From Fuji today…
PRESS RELEASE: Press statement following recent earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan
14 March 2011 — Following the recent earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan Fujifilm can confirm that its Taiwa-Cho factory, 20 miles from Sendai city, has been affected.
Fortunately, none of the workers at the Taiwa-Cho factory are reported injured but inevitably some damage has occurred to the factory building, causing a temporary halt in production for the FinePix X100. To this end, Fujifilm is expecting a delay to market for the X100.
Fujifilm is currently considering all possible options to minimise the delay and the disappointment for the many consumers who have given the X100 such an incredible reception.
The rest of Fujifilm’s range has been unaffected, due to manufacturing being based outside the region.
I’m sure you will also want to join us in extending our thoughts and condolences to everyone affected by these terrible events in Japan.
My prayers are with the people of Japan. The camera is secondary by far. The people are the most important thing here. Knowing this, I plan to donate money to help the victims of this tragedy.
As for the X100, I will buy one for sure now. If I have to wait, so what. I am proud that I will be helping their economy by buying the Fuji X100 , Voigtlander products, etc,,, by putting money into the pockets of the people that work on the tools we need to make money as photographers.
We all need to take a collective breath, and think of the people and culture that are responsible for making our lives in photography and other areas more interesting. God bless them all! The healing will be difficult, but they should all know of good friends in America and everywhere else. This is a small fragile planet and we need to thing together as a whole (the Japanese appreciate this concept well, and will be touched by our understanding and practice of it!).
Mine didn’t make it to the store today as promised, gonna have to wait ’til Monday now. So disappointed!
I’m in the uk, I’m just hoping it lives up to the hype else e-bay it is.
How are you finding it Jason?
Hi Phil, I haven’t had a good chance to take it out. I got it yesterday and didn’t get home to late evening. As for today, just before work finish it started raining cats and dogs. Lets just say I like it enough to not be tempted at selling it to the crazy bidders =)
The ergonomics is a bit cramped but that’s comparing to my normal 5D Mark-2 full frame body. Been shooting most evenings the last few days and its getting better each day as I got used to the controls.
In lowlight, I feel a bit embarrassed for my 5D. Shooting into the darkness from my room window, it performed (surprisingly!) better than my 5D2 with a 35mm F1.4 L. Where as I thought the 12,800 ISO was a noise filled gimmick before trying it out, it made me feel ashamed having just told my friend the camera was all nice but it there was no way the rumors were true about its low light performance.
My only complaint is the manual focus isn’t very responsive. Its driven by the computer based on your input so its as fluid as a mechanical focus. The aperture ring is fine though.
The firmware is still very new and my friend and I both have been experiencing random moments where the camera just powers itself off in the middle of shooting. Hopefully they can fix it soon but I won’t have a fit about it as Japan’s got a few other things to sort out at the moment. It’s usually fixed with a on/off toggle.
Ebay’s going about its usual business selling these for crazy pricse. Look at this used one but bids already way over retail. Me and my friend both got ours now for really reasonable prices, very lucky considering how small New Zealand is.
http://tiny.cc/gn95o
I don’t know how, but just had confirmation that my pre ordered X100 is due in stock tomorrow. Pity I have work to go to, hope to collect Saturday. Hope I’ve made the right choice
Are you in the US Phil?
Hi everyone, Steve here in Japan ( no, not that Steve, you all know where he is right now! )
Thanks all for worrying about everyone here. Just to let you know the quake and tsunami have affected the coastal areas not the inland zones. What you are seeing on TV is the worst affected areas and make no mistake, it is bad.Heartbreking. Mountainous inland regions have escaped the devastation of Fukushima but we are ALL affected by blackouts, transport delays, gas shortages.And we are all calm but very worried about the nuclear problem. You shoudn’t be surprised that the power outages will naturally affect most Japanese camera companies, but from what I can see, everyone here ( including myself ) are going to work and trying to do business as usual. Many of the factories and production plants for cameras are situated near the coast but not all. To my knowledge only one or two have suffered damage, so I suspect this will just slow down deliveries and not entirely stop production.
I’m absolutely sure Fuji will be doing their very best to get those X100’s out, Knowing people here, I’d guess they’ll work eight days a week if neccessary to complete their products even if they are just cameras! but as someone above said…we have a few little problems to deal with right now… patience please!
No, I’m not a spokesman for the photo trade.Just a keen photographer like you guys who happens to live here in Japan and is caught up in it all.
Best wishes!
*update* Well I just picked mine up, the shop that got it for me ordered 11, they arrived this morning and they said there was 5 left at lunch.
I really doubt if Steve got this information from Fujifilm Japan : there is no press release, mentioning a delay, on their official site. So I think this is a hoax. Anyway it is not that important, the Japanese people have other troubles to take care of.
the people in japan don’t need our “thoughts and condolences” they need disaster relief in the form of financial aid. i am sorry if i have interrupted your waxings about how buying yourselves toys that cost thousands of dollars makes you happy, but you can’t get all righteous about japan at the same time. if you want to be decent human beings, then try donating a fraction of what you spend on yourselves in a year to those who have been ravaged by a disaster like the most recent tsunami, and not just blogging about it.
Hi visitor, I sincerely hope you don’t mind my frankness when I state I’m pretty sure everyone gets that but can still write some feelings. Oh yea, your a deak.
Best
Tom
what’s a deak? Google didn’t help…
It’s a nicer way of something else.
Sounds like an Australian accent for ..
Well ya, kinda. Sorry, this is the one online board whereas Steve has managed to keep it very nice, kind and professional. I don’t do mean people very well.
Best
T
May I ask how much you’ve donated or are you just trolling “blogs” as well?
I’m wishing all well for the poor Japanese people who encountered this terrible catastrophe.
It is not very important if the x100 arrives now, later or never seen in the light of this disaster.
I skipped ahead of the SEA (south east asia) Tsunami on Boxing Day due to a plane flight tix mixed up, and I had to reluctantly leave the beach holiday some 12 hours early. Provenance. When back to a different affected zone some 9 months later, and for developing countries…takes a long time to recover – both materially and also human lives.
Japan is a resilient, enterprising and developed (wealthy) country; even then the nuclear fallout might be too tough to handle. :-/ On a personal practical note, no seafood for me in the near term. My wishes are with them.
I’m a Chinese whose country suffered the same tragedy in ’08. I’m still grateful for the Japanese who helped us. My heart & thought are with all the people in this disaster. All I can do is a very tiny donation and to pray for them. I have to admit Japanese are great people and am confident they can rebuild their home with incredible courage!
I like my M3 🙂
Anyone think that fuji may be taking advantage of the disaster? It’s not like companies don’t do things like that.
I really don’t see how anyone could take advantage of such a terrible situation, and I think they’d be jumped on pretty quickly if they did. I think a delay in the shipping date of a niche camera is the least of Japan’s worries at the moment. Yes, it’s a shame for us photographers but it pales into insignificance next to the human tragedy that has occurred.
I’d like to clarify. I am not stating they are, I’m wondering if anyone considered it as a possibility. I also think it would be disgusting for them to do so (should they have). Additionaly, in no way was my comment born out of a desire for the camera or a ‘have to have it now’ mentality. Obviously cameras are unimportant when discussing Japan.
I don’t think anyone here would think otherwise. Don’t worry about that.
I can tell you that because of how most of big business is now done that over the last 10 years or so we have had to think this way. We’ve become so leary of big business that we hardly trust anyone anymore.
But again, I don’t think anyone here read anything negative in your comment.
Be well
Not sure I follow. How would it be an advantage?
Mine’s bought and paid for but to be honest after the earthquake and tsunami, the last thing on my mind is when my camera will arrive. I just hope the loss of life is less than feared and that they can get their nuclear power plants under control…
The Japanese are a wonder and generous people, I hope we can show them that we all have the same spirit by donating what we can to relief efforts via the Red Cross and such.
Who cares about a camera? Those poor people.
I knew this is going to happen. I’ve placed a deposit for one that was meant to arrive yesterday but regardless its just a camera. I sincerely hope everyone in Japan can make a full recovery and just go back to their normal lives soon. If any country can pull it together, it’d be Japan.
I lived in Japan for a few years and I really feel for the Japanese families affected by this mess. I was a Katrina victim and lost everything in my home, but I can’t grasp the magnitude of this. That said, the best thing that could happen for Japanese businesses is for them to be up and running sooner rather than later. I can wait on the X100, but Fuji perhaps cannot. Every yen that flows is lifeblood for them. This will be more than just a human tragedy for Japan, it will be a major economic one as well. Large Japanese companies are taking huge losses right now including Toyota, Fuji, Honda, etc.
I feel like offering prayers is good and heartfelt, but everyone should donate a little cash to help them financially. I honestly wish I could fly over there and help out. It’s sad that such bad things happen to good people.
this is rather unfortunate. but our hearts and prayers will go to the victims of this earthquake and tsunami.
I think no one will be dissapointed by this, Fuji has designed an extremely amazing product and everybody will understand this is a major force cause.. We extend our condolences and offer our prayers to Japan.