The Fujifilm X100VI is the most preordered camera in history by far. There were more orders placed prior to the release date than there were X100V’s produced in its entire four-year run. Completely unprecedented! I quickly made my order within minutes after it was announced, and I still had to wait over a month for it to arrive. There are people who placed their preorders on day-one who are still waiting, and some have been told that it might be closer to Christmas before it can be delivered. Even though Fujifilm is right now manufacturing the X100VI at somewhere around four-times the rate that they did the X100V, they still haven’t cleared out the preorder list, let alone begin to tackle the backorders placed after the release. It’s nuts! If you’ve been patiently waiting for yours, I hope that it arrives soon. If you haven’t already ordered yours, the wait could be quite significant.
Quite obviously before Fujifilm even thinks about offering alternative versions of the X100VI, they need to catch up on all the orders already placed. I have no idea how long that might take, but I highly doubt it will be anytime in 2024, and maybe not in 2025, either. However, once they’ve managed to get this situation under control—perhaps in the spring of 2026—I would encourage Fujifilm to consider producing variations of the X100VI. While this is something I’ve suggested for awhile (first with the X100F, actually), this is the first time that I’ve dedicated an entire article to the topic.
Leica just announced a 43mm f/2 version of the Q3, called Leica Q3 43. For those who don’t know, the Q3 has a 28mm f/1.7 lens, which is equivalent to 18.6mm on Fujifilm, the same focal-length as the X70. The new 43mm version has more of a standard field-of-view, and is equivalent on Fujifilm to 28.6mm (Fujifilm doesn’t offer that exact focal-length, but it is pretty close to both 27mm and 30mm, which Fujifilm does make).
Offering multiple focal-length versions of a fixed-lens camera is nothing new. For the Ricoh GR III, which has a 18.3mm (27.5mm full-frame-equivalent) lens, there’s a 26mm (39mm equivalent) variation called GR IIIx. Sigma had up to four versions of the DP cameras: 14mm (21mm equivalent), 19mm (28.5mm equivalent), 30mm (45mm equivalent), and 50mm (75mm equivalent). Fujifilm has never taken this approach, but I think they should.
Left: Fujifilm X100VI + TCL-X100 II + Kodak Portra 800 v3 / Right: Fujifilm X100VI + WCL-X100 II + Kodak Portra 400 v2
What Fujifilm does offer are conversion lenses, which screw onto the end of the camera’s fixed lens. There’s a wide-angle (WCL-X100 II) and telephoto (TCL-X100 II) option. The wide conversion lens has a 0.8x magnification, which means that the 23mm (34.5mm equivalent) lens on the X100VI becomes 18.4mm (27.6mm equivalent). The telephoto conversion lens has a 1.4x magnification, which means that the 23mm lens on the X100VI becomes 32.2mm (48.3mm equivalent). Essentially, it’s like having three versions of the camera: 18mm, 23mm, and 32mm. The downside to the conversion lenses is that they add a fairly significant amount of size and weight (especially the telephoto) to the camera, which, to an extent, defeats the purpose of it. While the teleconverters do indeed add quite a bit of versatility, I would like to see one or two alternative focal-length versions in the future, where the dimensions and weight of the camera are about the same, just with different fields-of-view.
My top two recommendations would be a 16mm (24mm equivalent) f/2.8 version, and a 35mm (52.5mm equivalent) f/2 version. Obviously 18mm f/2 would be a popular choice, so I’m sure that would be high on their list of potential focal-lengths. Fujifilm has a pancake 27mm f/2.8, and modifying those optics for use with an X100 series camera could be intriguing. Fujifilm could offer just one variation (like Leica did with the Q3, and Ricoh did with the GR III), or they could offer multiple options (like Sigma did with the DP series). Personally, I’d like both a more wide-angle and a more telephoto version.
This should not be a priority for Fujifilm whatsoever, but something to consider for down the road. Maybe it could be announced in the fall of 2025 in time for the Christmas shopping season, or in spring of 2026, or sometime later. Or maybe they don’t see any reason to offer it at all, because perhaps they don’t believe it will gain any net camera sales, only take away X100VI sales. Personally, I would likely buy whatever alternative focal-length version(s) that they do release, if they ever do, to be an addition to my X100VI. I don’t know how many other people would do the same, but it might be worthwhile for them to consider.
I don’t see Fujifilm going down this path in the near future. They may have no interest in doing it ever. But I like the idea, personally, and would encourage them to at least consider the possibility. Not everyone appreciates the 23mm (34.5mm equivalent) focal-length of the X100-series cameras, and even if they do, they may want a little variety sometimes. While I believe that it would do quite well for Fujifilm, obviously it is something that they themselves must believe in order for it to ever happen. I hope that someday it does.