No modern camera company does “vibes” quite like Fuji (well, maybe Leica, but that’s a whole other level of customer). It’s not unusual for a new Fuji camera (particularly X100 series) to be sold out not just for months but sometimes even years. It’s unclear whether some of that is intentional (do they not make quite enough of them intentionally?), but there’s no question that they manage to effectively design and market cameras that have a certain “it” factor. But I would argue that no camera in modern history has tested the “vibes” waters more than the Fujifilm X-Half. The X-Half fully embraces the retro craze, going back about as close to film as you can while still being purely digital. This is a tough review for me, since the X-Half does not excel in most of the metrics I typically evaluate. I’m not really a “vibes” kind of guy, but I’ll do my best to evaluate this camera by its actual intended criteria rather than the typical criteria I would apply to other cameras. You’ll be able to find my full thoughts in the video review or this text review.

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Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for sending me a review loaner of this camera. As always, this is a completely independent review, and the thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own. Visit the product page for the camera here.

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AI SUMMARY:

The Fujifilm X-Half is a retro-inspired, ultra-compact camera designed primarily for lifestyle and nostalgic shooters rather than technical perfection. It features an 18MP 1″ sensor, fixed FUJINON 10.8mm F2.8 lens, and a unique vertical orientation with small LCD screens and a basic optical viewfinder. While its build, style, and film simulation modes evoke a vintage vibe, its autofocus, sensor performance, and lack of RAW support are notable limitations. Overall, it appeals most to users seeking a fun, stylish, and emotionally resonant camera rather than a high-performance imaging tool.

Strengths:

• Extremely stylish and nostalgic aesthetic
• Compact, lightweight, and portable
• Touchscreen response and innovative features like “film” mode
• Authentic film simulation options and unique vertical framing aids

Weaknesses:

• Basic autofocus with poor low-light performance
• No RAW image recording
• Small, hard-to-see LCD and limited viewfinder usefulness
• Sensor not suited for high-detail, demanding photography

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The Fujifilm X-Half is inspired by the classic “half-frame” cameras of yesteryear from Ricoh or Agfa (Auto Half or Paramat). It utilizes a rotated 18 MP 1″ sensor in a 3:4 vertical format. It has a fixed FUJINON 10.8mm F2.8 lens that has a full frame equivalent focal length of 32mm. Here’s a look at some the basic specs.

Spec List

• 18MP 1″ Vertical 3:4 CMOS Sensor
• FUJINON 10.8mm f/2.8 Lens (32mm Equiv.)
• Rear Vertical LCD & Sub LCD Screens
• Optical Window Viewfinder
• Film Camera Mode & 2-in-1 Mode
• 13 Film Simulation Modes and 26 Filters
• Frame Advance Lever & Exposure Comp Dial
• 1080 x 1440 Vertical Video Recording
• X half App for Image Development

Obviously there is little on the spec list that is going to jump out at you, as this is not the typical camera release that attempts to push the envelope of resolution, autofocus, or video specs. This is a camera for someone like my daughter, who purchased an old used point and shoot camera because she likes the “look” of the flawed images it produces: images that are washed out, overflashed, and lower resolution. I asked her why she likes it, and what I heard it that there is a nostalgic, emotional connection to those images that she doesn’t get from her electronically enhanced iPhone.

Gen Z has been born into the peak of technological advance. They have grown up with technologies that someone like me (Gen X) finds amazing because they are so much more advanced than what I grew up with. But many of them are experiencing some technology fatigue, and increasingly they are embracing “retro” technologies and experiences that are less technically perfect. That’s clearly the audience that Fujifilm is trying to tap into. Have they done it?

Build and Features

The Fujifilm X-Half first stands out for its compact size. It has a similar aesthetic to the bestselling X100 series (intentional, I’m sure), though it is half the size. It’s also much more plasticky feeling. The body alone (including the lens, but not the battery or memory card), is just 191g (6.7oz). It feels almost weightless. Add the memory card and battery and the weight only rises to 240g (8.5oz).

The dimensions are 4.2 (W) x 2.5 (H) x 1.8″ (D), or 105.8 x 64.3 x 45.8 mm. The depth is not the grip; it is the lens. There isn’t really any grip to speak of, this is the kind of camera you pinch rather than hold.

If you look a the camera from the front, it is instantly identifiable as a Fuji camera, with a classic camera grip texture, an opening for the optical viewfinder, and a flash that looks a bit like a tiny LED panel.

I’m reviewing the “Charcoal Silver” finish version, and there is also a Silver and Black option as well. The Charcoal Silver is a graphite color that looks very smart.

That front aesthetic is definitely classic Fuji but just on a smaller scale. The flash is small and not super bright. No real specifications are given for it. Here’s a look at a show without flash on the left, with the flashed result on the right.

Shooting against a backlit scene produced a pretty typical “flashed” look (and focus couldn’t handle even this minor amount of backlighting.

Far less conventional is the rear view, where we find a small vertical rather than horizontal LCD screen along with a small sub LCD to the left of it. It is a 2’4″ display with 920,000 dots of resolution.

This reflects the fact that the X-Half is completely built around the idea of vertical photos. The goal is to give you a unique camera where you can shoot and compose in the more comfortable horizontal position while getting vertical photos. Rotating the camera still produces vertical images that would need to be manually rotated.

I didn’t find the quality of the display particularly impressive, and I also found it very difficult to see in bright sunlight. I missed an EVF as an alternate place to compose or to review images.

The optical viewfinder has a very low magnification of 0.38x and has roughly 90% coverage. It basically feels like looking through a very small window, and there are no electronic overlays.

There is one switch and on button on the back. The switch allows you to move between Stills and Movie, while the button allows playback for reviewing images or videos. All other controls are handled via touch on either the main or sub screens.

There are surprisingly few physical controls for a Fuji camera, as this is an area that Fuji is typically known for.

Touch control is pretty straightforward, however, with swipes up, down, and to each side opening a different sub-menu, often with some additional control or options in the sub-screen. Touch is reasonably responsive. I feel like the average user will be able to get up to speed with the menu system fairly quickly, though I personally prefer more physical controls.

On top you’ll find a cold-shoe (not TTL flashing or similar) and the single main physical control – an exposure compensation wheel.

I would say that the control scheme definitely favors something like Aperture Priority (AE) mode, as Manual mode requires you to touch the shutter speed square on the LCD screen and then scroll in the pop up menu to get to your preferred shutter speed value. It’s pretty clunky. Aperture Priority, by contrast, allows you to use the Exposure Compensation dial along with the physical lever on the lens to change aperture. It allowed me to use the camera in the most conventional way possible. You can also the the Program (Auto) mode if you don’t want to think about the controls at all.

The shutter button is located in the center of the Exposure Compensation wheel. There is only a single shot option for the shutter; no burst rates are available.

At the rear of that wheel is an old-school lever that works in a few different ways. It will pop out when you turn the camera on. One application is for the “2-in-1” image feature, which allows you to combine two vertical images into a single 33MP diptych style frame.

This can be used for story-telling, friend shots, or other artistic styles. You can tweak the size and style of the frame in between the images in the settings. Both original images will be saved to the memory card along with the combined image.

The second application of the lever is in “Film Camera Mode”. You start by selecting a Film Simulation of your choice on the sub-LCD, then swipe down on the main screen to access the quick menu and select Film Camera mode. This mode emulates the old film camera process, starting with selecting how many images you want in your “roll” (36, 54, or 72). You can choose whether or not you want the date stamp on your images (another old school touch), and then you start the process. Once you enter the mode the LCD screen transforms into a retro digital display that shows number of photos taken on your “roll” along with a few other options (AF | MF, whether or not you want the date stamp, and a distance scale if you really want to go old school and just manually focus. The lever is now used to “advance your film”.

During this time your images will not show up for review on your LCD, and composition is only done through the analog viewfinder. You are also locked into this particular “film” for that roll (Reala ACE in our example). The roll must be “developed” by using the dedicated X-Half App available for iOS and Android. Alternately you can pair the X-Half with an Instax Link printer to just print images and have a truly non-digital experience.

Once the roll is finished you can wirelessly transfer it to the X-Half app for “development”. You can develop partial rolls as well, though that will end your ability to use that “roll” in camera. While in “Film” mode images won’t show up on your SD card, either. After development they will show up, however, along with a single image showing your “negatives”.

To me this is a gimmicky feature, but for those fully embracing a film type experience, this might feel like a blast to you.

The left side of the camera has a switch to turn the flash on or off, and under that a compartment housing the USB-C port, which is the only connection port on the camera. Charging can also be done through this port.

The bottom of the camera has the standard 1/4″ tripod mount along with a compartment that houses the battery and SD card. The battery is the NP-W126S and is rated up to 880 frames per charge in this application when using the OVF. You shouldn’t have to charge the X-Half very often!

The lens itself has a lever for accessing the aperture. The aperture range is from F2.8 to F11, with the ability to also select Automatic mode.

There is also a small manual focus ring on the front of the tiny lens. It moves nicely, though the optical viewfinder doesn’t give you any indication of focus at all. You’ll have to rely on the LCD screen in normal mode or the on-screen distance scale during film mode.

It takes a lot of rotations to move in close focus area, and focus speeds up in other zones. Unfortunately I didn’t find the distance scale very accurate. I was about about 3 meters away from this barn, for example, so I focused to that zone according to the screen. It isn’t accurate at all, and it looks like focus was more like 1.5 meters ahead of the camera.

The camera definitely has a retro charm to it, and the small size will certainly be a compelling selling point to potential buyers. The price will vary from market to market, but in the US it comes to market at a fairly steep $849 USD. The price here in Canada is basically $999, making it expensive but a relative value compared to the US price. This is a camera that is priced on desirability rather than performance, but people will probably buy it in droves.

Autofocus Performance for Stills

Autofocus performance is very basic for a modern camera. It has just 9 Contrast AF points, though it does have Eye Detection. You can select between AF-S, AF-C, and Manual focus.

Eye detect works okay but not great. I’ve definitely seen instances where focus locks on the background rather than an obvious subject even with a face in obvious view. Focus in general seems to prefer background focus to foreground focus.

Expect some hunting at times, and focus at its best is never fast. Low light shooting will definitely induce some hunting.

Autofocus during film simulation mode is tough because you literally have zero feedback other than a confirmation beep. It truly is a guessing game whether focus landed on the right subject or not. Part of the charm, I guess. For me, however, it meant that about 2/3rds of the roll I shot were throwaways because focus really, really didn’t want to land on foreground objects, and I had no idea that focus was missing.

You have a single box to work with on screen, and it doesn’t seem like you can move that around at all.

Focus, in my opinion, is pretty frustrating if you have any kind of expectation of getting consistently focused results. AF-S seemed to be more accurate than AF-C in my opinion.

Video Performance

Video specs are pretty basic. You record in either .MP4 or .MOV codecs at “Full HD” specs. This isn’t a convention resolution, however, at 1080 x 1440 pixels. Frame rate is largely at a 24FPS setting, though you can shoot a high speed option up to 48FPS. You can use film simulations and different picture effects.

Footage is pretty basic, as you might expect. This is not a high end sensor and this mode is designed for casual fun rather than serious video recording. It gets noisy very quickly if the lighting isn’t optimal. you can see that in the screenshot above.

Full video specs can be found here.

Sensor Performance

This is a small 1″ sensor with all the accompanying limitations of a small sensor. Resolution is 3648 x 4864, or 17.74MP. I’m not going to do a deep dive into the sensor, but rather give you my impressions.

First of all, this is a JPEG only camera. There is no RAW recording, so choosing the right film simulation really matters, as that is going to impact your image. Here’s the same scene taken with a few different film simulations.

At its best, detail looks decent.

There is far less latitude for processing JPEG images, and the sensor is not going to match the typical Fuji APS-C sensor for dynamic range or even ISO performance. Here’s a beach scene that arrived from the camera blown out because I didn’t realize that the the maximum shutter speed is only 1/2000 sec. I was able to reasonably recover the image, though there are still a few blown out hotspots remaining.

High ISO situations cause image quality to deteriorate quickly. There is color noise, a lot of detail, and images generally look a little rough. This shot is at ISO 12,800.

Fuji colors are typically very good, and that’s true here if you can shoot in optimal conditions.

I also really like Fuji’s Acros monochrome options, which have a great general look to them.

You can dial in a number of other looks as well, including light leaks, grain, halation, and more. Finding a combination you like will help you get the images in camera that you want.

The attached lens struggles with flare resistance. Contrast reduces and there are a few flare artifacts.

I was able to get some images that I liked out of the camera, but frankly image quality isn’t competing with my iPhone on a technical level. This is a vibes camera, period, and the people who will love it are those who aren’t looking for technical perfection anyway.

Conclusion

The Fujifilm X-Half is the kind of camera that I don’t think we would have seen released even five years ago. So much of the industry is focused on ever better specs, and while Fuji has done some of that themselves, it seems like the past few years have seen them focused on more lifestyle products that appeal to photographers (and non-photographers) more based on the joy of use and the style of the products rather than their technical advancement.

That’s not my cup of tea, necessarily, but I can’t argue with the success that Fuji has had with this approach. The X-Half is another Fuji camera that may appeal to those who don’t traditionally like cameras, or who even might think that their phone camera is too technically perfect. It’s definitely NOT a camera for pixel peepers, but might really appeal to those for whom photography is part of a lifestyle – the joy of the moment rather than the pursuit of perfection.

If that’s you, maybe the Fujifilm X-Half is just the camera you’ve been looking for.

Pros:

• Very stylish
• Extremely compact and lightweight
• Touchscreen responsiveness is decent
• Some innovative ideas at work
• Delivers a fairly authentic film shooting simulation
• Fuji’s film simulations are always great
• Will probably have the “it” factor
• Delivers a more comfortable way to shoot vertical images

Cons:

• Small sensor isn’t particularly good
• Autofocus is rough
• No RAW
• Optical viewfinder isn’t particularly useful
• LCD can be hard to see in bright light
• Lens prone to flare
• Low light performance isn’t good

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