Is it time for the Fujifilm X70 to make a comeback? I think so. Nearly a full year after the launch of the Fujifilm X100VI, the trendy camera is still near impossible to find without paying beyond the original list price. But, the compact camera’s rarity is also driving up searches for aging discontinued Fujifilm cameras with a similar style.
A prime example? The Fujifilm X70, a 2016 compact camera that was originally launched as a budget alternative to the X100 series that’s now seeing used prices nearing X100VI levels. As compact cameras continue to trend with new options to choose from, Fujifilm desperately needs to bring back cameras like the X70.
The Fujifilm X70 launched as a little sibling to the X100 series with a couple of important differences: the lack of a viewfinder and a $700 price point in the US. However, the X70 launched four years before the X100 series went viral – and the camera wasn’t even a year old before the X70 was discontinued. The 16.3MP sensor inside was made by Sony, which stopped making that sensor shortly after the X70 was announced, leaving little time for the X100’s little sibling to attempt to thrive in a struggling market.
Fast-forward a few years and the Fujifilm X70 – and others, like the Fujifilm X10 and X30 – are popping up on Google Trends. I don’t think it’s a big leap to assume that the reason old compacts with a classic Fujifilm look are resurging in popularity is because the Fujifilm X100VI is both exceptionally popular and exceedingly expensive.
The problem is that the trend seems to be affecting the prices of those used X100 lookalikes as well, in part from the X100VI’s fame and the surging popularity of old digicams. I would love to have a Fujifilm X70 to carry around when I want to take snapshots without digging my X-T4 out of my bag – but I’m not paying upwards of $1,000 for a nine-year-old compact camera. I’d put a pancake lens on a budget Fujifilm mirrorless before I’d overpay for an old compact camera.
But if the resurging popularity of old models like the Fujifilm X70 as well as the X10 and X30 are any indication, Fujifilm sorely needs to bring back a budget alternative to the X100 series. And it needs to do it in a way that enables more photographers to get their hands on one. Either the X10, with a smaller sensor but a zoom lens, or the X70 – or both – sorely need a comeback.
The Fujifilm X70’s original $700 list price would draw a lot of photographers that don’t want to overspend on a compact camera. It housed the larger APS-C sensor and a bright f/2.8 fixed lens but, at launch, it employed an aging sensor that was eventually the camera’s downfall when that sensor stopped being produced.
The rising demand for compact cameras at a time when many manufacturers have stopped paying them much attention has translated into exorbitant prices. If Fujifilm could launch an X80 with a retro design and a reasonable price, such a camera would jump to the top of my wish list.
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