As a corollary to the Fuji lens bargain thread… Browsing the Fuji B&S, there also seems a significant number of both of these 40mp Fuji camera bodies for sale. I can only assume folks are selling out for other brands, or maybe just want full frame models? Or perhaps there was some breakthrough tech in another brand recently announced that I’m unaware of? Or worse, folks abandoning photography in general because cell phones have gotten so good? Just seems odd…
I would think its a least partly due to the models selling in high volumes when they came out. Maybe some boredom two years down the road? I pulled up one of the X-T5 for sales and looked at the sellers posts. He had also recently sold or selling a line of Fuji X lenses suggesting getting out of Fuji altogether. Yet he also had posts selling Leica and Ricoh bodies. I guess some people churn through the gear? I suppose its also possible that some people want to offload the X-T5/X-H2 before the new ones are launched thinking prices come down at that point. With all the weirdness in the world, that logic may be flawed since many new models will start having 45% tariffs built into the price and thus support used prices at higher levels.
I think there are at least a couple of things going on here. One is that I've seen a meme going around (mostly on YouTube) that "Fuji doesn't care about photographers" anymore and is instead focusing on more casual users. I don't think this is entirely true since Fuji's releases are pretty cyclical. Now that the X-E5 has been announced I think it's fair to assume that another round of more professional bodies (X-H and X-T line, maybe even X-Pro) will be coming soonish. The other thing that plays into this meme is that we haven't seen a ton of new high end lenses lately, but I feel like this is more because the lineup is fairly complete (I wouldn't mind a newer 18mm Fujicron to match the other f/2 lenses though). Again, I think this meme is wrong but I can at least understand why it's spreading.
The second thing is that Nikon in particular has done a great job of emulating some of Fuji's strong points enough so that a lot of Fuji shooters are interested in trying it out and some decide to fully switch. I picked up a Zf and while I really enjoy using it it's not going to be replacing my X-T5. The pricing with Nikon (at least on the bodies) is quite attractive compared to the higher end Fuji cameras, especially on the Zf, Z5 II, and even the Z6 III, so I think a lot of people feel like they may as well make the jump to full frame.
A quick check looked like the most available body is the X100VI, and that is in big demand. I didn't see inordinate numbers of X-T5's on there, imo, looking just now.
I think they were tremendously successful cameras and possibly a lot of people bought into Fujifilm on the backs of the XT5/XH2/XH2S bodies five years ago. As naturally happens, people move on to the next shiny object. That is at least some of the credit for this.
You want to see a lot of XT5 cameras FS? Go to the B&H used section, or even more, MPB. 28 XT5 cameras, 19 XH2S cameras, and 23 XH2 bodies listed at MPB in the US.
Oddly, with the seeming glut of these bodies available, it hasn't seemed to hurt the used prices, so there appears to be a pretty healthy demand for the bodies still.
mjm6 wrote:
I think they were tremendously successful cameras and possibly a lot of people bought into Fujifilm on the backs of the XT5/XH2/XH2S bodies five years ago. As naturally happens, people move on to the next shiny object. That is at least some of the credit for this.
You want to see a lot of XT5 cameras FS? Go to the B&H used section, or even more, MPB. 28 XT5 cameras, 19 XH2S cameras, and 23 XH2 bodies listed at MPB in the US.
Oddly, with the seeming glut of these bodies available, it hasn't seemed to hurt the used prices, so there appears to be a pretty healthy demand for the bodies still....Show more →
Ah interesting. It may indeed be as simple as people moving on.
Well, on MPB there are lots of everything. 35 Nikon ZF's, 128 Canon R5, 26 Sony A1's. Makes me wonder how many owners the typical camera has these days.
Anecdotally I've seen a lot of chatter of people replacing their Fuji body with a Zf or Z50ii or Z5ii on Reddit. It's just market fluctuations as certain brands rise and fall I'm sure. There is definitely some anti-Fuji sentiment out there right now. They lost considerable good will with the AF fiasco.
This is an interesting thread. I switched to Fuji in 2017 with an X-T1, now shooting an X-T5 and X-T50 and would not go to any other brand camera. I could not be happier with my Fuji cameras/lenses!
Jack Flesher wrote:
As a corollary to the Fuji lens bargain thread… Browsing the Fuji B&S, there also seems a significant number of both of these 40mp Fuji camera bodies for sale. I can only assume folks are selling out for other brands, or maybe just want full frame models? Or perhaps there was some breakthrough tech in another brand recently announced that I’m unaware of? Or worse, folks abandoning photography in general because cell phones have gotten so good? Just seems odd…
FWIW, over the years we’ve periodically seen this kind of “I saw more of Camera X on the buy/sell forum” posts, often suggesting that some camera or lens or brand is falling out of favor.
More likely explanation? Some combination of random probability and a product having been on the market long enough that more copies exist for sale.
RoamingScott wrote:
Anecdotally I've seen a lot of chatter of people replacing their Fuji body with a Zf or Z50ii or Z5ii on Reddit. It's just market fluctuations as certain brands rise and fall I'm sure. There is definitely some anti-Fuji sentiment out there right now. They lost considerable good will with the AF fiasco.
You are hanging with the wrong crowd! But seriously, not sure YouTube and Reddit reflect what people are buying. Those with big followings on those outlets need sensational titles promoting an alternative or they have nothing to say. So they need a flavor of the month. That said, Nikon has made a lot of good moves in the last couple years to reverse course of the company. Even though I don't own any Nikon anything at the moment, its good to see them bringing good models to market at good price points. Odd that Nikon is becoming a value leader, didn't see that coming.
It's just FOMO. They think they're missing out on the newly released X-T50 or X-E5, so they try to sell their "old" X-T5 to get the lighter, newer body. Soon they will realize how good the X-T5 really is and will buy it back. Everything is a compromise; What you gain elsewhere, you will lose somewhere.
I just bought back into Fuji after using it for 8-9 years when the X-pro1 entered the market and owned the Pro1, Pro2, X-E1, E2, E3, X-T1, T2. T3, and T4. Sold the E3 and T4 when Sony introduced their smaller A7C, A7CII, and A7CR. Also been using Sony’s A7x, A9x, and A1 since they entered the full frame mirrorless market. (Obviously also shot Canon DSLR for a very long time) and bought back into Canon when they went mirrorless.
This time I bought a mint, used X-T5 and the price attracted me. Bought here on FM because I trust the seller/buyer forum and have yet to be let down. My plan was to prep for an X-E5 but admit that even though the AF is not the Sony the X-T5 is a nice body and the IQ will be identical to the X-E5.
Joseph. wrote:
It's just FOMO. They think they're missing out on the newly released X-T50 or X-E5, so they try to sell their "old" X-T5 to get the lighter, newer body. Soon they will realize how good the X-T5 really is and will buy it back. Everything is a compromise; What you gain elsewhere, you will lose somewhere.
I don't think we will see a wholesale migration from one to the other. I'm buying an X-E5 but wouldn't think of selling my X-T5. They are different cameras and fit different use cases.
SGinNorcal wrote:
…not sure YouTube and Reddit reflect what people are buying. Those with big followings on those outlets need sensational titles promoting an alternative or they have nothing to say. So they need a flavor of the month.
Ain’t that the truth!
No “influencer” is going to get a lot of traction by adopting one thing and then just sticking with it. ;-) They have to generate churn… always has to be some new, remarkable thing to replace last month’s new remarkable thing.
The first model of this approach that I became aware of was years ago, before 2000. There was a computer columnist by the name of John Dvorak. One month he would write an article about (to invent a controversy) how much better Microsoft was than (to pick another one) Apple, and he would write about it in pretty intense, breathless, and frequently insulting terms.
The Apple people (in this example) would be outraged. They’d post about it (on the old pre-web forums and later on the web) and get really riled up. The Microsoft people would then become outraged and sling stuff back at those going after Dvorak for his article.
Then a month later he’d reverse the tables and write something about how Apple was the future of computing (to make up an example, again) and that Microsoft was a slow-witted, boring company (again, to make something up). Now the Microsoft folks were up in arms, angrily posting and writing letters to the editor. And the Apple folks would gleefully yell back at them.
He. Got. Eyeballs. (Today we’d call it clickbait.) But it worked. Really well.
There are good folks on Youtube. I know a few of them. But there are a lot of the influencer types who have to turn everything into the biggest, best, worst, newest, dumbest thing out there.
Heck, we see that approach here sometimes. ;-)
Word to the wise. Be skeptical of hype. And of those who spread it.
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some of those people selling perfectly good, relatively recent cameras likely succumbed to the Youtube hypesters when they made those original purchases, no?
Well, I don't look at those sites, so I have no idea of what is selling and what is not.. One thing I know--every time I use my X-H2, I LOVE the way it feels, and every time I've used one of my half-dozen versions of the Sony a7R series, I do NOT like the way it feels.. Just this week I chose the X-H2 system to be my only one and I 'unchose' my a7R V.. 'Nuff said.
