Fuji's "Definitely more affordable" mirrorless medium format camera expected to be announced by September

Information about Fuji’s possible entry into the mirrorless medium format world is mostly just speculation, but it seems it’s becoming a matter of “when” rather than “if” Fuji will announce something.

Fuji Rumors are reporting that a “trusted source” has told them it will be “definitely more affordable” than Hasselblad’s new X1D.

There’s been talk about Fuji releasing a medium format mirrorless camera for a little while now and the current thinking is that a new camera would contain the 50MP Sony medium format sensor. Given the recent X1D announcement, and with DSLRs like the Canon 1DX Mk II, I would say it’s probably a good bet that one’s true if it expects to compete.

We know that Sony produce a 50MP medium format sensor, and rumours of a Sony powered Fuji have been brought up before. Let’s hope they finally come to fruition.

If the rumour mill is to be believed, a new Fuji mirrorless medium format camera could be announced at Photokina in September, along with three new lenses. If that happens, we’ll be there, so you can bet we will be getting hands on for a sneak look for those that couldn’t make it.

Price has obviously not been announced, but if the source is accurate and it will be “definitely more affordable” than the X1D, then we can expect it to cost less than $8995. It will be interesting to see if a mirrorless medium format at a lower price point will have any impact on the cost of higher end DSLRs as some choose to jump ship.

It’s nice to see a new market in the camera world starting to emerge. We’ve not had one for a while. Mirrorless has never really appealed to me much in the past, but in combination with a larger sensor, at a similar price to a high end DSLR… Yeah, I could see that swaying me.

How about you? Are you looking forward to the new mirrorless medium format race? Do you think Fuji will announce something soon? Will Nikon and Canon follow suit? Will they have to in order to survive in the future marketplace? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Craig Fouché

Lyle Simes
Richard Pickup

@juliathorne13 Not going to help my GAS, this :)
Kevin

Utter BS! So what Fuji will actually release is a long overdue FF sensor…
- Vanitas Foto
  
  Why compete in a market dominated by Sony when they can be kings in a different sector?
- Vincent
  
  I think the people at Fujifilm are smarter that that. There is no winning in the FF market for them, but there could be in the MF market. It compliments the cropped sensor X-body’s much better and they already have loads of experience in MF.
- David Fulde
  
  IIRC – Fuji said they have no plans to make a fullframe camera – they would have to make a new mount (Or pull a sony and make a mount designed for APS-C magically work with full frame)
  
  They also believe that a jump from APS-C to full frame isn’t quite enough so they, instead, are jumping straight to MF
Aaron M Grubb

Kasey…I don’t know. I’d love to try this one! You could probably use those Mamiya lenses on it with an adapter
- Kasey Johnson
  
  Oh man, I’m actually interested except that there’s a ton of room “definitely more affordable” and yet “definitely too expensive for me”. :)
- Aaron M Grubb
  
  Yeah. Same here… Maybe we can rent one
Dick Blom

This will make my wife very happy ..and sleeping in the garden is sooo overrated ! But on the plus side , I’m now great friends with the neighborhood cats !
Stereo Reverb

That would be amazing. Fuji has made incredible digitals in the last few years, and what’s definitely missing from the market is a (more) affordable MF camera. Does it really cost Hasselblad or Phase One $45,000 in materials to make one of their cameras? Or even $8000 for the new Hasselblad pocket camera? Yes, more dynamic range in camera by a great company that understands photography would be incredible.
TheInconvenientRuth

Just stick a 43x56mm sensor in this…
Anthony Eusebio

Affordable Medium Format? Mirror-less? My D800E isn’t going to be happy.