Fujifilm Gets It: Biggest Challenge From Smartphones

In Barney Britton's interview with Toshihisa Iida of Fujifilm, Mr. Iida said when asked how Fujifilm will address the challenge from smartphones?

The first thing is to do more research into what smartphone customers want from cameras. Usability, shooting options and so on. Maybe we need to start from scratch when it comes to future cameras aimed at smartphone [upgraders].

Our biggest potential challenge is from smartphones, not competitor cameras.

Fujifilm gets it and that's why full frame isn't an immediate priority. Attracting a new generation of photographers - photographers who learned image-making through their smartphones - to Fuji is the priority.

Bill Ferris said:

In Barney Britton's interview with Toshihisa Iida of Fujifilm, Mr. Iida said when asked how Fujifilm will address the challenge from smartphones?

The first thing is to do more research into what smartphone customers want from cameras. Usability, shooting options and so on. Maybe we need to start from scratch when it comes to future cameras aimed at smartphone [upgraders].

Our biggest potential challenge is from smartphones, not competitor cameras.

Fujifilm gets it and that's why full frame isn't an immediate priority. Attracting a new generation of photographers - photographers who learned image-making through their smartphones - to Fuji is the priority.

Click to expand...

Their A-line camera's (huge in Asia) is probably the way to go. They really need to make a move on with apps, in camera processing and uploading to social media directly from the cam itself. That will win them over, but they need to be quick and put in all articulating screens.

SIM card. That is the ticket. Bluetooth keyboard to set up things. good control from a smart phone.

The pace/depth of computational photography enhancements coming to smartphones is quite something.

a_c_skinner said:

SIM card. That is the ticket. Bluetooth keyboard to set up things. good control from a smart phone.

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More and more people seem to realize that! However I am pretty sure that at least some marketing people working in camera manufacturers have also understood that this could be one good way to counter the mobile phone cameras supremacy.

I suspect that they would have done it if they could. Maybe integrating the direct upload to social media requires much more than just a sim card and 3G antenna and they simply don't have the capability. Maybe they should cooperate with a mobile phone manufacturer and create a hybrid camera with 3G/4G capabilities...

a_c_skinner said:

SIM card. That is the ticket. Bluetooth keyboard to set up things. good control from a smart phone.

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Please tell me why would I want to put a SIM card in my camera? Why would I want to pay another monthly line fee for data?

I think this is the biggest single threat to traditional digital photography. The latest smart phones are producing easy and flattering images which most people find more than acceptable.

Phone manufacters are trying harder than traditional camera manufacturers and have pretty much buried the compact camera market. For the purpose of Facebook can people tell the difference between a good smart phone and your average DSLR?

Your causal user doesn’t print, the post to Facebook and Instagram. Look what has happened with music, people have accepted low quality high compressed music files. Vinyl although more popular again is niche.

Bill Ferris said:

In Barney Britton's interview with Toshihisa Iida of Fujifilm, Mr. Iida said when asked how Fujifilm will address the challenge from smartphones?

The first thing is to do more research into what smartphone customers want from cameras. Usability, shooting options and so on. Maybe we need to start from scratch when it comes to future cameras aimed at smartphone [upgraders].

Our biggest potential challenge is from smartphones, not competitor cameras.

Fujifilm gets it and that's why full frame isn't an immediate priority. Attracting a new generation of photographers - photographers who learned image-making through their smartphones - to Fuji is the priority.

Click to expand...

Exactly. To 90% of the pre-phone digital camera market, FF is an expensive irrelevance.

However, I don't think they should implement all the computational features on the camera, but on a phone. In other words, wirelessly copy images to your phone, then let you play with them to your heart's content - including stacking, panoramas, DR, focus depth, etc.

But they really need to offer an ETTR metering mode - with default contrast adjust.

Vincent AF said:

Bill Ferris said:

In Barney Britton's interview with Toshihisa Iida of Fujifilm, Mr. Iida said when asked how Fujifilm will address the challenge from smartphones?

The first thing is to do more research into what smartphone customers want from cameras. Usability, shooting options and so on. Maybe we need to start from scratch when it comes to future cameras aimed at smartphone [upgraders].

Our biggest potential challenge is from smartphones, not competitor cameras.

Fujifilm gets it and that's why full frame isn't an immediate priority. Attracting a new generation of photographers - photographers who learned image-making through their smartphones - to Fuji is the priority.

Click to expand...

Their A-line camera's (huge in Asia) is probably the way to go. They really need to make a move on with apps, in camera processing and uploading to social media directly from the cam itself. That will win them over, but they need to be quick and put in all articulating screens.

Click to expand...

Use android as OS will be a good start.

I hope that Fuji does get a hint. Fuji camera OSs are pathetic as are the user interfaces and touch screen implementations. So clearly, Fuji does not get it yet. They can’t kaizen their way out of this; it requires design and engineering from the get-go.

It’s not a question of whether the Fuji’s are good cameras they are and they have completely functional controls from last century. I still want manual control knobs because they really are convenient and quick and I like them, but I also want a real OS that will connnect directly to the web; gimme a WiFi antenna that interfaces though the hot shoe and computational photo options built-in. If my 35 f1.4 isn’t dropping out the background enough give me a boost with software!

I think Zeiss is going to make waves in this realm with the ZX1. At least I hope. Someone will get to be Apple, another Blackberry with the rest scrambling to stay relevant. Question is whether Fuji is resourced to attack camera OS in any meaningful way. Based on the current Fuji smart phone apps I think they have little strength in that area.

Vincent AF said:

Bill Ferris said:

In Barney Britton's interview with Toshihisa Iida of Fujifilm, Mr. Iida said when asked how Fujifilm will address the challenge from smartphones?

The first thing is to do more research into what smartphone customers want from cameras. Usability, shooting options and so on. Maybe we need to start from scratch when it comes to future cameras aimed at smartphone [upgraders].

Our biggest potential challenge is from smartphones, not competitor cameras.

Fujifilm gets it and that's why full frame isn't an immediate priority. Attracting a new generation of photographers - photographers who learned image-making through their smartphones - to Fuji is the priority.

Click to expand...

Their A-line camera's (huge in Asia) is probably the way to go. They really need to make a move on with apps, in camera processing and uploading to social media directly from the cam itself. That will win them over, but they need to be quick and put in all articulating screens.

Click to expand...

Yes, focusing on the app would be a great start.

Give the app a smart phone camera app feel and let it completely control the camera, including the 15-45 power zoom. It should be a seamless high speed connection with zero lag, have NFC pairing, and an option for a sleep mode on the camera that remains paired with Bluetooth low energy so it is paired the second it is turned on. Any controls actuated on the camera should immediately mirror in app.

As for the camera, they need add (as an OPTION of course) some of those neat computational photography tricks like in camera smart HDR image stacking. They should also allow the camera to automatically optimize some other image tweaks based on the scene like noise reduction, sharpening, shadows, and highlights.

It is quick and cool. Actually a really good app for all platforms with bluetooth connection would be OK.

Unless Fujifilm is planning to market a smartphone, that's a misguided view. More than 90% of those smartphone users will never buy a camera. They'll just buy another smartphone.

Andrea Crema said:

I think this is the biggest single threat to traditional digital photography. The latest smart phones are producing easy and flattering images which most people find more than acceptable.

Phone manufacters are trying harder than traditional camera manufacturers and have pretty much buried the compact camera market. For the purpose of Facebook can people tell the difference between a good smart phone and your average DSLR?

Click to expand...

There is no pretty much the smart phone has absolutely destroyed the compact camera market and the smart phones camera sales are soaring as the stand alone camera sales are on a downward slide. Of course they are approaching camera sales prior to the digital bubble which is rapidly deflating as all bubbles do.

However, for the "average person" the smart phone images are good enough and you don't have to carry an extra camera and you can post a picture of your kid on facebook right when you take it. The computational photography advances in the smart phones is quite impressive and you can bet Apple, Google and Samsung is pouring a heck of a lot more money that Fuji and Sony can afford because of the size of the smartphone market.

In the Sony interview there was talk not of competition but of expanding the market with new customers. The camera companies are losing customers - that has to be turned around for their sake.

The Fuji interview was somewhat along the same lines. We did learn that Fuji is not interested in FF - they've got it covered with the X system and GFX system. I expect a lot of their efforts are going into such things as processing to get smartphone users away from the phones.

Bill. Yes. This is true. Computational photography on those damn phones is starting to irritate me.

Luckily, those sensors are so small that viewing the images on my 32 inch pro 4K monitor is quite revealing. But it works great for my wife.

But seriously…. That is what people shoot. 7 years from now the difference between FF and APSC will be completely meaningless. Wait … it already is!

Sweet spot. Fuji owns it!

Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas

I can see it coming... (maybe it's here already)

Not sure why I need the XT3?

:-(

dv312 said:

I can see it coming... (maybe it's here already)

Not sure why I need the XT3?

:-(

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Here in the usa the cops will shoot you if they saw you pointing this at them.

KFo said:

I hope that Fuji does get a hint. Fuji camera OSs are pathetic as are the user interfaces and touch screen implementations. So clearly, Fuji does not get it yet. They can’t kaizen their way out of this; it requires design and engineering from the get-go.

It’s not a question of whether the Fuji’s are good cameras they are and they have completely functional controls from last century. I still want manual control knobs because they really are convenient and quick and I like them, but I also want a real OS that will connnect directly to the web; gimme a WiFi antenna that interfaces though the hot shoe and computational photo options built-in. If my 35 f1.4 isn’t dropping out the background enough give me a boost with software!

I think Zeiss is going to make waves in this realm with the ZX1. At least I hope. Someone will get to be Apple, another Blackberry with the rest scrambling to stay relevant. Question is whether Fuji is resourced to attack camera OS in any meaningful way. Based on the current Fuji smart phone apps I think they have little strength in that area.

Click to expand...

At a recent Touch and Try event at my local camera dealer, the Fuji rep agreed that Fuji is not a software company. I think we see evidence of this in their dated UI, and possibly/probably in the frustratingly unpredictable freezes/lock-ups that have seemingly become a more common occurrence. Based on the many reports of these issues from the X-T2 onwards, I'm convinced that Fuji is prioritizing the camera over the computer, which has to change.

In my mind, Fuji needs to do two main things:

1. Place a high priority on redeveloping the quality and efficiency of their OS and UI experience from the ground up. They need to hire some visionary software devs who can marry the traditional Fuji analog functionality with an equally efficient and enjoyable digital UI. And of course they need to improve that app!

2. Smartphone photography is never going away, and will only improve. However, smartphone imagery has its limits due to the nature of the "camera" being a small handheld device. Somehow Fuji (and every other brand that wants to survive) has to demonstrate the unique imagery possible only with interchangeable lens systems. Their goal should not be to try to lure people away from smartphone photography (that would be an exercise in futility), but to show them imagery that a smartphone can't make.

Off my soapbox now...

Truman Prevatt said:

Andrea Crema said:

I think this is the biggest single threat to traditional digital photography. The latest smart phones are producing easy and flattering images which most people find more than acceptable.

Phone manufacters are trying harder than traditional camera manufacturers and have pretty much buried the compact camera market. For the purpose of Facebook can people tell the difference between a good smart phone and your average DSLR?

Click to expand...

There is no pretty much the smart phone has absolutely destroyed the compact camera market

Click to expand...

Compact and ILC units seem to be running at very similar numbers in CIPA. In what way has the compact market been absolutely destroyed? Over the last 3 months prior to the August lift in both types compacts sales have looked more resilient if anything.

Truman Prevatt said:

and the smart phones camera sales are soaring as the stand alone camera sales are on a downward slide. Of course they are approaching camera sales prior to the digital bubble which is rapidly deflating as all bubbles do.

However, for the "average person" the smart phone images are good enough and you don't have to carry an extra camera and you can post a picture of your kid on facebook right when you take it. The computational photography advances in the smart phones is quite impressive and you can bet Apple, Google and Samsung is pouring a heck of a lot more money that Fuji and Sony can afford because of the size of the smartphone market.

In the Sony interview there was talk not of competition but of expanding the market with new customers. The camera companies are losing customers - that has to be turned around for their sake.

The Fuji interview was somewhat along the same lines. We did learn that Fuji is not interested in FF - they've got it covered with the X system and GFX system. I expect a lot of their efforts are going into such things as processing to get smartphone users away from the phones.

Click to expand...

Truman Prevatt said:

Andrea Crema said:

I think this is the biggest single threat to traditional digital photography. The latest smart phones are producing easy and flattering images which most people find more than acceptable.

Phone manufacters are trying harder than traditional camera manufacturers and have pretty much buried the compact camera market. For the purpose of Facebook can people tell the difference between a good smart phone and your average DSLR?

Click to expand...

There is no pretty much the smart phone has absolutely destroyed the compact camera market and the smart phones camera sales are soaring as the stand alone camera sales are on a downward slide. Of course they are approaching camera sales prior to the digital bubble which is rapidly deflating as all bubbles do.

However, for the "average person" the smart phone images are good enough and you don't have to carry an extra camera and you can post a picture of your kid on facebook right when you take it. The computational photography advances in the smart phones is quite impressive and you can bet Apple, Google and Samsung is pouring a heck of a lot more money that Fuji and Sony can afford because of the size of the smartphone market.

In the Sony interview there was talk not of competition but of expanding the market with new customers. The camera companies are losing customers - that has to be turned around for their sake.

Click to expand...

The Fuji interview was somewhat along the same lines. We did learn that Fuji is not interested in FF - they've got it covered with the X system and GFX system. I expect a lot of their efforts are going into such things as processing to get smartphone users away from the phones.

Truman Prevatt said:

Truman Prevatt said:

Smartphones are not the threat it is wether there is a market for traditional cameras or not, once the traditional photographers disappear or stop buying then ................

I am in Japan at the moment haven’t seen too many cameras around other than those owned by tourists

My personal use is 80% smartphone 20% camera as it was for portraits with the odd product shot as I needed higher resolution

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