Future of Fujifilm Lens Development

Hey everybody. It is another episode of the Petaixel podcast. It's Jordan Drake here and we're all in the same room. So just over to my left here, I got Charn Schneyder. How you doing, Jaron? Hi. I'm good. Thankk you. And even further left. Oh, it's Chris Nichols.' the leftist. Chris Nichols And not only are we all together this week, but we're mixing things up a little bit different because We're in Tokyo Yes. We're here with Fuji. Yes. Look at all the Fuji cameras behind this Fuji film and the museum and the two in front of me, please. Yeah my camera. Po pointint say you have your T X one here, you got your X one hundred six limited. What do the kids call this? This is aura fararming or so what? I don't know what you young people say. I refuse to answer that question because to answer that question would make me feel old Okay so okay. right. I mean, congratulations. Thank you. But yeah, this is cool. I mean, we are here to do a very interesting project with Fuji Film in the area And also of course, we get to podcast out of the offices, which is really neat. We have never seen the Fujifilm offices. and we have a special guest on the podcast actually. Yeah, Yujuan is going to be joining us here a little bit later. But also last week was crazy. We have some follow up news from last week. Some other stuff has happened as well. So we're going to get to things pretty quickly, but before we get started, I always like to kick things off with a question Gentlemen, there' a giant wall of cameras behind us. Do you have any specific memories with any of the models back there? An experiences, any timee you were surprised by one? or when you were looking back there, just be like, oh man, I totally didn't remember that something happened there. Jaron's off. He's investigating I kind of didn't know that Fuji film made binoculars. but I mean that's about it. No, I mean, I mean and the TLR is crazy. The Fujia Flex is crazy, but yeah, I don't know. In specific experiences, a lot of our customers at the camera store bring in all of their medium format Fujifilm cameras, which was always jealousy inducing. And yeah. On medium format, I've never seen a six hundred forty five AF in person before. So that's pretty cool. Oh I forgot who I was talking. I mean I'm Chris Nichols. I've seen all But I've never owned them. Never owned a Fujica know SLR, but beautiful little cameras. So over in this corner over here, you can't see it, it's off camera. but there's a small cubby full of Fine pix cameras. And if you've listened to this podcast before, you may remember that I said that my first camera digital camera that I ever had was a point and shoot that my mom bought and then I sort of just like absorbed because she wasn't using it as much And it was a Fuji F Fine pix. And that camera came with me to Japan for the first time in my life when I was a tooagima. Yeah. so I took lots of pictures on that camera. I still have that camera. It's actually I found it recently again. I bet you the battery's toast. The battery stayed in there. It was a AAA battery, and so it corroded out the inside. So I don't think this camera works anymore. But it is a lovely memento of my past here. Very cool Yes, I do actually have a memory tied to a camera that's at least of the line. I don't see the actual model over here But you just wanted to see that fine pix badge because we don't see it very much anymore. I gott to say the standout one for me is the S five Pro. The last time I saw an S five Pro because we actually gave it away after we tested it. But the last time we used it, we were shooting a review and we decided to take some photos with strobes of my son And he took his first steps into Chris Nicols's arms.. And that is a crushing moment. Is that real That really happ. That is an act It is on camera. You can hear me say in the sound mix, I think I'm like, no, not him You stole his son's f. No no, no, no, no. your child was standing up and wobbling. and I may have been like, o he did. So yes No, I'm here. So anyways, no, it's profound mixed emotions looking at that back there. Some womormons as well. Oh look, this's the three camera. Just't remind of that stuff. I just remember the joy in your baby's eyes as he walked towards me. That's all I remember. And it was very a beautiful moment.. Well, Well I try to process this. Okay Let's have an opening animation and we'll get to the news New perk, N what? New perk. Really? So if you are There's already so many. If you're a pedapixel member, you may have realized that because we started partnering with Harper Finch, we gave everyone the same discount that we got for petapixel members, which was twenty five percent off the merch door. We effectively do that for everyone now because it was just easier to do it that way. And it felt wrong Wrong, Chris. Okay for me to take something away from pedapixel members and not give it back in some way. I have good news New perk, new perk. You now get ten percent punching the table Our microphones are on oger. Well, I wanted like the, you know, the effect.t any rate, if you are a petapixel member, you now also can get a code for ten percent off Wescot lighting. from the Westcot store. So now to go over all the perks that we have You get no ads on the website You get a access to our sample galleries where we can download JpeEgs and RWs from all of the new cameras and lenses that we test. Oh, don't forget the momoment store I'm not there yet. twenty five dollars off, fifteen dollars off fifteen fifteen dollars fif dollars store store sorry. whichich is more than half of your yearly membership, which is only three dollars a month or thirty dollars a year. Correct. You also get five percent off KEH, which more of the one covers your taxes and our shipping depending on what'. Suppose you were to buy anything back there. who're gonna to get your membership, Banus. I'm missing another one. There's one more right? Oh, well besides the Wescott one or is that? Wescott? W Wt the final one? ten percent off Wescott. Yes That is a laundry list of perks for those of you who choose to support us for a palltry dollars a month or thirty dollars a year. And that really helps us. Chris likes to say it helps us do special projects. It also helps us pay all of the wonderful people that make the stuff that we do possible. I also want to say that Jarren doesn't tell us about these perks until right on the podcast, where I had no idea. It was in the text chain. Tell us was it in the text chain? You've got a lot going on. It was a busy week last week in case you missed it But if for those of you who pay attention to every second of every video we make, if you spotted the new perk at the end of the Lumix L ten video, give yourself a pat on the back. You maniac it was there. you saw it Thumbs up to you. Wow. So thank you to those of you who are members. Right now the Harper Finch Coub that we had, that drop has ended. So very successful. It was very successful. Thank you so much for those of you who purchased a shirt. The number one shirt was funter as should be. Please send us photos of yourself in the wild Wear Billf hunting with your Billf hunter garments. Right now you can still get the Just plain pedapixel branded stuff if you want it, the hoodie and two shirts. but We are evaluating how that went. We think it went well. I can say we'll probably see M drops from them soon. I've got some depraved shirt ideas, guys, I'm gonna pitch to you after this. You definitely hasn't shared those with No. I don't don't want him deprave Sare those with me. That's a late night in a smoky Tokyo bar kind of conversation, the kind of stuff I've got percolating. Wow. Well, that sounds exciting and by exciting and frightening. Anyway, thank you all for supporting us with our Petal Pixel memberships. And if you haven't joined really, we' really appreciate it if you did. Do it just make such good physcical sense, If you had like studio lighting and a used camera from KH and a filter wallet, you've saved hundreds of dollars with that little tiny petapixel membership investment. That's important thing to point out, you help us, which we really need publishing is not what it used to be. so we could use your support and with that the news To the news, of which there was quite a bit. So first story we're gonna to talk about today is a fun one. I wanted to start out kind of loose and fun. Sure. Don't tell me this is going downhill. Are we bringing back the tariff drum? So there aren't any no. DIY we had a story last week where person created the cAD files that you need to build your own one of these is a DIA project to turn a Panasonic GF three. I want you to tell me about this camera shortly and a Soviet Fed five into a digital rangefinder at home Chris I don't know anything about a P on GF three, please tell me about. Oh, the GF three was like a very sort of basic micro four thirds camera, sixteen megapixels, no EVF. Destroy it. It was super tiny. I that's super tin this project. like the very simple mount was quite a bit taller than the camera itself. So it kind of had a weird like bump on the top that was almost like a prism, but not quite. Now of course, you know three D printing cameras has become quite a thing now. Jarren is a purveyor of many three D printing cam Yeah because he loves his weird ultra wide format, pano waste all your money on film cameras. And but you know, but that's easy because you're basically making a box. This is something a little bit different. The whole idea of this is the creators of this of this printing project wanted to create a digital range findinder that would be more affordable than Yeah, admittedly, look at this rangefinder. We don't even need to talk about how much it cost you was ridiculous, but they're expensive. And so not everybody has an opportunity to get into that. So basically though what this entails is taking a Russian Fed three sorry, Fed five old school rangefinder, which will have a shutter mechanism. It has to be working, like has to be functional, Th you take also perfectly functional Panasonic GF three You then destroy both cameras and use the three D printed chassis to mishmash them in a Frankenstein manner together. That awes. And then with an adapter, you can even then mount like let's say, like M Rangefer lens or something like that. And then I you know, every time you take a shot, it will trigger the GF three and you know, I assume you ripped the lens off this thing like It's wild. I don't know. it's crazy. There you go. If you don't mind destroing two perfectly good cameras to create a Frankenstein camera of dubious quality, this is the sounds like like these days of dubious quality is a plus. Let's not forget there's a lot of M mount glass that really supports a fourth or side sensor as well. That two times crop might sure sticky with the rangefinder, but get out of here with your logic But it's going to have a crop factor. I mean, you know, is it gonna really yeah, is it It's a fun idea. stop it Anyway, from there, we're going to talk about another this is a weird one. So last week, speculators It's a rumor. This is a rumor. We're rumor We're spreading rumors right not It's like not even a normal roumor. Yeah this is speculators come out and believe that Nikon is entertaining the idea of selling to SLR Lxotica. Yes, onene of the gigantic Um crazy companies that owns so many optical brands, lots of sunglasses. Yeah, They're mainly known for sunglasses. So if you go to I wear inscription I wear go to Target in any in the US, Target's Optical center is an EsL or Luxotica Yeah. If you own sunglasses, there's like a one in three chance you've got EsL or Luxotica. Well, since I live in Portland, actually all of my glasses and my insurance and my eyeglass place are all independent so I don't have to deal with us a little. Lit That's very Portland of us. but most people do, in fact have to deal with us a little. At any rate, Nikon just the news, the whisper of a rumor of a thought that this might happen, sent Nikon stock to the moon last week. So there's I mean, I think we should address that there's been There have been thoughts for years and years that Nikon is having issues fiscally and stuff and that's been debunked. it's been, you know like it's been. They do keep losing money, but if you look at their financials carefully, it's actually the imaging division is the only division that's doing one. Right. Exactly. But they I believe Lxotica Esler has a part ownership you know stock They are an investor because Nikon makes glasses. And I believe they also did the collaboration for the Nikon sunglasses and Iyewear that they came out with as alignment that makes sense. I said. No, no, no, but you also the ownership of the product. Oh yeah ownership the ownership of the stock, but also a collaboration with the actual products, you know, like they've made products together is what I'm getting. I believe we've covered this in the past. So they own You know, there's there's obviously it's not just like pulled out of thin air. There's there's precedent that be possible but Rumors. So last September We reported that SLR Luxotica was considering doubling its investment in Nikon which would take it from a five point one percent stake to a ten point or ele per ten point two to eleven percent stake So this is this feels related to that. Yeah. Maybe they looked into it and decided, well, why would we just double our ownership stake if we could just take. Now here's the thing. I'm going to go ahead and put a little bit of. I mean, Nikon imaging now they've acquired red. that does make them a very important piece. I do not like SLO or Luxotica. Clearly they do not like their business strategy. I don't like that they are vertically integrated in eyeewar from the insurance to the place where you get your eyes checked people that sell you the glasses, I think that allows them to price fix. And they've also been known to bully brands into that they want into selling to them. I believe they did that with Oakley. The story with Oakley you should look this up if you're listen to this. the story I believe it's Oakley. And then they'd have Redback Think about this, this is all a mad conspiracy to have Oakley and Red together under the same brand again. Oh man. So anyway, take this with a grain of salt That's the hot scoop. I believe Nikon is majority owned by Mitsubishi if I recall. I believe that's right So There'd be a lot of hoops to jump through. Eone would have to agree to it. I would think that if there's any of this that is true, I believe SLOLotic will probably just buy the glasses segment That's what I think Wh knows? But it aning it's an interesting thought process for sure. Yeah, I mean, it's tricky for us because we've seen the last few years Nikon really rebounding in terms of the quality of their products. So it's difficult to keep hearing about like financial struggles and things like that. But yeah, I do think it's a good point Jaron made to emphasize like the imaging is profitable at this point. So the work what would be more disappointing is if all the work they're doing wasn't paying off in terms of sales. But it seems like that's not the case specifically on the photo side So this is an interesting story. Well no, it's interesting. So first of all, what's actually interesting is that Sony is still making smartphones. That blows my mind. the Experperia line of smartphones. They have created their latest eration of this And you know what, I actually am kind of a proponent of Sony. I had an old Experia. I really liked it. Did you bend it? It was very thin. Well, yeah, I would put it my back on I just said it was very thin. It was very thin It was veryast stor. And I liked the form factor and I would carry it in my pants pocket and, you know I don't know if you guys know this, but I have like a perfectly curved bump. Like it's beautiful. Yeah,ah. And the phone basically I cosign. Thank you. And the phone basically conformed itself perfectly to the shape of my bump. And it still worked, Kind of you could plug in the USBA port, but it wouldn't quite connect to the power. So you'd then have to fold it over the screen. Oh I remember that. And then you'd have to put like a chair or a table leg on top of that pressing down. and then I think the contacts actually snapped and if you folded them back down, they would just like and then it would charge. So I believe you were calling me an Apple sheepball with my iPhone the whole time. You wereing your chair b. Just because I've joined the cult does not mean that we belong to a cult. I mean, of course we do That long intro tangent about Sony Experia is Sonyah right, there's a new story. They put it out on social. Here's the act the text of the tweet. The new AI camera assistant with Experia intntelligence brings stories to life. usingsing subject seen and weather, it suggests expressive options with adjustments of color, exposure, bouquet, and lens for breathtaking photos. Yeah Asterisk. Well, there's two asterisks in here hereere's the thing These photos that it supposedly made better are all worse. like objectively worse. Yeah, I mean, I don't know the flower in the vase I'll give it a pass. but like it's like the sandwich. The sandwich terrible. There's unacceptable poor girl in the field. Pomise me, this will be on screen. I will put the sandwich on there. This is this is Obviously This is bad. Yeah. And Sony got absolutely shredded online for this. I'm shocked that they even released these photos. like this is a very funny, this is a very funn. I'll put this on screen too. this isation, but it's veryook the company all the smartphone companies have these AI or you know, machine learned, whatever assistance and they try to improve your photos This is not only changing exposure, contrast color. It is actually doing some generative AI as well, which we hate. like the picture of the flower in the vase, not only does it deepen the saturation and improve richness, but it gets rid of like a bright window in the background and basically paints it in with an out of focus wall. fine, but I mean, I don't like it, but's that's what, you know, look a. Not only does it look bad, but it's fake.'s yeah, exactly. Thank you Jordan Most of the time it just raises the exposure about a stop and a half the mid Saturation. Yeah. So it's washed out Like I keep looking at these and like, oh, I think I know how to process that back to use them. But that's my inclination. If anybody has shot log and video and said, I prefer it ungraded, you're gonna love this. This is perfect for you. This is exactly. But you overexpose to protect the shadows while shooting Oh Well, that's what they exactly'scauseuse like photos come out overexposed. And this flower one deletes a window and That's what I'm saying. deletes a window and a chair leg and it puts a w This one's very funny to me. How do we like this is just not a good Yeah, the model is perfectly exposed. And then they ruined it. and they ruined it. Anyways, I mean, look, these things can be updated. How did this get approve? Well yeah, that's what I'm concerned by is like what we're really saying is how did Sony let this Get out Yeah With any sort of thought process that it would be received well. Like four examples and one of them, if you want to be argumentative, you could say it was an improvement, but which I the rest of them are all Yeah The sandwich one is by far the worst D quietingly bad. It's quiet very good word. Yeah, that's, I don't know how this got out there bad. Sony sent they tweeted like a follow up later clearly aware of the controversy and attempted to show that it's not actually doing that. But the fact that they had to like address the problem publicly because it was so bad says a lot. If the after photo was the before photo, then I'd be like, okay, incredibleris Anyways, they're getting ripped apart. We're ripping apart. It's sad because the Sony Experia isn't I think it's just amazing that they're still making those phones. I'm sure their market share is very small. But obviously, Sony is a powerful company. They've got great sensor technology, they've got well, good color now. Well, okay, I don't know put that I'm looking Yeah, you didn't love the magenta cast, right? I've learned to live with it. And sometimes when you learn to live with something, that is a form of love We're going to talk about this with Yujian. I really want to know what he thinks about this next story, but we get a lot. So here's the thing Some might wonder why we report on how sales are going in Japan for any camera product at any point And the answer to that is, because it's a large market for the Japanese companies that they're physically in and they pay attention to what's happening in their country when they do their focus groups and decide what they're going to make next. Yeah, there's actually information. So as opposed to North America. So, yeah, we're going to lean on the country that reports that. Yeah. ye. so that's the other thing. We don't get any information really out of any of the other dealers in North America or even Europe. sometometimes we have the owner of the camera store on to talk about numbers and then he gets in trouble and's not on show it' apparently not allowed to do. But in Japan, these companies are very, very open about what sells well and what doesn't. So this information is valuable. so I think it's important to be out there as long as you understand the context, but to blatantly say it's not useful is well missing the point and choosing to miss that point. At any rate, in this story, Fujif Filmss old XF thirty five one point four is a very hot item. The oldest XF lens Can you tell me about this lens, Jordan? I've never used it. It's legendary. It was launched alongside the X Pro one, along with the eighteen and the sixty millimeter macro. but those were all the first lenses for this mat. And it has developed a reputation as like a legendary if you want a v into gesthetic, but you still want auto focus. so many people are clamoring for this because it did have some optical deficiencies. That's why they later released a thirty three mil one four, fixed all those. but this is still so popular. And it seems like if you're buying a Fujif film because you're into a more retro look. This is the first lens that absolutely everyone buys. So I think that's why it's so hot. You get an XE five, you're running out. You're getting yourself a thirty five one four popular Yeah. Yeah, even with these latest bodies here, it does still, I think largely it's a reputation of just having a magical aesthetic to it. Even I like it because of course obviously it's a fifteen millimeter full fram wheel ofvehicle when you put on a bgie filone camera U Yeahah, like at one point four, if I recall is like, you know, kind of like vintage glass that a lot of companies now are trying to replicate. It was a little bit glowy at one point four, a little bit of flare perhaps. likeike yeah, its it's a cool ends Chris, you said to me not it's not in your review of the one hundred to four hundred, which might be out, might not be in the Sony Sony the new one. Yeah. depends how iting goes this four point five. Yeah, depes on when we're going to be able to publish this podcast. You mentioned that of like I think your exact words were, o, it's great. Of course it's sharp And you also said, but I'm kind of bored by sharp I think you also said I didn't say I'm bored you say in the last podcast that you would look forward to bad glass or something like that because I don't think I said that, which means I probably did, but I don't think I said like I don't find no, sharp glass is great. I said we're spoiled for sure. Like you know, it's hard not to make a sharp lens now. It's become elementary That's exactly. So I was listening to that on the bus this morning. So Chris would be very excited to review a lens that wasn't sharp. And I think it was in terms of that we keep cutting to, you know, a big part of our lens reviews are we zoom into the sharpness chart and a lot of the first party lens like say that Center's great, corners are great. you zoom it in, center' great. stop it down, corners great, wide open Yeah. I think I was I was do that. Yeah. I think I was implying that I'd be like amazed It It would break up your daily routine lens We do endeavor to I use that endeavor. We do endeavor to use and review lenses now that are being made with more character. And so mean, the Light lens labs are a great example of that. The Omnar Bartelles are a good example of that These lenses that have flaws on purpose or keep them and maintain them because it's historically accurate to the original formulas, even to the point of using the same glass and stuff like that. know we have another review coming out, which will be similar in that regard. So yeah, like it is fun to sometimes play with lenses that are not surgically precise and absolutely stone cold protected from flare and, you know, incredibly sharp all the way to the corners and yeah yeah, it's nice to have that If you read the article here, it's actually a fun list. You can see like, man fifty and thirty five are still the kings. Yeah. And it's great for me to see after I said the Sony fifty five mill is a totally overrated lens. Great to see that right at the top there. so I can continue to be hated for holding this opinion. Soon That's very importanton R T star fifty five F one hundred eightZA. Is that the one? That's the one. Yeah, you know what? It's a sharp lens, but otherwise I don't like it Yeah, Why don't you like it? Some of the worst loca I've seen on a small. Is it like it ruins photographs? S shoot black and white. Weird flare patterns. I just don't like that lens. very.o shoot black and wh That's the solution U Kind of leaning on the Sony side of that. Let's talk about news that broke. gosh before we Before we left for Osaka A we recorded the last podcast call that the before times. Yeah. Yeah. you were telling me about this on the train on the way to Oma and I was like, what's a TSMC? Okay. So here's the news. Sony has is on the early stages of a strategic partnership with TSMC which is a large Chinese not censored typically. They'd usually chip I'm going try come up with an abbreviation for this before the story is done. Okay, I'm going to check out for a little while. I'm gonna to try and come up with something They're going to develop nextxt genen image sensors in a newly built fabricator facility that will be located in Kyushu, Japan Um Totally solid microchips I'm sure I'd actually be okay with that. they the thing is Sony is kind of shifting its business. This is the second move that it's done in the last several months where they're moving away from manufacturing things and being more focused on the technology and the intellectual property. The first thing they did is they took the Bravia line of televisions and are now manufacturing them with TCL. TCL iss a fantastic television manufacturer by the way now. their facilities are top of the line. So that was a great partner choice. But Sony's not making them themselves anymore. Now what this looks like is they're probably not going to make their sensors or at least some of them themselves anymore, either. They're going to work with TSMC. so Sony's going to be doing, they take al on a lot of the burden of the investment But they are only doing really the IP and the design while TSMC fabricates and manages that But it's also going to be based in Japan, so that's kind of good for the country, continuing for people that have work here It's just an interesting move for Sony and I don't know that TSMC currently Fabs sensors, they might, but it's not like their biggest business. TSMC makes chips for like phones and computers. You're sy processing units totally solid microchips. Yeah. They make totally solid microchips.ord. I don't know if I have anything to add to this. I just think it's interesting. They're not done finalizing the agreement they need to get funding. The country of Japan will also provide funding for this too because they're bringing work into the country. So that's neat I just it's interesting to see Sony's business choices. I want to go see the factory because I've always wanted to go Kyushu and I haven't been to Kyushu, so that's very warm. All of Japan is very warm to be honest with you. at this time of year. I don't know if there's anywhere that's not There you go. So what Sony's chief executive officer Hioki Totoki said was the joint venture with TSMC will be our first step to becoming Fab light Until now, we haveve handled everything in house from R and DM two manufacturing, but going forward We hope to advance manufacturing not only on our own, but also by bringing in partners. And so this will probably be just the second of many more steps of Sony's shift in reducing the burden manufacturing Let's talk Lumix L ten. Chris two. Chris and I talked about that camera a whole heck of a lot. In fact, for thirty five minutes Yeah. Jordan Yeah So you like to talk about the L ten. Well, it's been a roller coaster for me this week, Charon. because going way back like early in on the podcast, I was like, why don't they just do an Ax one hundred? They don't have to develop anything new, justust do all the stuff that they've developed in the last like eight years since that camera came out. They've got phase detect now, they've got better batteries now, you know, the displays on them, they've got this twenty five megapixel sensor that would be fantastic All of those things have come out. and then We saw the Delux eight, which kind of made me think like, oh, it's definitely not happening because it was Licas recycling of the LX one hundred two. And I wasm just like if there's something coming around the corner shortly They're not going to release this right before, but they did. they did release an LX one hundred two right before. Eessentially an LleX one hundred three came out. And just looking at the features on it, I was like, oh, this is exactly what I've been asking for for the longest time. On the L ten. On the L ten. Be yeah, the Delux eight was largely a remake, right? a very minor up should point that out. So we see this question a lot in the comments and I purposeullly I amm not ansering them because I'm hoping people will go and actually find out why we didn't come compare this to the Delux eight. It's because we did compare it to the Delux eight which the Delux eight is an LX one hundred Mark two. Yeah. There's no reason to separate those. It's the same camera. Basically the same chassis, the same lens assembly, same cama. It's a different menu and interface so it's more like a cQ or some of other modern bodies. but other than that In terms the overall cama I don't know I'm saying on theodcost. All all listen the podast. already know that. you guys are the ones who pay attention. It's the other ones who are like, whyy didn't you Well, that's why you got to get your friends to listen to this podcast. Right. Dam. tell them when someone says why didn't they compare to the Delux eight, you say because they did. Well, it's not an LX one hundred three. L, you know, if they named it that, I feel like it was being inappropriate. when they first came out and they were like, oh, the al ten is going to be the new name You're like, now, okay, whatever. But it is actually in a lot of ways, a very different camera. I think we have to The body size specifically. Yeah. And so the body size has gotten significantly larger. And I think the important thing to understand about that, it's necessary because the new chip, the new twenty twenty five megapixel sensor in there Great sensor, but it has higher power demands, and you've also got a new processing engine. So to power all that, you need a new battery, right? Like you can't just use the old guts from the LX one hundred, nor would we want them to. New EVF design, right? And that OLED does have a power draw. one hundred percent. It's the combination of the processor, the OLED viewfinder And the sensor the voltage of the last battery was too low. mainly the sensor really needed more voltage. They confirmed that to us. So like that's why that battery's in there Yeah. That's also why the battery in the A seven R six got bigger because that sensor's voltage requirements increased. Yeah, exactly. It's not that you've been getting much better battery life, you just need the extra power to make everything work. And so that's a big part of why this camera has physically become larger But what is basically borarred from it is a very similar front end lens assembly, effectively the same lens. Again, they said they've updated it. do they do recognize it that they had issues with dust and stuff. I want to shoot the two side by side. Even though the review is out, I think that would be really interesting to see if the lens actually is improved on it. Who knows? I mean, ye know, yeah, like you are getting more megapixels out of it. so it makesense that you would have to have the lens may be updated or maybe when they say updated, they mean Not have so much dust and shutz get in there and white flakes come off It's so hard for us to test that Yeah, I'm not gonna rub it in the dirt or anything to find out. It's really you just have to ask people comes out. Yeah put into your pocket a lot, let the lint get. There's a reason forums it turns out Chris you just said put it in your pocket a lot. Well you can't put it in your pocket to challenge you to do that. I mean, maybe your pants right now you could put in carg your cargo shorts, no problem. Yeah. I told you we shouldn't have had the table here so people can see what pants are I like I don't mind the larger size and I get that the LX one hundred is a cool camera because it's small, but I think, you know, there's reasons why they had to go bigger But I don't mind the larger size. It does make it feel very sort of X one hundredish. It makes it feel, you know Yeah, like like a like over your shoulder travel companion camera. and I like the control surfaces. I find the camera very customizable. They made quite a few changes to the actual control scheme over the LleX one hundred. So it's a different camera that just happens to be using the same gimmick as the LX one hundred Right, but it serves the same function as llx one hundred and that's compact camera. This is why I touched on my roller coaster ride. becausecause I didn't know what it was going to be. They announced it. I said like, hot damn, that sounds like the best thing ever. Everyone's going to watch that video. I was right about that then I watched Chris's video and I was like, o man, maybe this bumm me out? Is this actually not what I want? And then I thought about it a little bit And most of the concerns that Chris had about it aren't gonna to personally affect the things that excite me about this camera. Like, yes, it is physically larger, But you know what drove me crazy with the previous version was the your giant hands? The terrible EVF. Yeah the fields are good. Like wouldould I trade that for a bigger camera? Yeah, unquestionably. The battery wasn't very good You know want a little bigger battery Yeahah for excellent battery life. Battery life is very good Yeah. And then the other big thing that drove me crazy when it came out, I was like, this would be the perfect B roll camera, but it's got this huge crop in four K mode that makes it Basically unusable, that combined with the lens based only stabilization, still lens based only, but having the full width of the sensor, all the record modes, log recording. like no, it doesn't have a headphone jack, but I would just use this for capturing images. Like this makes so much sense for me. It still has a filter thread. I think the Llex one hundred two is probably one of the best time lapse cameras ever made This is still going let you shoot full raw time lapses, build them in camera for you, and you can set them up with a fully articulating screen. This thing rules. I want this thing. So I'm looking forward to playing with it. I'm the only person at this table who hasn't used one yet. But I think like yeah, this seems like a camera that would bring me endless, bountiful joy. So that's where I'm at I don't know, and I'm not saying you wouldn't. I feel though like there's something about it that you that might not I don't know. I mean, I'm not wild about the power zoom, but there's really unless you beef this lens up a lot, really not an alternative. So I understand that compromise. Other than that, it just seems like a lot of decisions that we've Like we've been saying, why won't someone make a camera like this? They made a camera like this. So now I feel like we should just shoot off confetti. I mean into the sky. The obvious draw I think with the L ten, and I think it does make sense. You know, they're reusing a lens assembly and the sort of the whole gimmick about that. But what is interesting about this is now we have a platform built. it's a nice body handles well. It's got a bigger battery in it. It's got a new processor in it. So really, you know, and it's got a good chipping. it's got the GH seven sensor right there. What this really made andVF. So what it really makes you think is, well, okay, will then the next version just remove this lens assembly and give us a micro four thirds lens mount. That because then now it would make tons of sense, right?? It would kind of be GX nineish. you know, it'd be this like larger than a G you finder tilts a little bit. like the G're not going they find tilt Please make it til. I never cared about the tilt anywways. That could be cool because that's I mean what's strange is the demand worldwide for Panasonic or Olympus or system, sorry, to make a compact interchangeable lens camera. That demand is so huge That's a reason why the LLT ten's getting as much attention as it is right now, even though it's not an interchangeable lens. And yeah, from an engineering standpoint, I can't see it being very difficult to just take that lens assembly and give us a microph. So there is something I want to point out that might actually make that difficult. And I don't know Lumix is willing to make the compromises that they would in order to do this, which makes this camera all the more impressive to me. This I'm holding an X one hundred six This body I was told would need to get thicker to accommodate in body image stabilization. Sure. which Lumix is not going to not do. They're gonna to put images Oh, if it's interchangeable lenses, it would have to. So. But the thing is Then I feel like they feel as though they'll run out of ro aby book. did They put the viewfinder on there. and then they've got that in there and then it'll be thicker. So like when we look at the S nine That has IBS in it. Sure, but it didn't have the viewfinder. And I'm wondering if that's because they ran out of room. Yeah, they it was packed all to the nines. Right, which is why This existing again, I'm holding the X one hundred six should continue to impress you. Yeah because it has it and it has a viewfinder and then The XC five does the same thing. Yeah. So how come Lumix can't? I mean, honestly, I think Fugie Pilm should have put an EVF in the XC five and that would have been an amazing camera and it would have been super happy. Is there not an EF? There's no sorry no. I'm not sorry, MXM five. five XM five. XC five's great. I you know, yeah, IBIS would be great. Obviously, I love having IBS They're not gonna to release the camera without it.. It's not as big deal to photographers as long as you have image stabilization in the lenses, right? The greatest camera of all time is the Pentasonic GM five. It does not have IBIS. It's all based on lens image stabilization. and a lot of microphthers lenses happen to have image stabilizers. I'm telling you I agree with you. And IibBS would be great for video users, but video users. Lics can't do it. I'm telling you that LumMics would feel like they would They would feel like that's something they can't do Is really an interchangeable lens camera without IBS. We don't know. because you're already seeing It's been a decade. Since they did that. Since they did that. Yeah. And I think that they feel as though they would not be holding true to what people expect of them if they don't put IBS and they don't put the. Maybe this slightly larger body that still has a small four third sensor assembly can then support IBIS and just take off the front of the lens.aybe Maybe Maybe it's possible. I would go ahead and say the monkey's paw curls and says yes, but the EVF disappears. You better not Anyway. I mean that's just the S nine. Yeah, exactly. I mean again, I mean, this also makes you think, oh, is the S nine two whenever it comes out and have an EVF That would be great. Wh know It would be very great. And it may be a functioning shoe as well, right? hot shoe? Yeah, I think Panasonic has learned the lesson that cold shoe a bad idea and everybody hated it and they probably won't do that again until they realize it is too expensive. C do it again But who knows? What do I know? But anyways, like yeah. So just a couple things. I do want to say like it is great to have now a test bed for the small camera with a lot of the modern features that we've been asking for I really hope that the excitement that we saw online for this, the number of people watching videos, reading reviews, all that kind of stuff does translate into some success for Panasonic because I know it's been a rough stretch for them. If this does well, that gives them a like, oh, we should really look at doing some photography first stuff again or emphasize some compact things. Like this is a great way to actually send a message after years of being like, Panasonic, you're on the wrongack. You're just catering forograist Exactly. Yeahah,ly listen. Like the Sony, their like enthusiast camera arebread like the people who watch this show that as a camera, they should be losing their minds over. seven abbsolute the A seven hundred R six got steam rolled terms of views by this compact sh onic because there is just a dearth of cameras like that out there. So hopefully this leads to some change in the industry where everybody is like, o, yeah, maybe we should try doing something like that. I'm sure this camera will do very well. Everybody who's used it, I mean, I feel like we did a pretty objective review on it, but still it' Uh Despite some of its flaws, it's still a really enjoyable camera. I really like using it. And so I think Penong iss probably going to do really well with this So one last thing I want to mention and I feel like Maybe some people don't know why they did it this way This special edition version. Yeah the this is kinda sad. Champagne. Champagne need is champagne And it has stuff on there that you're just in the grave before I call it titanium gold It is nice that these things are on here. So for the extra one hundred bucks The auto cap is great. Oh yeah. The gold menu is actually my favorite feature. I think it's gold men prettier Gld meny sau's really good., It's really nice. Threaded shutter for threaded shutterine. People want that. I have the strap. The strap can burn in hell. I don't care about. I'm not super into the strap. I like straps personally. This one's okay. Whatever Ball Rgs already made an additional grip and thumb. I want to make it clear that the grip and the thumb rest don't Hel. You have to buy that separately. Yeah. But All this aside You can only get this directly from Lumix. Dealers Only get the other ones that block noobbody's actually seen because every single person who's got this camera got the champagne one. Yeah. So I when you're saying you think of a slap in the face the dealers. Yeah. Yeah. Lumix wants to hold on to as much of the profit margin as they can as a business, totally get it dealers probably are not happy.ot super happy because They're going to sell a bunch of these. It's not limited. It's a special edition. So they're going to keep making it. It'll be ready. It'll be available forever So like If you're willing to wait a little bit longer, maybe because they might not have as many and they're going to sell out of them constantly L is so small. Unless you really like black or you really like silver or you don't care about like an auto cab. I don't, I mean I don't love the auto cab. Let's forget North Americans only buy black cameras So they're going to be fine. Yeah yeah, yeah. And maybe don't want to thread shutter Yeah. So who cares It like a beauty, fellow North Americans. it're just not saving that much money Jordan. So when in my very short video section where I did my best impression of you. Yeah. My conclusion where you would want to use it the same way you use in X one hundred six as B B roll camera. Yeah. I would what you'd say. Exactly. yeah I'd never use it as a primary camera, but to have full V log so it'll match perfectly with my big old cameras withith a Zoom lens on it. Yeah, something really small like that. I mean this is just a phenomenal little am. You can still shoot like sixty and one hundred and twenty frames. you can just run around, shoot birds just flying around in slow motion without a crop. at seventy five million. at seventy five million Predator camera we should all be losing our minds for and lining up for preordders right now. This thing is hot, people dude. You're gonna have to get one because I don't know if you don't want mine. I offered you're like, no, I want my own. No, I don' I don't want to be no, I don't want to take your camera from you, but this does seem like something that would rock the house All right, so we're going to transition to an interview with Yuji Igodashi of Fujiifilm. We're going to bring him in and chit chat with him and then we'll come back and do a feel goodood story of the week, so we'll see you in just a second. All right, so now we are joined by Yuji Iarashisa and this is a wonderful opportunity. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Yuji is going explain a lot about Fuji Film's sort of thought process and design process when it comes to lenses and optics. Thank you again for join us. Yu what is your title here? So everyone knows what you do here at Fujiifel? Okay. I'm Yuji Garashi. Hi everyone. My title is General Manager of Professional Imaging Products of the Imaging Solutions division Quite long. So very important So we really want to talk to you about the amazing optics behind Fujif F. Why don't just get started right into it? And also about distroal. how you're handling dealing with the viewers and the fans and the people that are using your products. I think it's really important we want to comever that too. But let's talk about an event actually, the recent focus on glass event. This is relatively unusual. You don't see this very often in the industry. Can you explain Foodjofilm's thought process behind this event? Whether do you think that it worked out well, Is it something that you would do All right, yeah, thanks, thanks for the question The first question. So yes, you know, about lens We proud ourselves in manufacturing lenses. We've done that for over eighty years But I think Lens is quite difficult because many features you cannot really quantify Right? So we have U You you have like, um Bite f number and you have resolution, you have but you have also like a chromatic aberration, you have many things, distortion, you have to think about and it's difficult to convey how we care about our lens is our philosophy behind it. So we thought we should You know, try something new. to communicate to our users And so this is why we came up with fooccus on Wednesday yeah. Yeah. and we Your second question that whether we do it again? Yeah. I think we could with maybe with a lens or with other products because I think the feedback was very helpful for us and it was very exxciting for us as well. Fantastic. Would you consider it a success? Would you say that event was successful? I think so considering that we've never done it in the past and you know, we didn't know whether people would provide us feedback and asking for a vote. And if we didn't get any vote, that would have been and quite sad. I think it's useful to maybe give a little context in case people don't have a background on this. So essentially Fujifilm just said here are a variety of like lens proposals essentially. What of these do you think are the most exciting? which is definitely a completely different way of promoting and then also getting feedback from the photography users. I just want to make sure that Listeners know what's going That's what focus on glass was. What was the one that got the most votes So that was, you know, the ones which we kind of thought it was going to get the most votes because it was The you know, the sixteen to eighty millimeter F to point eight throughout And so you know we already have our popular sixteen to fifty five millimeter f to point eight And basically that's an extension of that with the same Averperture, right? So We thought it was going to be quite popular. I thought it was great. I think that was the one I was hoping you would make the most as well. As a side question on that, when you saw the results, were you surprised by them? Or did you sort of do an internal vote as well to see what the engineers thought would be ideal? Yeah, some were surprising, someome were not like, you know, the ones I just mentioned that wast A surprise. nor was like the, let's say, eighteen to fifty millimeter F one point four. That's also a bright lens and We thought it was going to be popular Yeah reallyally ambitious attention here. So the one thing which surprised us was u that dual foocal lens lens, which, you know, which was which came from this idea from the compact camera, you know, which had like a duualo foocal lens, which is a twenty eight millimeter and forty five millimeter called Travel Meting And so Uh Yukitaka who's a product planner of the optical enses He knew about this camera. and so he thought be interesting to do a similar thing with a lens. And so we thought it was interesting, but we didn't expect that to come into third place. R Yeah, I was just playing with a triLmar, like an M mount where you could click between it. And it's a very different experience having primes that you're cycling through on the one optic. So I can see there so much of this, it's a balancing act. I'm sure between photographers saying, was something I would use the most as opposed to what's something I still haven't experienced yet. I think it's a fun balancing act between those Yeah It's interesting too, you don't often get to hear from the optical engineers. So this is a neat event they actually got to have this feedback. So how did you even come up with this idea? and how excited were the optical engineers? I mean, as you say,ak Takishira and Yami How did you get them to participate? How were they excited to participate in this event? So we thought about haaving communication with the end users. when we talk about the lens We saw Be great to get you know feedback from them and we usually don't. So We thought about it internally and we thought How about proposing our lens idea for the future then this might trigger people to Communicate to us, you know, back back to us And so that's how we came up with this idea And both of Ykitaka and Yuma. They are actually product a planning team So R and D and product planning team, they're like just separate teams, although they communicate a lot. But they were really excited because You've probably seen many of our videos and You know, we try to put a face on each product. So when we talk about new lenses, we have our engineers talk about it When we talk about marketing, we have our marketing, people talk about it. So you know, they're kind of used to explaining about the lens which are being announced, but they've never expressed themselves talking about their dream lenses. So they were really excited that this is really happening. So yeah, that was great Given that all the concepts had at least some details, including potential size, weight ranges for these lenses It seems that some serious thought went into these ideas. you know, they weren't just sort of a dream idea, but that actually there was some planning involved in and how you're gonna to realistically do this. Can you share more about the behind the scenes process for creating these concepts and these ideas How many people are involved? did it take a long time So of course we didn't like think you know, just didn't make up these lenss. Yes, we usually communicate quite a lot. So the R and D team and the product planning team, we talk all the time. And so we or he had a lot of ideas. So for us, It was actually more difficult to narrow down The numbers. So we had initially we had over forty lenses for zero And they were like, hey, this is too many. We're never going to go through this. Yeah like everything is going to get like five to six percent So let's narrow down it'll be diverse enough. So that was actually the difficult part So there's plenty of opportunity to do this again. Is that look likeike in the future? eresting It's also interesting that Fujiifilm opened up voting for its fans to share the voices and the proposed lens concepts. Of course, we thought that was really cool. We've never seen really that before We really enjoyed seeing all the different lenses. know we all had our own ideas of what we thought would be exciting. Everyone on the team was sort of thinking about their favorites. and it was interesting to see the difference. you know, some are similar, but we all kind of went in our own directions U Yeahah, like, was there any concept that you had that surprised you or is that your personal favorite idea that's come through? Yeah, so the traravel Mi concept, like I mentioned, that was surprising, but also very interesting. The reason why it was interesting is because You know, we have a product planning team for both lenses and the cameras and Uh This idea Even though this came from the Lens group from Yutitaka's team But we actually had a similar idea from the camera side as well So we're like, oh, this Same similar idea came up from the camera team and the lens team. So I thought it was really interesting. although this program was specifically you know talking about lens so we didn't mention about you know, in the camera side, but That's actually, you know, This kind of idea came up from both sides Do you have a personal favorite out of the list that you wantan to see come true Yeah, I would love to see that do vocal lens. So you were surprised that it was popular, but it was also one that you like. Yes, I like it, but I didn't like an underdog. I didn't think it was gonna be like, you know choice it was the third choice, but yeah, I thought it was going to be maybe like the six or seven I'm curious because there was some really cutting edge objects in there alongside very traditional, like brass or manual focus and stuff like that. Would you say that there was kind of a split in terms of which groups were interested in going more traditional versus more modern? Were there lens engineers who are more fixated on the past or the future respectively? Yes. I think that's a very good question. There are many people involved and so there a lot of favorites uh, you know, depending on al to So yeah, for me, mano mano, you know Lens is also very interesting And so yeah, it's I think it depends and I'm very happy that we have this, diverse ideas. You've made spectacular manual lenses before. I look For those inside here, I've talked to you Jon about this camera. At least three times. And he the look I'm getting is like, yes, I know. you like Jak talks to everybody about the tas. Every single person he sees on the. want to see it again. Now of course, here's a difficult question. you know, I mean, this is a very exciting project. you're getting all this feedback, but then that puts pressure on Do we then go for to make it? I know you can't talk too much about you know, how real these things are or if they will happen or when they will happen really. But the winning idea, sixteen to eighty F two point eight seems very popular, seems very maybe from a layman's standpoint possible realalistic, you know? So and it seems like a generally good idea. So I know you can't comment out too much, but is there anything you can share to us about concept like that, sixty eight F two point eight. Whether this is something Fujif will be interested in exploring, could it be a possible U Yes, I think it is possible. you know, if you look at the candidate I think we mentioned the weight will be around between like four hundred to five hundred It's so We already have the same focal lens, but was F four And that is four hundred and forty grams. the reason why we had the weight specifically in there is so that people can imagine that lens size is going to be similar to You know, the lens we already have. And so I think that's the difficult part. you know, can we make it small enough Right, So we can make the lens bright Uh, but then you know would people buy into it if it's too big. So I think technically it's possible uh, have we come to, you know a level where we can launch immediately Probably not, but you know I think it's a matter of time because you know, the lins are getting brighter and we have more technology So I think hopefully we'll see that Right. So I kind of have a follow up on that then. So when you launch the X one hundred six at the event in Tokyo Like when everything was done or whatever we had there was a section off to the side. Yeah L like, Okay, we got some ideas. Do you guys like these ideas? So to me, that felt like kind of like a similar event to what you do with Focus on Glass, but smaller to just the Fujif people and media. And the discussion was like Do you want a lens like this interchangeable? And everyone was like, yeah, we really want that. So obviously that came with the XE five Had you already sort of decided you were going to make that or did you only start working on it after the response was so overwhelmingly positive at that event? If you can't answer that question, I understand. But I want to ask it. Yeah sure That's your job. So that's all right. It wasn't on the list of questions that we originally had. I know So I will say it was U among one, you know, the candidates And for us, it was matter of priority because V. knew we had more opportunity with the pancake lenses. And so we thought it would be good idea and then we also wanted to put That actually was very telling as appreciate it So of course, we've discussed how this new traravel mini concept would be very popular. The public liked it. You personally like the idea. So that sounds like a great target to go for What do you think would be some of the challenges specifically in making something like that come true? Yeah, I think this also it's a matter of size and also image quality because this travel mini twenty eight mil lens was image good quality, but forty five was probably not. And so to make sure You know, both fooccal lens have a good image quality and also the right size I think that's very important So I think if you want to come up with this kind of a compact camera with like a really gimmicky, you know function. I think it's possible because You don't care about the quality itself, you know, I think you can do it.. Yeah. I think it's a matter of providing value to the end users whether it's really going to be It's attractive enough for people who want to carry the camera and they have to rely on two foocal lens and you know, would that satisfy those people.ah that's important thing. I think on the topic of the twin lens, it's interesting because Fujifilm is one of the companies where The lens is actually a really important part of a lot of the other cameras. There are fixed lens cameras. The X one hundred is very famous, then the GFX, the X half When you hear people's excitement for some of these obptics, are the camera people also maybe just checking in and seeing if there's any interest in seeing some of those built onto a fixed lens compact or a larger camera, anything like that Yes, Of course developers are different, but the product planning team is one and marketing is one as well. So we all Talk to each other And we're both interested We have to be interested in both two So his camera with that twinsland would be hot Yes, I think that's a that's that would be Exciting, I think. Well, that kind of leads me to the next question because you know, there were so many different ideas presented in this event, man focus lenses, brass finished lenses, twin lenses, ultra bright lenses, you know, it really covered a lot. in your opinion you know, going forward with the product planning, What do you think would be kind of the most needed lens right now in the X lineup. Where do you think is a gap? that needs to be filled I think we have more space to grow on the telephoto side We started with three primes for Expro One and we've built a lot of primes which we're proud of And also we have, you know started with a range Finder style camera. And so that's that direction we went initially And then we went into center Finder style with more telephoto with a bigger grip So I think that's still there areas which we can grow on the telephoto side. I mean, I guess if we open it up to telephoto lenses, maybe in camera design, where do you think your weakest link is? And what do you think Fujifilm does the strongest, right U so you talkking about the lens, lens or body body Yeah, so I guess that's the same thing, right? more on the telephoto side is what we have we used to have room to grow, I think Yeah. So that's that's the weakest, I would say Wh do you think Fujif Film is doing strongest right now Strongest is with maybe the combination of the range finder style with primes that's for sure probably what when people think about Fuji film, that's maybe what they imagine. It's an interesting familyily theX series. It's has now fifteen years. It's been around for quite a long time now That's not necessarily longs time, but in the photo industry, it's changed so much in that period, right? We've seen so much growth. What do you think are the biggest changes in the industry since say the XPro O in twenty twelve? How has that really changed? How has that really know affected the business? How does Fuji Film's latest X sereries lenses reflect those changing market demands? and how do you think the current generation you' going to capture photo video now. Right. So so many questions. I don't know' answer everything, but I mean it's one by one. Yes, the biggest change is Xpro one is a mirrorless camera At that time, DSLR was the mainstream So probably that time, eighty percent of the cameras shipped were still theSLRs. Now ninety percent is mirrorless. So that change is probably the biggest And that it's not only you know, the difference between Mirrorless and theSLR, but it's more about technology so Once it became a mirrorless camera, it became Electronic which means this led to camera becoming a video recorder as well, right? So Now we have a hybrid system, but most of the cameras take shoot stills and video and that like hybrid setting And that's because I think, you know, it's shifted to mirrorless So that's the biggest change, which has happened And so also our lenses Now when we make like a version two, for the lenses or the new lenses. We all make sure that it's also good for video shooting as well That's how the industry has changed and how our lenses has that shifted as well. If I could piggyback on the video side of things then, I'm really curious because historically, when you're looking at cinema lenses or broadcast lenses, they've been a unique mount, right? They're going on PL mount or they're going on ENG cameras, things like that But recently we've started to see those design natively in Fujifilm's own lens mounts like we have now. The GF, I think it's a three thousand two ninety was the latest one. And then the MK series, which I adore, one of which is actually filming us right now the eighteen to fifty five Is there a collaboration between the like consumer imaging, the camera manufacturers and the people making XF lensos and the cinema division? or is that cinema designing it and just putting it in unavailable Fujifilm mount. So to answer your question, it is one team. Okay So the professional imaging group, which I oversee that includes both digital cameras and cinema lenses and oadcast lenses. And so But in the past, we did not have a camera, the Eternna. to go with it. So when we were building lenses, it was more broadcast lenses was for the broadcasting. industry and we focus on producing lenses. And now we have Of course we have MKs and permistas Yeah and other lenses, but we were thinking about when is first. but now we can think about What can we add to Eurn and? what can we not only turnaay, but also including GFX that has also become like a hybrid system. So the more cameras shooting videos we have you know, we have to and we are thinking about lens together with Right. so and out also to industry between cinema and broadcast's also there's an overlap more and more. Now that broadcast industry also wants to shoot more like a cinematic footage and those businesses also not combining you know, exactly, but there was a lot of overlap. Could you see something like that expanding in the XF mount? Because currently those MK lenses are they're gorgeous, but they're manual focus lenses. they feel very much like a classic one. where when we looked at the latest GF stuff, you, it's got auto focus. It's got a little mechanical coupler. Are we going to keep seeing these lenses designed with more of that emphasis on being able to tackle two tasks Yes, so yes, definitely. And we can' be specific about what, but of course, yes, but you're right We need ideally that you know each mount and maybe including the PLs and everything would work together. so that they will be you know more choices which lenses and which camera system to use. So you know, I guess that would leave me to a question then that I'd love to ask you personally is just You've seen this change in the market, mirrorlist has taken over. V has become a very important thing for a lot of your users I feel of course you're always gonna have the user who loves the compact stylish camera. I mean, that is, as you say, a strength of the company and GFX we have now as well. Where do you think now with all this feedback that's come back from your users and lenses and directions they want to go Where do you think users want to see Fujifilm grow from here Yes, I'll actually your final questions also trigger me to mention one more thing that while uh The cameras have became more hybrid. I think I have to also mention that because of that many people also became more interested in photocentric camera as well Right. So that's another You know, stream so, I wouldn't say everybody you know, move to to hybrid.. So that's also very important So I don't think there's like a one straight direction we want to go. we want to continue to develop, evolve in this industry and there are many ways to do that and We don't want to forget about our heritage of knowing photography So that's also a very important thing And so how can we make people excited about photography That's a very big theme for Freei Fail And also the develop, you know like the video side and still those kind of like a, you know teechnological That's very important but also forgetting about our heritage about photography, culture, how to preserve that or T expand it, that's also very important as well. As asark. I find that answs very exciting. Yeah, there are a lot of Folks that read pedapixel, who watch our channel, care about our reviews that and say they would They want cameras to focus on being just photo cameras. Like not every camera needs to be a hybrid camera And that was something that like we tried to express to like Nikon because when they did the Z six three, they didn't bring the Z seven with it and because that high resolution I guess they decided it would be either redundant with the Z eight or they just didn't want to make a photo centric camera, perhaps, because they didn't think that people would want to buy it. I think many people should reconsider Even though you can shoot video with an X one hundred, this is my photo camera. and I reach for this to take pictures I don't thinkve I've personally, I know you like it for video occasion, but I don't think I've ever turned the video function on this camera on. And I don't think I have any intention to I think it's okay for cameras to specialize. We went to this ha kind of like Swiss arrmy knife idea with every camera I needed to do everything. And I think that people were competing a lot, trying to make every camera do everything. I never got that sense from Fujifilm. I think you guys stayed the course on making cameras for specific tasks or better at specific tasks. Is that fair too say that you think things that way or am I off? No, I think you're right. That's why we have a different series for, you know, the X series as well. You know, the camera is like, u E series or you know, the XTs and Y exp proros and thingsings like that Yeah. ye. I think it's a good philosophy. and I think there are a lot of people who appreciate that. They are some of them are under the misinformed idea that you could take video features out and it would make the camera cheaper It doesn't really work that way at least creating a camera experience that caters to a photographer is nice. Thank you so much for giving us your time. Yeah, we really appreciate you. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. you Thanks to Yuji for sitting with us in Chit Chang. Don't really get to talk to him very much on camera and it was nice to talk about lenses as well, especially since it seems like that's something that's really important to them right now.. We appreciate his insight. I still wish we had time to do tech support Am I the only one that cares about tech support? No, I care about tech support, but in this case we don't have the time for it. So we're going gonna do is go into the Feel goodood Story of the week This is a camera riig that we This is feel good. This is a feel bad ass feel bad ass. This is a wild camera igg that turns you into a roobo photographer. Jordan, do you need this? So one of the punchlines about like fifteen years ago when we made a stupid commercial for the camera store, which was a war scene using cameras. The very end of it, a dude walked out wearing a Gidecam X ten rag with a camera and a super telephoto on it And I'm feeling a little nostalgic right now. a giant like a giant I mean, we did this first. We did this first a long time ago, but hey, it's cool. Did you wear sunglasses and man it to football pads? He was wearing sunglasses, I believe we was wearing terminat., know he'south African and he's, you know,' a big dude. It was Brent Taylor. Hesnt Taylor. he's a sweetheart but you know, he look like he looked like somebody out of a stallone vie a Villain Iv Stallone movie. He did a great job. I mean, but you also have the camering on the shoulder. like this is it's not Robocop, it is it Conial space Marine? It's kind of It's kind of giving me predator vibes. Like this is a predography. I love that he's got like the rig on the side The stabilizing Yeah again, just like that X ten. Yeah. inccredible. an exos skeleton of some sort. It's so awesome and stupid. I love it. So there you go There go. This is the future, people. I'm sorry. It will make you undatable. Yeah. Thank you for joining us on the Petapixel Podcus. Week, thanks to Fuji Film for letting us sit in this studio and do this and giving us a chance to talk to Euji. And thank you to those of you who are supporting us with the Petapixel membership. We appreciate it again. newew perk, new per new. Appreciate it to Wescott for giving everyone who's a member access to that. and Yeahah. So we will be back on our regular schedule next week. Hopefully fingers cross. I don't think there's anything on the schedule that would hurt that. we're gonna do our job regular next week. Y see We'll see schedule next week. So we will see you then. Have a good one. byye.