So we're here at Photokina 2016 in Cologne, Germany and I have with me Mr. Toshihisa Iida
Who is the general manager of sales and marketing at Fujifilm.
Thank you for joining us, Toshi
Thanks for inviting us.
So you have arguably the most exciting camera of the show here in front of you.
Why don’t you explain what this is?
Yes, yes, so this is the new camera
Which is the world’s first medium format mirrorless camera with focal plane shutter
[Laughs] It’s a bit long
Anyway, this is, you know, a medium format camera
So, as I think you know, Fujifilm entered the
mirrorless camera market four and a half years ago
and we’ve been focusing on the APS-C format and will continue to focus on the APS-C format
But you know, now we have 23 different lenses
So we think, we decided it's good timing
for us to go even bigger.
So you’ve gone straight from APS-C to Medium Format
and missed out Full Frame completely, why is that?
So I think, you know, simply said, 35 from APS-C, The gap is too narrow. The difference too narrow
So APS-C, because of technological innovation
Image quality, speed, response, usability, portability
Everything.
We’re very confident APS-C can cover the majority of the photographic space.
However, we are still missing that top, top resolution
Still image quality.
So 35, probably for us, there is very little point
So we decided to go even bigger, to pursue ultimate image quality.
Obviously there are other cameras on the market with
sensors of this size
What is it about this platform and this new mount that makes it interesting?
Yes, we’re always going to prioritize image quality as number one
At the same time how to minimize the size and the weight
To increase its usability and portability,
So, first of all, sensor size we’ve chosen is
32.9 millimeters by 43.8 millimeters
It’s about 70 percent larger than the 35mm format
And the secret behind this is that this is a brand new mount.
We’ve shortened the flange-back down to…
So normally you have the mirror
Flange-back can be seven centimeters, seventy millimeters.
So we’ve managed to get that down to 26.7 millimeters
And if we look at this part, this construction enables the lens making the smaller.
The reason for that is that the rear lens can approach to the sensor surface
even closer so that minimum back focus required would be 16.7 millimeters
So the whole lens is made small But the more challenge is for the sensor size
This sensor is a big sensor you have to you know capture the light
as straight as possible so in order to do that we optimize the microlens
on the surface of the sensor, so the microlens and the signal process is also optimized
So this is a brand new sensor, brand new mount, brand new lens
So this is not an X-Trans sensor, is that right?
No, this is a Bayer sensor
And why is it you made that decision?
Because, obviously, X-Trans is a big Fuji brand
For the X lineup.
So X-Trans, you know, works perfectly well for APS-C format.
For this large format, although we eliminate the low-pass filter
We found the sensor is large enough without X-Trans CMOS sensor
And by not having the X-Trans CMOS sensor it will reduce the complexity of the signal processing
So the Raw file conversion and the work flow gets much easier
So we decided for this moment we go to Bayer sensor
Interesting
And the short flange-back distance presumably also means
that other lenses could be used with adaptors more easily, as well...
Er, technically, theoretically, yes
Are you planning to market any adapters at the point of announcement?
Er, not to…
In the future, yes, that is totally feasible.
Interesting.
And this also offers video, I noticed Yes, yes, I think you know, the number one
priority for this camera is the ultimate still image quality
but it doesn't mean we can forget the movie quality, the movie
So this camera will do Full HD even not 4K and through this lens with the big format
depth of field will be very interesting for the movie
So you will see.
So using I know a lot of our readers are very interested in this.
What kind of photographer are you aiming this camera at?
I think a lot of photographers will be very interested
I hope will be interested
You know any photographers who need the top-end the quality
High-resolution, wider dynamic range, better low light performance
should be the same
But you know the clear audience would be landscape photographers
Or the fashion portrait photographers or commercial photographers
that type of photographer.
Fantastic.
Well I'm really looking forward to getting hold of one
Do you know when we might see one?
A finished one, a final one?
Final one?
Ah, yes, we are, you know Over the last many months our R&D team
have worked very hard and this will carry on
So we are targeting release of the body and the three lenses together
Early next year, 2017
Well I can’t wait.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you very much