Est. 1934 · Tokyo, Japan · 36 lenses
Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was founded in January 1934 in Ashigara, Kanagawa, as a spin-off of the Dai Nippon Celluloid Company, with the explicit goal of producing photographic film domestically rather than importing it from Kodak and Agfa. The company expanded rapidly into photographic paper, X-ray film, motion-picture film, and magnetic-recording media, and during World War II its optical research division — which would become the FUJINON brand — produced precision lenses for aerial reconnaissance cameras. Postwar, FUJINON continued as a major supplier of broadcast television lenses, large-format and 8×10 process lenses, and industrial and medical optics.
Fujifilm entered the consumer camera market with the Fujica brand in 1948 and supplied a long line of 35 mm rangefinders and SLRs through the M42, ST801 / ST901, and X-mount Fujica AX bodies of the 1970s and early 1980s. The company largely withdrew from the SLR market in the late 1980s but remained a major presence in compact and medium-format film cameras (the GW690 / GSW690 6×9 rangefinders and the GA645 6×4.5 autofocus rangefinders). In October 2006, the parent corporation reorganized as Fujifilm Holdings Corporation and consolidated its imaging and life-sciences businesses under the Fujifilm name.
Fujifilm's modern photographic identity took shape with the X100 (2010) — a fixed-lens APS-C rangefinder-style compact whose hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder, retro control layout, and 23 mm f/2 Fujinon lens defined the company's enthusiast direction — and the X-Pro1 (2012), which introduced the interchangeable-lens X-mount mirrorless system. Rather than competing directly in the full-frame market, Fujifilm committed fully to APS-C and built an extensive native lens ecosystem (the XF and XC series) optimized specifically for the crop-sensor format, with image circles, element sizes, and aberration corrections tuned to the smaller sensor rather than adapted from full-frame designs.
The XF lens lineup spans ultra-wide to super-telephoto focal lengths, with particular strength in fast primes (XF 35 mm f/1.4 R, XF 56 mm f/1.2 R, XF 50 mm f/1.0 R WR) and macro optics (XF 80 mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro). Construction features advanced glass — including Super ED elements with calcium-fluoride-equivalent anomalous partial dispersion — combined with floating focus systems, internal linear-motor autofocus, and sealed weather-resistant barrels. In 2017 Fujifilm launched the GFX medium-format mirrorless system, paired with a 43.8 × 32.9 mm sensor and the dedicated GF lens line — the GFX 50S / 50R, GFX 100 / 100S / 100 II, and the 100-megapixel-class bodies that followed brought studio-grade medium-format imaging to a price point and form factor previously occupied by full-frame DSLRs.
Beyond stills, FUJINON cinema zooms (the MK and Premista series) and broadcast lenses are used in major film and television productions worldwide. Fujifilm also produces optical components for medical imaging (the company's healthcare division is now larger than its imaging division by revenue), surveillance, and semiconductor manufacturing — a diversification that has allowed the company to remain profitable even as the consumer film and camera markets contracted.
Notable designs: XF 35mm f/1.4 R, XF 56mm f/1.2 R APD, XF 80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro, XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR, XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR