Episode 385: What is Fujifilm Smoking with Their Camera Names???

Show Notes

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 385 for Thursday January 11, 2024. In today’s episode I want to talk about Fujifilm and what their people are smoking when they come up with their camera names?

Fujifilm makes fantastic cameras and they always have, I am a proud owner of six Fujifilm cameras with the X-E4, two X-T4s, an X-Pro3, a GFX50R and an X-T1 with the IR Conversion. Now my rant has to do with how they name their cameras sometimes, I mean the X-T line makes sense. You have the X-T1-X-T5, in the X-T10 line they have the X-T10-X-T30II, which again makes sense.

When they released the X100 line, they started out making some sense and now have lost their minds. Fujifilm started out with the X100, X100S(Second), X100T(Third), X100F(Fourth) again they seemed to be making sense, but then they release the fifth generation model and named it the X100V since they couldn’t use F again for five so they switched to using a Roman Numeral. Now in 2024 they are preparing to release the sent model and they are said to be calling it the X100VI using Roman Numerals again.

Now wouldn’t it have made more sense to have started with Roman Numerals to begin with? X100, X100 II, X100 III, X100 IV, X100 V and then the X100 VI? I know the X100V is super popular and Fujifilm couldn’t make them fast enough and I am sure the new model when it releases will be just as popular and Fujifilm will probably have a hard time keeping up with orders again, but such is life in the camera world. They could open a second factory to make that line of camera so they could crank them out faster but you are talking millions of dollars to build and staff the new factory and then what if the demand dries up, now they are stuck with a second X100 factory they no longer need. I personally think if they are planning to continue the line for a good long while I would open a second factory to make them faster. I mean it’s not like they couldn’t re-tool the factory for a different camera line down the road if the demand for the X100 line died off.

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They did the same kind of silliness with their GFX cameras as well with their weird naming convention. First you had the GFX100, then came the GFX50S and eventually the GFX50R. Now the GFX100 is their Flagship Medium Format camera and the 50S is their Medium Format camera that has a DSRL body styling, so the 50S for SLR makes sense, correct? Then they released the GFX100S, which is similar in styling  to the GFX100 but smaller with no battery grip and just slightly bumped in performance with more FPS, etc.

Next they released the GFX50SII which is the second generation for the GFX50S line and again makes sense as it still maintains the DSLR styling. What they did next confused the heck out of myself and everyone else when they released the GFX100 II, which is supposed to be the second camera in the GFX100 line but it’s smaller and has no built in battery grip, and looks very similar to the GFX100S. So if the GFX100S was called the 100S because it was the Second in the line then why is the new one called the GFX100 II and not the GFX100T or III???

It almost seems to me like Fujifilm has different groups at the office picking the camera body names and that it’s not the same group of people each time, and they don’t bother to check the previous model to see what it was called so they just throw names into a hat and pull one out and name the camera for that new name, LOL.

If you want to name the models with an Alphabetic designation for each new generation they stick with alphabetic, don’t start with it and then decide “Oh crap, we cannot name both the fourth and fifth generation with an F designation, so now we’ll switch to Roman Numerals as we painted ourselves into a corner with Alphabetic”.

If you want to use Roman Numerals then stick with Roman Numerals like Canon and Nikon and Sony do. This kind of naming convention makes a heck of a lot more sense as then you don’t have to worry about two models having the same designation.

I know, I know, maybe it’s just my own personal pet peeve but it still bugs the crap out of me, and I know I cannot be the only one. Let me know in the comments on the Podcast group Facebook page!

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