Fujifilm rides new camera wave

A surprising event occurred in South Africa last Wednesday. No, of course it wasn’t a Budget Speech inspiring confidence in the country, amid overdone fanfare. Rather, it was a low-key event that inspired confidence in one small segment of industry.

Japanese imaging company Fujifilm, one of the world’s top five photography brands,  opened a new headquarters building in Johannesburg. At a time when smartphones have all but killed off consumer cameras, it was startling to see a multinational camera company increasing its investment in the country and the sector.

In fact, Fujifilm has bucked the downward trend in the industry over the past decade, and its sales for 2022 were 37% higher than in 2012, according to Toshihisa Iida, president and CEO of Fujifilm Europe. He was in South Africa for the opening of the newly constructed 999m² office building and showroom in Sandton.

For the first nine months of last year, he said, the company’s profits hit a record high.

“Fujifilm has been and is investing for the future,” he told an audience of industry professionals. “The amount of R&D and Capex invested reached 365-billion yen last year. As a result, we successfully ended last fiscal year with 15% sales growth.”

It’s not all about cameras, though. Imaging made up just over a quarter of the company’s profits for the first nine months of 2022. The rest came from medical systems, like radiography and X-ray diagnostics,  and “graphic communication” such as wide format printing.

Its imaging solutions provide a clue to its success: it includes the Fujifilm X-series of digital cameras and GFX mirrorless cameras – a fast-growing category – and the Instax instant cameras that have captured the imagination of the youth.

Deon Brits, head of Fujifilm SA’s imaging solutions division, says the category is healthy in South Africa.

“Printing has declined, but new technology and Instax brought printing back to younger people. They are once again making memories that are going to last a lifetime on small Instax photographs. The problem we faced was, because of mobile phones and the decline of printing, that youngsters won’t have memories.

“You always say to people that they’re going to lose their mobile, and they say their images are in the cloud. But considering that everybody has between 20,000 and 40,000 images in the cloud, when do you actually find that image that you’re looking for?

“What printing does via Instax is, when you go away for a holiday, you come back and choose the 20 core images, print them, put them in an album and five or six years later you go through them again and relive that holiday. Mobile doesn’t do that.”

The professional camera business is also healthy, says Brits.

“So we are actually seeing an increase in our business. We are really doing well.”

Johan Greybe, owner of the popular Kameraz camera shop in Rosebank, Johannesburg, confirms these trends from a different perspective.

“According to conventional wisdom, because of the advent of cell phones, cameras are so dead it’s just not true. However, we are still selling film cameras to young people and these cameras are typically from the ‘70s onwards. Young people want something that they can touch, despite the hassle of having to develop the film and find a place to print them. We can’t keep up with the demand.

“is it just a fad that will stop at some time? Who knows. Years ago. when I started as a dealer in the ‘80s, it was said that photography was the biggest hobby in the world. That is probably more the case now thanks to cell phones.

“It means that conventional digital cameras or system cameras are becoming a niche, but it is becoming a more serious niche for people who are more serious about imagery.”

* Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee

This column first appeared in the Sunday Times.