The future of the Fujifilm X series is bound to evolve into something for it to specialize in. We can see this in the history of what Micro Four Thirds did. At first, they tried to tackle everything. But eventually, they stayed in a pretty narrow lane. That’s because of the physical and software-based limitations of the sensors. Soon enough, APS-C is going to join that route. But if anyone is bound to keep it alive, it will be Fujifilm. Radical honesty is something that true journalists champion; and perhaps that’s why so many photographers who prioritize gear over making great images are hurt by what we say. And indeed, we may surely mourn the loss — or we can think of it as a rebirth into new life. That’s something that I’m all for celebrating.
A post on Mirrorless Rumors planted an idea in my mind that the Fujifilm X series could surely evolve into a digital version of the Fujifilm XT-1, or as it’s more popularly known, the Hasselblad X Pan. “For the veteran photographer, ardent analog lover, and rangefinder fan, this camera needs no introduction,” we said in a 2018 article. “…the TX-1 was also extra special since it’s a true panoramic film camera. Yep, none of those ‘panorama’ masks here!” We continued to speak about the dedicated panoramic mode, which can give you around 21 shots on a roll of 35mm film. It’s known mostly amongst landscape photographers, such as Magnum’s Josef Koudelka.
However, it has also been used in street photography, as photographer Walter Rothwell has demonstrated for us in a previous interview.
When paired with some really nice wide-angle lenses, a Fujifilm X series version of the XT-1 could be really incredible. We had a lot of fun recently playing with the Hasselblad X2D in X Pan mode and using the new Hasselblad 25V lens. Fujifilm’s 8mm f3.5, which we gave a glowing review to, would be super fun in a X Pan format.
But is there really a market for this? Well, I hope so — and more importantly, I hope that Fujifilm forgives themselves for the mistakes they made with the Fujifilm X Pro 3 and their lack of updates to an otherwise perfect camera. If it comes out, then they’d need to provide firmware updates, improvements, etc. They’d also really need to make it for experienced photographers as content creators and anyone who has only learned photography through them wouldn’t understand it. A camera is something meant to be held, heard, and experienced. Otherwise, why buy an APS-C camera when you could easily make the same photographs with your iPhone?
So, who would a camera like this appeal to:
- Landscape photographers: obviously.
- Architecture photographers: obviously
- Street photographers: as an experiment
This would surely be a specialty product required for slow work — which is the antithesis of the frangible culture around promoting the fastest autofocus and various other things. In many ways, this would’ve worked better for something like the X Pro 3 if it were pitched for slow work or had a better zone focusing system. However, it didn’t.
I hope that this product sees the light of day as it would be another way to make the camera world fascinating and to produce images with a sense of depth that you can’t get from a cameraphone. Alas, APS-C is dying and the future is with bigger sensors.