It seems that 2025 is the year of camera designers letting their imaginations take over. So far there’s been the Sigma BF, Fujifilm's GFX100RF and then the Fujifilm X Half.
The BF is a brave attempt at making a simple camera in the age of the most advanced camera tech there’s ever been. The X Half is a brave attempt at making a digital camera that works more like a film camera… and a half-frame one at that. The GFX100RF is a brave attempt at making a digital medium format camera that’s a fixed-lens compact, using its high resolution to achieve multiple focal lengths via cropping.
Apart from messing with our minds, what’s going on?
More precisely-targeted products – a better description is probably “niche” – are very much a sign of a maturing market and also one that’s finally starting to see returns on all the investments that have been made on new technologies.
Even after the ‘big bang’ of transiting from film to digital – undoubtedly the biggest upheaval in the history of photography – there’s been no let-up as we headed to peak pixels and all the freedoms of dumping the DSLR in favor of the mirrorless configuration, with its inherent speed advantages. In most cases the benefits have been undeniable, but you’d have to say that the latest generation of mirrorless can do pretty much anything you ask of them.
There’s undoubtedly still more to come in terms of AI-driven processing, but there can’t be too many photographers who really need a 120fps shooting speed, for example, and each of the sensor formats has reached the most workable balance of resolution and pixel size. It really is a case of more is now definitely less (in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio and everything that this influences such as dynamic range).
Yes, we’re all going to keep buying new cameras because, most likely, there will be an upgrade or two that we reckon could be really handy, but it’s hard to see the fundamentals of what we have now changing very dramatically. So, in the mainstream, we’re very much into the era of the Mark II model and beyond.
For the camera-makers, this means more resources for doing different things that will still benefit the brand and possibly find new customers – but perhaps won’t be best-sellers.
High-end fixed-lens cameras like the GFX100RF – and the newly-released Sony RX1R III – have appeal as an adjunct to your interchangeable-lens camera kit for the times when you want to travel light, but don’t want to compromise on image quality or shooting capabilities (beyond the limited focal length options).
What’s more, in case you hadn’t heard, compact cameras are back, which is very fortuitous for the X Half and RX1R III because it wouldn’t have been a thing when these models were in development.
Such is the revived demand for compacts – apparently TikTok has had something to do with it – that Canon has increased production of its PowerShot G7 X Mark III and Ricoh is sitting pretty with its newly-released GR IV.
The return to proper cameras for applications where a smartphone was most likely used previously is very good news for the industry as a whole, but it also means there’s certainly more to come and more opportunities for designers to think more laterally (as, indeed, was the case with the very first digital compacts).
As we’ve seen with Sigma’s BF, any publicity is good publicity and the discussions it’s generated – both for and against – have stimulated wider debate, attracting the attention of people who either haven’t used a camera for a long time or have actually never used one.
Despite the camera industry’s seeming inability to counter the rise and rise of the smartphone for imaging, it now seems to be happening all by itself – with, ironically, social media providing the impetus.
Certainly, among us camera journalists, there’s a keen sense of anticipation about what the next 12 months or so will bring, as cameras are suddenly ‘in’ again and more adventurous designs are what’s needed to attract a new audience and also stimulate an existing one.
From what I hear, a load of X Halfs are being purchased by highly-experienced (and well-equipped) photographers who just want a capable snapper they can slip into a pocket. After all, you can never have enough cameras, can you?
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