Thoughts on the Fujifilm X-Half
Fujifilm has just released its long rumoured, and much teased “half” digital camera, and it has, to put it mildly, decided opinions. The camera, which looks like a tiny X100 series, is an homage to half frame film cameras of old, with a 1.0 type sensor mounted vertically and a vertical screen on the back. Fuji has also designed the software of the camera to mimic film as much as possible, even including a film mode. When activated, this mode doesn’t let you see what you’re capturing it until you reach the end of the roll and “develop” it in the companion camera app. It’s either a nice nod to nostalgia or a gimmick, depending on who you ask. But the one thing Fuji really, really wants you to know is that this camera is “Fun”.
My personal thoughts — the short version
To be honest, this isn’t really a camera for me, although I’m intrigued by it and wouldn’t mind playing with it. I have no problem with all the film mode options and the way it tries to mimic the way you would work with a film camera. I quite like it. Furthermore, I don’t even really have an issue with the fact that it only shoots JPEG, although in this day and age, maybe offer JPEG XL or HIEF as an option (perhaps it does). I think the form factor is really nice, although I think the lens could have been a bit wider, it’s not the end of the world.
I think the mistake is seeing this as a smaller X100 series camera. Instead, see it as an all digital version of one of the company’s Instax cameras. It has many of the effects from the Instax Evo Wide but without the printer. Once you view it in this light, you’ll see the concept differently.
The only thing I don’t get is the whole vertical sensor/screen thing. This, to me, is the most gimmicky aspect of the camera. I get that it’s to go with the half frame concept, but it just seems so unnecessary. You could have the same camera with the exact same functions and just have a normal sensor orientation and normal screen, and it would have a much wider appeal, in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, this will sell like hotcakes, and supposedly preorders have already sold out, (although that is never a great indicator of sales as it depends on the initial production run).
As mentioned in the intro, Fuji really want’s you to think of this camera as fun. Every single person who I watched on YouTube who reviewed this used the word “fun” over and over (after a while, it started to sound a bit ridiculous). Every social media post about it keeps hammering home the point that this isn’t a serious camera - it’s fun. Question any aspect of it - the camera is not for you - you don’t know how to have fun.
Did we mention that it was “fun”?
But what’s not fun is the price. At €800, this isn’t really something most people would just buy just for fun. I mean, if you want to spend that money on “fun” I’d go on a holiday. The way some people are talking about it, you’d think it was going for a couplease of hundred, but nope, it’s €800
To be honest, personally I'm not really that concerned about the price overall (I’m not going to buy one anyway) and I think they can justify it by the build quality and the construction, but the marketing angle (that this is just fun) is maybe a bit difficult to swallow at that price. To be fair, though, most of this is coming from Fuji fans on social media rather than the company itself. I saw one review that said, “don’t take it too seriously”. That's a lot of money to spend on something to not take seriously.
I do sense that there is a bit of a disconnect between some in the photography community on social media, and reality when it comes to how wealthy and how much disposable income the average creative has, but that’s another post.
The one thing I don’t doubt for a second is Fujifilm’s love of film and film photography. Occasionally, it may seem a bit gimmicky, but if you ever see any interviews with the executives and engineers, they really do love film. Film is so expensive now, and processing is so expensive, that it's hard for the average person to afford it, and I do think they are doing their best to address this market. So while I do wish they had made a “normal” version of this camera (like an updated X20) and I do think the price is a bit much for what it is, I applaud the company for taking a chance and giving us something different.
It could have been an App? Maybe?
One last thought that I’ve been thinking over the past 24 hours is that much of the functionality of this could have been done in an app. Think about it, imagine Fuji had built an iPhone app that uses their film simulation colour science and their film effects. They could have done all the same things with the “film camera” mode. I don’t even think the image quality would be that different on a modern phone. Charge a subscription for it and you probably have a good recurring revenue stream if it’s successful, much like selling instax paper. Of course, they’d never do that, and this is probably heresy to most Fuji fans, but it's an interesting idea. I know there’s lots of these “Analog” apps out there, but none would have Fuji’s actual film colour science.
A few random final thoughts
A few more random thoughts on the camera:
- The design is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of an old Minox camera or something like that.
- Based on the samples I’m seeing, while they do have the film simulation colour profiles, they could do with the DR modes from bigger Fuji cameras, as a lot of the images posted have harsh clipped highlights. This kind of ruins the film illusion.
- I wonder if they’ll add the “film camera” mode to their “big” X series cameras at some point.
- The video mode seems kind of redundant, but maybe if they’d added a super8 filter or something to it, it would be better.
- One thing I saw which was quite interesting is that the rear screen, and the film window sub screen, is actually the one screen masked off. This is a clever way to do it.
- Perhaps come out with another version called the X-mini or something which has all the same features but a normal orientation. Or just bring back the X20 line. Seriously.
So what do you think of this new camera from Fuji. Good idea or bad idea? Gimme or Gimmick? Please let me know in the comments below.
