Is full frame dead?

Posted on: Thu May 16, 2013

I have been reading recently speculation on whether Fuji would consider releasing a full frame X-Pro camera, I think it is extremely unlikely to be the X-Pro2 and maybe even not the X-Pro3, maybe another camera altogether at some stage. Firstly, apparently the image circle of the current X-Series lenses will not work for a full frame image sensor. Fuji will not abandon the X-series lenses to bring in a full-frame X-Pro.

When this discussion came up some people quite rightly pointed something out, the very point of an APS-C image sensor is to make the camera smaller. Fuji did this with a new type of sensor which offers results close to that of full frame. Actually it can be significantly cheaper too, apparently. I don’t know the ins and outs but I’m lead to believe the an APS-C sized sensor is much cheaper to manufacture than a full frame one. So given that the quality of the X-Trans image sensor is so good then perhaps a big share of the market don’t actually need full frame?

It would seem that Fuji could and may consider building an X100 type camera with a full frame sensor, it would be Fuji’s answer to the Sony RX1 I guess. This does seem more likely given that the X100 would have a unique fixed lens that could be built to match the sensor. This could be quite a camera, but why stop there!? Perhaps Fuji should bypass Full Frame altogether and consider a Medium Format type of camera by going even larger.
I’m thinking something like the Fuji GF670, but with a large X-Trans sensor…

This could be a stunning landscape photography camera. Maybe not quite 6×7 format, but certainly bigger than full frame 35mm.