Important update: It has been brought to my attention that Fujitsu is not the mother company of Fuji photo cameras (it would rather be Fujifilm). So, this announcement probably has no influence on the future of Fuji SLR cameras which will stay very dark.
After quite some time waiting for announcements from Fuji, we were starting to think that, maybe, Fuji was no longer serious about its involvement in SLR photo camera development. This appears not to be the case from what we learned today: Fujitsu and Nikon are partnering even further on SLR firmware development by creating a joint-venture named “Nikon Imaging Systems Inc.” which will be solely responsible for the firmware development in Nikon digital cameras.
Fairly enough, we could assume one of two things:
- Fuji will move a few people from their internal team to a common shared structure while they no longer intend to use this resource that will be re-used by Nikon only. [the end of Fuji Nikon-based cameras]
- Fuji wants to participate more deeply in the photo platform they buy from Nikon and their involvement is becoming more visible. [extension of the Fuji-Nikon cooperation]
Even if there is no clear evidence in the Press Release to support any of those directions, I would assume that the second option is the right one and is more credible. Fujitsu no longer has a choice in what technology they use for their SLR cameras. So, they embed themselves even more deeply. Possibly, Nikon even asked them to pay the technology partly with a technical involvement and some financial participation into the key technology that firmware is.