check how accurate our rumors were in 2024 and get an outlook on the remaining rumors for 2025 (and beyond) with reliability ranking.
As usual, I will be brutal and merciless in my rumor accuracy rating.
How brutal?
Well, here are two examples.
I told you the X100VI would be basically same in size of X100V despite having IBIS. The difference is 1mm. Well, turns out it is 2mm thicker. So while it is substantially an accurate rumor, I list it as wrong.
Also, we misunderstood a source regarding the X100VI silver color. We needed only 3 hours to clarify this misunderstanding and correct it. But still, for 3 hours only, an inaccurate info was online.
WIth that said, here is how things went:
99 rumors shared in 2024
24 rumors still to be verified
72 correct rumors out of 75 verifiable rumors
3 wrong rumors (normal people would say 1 wrong rumor -not about Fujifilm-, but I am brutal to myself)
Unless the rumor of the century drops today and leads to an unprecedented spike in traffic, then we are basically done with 2024 and we can look back at which were the most read articles in 2024.
I am surprised to see such a high interest for the Fujifilm X-M5.
A bit less surprising is to see film simulation content on the top of the ranking, especially with Classic Cuban Neg, which has quickly become a Fujifilm users favorite.
I hope you enjoyed checking out FujiRumors in 2024. And if you want, stick around also in 2025, because I have the feeling it could be a very interesting year.
The fact that it takes so long made many in the comments to this post speculate that Fujifilm might just skip the 5th generation platform and use the 6th generation platform for the Fujifilm X-Pro6.
And not only some of our readers, but also guys with excellent connections to Fujifilm such as Gordon from Cameralabs in the Petapixel podcast and Ritchie from FujiXWeekly speculate that Fujifilm will skip the 5th generation and go straight for the 6th generation with the X-Pro3 successor (X-Trans VI and X Processor 6).
Now, this goes against the pretty much only thing we have heard officially from Fujifilm about the next X-Pro, which is what Fujifilm Guy Billy said.
Billy said that he can see the X-Pro getting the 5th gen specs, but the reason for the wait was that it had to be something very special.
I try to avoid speculations in this matter, because I know it matters so much to many. Which is why I will stick to rumors. And for now, I have no rumors about the Fujifilm X-Pro4, X-Pro5 ro X-Pro6 (or however it will be called), except for the fact that it won’t come in 2025 but Fujifilm is working on an improved hybrid viewfinder.
Of course the fact that it takes so long for the X-Pro3 successor to come opens up the possibility for an X-Pro on 6th generation steroids. Or maybe Fujifilm will keep the 5th gen platform as suggested by Fuji Guy Billy, but look into other ways to make it “special”, with new ergonomic solutions, some of which we could see first on the Fujifilm GFX100RF as we rumored here.
But whatever it is, I will not make any speculations right now, because people tend to mistake my random speculations for solid rumors and then turn mad on me if those speculations do not materialize. That’s OK for me most of the time, but not in regards to the Fujifilm X-Pro3 successor.
But you guys can loosen your fingers, open your mind, and type all your thoughts and speculations in the comments below.
I don’t know exactly how to bring you this rumor, but I guess the best way is just to deliver it straight and raw:
According to multiple of our highly trusted sources (as well as a couple of new ones) there won’t be any Fujifilm X-Pro4 or Fujifilm X-Pro5 (or any X-Pro3 successor) in 2024 and not even in 2025.
I know that’s a bummer for many Fujifilm lovers out there.
But you can trust that I made sure this is an accurate rumor. I know a huge chunk of the reputation of this rumor website depends on the X-Pro4 rumors and I would only share it if I am 110% sure.
The wait for the Fujifilm X-Pro4 or may it be called Fujifilm X-Pro5 is longer than we’d like it to be.
I just hope that this also means the next X-Pro will be something super-special and worth the wait.
I will include several videos, including the one of Edvard, who shares interesting findings about the X-T3 which potentially shows where the AF issues with Fujifilm started.
Summing Up All Videos – tl;dr version
everybody agrees that now autofocus is workable again, even Edvard
some got better results than others, I guess based on use case, testing scenario and settings
Adan in “video 7” for example is very impressed and applauds Fujifilm for the improvement and says he is confident to use it now for his professional video work
others aknowledge the improvement, say it is something you can rely on for work, but highlight it is not yet at the level of top tier AF of other brands
Edvard is the most critical and I will share his findings below (with some interesting findings)
UPDATE: Edvard published a second video, which I share below with his main findings
there is still room for improvement (and looking at Edvard’s video some of the improvements could be achieved by using parts of the algorithm used on X-T3 firmware 3.00/3.30)
and finally… Thierry in Video 1 has simply one of the most beautiful settings and light to record a video (I know it’s unreleated, but I appreciate it when photographers try to give us also a great scenery ;))
My take:
Having a usable and workable autofocus is nice. This takes away stress for those, who rely on autofocus for work.
And that it is workable has been now confirmed by the very same people, who made very harsh videos against Fujfilm in the last few months. So there is no bias there.
My fear:
Most reviewers seem to be overall pleased and happy. But the error the Fujifilm engineers could do now, is to consider the autofocus chapter closed. There is still work to do, and maybe some feedback they get today from these videos can help them to improve further.
Read for it?
Below I will share a couple of videos. I could ignore the postiive feedback, but I think it has just as much reason to exist as negative feedback.
What FujiRumors can do is just to share it all to give you the most comprehensive overview possible.
My personal experience?
Well, none. Because I am still waiting for my X-T5 to get the update, but my X-T5 has so far shot 0 seconds of video in its entire life so I would not be able to compare it to how it was before.
What the April firmware broke, though, was the stills side of it. It did fail on me when shooting still standing people. But the June firmware fixed that, so now I have no issue in taking family pictures.
But don’t ask me for video… my X-T5 does not even know it has this option.
