Dear Fujifilm: Bring Back Your Best Camera, Please

I know that I’m not the only one who has spoken longingly about wanting the X70 to make a return to the photography world. And more importantly, I’ve wanted this camera to come back to the world of photography for a very long time. This camera shouldn’t be for content creators: I’m so sick of talking about those people because they can use any camera that they want. Instead, the X70 successor should be for photographers.

If content creators want a Fuji camera that can shoot video, they should get something else and Fuji should make a camera for them. But for photos? Come on! The X70 was a camera primarily meant for stills and in a body of a camera primarily meant for stills.

This year, the camera turns 10 years old.

What could the X70 successor be? Well, perhaps something with Fujifilm’s newer autofocus systems that were given to its other cameras. It could be a great way to use up the last of the 40MP sensors out there or their smaller resolution sensors. It could also incorporate features of the Fujifilm X-Half into it such as the film-roll feature.

The naysayers will call that a gimmick, but they probably just don’t understand when they’ve got a good thing. More importantly, they don’t have to buy the camera.

So what was the Fujifilm X70? Basically imagine the X100 series of cameras with a 28mm equivalent lens at f2.8. Also, remove the viewfinder. It makes for a super compact camera that a photographer can love and adore with the retro dials and all.

It included the shutter speed dial, the aperture dial, and an exposure compensation dial. Plus there was a dedicated video button. But, again, this camera wasn’t designed to shoot video. It was designed for stills — and it would be as stupid as asking people to shoot stills with the Eterna GFX camera.

I write this article as my Fujifilm X Pro 3 just came back from repair, and I’m getting used to using it again. There’s something very antiquated about this camera but that’s also quite charming. In a world where all of our cameras are doing too much of the world for us and therefore making photographers outsource the thinking to the cameras, I adore this. And I personally hope that Fujifilm makes the X70 a camera that you have to think about when using. There should be intentionality.

If someone doesn’t know how to shoot a scene without looking at the exposure preview, they should learn to read a light meter or get a different camera.

Oh, and please give us more film simulations. How about a Tungsten look? Or an Aerochrome look? Or something like the look that Saul Leiter gave to the world or Williams Eggleston? Can we get iconic photography looks like that? I know that Diado Moriyama worked with Fujifilm at one point and it would be wonderful to get a black and white render similar to what he does with so many of this images.

Please, Fuji, make this camera.