A reader messaged me recently with a confession: while camera shopping the other day, the top factor wasn’t megapixels, ergonomics, battery life, AF speed, size, or any other spec sheet headline. It was how the JPEGs look straight-out-of-camera—the aesthetics of the pictures—and how easy or difficult it is to get that look. Five years ago that might have sounded odd. Today it’s normal.
Fujifilm grasped years ago that “look” is a feature, not a garnish. Their Film Simulations aren’t just color presets; they’re carefully engineered tonal behaviors—contrast, colors, hues—that feel intentional, and are cohesive across the lineup. Fujifilm used their vast experience with film to create their Film Simulations, which is why their camera-made JPEGs are so good. Photographers talk about “Fuji color” like it’s a place you can visit, not just a slider position in a photo editor.
Film Simulation Recipes fine-tune those Film Simulations into aesthetics that oftentimes replicate classic film stocks. By adjusting the various JPEG settings, you can achieve many different looks straight-out-of-camera: Kodachrome 64, Kodak Gold 200, Fujicolor Superia 100—these are just a few examples. I’ve published over 400 Film Simulation Recipes, found on this website and in the Fuji X Weekly App. Most likely there’s a Recipe that matches your style. As my newest catchphrase says: Shoot more, edit less, and let your camera be your darkroom.
Fujifilm makes it easy to achieve a lot of great (often analog-like) looks. You can reduce or even eliminate post-processing, which saves a lot of time (and quite literally changed my life—no hyperbole). A computer is no longer required. While Fujifilm is head-and-shoulders above the competition when it comes to in-camera JPEG processing, there are other brands that are also good, and worth considering. Ricoh GR cameras, for example, are capable of some excellent straight-out-of-camera looks. There are Nikon Recipes, and Panasonic has LUTs. Leica added a few more profiles, and Sony recently added two more FL (“Film Look”) options. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
Fujifilm is clearly in the lead, but since other brands have taken notice, they shouldn’t feel too comfortable. They need to continue to innovate, with more in-camera looks, more customization, but also more simplicity. Remember: our friend was just as interested in the ease of achieving looks as much as the looks themselves, and to an extent some of the competition actually has a leg up on Fujifilm. It’s easy to overlook the importance of simplicity, but it’s just as critical as robustness—those might seem like contradictory terms, but they’re not.
There’s another aspect to all of this that needs to be discussed, and that’s the point of diminishing returns. Eventually, spec increases mean less and less. At some point, a camera is more than fast enough, and speed increases are unimportant to most people. The megapixels are more than enough, and increases in resolution are meaningless to the majority of customers. Etc., etc.. There might even be negative side effects to these improvements, which could make them seem regressive to some. This is known as the Inverted U Curve. I think a lot of aspects of digital camera technology are nearing (or have already reached or even surpassed) the peak of the curve, which means that they’ll be less effective as marketing ploys. This provides the opportunity for other things that have traditionally been ignored to take center stage. This is why more and more, the JPEG output is a deciding factor—and in some cases, the deciding factor—in new camera purchases.
If you catch yourself picking a camera because you love how it renders the world, don’t feel silly. That’s not laziness; it’s clarity. It’s normal. Specs used to be the destination; today, for many, they’re just the road—the destination is the look. With Fujifilm’s Film Simulations and my Film Simulation Recipes, it’s never been easier to reach your destination.