Would you buy the new Fuji Range Finder?

[RobC]

176 responses and the viral marketing seems to be working quite well considering the thing was only a prototype and is not for sale.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I wish I could find a nice Fuji Field Camera in 4X5. Anyone have one for sale. I have about 4 Fujinon large format lenses.

Does such a thing exist? Fuji made LF lenses, but I don't think they've ever manufactured a 4x5" camera, at least not in recent history.

 

[poutnik]

Yes, I'd buy it.

Considering how much is Sony still sinking into it's PlayStations years after they were introduced, hoping to recoup on games and other goodies, this might be a similar marketing model - sell you a product "cheaply" (I'm not saying "give away") from whose use you will need something to buy from them in the following years.

I'd even commit to this: half the rolls gone through this camera would be Fuji Neopan Across (the other half Ilford HP5+) with some odd Fuji 400H

 

[nworth]

My 690s are big, stupid cameras, and maybe a bit fragile. But they are magnificent. The design may be simple, but it it wonderful to use and very effective. Yes, I would buy them again.

 

[vic vic]

i would also prefer a wider version .... about 50mm would be just great. a kind of new makina plaubel wide (not neccessarly by design but mainly by use/function as photographic tool). all mechanical, well built, light matter would be nice though not a must. as far as i know, the only alternatives for such a camera (as i desribe) are mamiya 7 (with its 50mm) and a alpa tc with 6x7 back and apo-helvetar lens on it (without the 8mm rise)..

 

[André E.C.]

I really would like to have a 6x7, as the gap between my Hasselblad/Rollei and Zeiss Ercona 6x9 is unfilled, let´s see the price tag, too high and I will shoot in the Mamiya 7 II, let´s see how greedy the fuji guys are.

André

 

[Chazzy]

I love folders, and the old folders don't come in 6x7, for obvious reasons. I think a 6x7 folder would be more compact than 6x9, while it doesn't actually hurt anyone who prefers 6x6 (just crop). Like everyone else, I hope that Fuji can make it for a reasonable price.

 

[Keefe Borden]

costs of a retail network....

First you have to design the camera, designers don't work for free. Then you have to design the tooling, again tool designers don't work for free. Then you have to make the tooling, toolmakers don't work for free. Then you have to source materials, materials are not free.
Also prototypes are not usually made on a production line, they are made in companies' research and design centres as 'one offs'. Even with modern CNC technologies, there is still a lot of cost.
I worked in Ford's Dunton Research and Engineering Centre in the late 70s and early 80s as a draftsman and design engineer. I have used this process from beginning to end. I can assure you 'tooling costs' for a new product, especially one as complex as a camera, are not minimal.


Andrey, This looks to be a high grade folder, possibly on an aluminium chassis, who knows what the top and bottom plates are made of, brass, titanium? I very much doubt it'll be a 'plastic box'.

Andrey: Andy's points about R&D, design and production costs are well taken and I won't argue with them. I will add, however, that we haven't brought up retail and distribution costs. The cost of a network to bring a product to the market has fallen dramatically with the maturation of the internet, but it still costs a bundle to put a finished product in someone's hands. How much does Ford (or Nikon or whomever) pay for their advertising and retail distribution? I don't know, but I think it substantial.
Best, Keefe.

 

[Nick Zentena]

Most of those things would be incremental costs. It's not like Fuji doesn't do all those things already. How much extra would be needed? I bet no ad budget. How much does Fuji spend on the all those special run cameras for just the Japan market? They all sell out.

 

[Columbia_G]

If they build it - I will buy it ;-)