I remember when Fuji was struggling about 10 years ago. I worked at Ritz Camera and I recall trying to convince people to NOT buy Fuji as I assumed they would be going out of business very shortly. In the last few years they have rebuilt their brand and have basically created their own unique high-end retro photography market.
Fuji's well-made, retro-styled cameras have been making waves in the industry and many professionals have sold their Canon and Nikon systems to completely move to Fuji. The X-Pro1 itself costs $799 on it's own but right now B&H is selling the camera and a 27mm f/2.8 and a 35mm f1.4 lens for just $949.85. If you're in the market for a high quality mirrorless camera, you're not going to be able to do much better than this deal.
Wow. That's an outstanding deal for the lenses alone. You're really pouring G.A.S. on the fire today Lee.
I'm just trying to give you a reason to remove a little weight from your wallet
woah woah woah
FujiFILM is a stupid name for a digital camera brand.
Fuji was founded in the 1930's as a film manufacturer. In addition to nice consumer digital cameras, they photofinishing equipment from the film to the paper to the machines that print your digital images. They also make medical imaging equipment, including x-ray film ranging from dental film to large scale films and the machinery to develop them. In any day, there is a very good chance you come into contact with multiple Fuji products and don't even realize it. Given that their brand name has kept them in business for the last 80 years in multiple industries, a change in name might not be in their best interest.
I'm one of the happy folks that migrated from Canon to Fuji. I have to admit that I agree with Alice. It makes no sense— and Fujifilm is not a historic name that dates back to the '30's. The historic name was Fuji Photo Film Co, or Fuji for short. The Fujifilm moniker is a much more recent development.
Just Fuji sounds much better. Like the mythical mount Fuji mountain.
I wish I had known this was going to happen a month ago...
Off topic, I always liked Fuji when I worked at Ritz myself because they had good spiffs. Fuji and Canon. Ironically, I use Olympus for my mirrorless, which David Ritz boycotted over the most petty reason.
I love stories from former Ritz employees. I'm amazed that company lasted as long as it did.
Our stories from Ritz are incredible. Maybe we should start a weekly series on it.
Oh, and whatever you do, do not search Youtube for "ritz camera" hahah
Oh I have a ton of stories. I started out in one store but then started floating stores. Eventually I went into a training program to learn how to fix the machines, which was regional. All the good stories happened in one particular store, which was the smallest Ritz in the country. At that particular location, we turned in and helped police catch an actual child pornographer. Oh and another time we developed the film of a really famous televangelist (from Jim Bakker's days), and his film was home porn of his wife doing a Secret Service agent. I sold him a digital camera LOL.
I did meet David Ritz once, right after the Wolf Camera takeover situation, and he's a really weird guy. I think he just lucked into business because his business model didn't really work which was really obvious when the company bought out Wolf and didn't have wiggle room. They were never able to adapt and move away from their entire profits coming off photofinishing.
Damn, you really do have some good stories. One day I'll have to make a video about how I was fired and then banned from the property.
One of the stores where I worked in the lab would get large porn photofinishing orders when the porn shop's one hour lab broke down. I think that may have scarred me for life.
What did you do to get banned from the property?! LOL one of the store managers was stalking an underage employee and he barely got a slap on the wrist.
I was a long time camera store/lab worker and the mantra was that photofinishing was the cash cow. And it was. The margin a small store made on cameras was quite small. Accessories and photofinishing was the goose that laid the golden eggs. Of course when the labs died most small camera shops could not hold out and thus we have the parlous state of local shops today.
Oh definitely. The roll of paper was roughly $50 and that was made up in a couple rolls of film worth of printing. If they had been able to market printing from digital images they may have been able to survive and keep that market going. I think the consumer market changed too fast to keep up with. I remember in 2004, trying to get some digital vacation snapshots printed was pretty ridiculous.
Ritz had a great idea on accessories. If I remember correctly, their brand name, Quantaray, was produced by Sigma. I had one of their tripods. It was decent - no Manfroto but it stood up.
I've been debating on an xpro1 or waiting for the unannounced xpro2. decision made. my bag is about to get much lighter!
this is a great deal. As an x-pro shooter, I would be all over this if didn't already have an X-e2 as a back up.
wow. I remember i bought a XE1 (body alone) for $1200 :/
A killer deal in the truest sense. Even if you unloaded the XP1 fairly quickly to upgrade.
I don't disagree with the premise of the article as it relates to value but this package of gear is not exactly Fuji's best foot forward. The X-Pro1 is sssllllowwww. Great images, yes, but plodding is not too strong a word. The lenses aren't Fuji's best either—though in terms of IQ the 35 is VERY nice. The 27 is...small.
I mention this not to be critical of Fuji but to let the uninitiated know that this package does not accurately represent the state of current technology found in the latest bodies, like the X-T1 and X-T10, or their latest lenses.
Great deal but the two lenses are too close in FL to be a real advantage to a new buyer.
This is an awesome deal. I ordered it on 7/20 and even though the site said available in 7-14 business days, it arrived yesterday. I already have those lenses but I should be able to sell them pretty quickly. Bottom line is that a new X-Pro1 will only have cost me a few hundred dollars at the most.
Cannot wait until they release a full-frame sensor camera. I am heavily invested in Nikon and my wife Canon...but I would make the switch...