As we close the book on 2024 and peer ahead to what should be an exciting year for new cameras and lenses, it is worth looking closer at one company’s performance in 2024: Fujifilm.
While we’ve already done a recap of Fujifilm’s prolific 2024, during which the company launched six new cameras and four lenses, in view of Fujifilm dominating Map Camera’s sales charts in 2024, a closer inspection of Fujifilm is warranted.
We shouldn’t necessarily put too much stock in sales data from just a single, albeit significant, photo retailer in Japan. However, it is remarkable that Fujifilm nabbed first, second, and fifth places with the X100VI, X-T50, and X-T5, respectively, is noteworthy. And this doesn’t even touch on Instax cameras, which remain a significant revenue driver and profit earner for Fujifilm’s imaging division year after year.
The popularity of the X100VI, X-T50, and X-T5 makes perfect sense, though. All three cameras blend style and performance in a way that appeals to many photographers, from burgeoning shooters transitioning from a smartphone for the first time to seasoned vets who like Fujifilm’s nostalgia-infused style and aesthetics. Anecdotally, having spent a lot of time around photographers and other visual artists at industry events in 2024, I saw a ton of X100V and X100VI cameras around people’s necks. I saw no individual camera model more than the X100VI. I gave up counting after a few hours at Adobe MAX, but had, at that point, seen dozens of them.
It’s easy to dismiss a camera like that, a digital camera with unprecedented popularity and demand that continues to outpace even Fujifilm’s ambitious projections, as something of a fashion accessory or something that is not “a real camera for real photographers.” But that would be missing the point. The X100VI is very popular with traditional photographers as a compact carry in addition to a more versatile ILC. Besides, the X-T50 and X-T5 are both “real” cameras, with high-end performance and interchangeable lenses, and they are extremely popular, too.
In its latest financial report, which covers six months ending September 30, 2024, Fujifilm reported a 17.4 percent increase year-over-year in revenue for its Imaging division and an eye-watering 33.8 percent jump in operating income. While this growth is undoubtedly influenced heavily by the Instax series and uber-popular cameras like the X100VI, Fujifilm cites its interchangeable lens cameras across the X and GFX series as additional major contributors to its higher revenue.
It’s important to note that Fujifilm has increased revenue and profit despite not making enough of some of its most popular cameras, like the X100VI, to meet demand. Imagine how many X100VI’s the company could sell if it had sufficient supply. There’s a delicate balance between making enough cameras to meet demand and not making so many that there are extensive inventories. Fujifilm arguably has been too conservative, leaving money on the table.
Heading into 2025, a year in which Fujifilm is due to release the GFX Eterna and surely a variety of other cameras and lenses for GFX and X, Fujifilm is in an extremely strong position. The company is a dominant force across two sensor sizes, APS-C and medium format, with relatively recent camera models aimed at every consumer segment, from entry-level to professional. The company’s occasionally maligned decision to stay out of the full-frame fray looks wiser all the time.
Image credits: Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.
