Fujifilm Suspends Some US Camera Orders Due to Tariffs

While the cause of product unavailability has been widely speculated, Fujifilm today confirmed to PetaPixel that the reason many of its products cannot be ordered is because it has paused some shipments due to trade instability.

This week, B&H Photo updated its GFX100RF, X-M5 (black), and X100VI pages to show “Temporarily Out of Stock” with no option to place an order of any kind. Other retailers like Adorama and Moment still allow for pre-orders, but B&H Photo tells PetaPixel that it turned off order placement since it couldn’t get a firm ship date for new units.

“To make sure we do not disappoint customers, we are not accepting pre-orders until we know when inventory will be available to ship the orders,” a B&H Photo representative explains to PetaPixel.

While this applies to a wide range of new camera products that should be available to order, only Fujifilm was transparent as to why this is happening.

“In the U.S. market, we have temporarily suspended orders for some digital camera products in order to assess various changes including tariffs, and their impact as cost-increasing factors. As a result, we are currently not accepting new pre-orders for the X100VI, GFX100RF, and X-M5 (Black) models,” a Fujifilm North America Corporation spokesperson tells PetaPixel.

Some products, such as the GFX100RF, show an “estimated ship date” on B&H Photo but this is likely inaccurate. Given Fujifilm isn’t shipping any GFX100RF cameras right now, an estimated ship date of April 24 seems unrealistic.

Sony was also contacted regarding the 400-800mm f/6.3-8 G OSS lens is also listed on B&H Photo as “Temporarily Out of Stock” with no option to place an order, but the company declined to comment.

Another popular product is Sony’s a1 Mark II which has been difficult to acquire for several months, likely because its initial stock went to fulfilling demands from working professionals.

“We can’t deliver enough of them,” Sony’s Masaaki Oshima, Head of Imaging Entertainment Business Unit at Sony told PetaPixel at CP+ in late February. “Professional photographers love our evolution from the original Alpha 1 to the Alpha 1 Mark II.”

While Sony didn’t confirm on the record, its partnerships with global press organizations such as Gannett/USA Today, The Canadian Press, The PA Media Group, and Reuters likely saw a large number of a1 II bodies set aside. Beyond that, Sony Professional Services would also need to keep a large stock of the camera on hand for repairs and loaners to professionals.

Since then, the company hasn’t been able to keep up with demand and as President Donald Trump’s trade war fuels international uncertainty, the cameras have become even harder to acquire. Amazon canceled all per-orders and took down its product page, likely due to pricing uncertainty.

This week, reports surfaced that Japanese trade negotiators are flummoxed by US negotiations, as White House leadership has not been able to explain what exactly it wants from Japan.