Apr 01, 2016
TOKYO—Fujifilm’s instax camera is back in the spotlight after nearly two decades, thanks to a growing taste for analog, especially among young buyers.
Fujifilm Holdings Corp. said it expects to sell a record 5 million units of the instant-film camera in the fiscal year ending March 31, compared with 1.4 million of its digital cameras. And it sees strong growth for the instax next year.
“We aim to sell at least 6.5 million instax cameras next fiscal year,” Go Miyazaki, director in charge of Fujifilm’s photo imaging-products division, said in a recent interview.
The instax’s resurgence comes as global camera makers struggle in the smartphone age, which has seen sales of stand-alone digital cameras plunge. Worldwide shipments shrank 18.5% last year, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association in Japan.
Fujifilm has responded to the rise of smartphones by focusing on higher-end digital models, including the X100T and X-Pro2, which have won the devotion of many serious amateurs and even some professionals, both for their quality and retro appearances.
The instax, though, was a star Fujifilm product before the rise of digital cameras, and the company sees it as a way to help keep film culture alive. Launched in 1998, sales of the instax reached 1 million units in 2002, but collapsed to 100,000 two years later as compact digital cameras flooded the market.
No new instax model was produced for nearly 10 years, and the company considered discontinuing it, Fujifilm officials said.
The slump was a heavy blow to Fujifilm as it struggled with a simultaneous drop in demand for film that eventually forced U.S. giant Eastman Kodak Co. to file for bankruptcy. In response, Fujifilm transformed itself by diversifying into medical systems, medicine and cosmetics. Photo imaging now makes up about 10% of its revenue.
The instax’s revival started when the camera was featured in a South Korean television drama in 2007. It quickly became popular in neighboring Asian countries.
It has since spread world-wide. In the U.S., sales of the instax exceeded that of T-shirts and jeans at some Urban Outfitters outlets, Mr. Miyazaki said. In Europe, the camera became widely known after Prince Harry of Wales used it during a photo activity with children in Africa, he said.
About 30% of instax sales now come from Asia, with 30% from the U.S. and 15% from Europe. It is the only film-based, instant-print camera still being produced after Polaroid stopped making its last one in 2008.
Most instax models sell for less than $100 in the U.S.
Fujifilm is preparing to launch a new instax model with additional functions, but not all users want more technology, Mr. Miyazaki said. “Pictures may look a bit blurry on instax films, but about 80% of the users we surveyed said they like it that way,” he said.
That includes 12-year-old Noemi Galli from Switzerland, who bought her first instax during a recent trip to Tokyo with her mother. Ms. Galli, who likes to take selfies, said she loves the “vintage” look of the instax photos.
Mr. Miyazaki acknowledges that it would be difficult to stop the decline of film, but said he hopes the instax’s new popularity reminds more people of film’s unique character.
Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL