The Fujifilm X-T1 "was a camera that was made with the future of Fujifilm's X mount at stake," a company official has stated, revealing that there was plenty on the line when it was released eight years ago.
While the Fujifilm X-Pro1, released in 2012, was the first interchangeable lens X-series camera, it was the Fujifilm X-T1 in 2014 that represented the make or break point for the format. Which is perhaps why its modern-day siblings, the Fujifilm X-T3 (opens in new tab) and Fujifilm X-T4 (opens in new tab), are widely seen as the most important cameras in the lineup.
"The X-Pro1 is impressive, but if you say one of them, it's the X-T1," said Takashi Ueno, Fujifilm Imaging's New Product Strategy Group general manager, when asked (opens in new tab) which camera left an impression on him by Japan’s Map Camera (translated by DC Life (opens in new tab)).
After the X-Pro1, the manufacturer released the Fujifilm X-E1, X-M1 and X-A1 – not to mention the original X100 and X100S compact cameras, along with half a dozen fixed lens ⅔" cameras – but Ueno says that “the X-T1 was the camera that everyone worked together as one.
"In that sense, the X-T1 was a camera that was made with the future of Fujifilm's X mount at stake. Thanks to all of you, the X-T1 has been very well received and sales have been strong, so we are where we are today. Without the X-T1, this interview might not have happened. That's how much the X-T1 left an impression on me."
Obviously today, those other cameras (minus the poor X-M1, which never saw a successor) have found great popularity and live on in the shape of the Fujifilm X-Pro3 (opens in new tab), Fujifilm X-E4 (opens in new tab), Fujifilm X-A7 (opens in new tab) and the beloved Fujifilm X100V (opens in new tab).
However, without the Fujifilm X-T1, the future could have been very different for the X-Mount – and for Fujifilm’s camera business as a whole.
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