Fujifilm may be working on 1-inch Sony RX100-killer camera— full-frame sensor unlikely

When news recently broke that Fujifilm is developing a new camera sensor for its upcoming camera line-up, we speculated that the company might be working on an X-Trans-based GFX sensor for a fixed lens medium-format camera. In a new post on Fuji Rumors, however, this speculation is put to rest. 

The latest claim from the prolific Fujifilm leaker is that the upcoming new sensor is a “sensor size never used by Fujifilm so far,” which has spawned new speculation among fans of a full-frame Fujifilm camera. It should be mentioned that, in a 2018 interview with DPReview, Fujifilm said that it would never enter the full-frame market. 

“No, never. Because we don’t have that legacy – luckily or unluckily. We don’t see any point in Fujifilm entering that market, particularly since we have good APS-C and medium format systems. If we entered full-frame [our systems] would just start cannibalizing each other. We’re happy to stay with two completely independent systems.”

Unless something has changed in Fujifilm's strategy, and it doesn't seem to have — Fuji's biggest push is still in the APS-C market — that leaves bitter few options for a future Fujifilm camera. The most popular and reasonable guesses have led to Micro Four Thirds and 1-inch sensor sizes for the new format. Both of these seem possible, but a 1-inch sensor might make more sense. 

Fujifilm's justification for avoiding the full-frame market is wanting to avoid cannibalising its existing medium-format GFX line-up, and a Micro Four Thirds camera would essentially do the same thing to the APS-C line-up. The surface area difference between a full-frame sensor and a GFX sensor isn't too far from the difference between Micro Four Thirds and APS-C.

Typical camera sensor surface area:

• 1-inch sensor: 116.16 mm²
• M4/3 sensor: 243 mm²
• APS-C sensor: 366.6 mm²
• FF sensor: 864 mm²
• GFX sensor: 1441 mm²

Additionally, where a Micro Four Thirds sensor might be able to shrink down the size of the body and reduce production, and thus retail costs, slightly, a 1-inch sensor provides many more advantages in terms of size and production costs, making it a more likely choice. It would also be sufficiently different from the X-T and upcoming X-M series to not risk cannibalising those cameras. 

It also seems unlikely that Fujifilm is working on anything smaller than the 1-inch sensors typically found in the likes of the Canon PowerShot G7X line-up and the Sony RX100VII (curr. $1,298 on Amazon). Of course, it could be that Fujifilm is working on a more exotic sensor, as Fuji Rumors speculates in its leak.