This Camera Went Viral Two Years Ago. You Still Can’t Buy One
TikTok’s love of the Fujifilm X100V has driven big profits for the Japanese company, which initially struggled to compete in the digital era.
Illustration: Shira Inbar for Bloomberg Businessweek
In September 2022 the photographer and TikTok influencer Kylie Katich posted a video showing off her Fujifilm X100V. “I just found a camera that will change your life,” she told her hundreds of thousands of followers at the time as photos of her infant flashed by.
With their warm, yellowish glow, the images looked like they could have been pulled out of a photo album from a generation ago. The camera itself, with its jacket pocket-size aluminum body, had distinctly vintage features and came programmed with simulations that mimic the look of photographic film without any editing. “It looks like a film camera. It has settings like a film camera,” Katich said in the video, holding up the $1,400 point-and-shoot. “It’s digital.” Within a day her post had racked up dozens of comments. “Consider me influenced I am def getting,” one person replied. “This is the coolest thing ever,” said another.