The latest report on the Fujirumors site revealed that the coming Fujifilm X100F camera which is predicted to be launched in January 2017 will not have tilt screen. The site claimed that this information came from a trusted source.
The Fujifilm X100 series has built quite a strong cult-like following among photography enthusiasts, particularly the street photography crowd. Considering the classical 35mm equivalent fixed lens on the camera, old-school retro yet timeless camera design coupled with manual and mechanical dials for exposure controls, the iterations of X100 have been regarded as one of the best street photography machines. Fujifilm has steadily improved the performance and added features over the few versions of their X100 series, hence it is no doubt that the consumers expected one popularly requested feature: tilt screen to be added to the next coming successor.
Upon reading that the implementation of the tilt screen in the X100F is unlikely, some of the the readers following the post uttered their disappointment and disapproval. Based on a poll on the same post, 55% of the voters (about 5000 voters at the time of this writing) wanted a tilt screen on the speculated X100F.
Historically Fujifilm X100 series cameras are solidly constructed with a strong metal chassis including no detachable parts from the camera body, not even the lens can be interchanged. Therefore introducing a moving part such as a tilt screen may go against this design concepts and principles of the Fujifilm X100 series. Having a tilt screen, while being convenient and useful in creative compositions showing extremely low or high perspective, may compromise the camera’s overall robustness. Nevertheless, having a tilt screen or not, we look forward to the refresh of the highly successful Fujifilm X100 series camera.