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Fujfilm X-T200 Camera Review

Dustin Abbott

October 15th, 2020

I’ve been working over the past few years to get up to speed with Fuji’s ecosystem, as I had next to no experience with the platform when Fujifilm Canada approached me with the idea of starting to review Fuji gear.  Over the past few years I’ve reviewed four different cameras and roughly a dozen lenses, so I have a lot more familiarity with the system.  A lot of Fujifilm’s focus is on the premium end of APS-C, as this is a niche that few others compete in.  Cameras like the X-T3 and X-T4 are among the most expensive APS-C cameras I’ve ever reviewed…and that includes DSLRs.  There are a number of Fuji lenses that I’ve reviewed, like the 200mm F2 ($6000 USD) and the 8-16mm F2.8 ($2000 USD) that come in at price points higher than any other APS-C specific lenses I’ve previously reviewed.  While lenses like this are important to serve existing Fuji customers, it is highly unlikely that the typical consumer looking for premium gear is thinking APS-C rather than full frame.  There are many people, however, that have much smaller budgets and are interested in some of the unique features that Fuji offers (color science, film emulations), and appreciate the classic charm of Fuji’s often retro designs.  That means there is a lot of room for a lower end camera from Fuji that inherits a lot of the higher end features found on the X-T3/4 bodies.  That camera is the Fujifilm X-T200, a second generation of Fuji’s attempt to build a bargain camera with just enough features to satisfy a particular audience who want to be able to make beautiful images without breaking the bank.

While I have not reviewed the X-T100 in the past, my understanding was that it was a very promising camera that was let down by its performance.  Fuji has worked to make sure that isn’t the case here, so the X-T200 is in many ways a slightly watered down version of their more premium cameras.  Here’s a look at the headline features:

  • 24MP APS-C sensor with Bayer color filter and faster readout speeds
  • Updated hybrid autofocus system with 425 phase-detect points
  • Refined ergonomics, lighter body
  • 3.5″, 16:9 fully articulating LCD with 2.76 million dots
  • Easy-to-use touch menus
  • 2.36M-dot OLED viewfinder with 0.62x magnification
  • 8 fps burst shooting
  • New ‘Clarity’ effect
  • Oversampled 4K video with no crop
  • Audio level controls
  • Microphone and headphone inputs (latter via USB-C adapter)
  • New Digital Gimbal and HDR video options

To me the standout features at this price point is the fully articulating screen, 425 AF point focus system, and the ability to get up to 8 FPS (and use an electronic shutter that raises the shutter speed to a maximum of 1/32,000th).  After spending a month with the X-T200 I can say that while I definitely miss some of the ergonomics of the higher end X-T3 or X-T4 bodies, I feel like this is definitely a nice platform for being highly portable while still having quality imaging power on hand.  Let’s explore together whether or not this more budget option from Fuji is the right camera for you.

Prefer to watch your reviews?  Check out either my definitive (long format) or standard video review with a lot of visual support of my conclusions:

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for the loaners of the X-T200, XF 16mm F2.8, and XF 23mm F2 lenses for this test.

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FUJIFILM X-T200

Design and Features

The Fujfilm X-T200 definitively resembles the family of Fuji cameras, particularly if you choose one of the Silver or Champagne Gold options (the Dark Silver is the closest to traditional black).  I’m partial to Fujifilm cameras in silver, as I really like the retro aesthetic that it evokes.  Truth be told, however, each of three finish options on the camera are visually pleasing in their own ways.

At first glance one might think the the X-T200 continues Fuji’s tradition of abundant physical controls as found on their higher end cameras, but in actual use I actually found this to be far less true than per usual.  There are a number of missing dials (front dial to control Drive Mode), dedicated Exposure Compensation dial, etc… and none of the dials are the dual layer type seen on the X-T4.  What appears like a typical dial on the left side of the top plate is a lever to pop up the built-in flash, and while the dial there can be rotated (though with little smoothness), it seems to be solely dedicated to selecting different film emulations.  This could be useful as a JPEG shooter, but, as a RAW shooter, this has no value to me as I can (must) just select any of those in post anyway.

The front dial defaults to A/V control, and I don’t see a way to change it in the menus.  The dial is quite small, so I find it a little hard to easily find by feel.  The shutter button is seated in the middle of it.

The rear dial controls shutter speed and the weight is a little on the heavy side.

It’s pretty obvious from real world use that while Fuji makes homage to its manual control ethos, the X-T200 is really a camera designed to be handled more conventionally.  None of these dials have an obvious, assigned value, and one gets the sense that they will be used less often than on the X-T4.  A lot of these same tasks can be controlled via the touchscreen in either the Q or main menus.  

Speaking of the Q menu, the X-T200 has one odd design choice around the Q menu.  I’ve essentially never a camera without a dedicated Q button, but the X-T200 elects to simply put two standard buttons without labels to the right of the viewfinder.  I had to assign the Q menu control to one of those blank buttons (I assigned the other to control drive mode).  This allows me to have a more typical button layout that works for me…though it remains weird to have no label at all on the button (perhaps follow Sony’s lead with a C1 and C2 designation?)

The X-T200 eliminates the typical D-Pad or real wheel and a few buttons in order to make room for a truly huge (relative to the camera) 3.5″, 2.76m dot touchscreen LCD that is fully variable.  There’s relatively little room left on the ride side of the camera, but Fuji has used that space fairly effectively, with a nicely contoured thumb rest, a miniature joystick nub that will be familiar to X-T3/X-T4 users, and two buttons (Menu/OK and DISP/BACK).  The buttons are all on the small side, but they’re functional.

Less functional for me is the ON/OFF button, which is recessed between the three top dials on the right side and needs a thumb smaller than mine to conveniently operate.  This is a camera that is designed with smaller hands in mind, though the upside is that it is truly small and light in a way that few cameras are these days.  Likewise I find the tiny video record button almost unusable with larger hands.  You certainly can’t depress it with any degree of smoothness or find it easily by feel.

There are two buttons to the left of the viewfinder, one of which performs a dual mode of selecting drive speed and taking out the garbage during playback.  The second button is the play button.

The Fujifilm X-T200 is truly diminutive compared to the much larger X-Tx bodies, though it’s weight savings compared to a camera like the X-T30 is minimal. The X-T30 weighs in 13.51 oz (383g), while the X-T200 is slightly lighter at 13.05 oz (370g).  That makes it lighter than most of the lenses I review…and that’s with the memory card and battery inserted.  The physical dimensions are  (W x H x D) 4.76 x 3.3 x 2.17″ / 121 x 83.7 x 55.1 mm.  If you have bigger hands, can forget grabbing this camera like you would a DSLR, but the shape of the tiny grip isn’t bad.  I wouldn’t want to use it with any of the big, heavy pro-grade zooms, though.  This seems like a better match for the diminutive F2 and F2.8 primes that I frankly feel are the sweet spot for the platform anyway.

Fuji’s touchscreen performance lands in between Canon and Sony, though this is the best implementation I’ve seen thus far for a Fuji camera.  Canon is the winner, with all menus navigable via touchscreen and the most responsive screen to touch, and Sony is the definite loser, with the least responsive touchscreen and zero menu navigation options via touch.  Fuji gives you the ability to control both the Q and standard menus via touch, and, while there can be a slight input lag, it works fairly well.  The menu design could use a bit of a tweak to meet the reality that it can be now navigated by touch, as the options are a little small to be selected with any precision.  The larger, higher resolution touchscreen does help, but a redesign of menus with touch in mind would be welcome.   

The viewfinder is specced from the X-T30 (a cut below the X-T4), and has a 0.39″ 2.36 million-dot resolution viewfinder, which lags behind the 0.5″ 3.69 million-dot resolution of the viewfinder on the higher end bodies.  The viewfinder is still fairly good, though, and if you aren’t familiar with the higher resolution viewfinder you may not notice.

The X-T200 used the common NP-W126S battery pack and is rated at approximately 270 shots in this application.  A spare battery isn’t a bad idea, though fortunately you can use USB-C to easily charge the battery in camera (even off things like power banks, which is a big bonus to me).

One serious downside for me with Fuji’s lower end cameras is the placement of the single UHS-1 rated SD card..  I vastly prefer the side placement of the X-T3/X-T3 series.  My biggest beef with this kind of placement is that if one is videoing and using a quick release plate the memory card becomes inaccessible.  You have to remove the QR plate before getting the card out, which can be a pain if you are pulling footage off the camera but plan to shoot further.  

The X-T200 lacks the weather sealing of the higher end Fuji cameras and feels a little more plasticky, but I do like the textures of the grip material and have felt worse cameras in the hand.

The standout feature here is clearly the big, high resolution articulating touchscreen.  I’ve been spoiled by the superior physical controls of Fuji’s higher end bodies, but the truth of the matter is the X-T200’s design is much more typical for this class of camera.

FUJIFILM X-T200 Autofocus

Autofocus is one of the primary areas that the X-T200 benefits from the trickle-down effect of the higher end bodies.  Fuji makes less of a big deal about the focus/tracking abilities of this camera, but the headline is that we again have a hybrid Contrast/Phase Detect autofocus system with 425 selectable AF points.  This covers essentially the whole sensor with AF points, and is a fair cry from the standard 9 AF point system I saw in one Canon DLSR after another for year after year back in the day.

That’s not to say that we have the tracking and processing power of the top end cameras, per se.  I noted that sensitivity was only down to -2 EV rather than -3 EV, so don’t expect the X-T200 to be as effective in low light.

That aside, however, it is pretty easy to get accurately focused results, and one can use a thumb on the touchscreen while you have an eye pressed against the viewfinder to move an AF point around, though it’s slightly slower and more clunky than in some competing applications.  One can select individual points, differing sizes of zones, or elect to keep all points active.  Doing the latter does not operate like Sony, for example, where the AF considers the whole frame when looking for a target.  Here there is still a box shown on screen where focus will be prioritized.  This is overridden only if an eye is detected elsewhere in the frame, so having all points active really works more for portraiture than anything else, though when tracking a subject the focus will sometimes follow the subject across the frame.

Fuji limits the maximum sync speed here (for flashes) to 1/180th second rather than 1/250th second, and the maximum shutter speed is 1/4000th rather than 1/8000th compared to the higher end bodies.  This is pretty standard for differentiating lines.  What’s unique here, though, is that you can select an electronic shutter that will give you up to 1/32,000th shutter speed, which can be very useful when using large aperture primes (the new 50mm F1.0, anyone?)

Also worth noting is that the FUJIFILM X-T200 can shoot continuously at up to 8.0fps in full resolution (pretty good!), but as is often the case with Fuji, the limiting principle is buffer depth.  With a freshly formatted card I was able to get only about 17 RAW images before the buffer filled and the firmrate slowed down.  More surprising, however, it that when I switched to purely JPEGs, I was also only about get 24 JPEG images before slowdown.  This means that you only get a couple of seconds to capture your action with RAWs, and about three seconds with JPEG. That means you had better start holding that shutter down at the RIGHT moment!

The X-T200 has a pretty decent AF system, and can even track a bit of action, but if you need more specialized performance, you might want to consider the X-T3 or X-T4 instead. This is a general purpose camera…not a specialist one.

FUJIFILM X-T200 Video

Modern mirrorless cameras are amazing hybrid devices.  They are not only capable stills cameras, but they are often surprisingly robust video platforms.  The X-T200 has better than typical video specs for this class, including the ability shoot in 4K. Fuji says this, “You can shoot comfortable and high-quality videos using a large LCD vari-angle monitor.  Since 4K (3840 x 2150) video is generated from 6K equivalent data (6032 x 3392) without cropping, high-definition and noise-free 4K video (30/25/24 / 23.98p) is generated. You can also select a film simulation according to the scene, dramatically cutting out your daily life like a scene from a movie.”

Fuji essentially has a three tier system for their current cameras.  The top tier (X-T4) gives advanced video options like 4K60, FLog, and more options for getting professional grade footage.  The X-T30 retains the FLog, but limits the the framerate to 4K30.  The X-T200 loses the FLog and is thus more suited for those who don’t “grade” their video footage and just use it as comes out of camera.

Despite this, however, the X-T200 is capable of producing some very nice looking 4K footage with good detail.  Full HD (1080P) does give you the option of going up to 60FPS for your action sequences and also an option for shooting HDR video to give you expanded dynamic range.  

On the feature side, you do get the ability to manually control audio levels and have a microphone input.  Fuji has started to leverage the USB-C port in its cameras for multiple purposes, including as a headphone jack via an adapter.  It’s not as useful as a dedicated headphone jack, but it at least does give you that option (which isn’t often available at this level of camera).

While there is no true optical stabilization in body, Fuji does has a feature called “Digital Gimbal” that can smooth video for things like walking, though at a cost of a significant crop factor.  It is only available in Full HD mode, not 4K.

On a practical level, I have only one real criticism of Fuji’s video performance, and that actually has to do with continuous autofocus while capturing video.  I find that focus pulls from one subject to another are frequently not as smooth as what I see from either recent Sony bodies or Canon bodies with DPAF.  I often see more visible stepping between one subject to another.  The X-T200 also has the limitation that there is no real-time tracking during video AF.

For the cost of the camera, however, you are getting pretty decent video specs and the ability to supplement your stills photography with good quality video where needed.

FUJIFILM SENSOR PERFORMANCE

This is the first Fujifilm camera that I’ve reviewed with anything other than their 26Mpx X-Trans sensor.  The X-T200 has a more traditional 24Mpx APS-C sensor with Bayer color filter.  I say traditional because of the resolution (24Mpx is a very common resolution point for APS-C) and because it is the far more common Bayer rather than X-Trans.  Overall, I found that the sensor was a capable one.  I got a lot of great looking images out of the camera.  I really only had one chief complaint, and that was a tendency to get inconsistent metering out of the camera.  I often shoot in AV mode, and I found that I was constantly having to bias exposure because of inconsistent metering.  Your mileage may vary, of course.  Let’s take a closer look at the some of the details of sensor performance.

HIGH ISO

The native range of the X-T200 is 200-12,800, a more restricted range than many competing cameras from Sony or Canon.  They typically have a base ISO of 100 (not 200), and most of them will go up to at least 25,600.  Fuji chooses to be a little more conservative with the ISO range on their cameras, and their base ISO is a little less sensitive while the upper part of the range is cut off at least a stop below what competing cameras offer.  Don’t read too much into that, however, as my experience is that Fuji cameras are actually quite competitive in terms of actual ISO performance.  

I consider the whole natural ISO range of the X-T200 to be usable, as even ISO 12,800 still has a very usable amount of detail, contrast, and color fidelity.  What you will see, however, is a fine noise pattern reminiscent of film grain.  Here’s a comparison between base ISO and maximum ISO:

I’ve got only one real critique here, and that is that I do notice slightly less global contrast.  While the highlights remain clear here, I do think the shadows have gotten slightly lifted (black levels aren’t as deep).  This means that higher ISO shots will be a little flatter, though you could elect to deepen the black levels yourself if desired.  This isn’t a top tier performance, but the X-T200 certainly doesn’t embarrass itself here.

Dynamic Range

I value dynamic range within a camera in two specific areas: the ability to cleanly lift shadows without introducing noise or color banding and the ability to recover highlights without introducing “hot spots” where information has been permanently lost. There are many scenes in nature where the variance between bright areas and shadows exceeds a camera’s ability to record the whole range of light (our eyes are extraordinarily good at this). The ability to recover highlights means that a blown out sky might be recovered and add a lot of visual interest to an image, or perhaps to eliminate “hot spots” on a person’s face that has gotten overexposed by a flash. The ability to recover shadows allows you to, for example, underexpose a bit so that the sky is not blown out while still safely recovering information in the shadows. It can also be a lifesaver if a flash doesn’t fire, for example, or settings are wrong, and a crucial image that could have been lost can be saved in post. This is the real-world value of dynamic range.

Fuji has an extra trick up its sleeve to help you maximize dynamic range performance in such scenes, which we’ll get to in just a moment.

In my tests, I found that the X-T200 did an excellent job of recovering shadows very cleanly. Here we have an image that I purposefully underexposed by four stops. As you can see in the original RAW image, there is very little information left there. In post I added those four stops back into the recovered image. What we find is an image that has been recovered with very little penalty.   Even if we look in at a pixel level, we see very little noise introduced and no color casts or banding.

This definitely gives you processing flexibility in recovering shadows to add more visual interest in images.

As is often the case, however, highlight recovery lags behind shadow recovery. A similar four stop overexposure and attempted recovery results in an unusable image.

You can see that a lot of the color and texture information is gone without any ability to recover it.  Even a three stop standard highlight recovery looks pretty weak.

But Fuji’s trick is something called DR200 that you can begin to access at ISO 400.  DR200 essentially splits the sensor readout so that the shadow information is gathered from the current ISO setting while the highlight information comes from base ISO.  This gives you one additional stop in the highlights.  Look at how much more credible the recovered highlights are on the DR200 recovery (right) vs the base ISO standard recovery on the left.

Just to give some perspective, this is just how blown out those original highlights were compared to how successfully they can be recovered.

I’ve learned to regularly use this feature when shooting with Fuji cameras, as it really does give you a lot of additional processing latitude when shooting scenes with a broad range of luminoscity.  Utilizing DR200 allowed me to get back a sky in the shot below.

This is definitely a more practical approach than HDR in many situations, as there is no concern about movement of your subject in between frames and you end up with a more credible end result.  I strongly recommend remembering DR200 and utilizing it whenever you want more dynamic range.  The end result is a strong performance for the X-T200 relative to competitors.

Color

Color science is a fairly divisive topic. I’ve found that my work in comparing color science has been both popular and controversial. Here’s at least part of the reason why: people don’t all see color identically. This has become evident based on a number of photos that circulate around the Internet featuring a dress or sandals that people perceive to be very different colors. Part of this has to do with the way that people’s eyes process color (some have more red cones in the eye, others more green), but it also comes down to the reality that in the Internet age people view images on screens that vary widely in their color calibration and accuracy. Put simply: not everyone is seeing the same thing.

I use two displays in my personal desktop array, a 27″ BenQ SW271 (I reviewed it here), with my secondary display being another 27″ BenQ SW270C, both run at a 4K resolution. I calibrate both of them on a monthly basis using a SpyderX Elite. I also view my photos regularly on the screen of my iPad Pro and my Dell XPS 13 laptop (which also has a high end 4K display). In short, I use a lot of high quality screens in my work, and, based on what I see on them (and from prints), I feel like Canon produces the best, most natural color.

A lot of people are big fans of Fuji’s color, however, particularly when it comes to the quality of the JPEGs and looks you can create in camera.  It starts with selecting a color profile in camera or in post. Fuji’s approach to this is a little different, as instead of basic color profiles they instead offer film simulations with names that evoke classic film stocks (the company is called FujiFILM after all!) This includes stocks like Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, and more. 

Still, here’s a look at an image with a number of different profiles applied in Lightroom. First, Adobe Standard:

Now Astia (Soft)

Now Classic Chrome

Provia

Velvia

You definitely have a lot of control over how an image will look.  

You’ve also got a lot of great options on the monochrome front, with classic film emulations but also the ability to go into the menus and tweak the look in several ways. 

Most of these tweaks in-camera will only matter if you are shooting JPEGs. If you are shooting RAWs you can do all of this in post. Many that have chosen Fuji have done so for their ability to shoot JPEGs and get what they like right out of camera. If that sounds like you, then the Fuji X-T30 might be a great choice. It’s certainly got a lot of customization available for influencing the output.

Here’s a few images I think show off Fuji’s colors very nicely.

I would recommend that you take a long look at the Image Galleries page to see if you like what is there – most of which has received minimal processing so you can make a fair determination.

CONCLUSION

The FUJIFILM X-T200 is a fairly strong entry into the market for budget APS-C mirrorless cameras.  It has a lot of features for this price point, and Fuji has already discounted the price from $799 USD originally (probably a little on the high side) to a price of just $499 USD currently…which includes the mediocre XF 15-45mm lens.  There’s no question that this represents a great value, as the X-T200 is a great little platform if your priority is to travel light.  A lens like the value XC 35mm F2 is a great pairing with the camera and will give you much better results than the kit lens.  I used a lightweight kit during this review that primarily consisted of the XF 16mm F2.8 and XF 23mm F2, two other lenses that I think pair nicely.

It is my opinion that Fuji is more competitive in this space than at the X-T4 level, as, while the X-T4 is an extremely robust camera, it is priced to compete more with the full frame offerings from other camera makers, and many photographers (myself included) prefer the advantages inherit in the full frame platform.  At this price point, however, Canon and Sony have less to offer.  Fuji has a deeper catalog of APS-C specific lenses, and the X-T200 has a more complete array of features to offer.  It’s not a standout in any particular area (save perhaps the great LCD screen), but it does enough things reasonably well that I think most potential customers will be quite satisfied.  If you want an upgrade on the features front, the Fujifilm X-T30 is a nice alternative ($899 USD).

Pros:

  • Great retro charm to the physical look and design
  • Big and high resolution LCD screen
  • Great JPEGs with a lot of customization
  • Has 4K30 where some competing cameras are limited to 24FPS
  • Fuji’s DR modes give more creative options
  • Good video specs and quality footage
  • Fujifilm’s excellent catalog of lenses designed for APS-C

Cons:

  • Buffers fill quickly when shooting bursts
  • Grip is really thin for large hands
  • No dedicated Q menu button
  • Inconsistent metering performance at times.

Purchase the FUJIFILM X-T200 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XC 35mm F2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 
Purchase the FUJIFILM X-T30 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

Peak Design Slide Lite:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Sony a6500: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Leash Strap:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo  | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T200, Fuji X-T200, X-T200 Review, Fuji X-T200 Review, Fujinon, Fujinon 15-45mm, Fuji 15-45mm, Dustin Abbott, XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 23mm F2, XF 16mm F2.8, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, Sony a6400, Sony a6500, Fuji X-T4

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Fujifilm X-T200 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

October 6th, 2020

I’ve been working over the past few years to get up to speed with Fuji’s ecosystem, as I had next to no experience with the platform when Fujifilm Canada approached me with the idea of starting to review Fuji gear.  Over the past few years I’ve reviewed four different cameras and roughly a dozen lenses, so I have a lot more familiarity with the system.  A lot of Fujifilm’s focus is on the premium end of APS-C, as this is a niche that few others compete in.  Cameras like the X-T3 and X-T4 are among the most expensive APS-C cameras I’ve ever reviewed…and that includes DSLRs.  There are many people, however, that have much smaller budgets and are interested in some of the unique features that Fuji offers (color science, film emulations), and appreciate the classic charm of Fuji’s often retro designs.  That means there is a lot of room for a lower end camera from Fuji that inherits a lot of the higher end features found on the X-T3/4 bodies.  That camera is the Fujifilm X-T200, a second generation of Fuji’s attempt to build a bargain camera with just enough features to satisfy a particular audience who want to be able to make beautiful images without breaking the bank.

Here’s a look at the headline features of the FUJFILM X-T200:

  • 24MP APS-C sensor with Bayer color filter and faster readout speeds
  • Updated hybrid autofocus system with 425 phase-detect points
  • Refined ergonomics, lighter body
  • 3.5″, 16:9 fully articulating LCD with 2.76 million dots
  • Easy-to-use touch menus
  • 2.36M-dot OLED viewfinder with 0.62x magnification
  • 8 fps burst shooting
  • New ‘Clarity’ effect
  • Oversampled 4K video with no crop
  • Audio level controls
  • Microphone and headphone inputs (latter via USB-C adapter)
  • New Digital Gimbal and HDR video options

Sound interesting?  Check out either my text or video reviews to get a sense of whether or not this is the camera for you.  You can check out photos of the camera here and also photos taken with it using a variety of lenses.

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for the loaners of the X-T200, XF 16mm F2.8, and XF 23mm F2 lenses for this test.

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Photos of the FUJIFILM X-T200 

Photos Taken with the FUJIFILM X-T200

Purchase the FUJIFILM X-T200 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XC 35mm F2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 
Purchase the FUJIFILM X-T30 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

Peak Design Slide Lite:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
Sony a6500: B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay
Peak Design Leash Strap:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo  | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Alien Skin Exposure X4 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T200, Fuji X-T200, X-T200 Review, Fuji X-T200 Review, Fujinon, Fujinon 15-45mm, Fuji 15-45mm, Dustin Abbott, XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 23mm F2, XF 16mm F2.8, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, Sony a6400, Sony a6500, Fuji X-T4

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FUJIFILM X-T30 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 5th, 2019

The Fuji X-T30 is Fujifilm’s fourth generation “bargain” mirrorless camera.  It has inherited a lot of trickle-down goodness from the X-T3 that I reviewed last year, including an improved sensor, better autofocus, 4K video, and more.  It has a lot packed into the compact little body that’s nearly 30% lighter than the X-T3.  This may be a very tempting option for photographers looking for a compact mirrorless camera packed with great features, as while Fuji has chosen to create market separation between the X-T30 and the more-premium X-T3, they’ve done so in what I consider to be a mostly fair fashion.  If you need more serious buffer depth for sports work, or value a higher resolution viewfinder along with a few more physical controls, the X-T3 might the camera for you.  But if your shooting style doesn’t desperately need deep buffers and you prefer a cheaper, smaller, and lighter camera body, then read on, as the Fujifilm X-T30 may just be the camera for you.

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Prefer to watch your reviews?  Check out my full video review with a lot of visual support of my conclusions:

First of all, a few arguments for and against APS-C. After spending an extended period of time with the X-T3 and now with the X-T30, I feel like Fuji’s approach (along with Fuji’s robust catalog of lenses), may just be the right one if your idea of mirrorless is small, light, and compact. Sony, Canon, and Nikon have demonstrated that if you want full frame and wide aperture lenses, then mirrorless ultimately has few advantages over DSLRs when it comes to size. It seems that the reduced size of the bodies is quickly lost when you pair pro-grade lenses with them, and the proliferation of using lenses via adapters only adds to that. The size of the lenses often means that one feels the need to use a grip extender, a battery grip, or something similar to help the balance and ergonomics of using these larger lenses…which brings you right back to a larger body size.

But Fuji’s APS-C-centric focus has allowed them to both maximize the potential of an APS-C sensor and also develop lenses purposefully for that smaller sensor. And they have developed a lot of very good, very well received lenses with pro-grade features and apertures. For the most part, you can find an equivalent Fujinon APS-C lens for just about all the traditional DLSR focal length/aperture combinations. That’s simply not something you can say on every platform. Other brands focus primarily on full frame and, as a result, most of their APS-C lenses tend to be consumer-grade. If you want pro-grade lenses on, say, Sony (I own an a6500 APS-C body from them), you are often required to revert to full frame lenses, which, by nature, are larger and heavier because they have been designed to cover a full frame image circle. This quickly defeats the ideal of “smaller and lighter”. With most brands, you are buying lenses for the potential of using them on either APS-C or full frame, but Fuji’s approach is that “we are going to do APS-C”, and so they do it well. They’ve got an amazing selection of quality lenses (most at fairly reasonable price points).

For example, I reviewed the compact Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS “kit lens” along with the X-T30, and, while that lens carries a higher price tag than most other such kit lenses, it also comes with a more robust build, better autofocus, a significant maximum aperture advantage (most of these zooms are F3.5-5.6 over their zoom range), and a more sophisticated image stabilizer.  It’s not really a consumer grade lens so much as a compact premium lens (though not necessarily with pro-grade optics according to my tests).  Fuji has a wide lineup of well-built primes and zooms in their lineup, all specifically designed for APS-C.  That’s just not something that can be said for other companies, and it might be the single most compelling reason to go Fuji…particularly if you value small, compact, and light.

Since the release of the X-T3 last year, I’ve had a chance to compare it and then the X-T30 to a number of other cameras (some released since), including the new Canon EOS R and RP, the Sony a7R3, a6500, and the new a6400. While Fuji isn’t necessarily the clear winner in all of these tests (there are still some areas of advantage for other systems), I can safely say that Fuji has really closed the gap and maximized the potential of their 26MP X-Trans Cmos sensor. The advanced autofocus system is also exceptionally good now, giving one the ability to easily get excellent action shots. The advantages that the DSLR approach have traditionally had are slowly being eroded away by advancing mirrorless technologies. 

Let’s dive in a little deeper and see how this plays out.

FUJIFILM X-T30

Design and Features

I would recommend that you watch this video, as I carefully delineate all the areas that Fuji has either retained key elements from the more expensive X-T3 or chosen to differentiate the two lines.

I’ve taken the time to go through the specifications of the two cameras and compare/contrast them at a glance, highlight areas where one or the other stands out.

Note that the Fujifilm X-T30 is considerably smaller and lighter than the bigger X-T3.  It weighs only 13.51 oz (383g), making it lighter than most of the lenses I reviewed…and that’s with the memory card and battery inserted.  That’s significantly less than the 539g of the X-T3, and even undercuts the weight of the Sony a6400 (probably the most logical competitor) by about 20g.  The body is similarly smaller, though the tradeoff here is that while the X-T3 has weather sealing, the X-T30 does not.

The Fujifilm X-T30 has fewer physical controls on the camera than does the X-T3, but at the same time has a few more than a camera like a Sony a6000 series camera.  It has three dials along the top, including a mode dial, shutter dial, and exposure compensation.  Unlike the X-T3, none of these dials lock, so you will have to be a little more careful about not inadvertently moving them (I personally had few issues with this).

There is one less custom function button than the X-T3, but, unlike the Sony bodies, one also gets a control wheel both on front (below the shutter button) and back of the camera, giving you an easy way to map, say, shutter speed and aperture control.  I’ve always felt limited by Sony’s lack of a front wheel on the A6000 bodies, as that is nearly always the traditional spot for such a wheel.

There is one major misstep on the X-T30’s ergonomics, and that is the placement of the Q button (quick menu).  It is placed right on the thumb rest, which makes it easy to inadvertently hit it.  Fuji has already issued a firmware update that allows you to map the function of the Q button elsewhere to help solve this problem, though that would have been a problem better solved physically before release.

Fuji’s touchscreen performance lands in between Canon and Sony.  Canon is the winner, with all menus navigable via touchscreen and the most responsive screen to touch, and Sony is the definite loser, with the least responsive touchscreen and zero menu navigation options via touch.  Fuji gives you the ability to control the Q menu via touch, and, while there can be a slight input lag, it works fairly well.  The main menus will require using the tiny joystick on the back to navigate them.  All of these cameras give you the very beneficial option of using your thumb on the touchscreen while using the viewfinder to move an autofocus point around, which is very useful.  The X-T30 shares the resolution of the X-T3’s screen (1.04 million-dot), but it’s tilting only happens on two axis rather than three on the X-T3.  What this means is that while you have a good range of motion up or down, the X-T30’s screen cannot be tilted to the side, which is useful when shooting in portrait/vertical mode.  This is one of the areas Fuji chose to distinguish the two lines.

Another area of differentiation is in the viewfinder, which is both smaller and lower resolution than the X-T3’s.  The Fujifilm X-T30 has a 0.39″ 2.36 million-dot resolution viewfinder, which lags behind the 0.5″ 3.69 million-dot resolution of the viewfinder on the X-T3.  The viewfinder is still fairly good, though, and if you aren’t familiar with the higher resolution viewfinder you may not notice.

Both cameras share the NP-W126S battery pack, though the smaller demands of the X-T30 allow one to get a rated 10 extra shots (390) per charge according to CIPA.  I would estimate that I’ve beaten that estimate in my personal use.  Still, getting an additional battery pack is worth thinking about.  You can use USB-C to easily charge the battery in camera (even off things like power banks, which is a big bonus to me).

Another area of differentiation is in both the number of card slots and their placement.  I vastly prefer the side placement of the X-T3 (and it’s two slots), as the X-T30’s single memory card slot (SD UHS-II compatible) moves down to the bottom of the camera in the battery compartment.  My biggest beef with this kind of placement is that if one is videoing and using a quick release plate, it means that the compartment becomes inaccessible.  You have to remove the QR plate before getting the card out, which can be a pain if you are pulling footage off the camera but plan to shoot further.  Having a single card slot may also be a reason to consider the X-T3 instead, though having only a single card is standard for this class of camera.

Fuji allows one to choose whether to operate the camera in a more traditional fashion or to utilize the broader range of physical controls (including using the nifty little AF mode selector up front).  The amount of physical controls will be an asset to more experienced photographers, but may be a liability for less experienced photographers who feel overwhelmed by the number of physical controls.  That’s legitimate, and it might shape your perception as to whether or not the camera is for you.

I personally find this camera body a little small, and the grip is not nearly robust enough for me to feel like it fits well in my hand.  I vastly prefer the shape of, say, the Canon EOS RP, but your mileage may vary.  An inexpensive grip extender helps if you share this concern.  That’s par for the course with a small camera like this, though, and other than areas of preference I have no real concerns over the build and design of the camera.  I quickly learned how to make it do the things I wanted it to do.

FUJIFILM X-T30 Autofocus

The Fujifilm X-T30 inherits a lot of the autofocus improvements from the X-T3, which were a huge step forward for Fuji.  This includes an autofocus system with an incredible 2.16 million phase detect AF points.  This number is so large as to be ridiculous, but perhaps the 425 selectable AF points will make more sense to you.  These cover nearly the whole sensor with points:

That makes autofocus very easy with the X-T30.  Fuji says, “The number of AF phase detection pixels in the sensor have been increased to 2.16 million and now cover the entire frame (approx. 100%). This enables fast and accurate auto-focusing. Additionally, the low-light threshold for phase detection AF has been also expanded from +0.5EV in previous-generation camera systems to -3.0EV.”  So, better point spread, greater sensitivity, and also much better Eye AF performance.  Fuji says this, “Compared to previous models, Face and Eye Detection have had their accuracy and performance doubled. This is especially true when tracking subjects from the side or when they are coming towards the camera. For portrait photographers using shallow depths of field, Eye-detection AF can be configured to priority focus on individual eyes, or on the eye closest to the camera. Eye-detection AF is also supported in AF-C mode, which will assist in providing accurate focus for moving subjects.”  I particularly like the ability to prioritize which eye to focus on, as this can be a big deal when shooting portraits.  

I put the X-T3 through a more robust set of AF tests than the X-T30, mostly because of the lenses I had on hand for testing.  With the X-T30 I only had the XF 18-55mm plus a few MF options that I own, so it wasn’t the same as testing the high end XF 200mm F2 OIS that I put through the paces on the X-T3.  Still, this is supposed to be the same AF system, and, if that is true, I can vouch for the fact that you can do some serious tracking with this AF system and a good lens.  Here’s one example of a shot I took with that combination:

Though my focus tests were less extreme with the X-T30, I got consistently good focus results and love the flexible autofocus system.  

While the basic focus system is the same, there are a few differences in the execution between the two cameras.  Fuji limits the maximum sync speed (for flashes) to 1/180th second rather than 1/250th second, and the maximum shutter speed is 1/4000th rather than 1/8000th.  This is pretty standard for differentiating lines.

Also worth noting is that the FUJIFILM X-T30 can shoot continuously at up to 8.0fps in full resolution when using the mechanical shutter, but the X-T3 can shoot up to 11 FPS under the same conditions.  The difference in buffer depth is significant too, as the X-T3 can get 42 RAW | 145 JPEGs before the buffer fills, while the X-T30 is limited to 18 RAW | 90 JPEGs.  That’s not a big deal if your shooting style doesn’t involve a lot of bursts, but it is worth noting that you only have a couple of seconds of holding the shutter down before the buffer fills if you are shooting RAW with the X-T30.

You also have the option to switch to an electronic shutter where you can capture as many as 20 FPS at full resolution, though the buffer fills much faster (17 RAW | 32 JPEG).  That means you have less than a second if shooting RAW, and about 1 1/2 seconds if shooting JPEG. In Sports Finder Mode, the camera will capture 16.6 Mega-Pixel images with a 1.25x crop factor and use its electronic shutter. This makes it possible for the camera to have AF/ AE-tracking, blackout-free continuous shooting of up to 30fps, and silent mode.  In this case the RAW buffer stays at 17, but the JPEG buffer drops to just 26.  That means you had better start holding that shutter down at the RIGHT moment!

The X-T30 is designed to do a lot of things well, but if you need more specialized performance, you might want to consider the X-T3 instead.  For most photographers, however, the performance of the X-T30’s autofocus system will definitely be robust enough for everything they need to do.

FUJIFILM X-T30 Video

Modern mirrorless cameras are amazing hybrid devices.  They are not only capable stills cameras, but they are often surprisingly robust video platforms.  The X-T30 packs a lot of punch in this tiny body, though, as in other areas, there are a few limiting factors that keep it from the level of the X-T3. Fuji says this, “Thanks to its advanced sensor and processor combination, the FUJIFILM X-T30 is capable of recording incredible 4K (3840×2160) video by down-sampling its 6K (6240×3510) capture. 

The camera also supports 4K DCI (17:9), an industry standard that gives videos an even more cinematic look. 

Finally, F-Log recording with 4:2:2 10-bit output can be captured through the HDMI port, giving professional filmmakers a wonderfully capable tool to use in achieving their creative visions.

My experience with the video is that the X-T30 is capable of producing beautiful footage either with the standard film emulations or with F-Log (minimum ISO for FLOG is 640). You can see some footage in the final video review.

The X-T30 has one significant differentiating factor from the X-T3:  4K capture is limited to 30FPS rather than the 60FPS option on the X-T3.  This will be a big deal for some, not so much for others.  It is worth noting that none of the competing Sony cameras offer 60FPS either to date. 

On a practical level, I have only one real criticism of Fuji’s video performance, and that actually has to do with continuous autofocus while capturing video.  I find that focus pulls from one subject to another are frequently not as smooth as what I see from either recent Sony bodies or Canon bodies with DPAF.  Can sometimes see a visible stepping instead of a smooth transition.

Those minor criticisms aside, however, this is an amazing little video camera. It’s got a LOT of tech packed into it, and so far I haven’t run into any overheating issues.

FUJIFILM SENSOR PERFORMANCE

Since the X-T30 shares the same 26.1MP X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor and X-Processor 4 found in the X-T3, they behave fairly similarly.  I tested the two cameras and found their performance nearly identical in my standard tests.  I chose to focus my comparisons on what I consider the most logical competitor – the 24 MP sensor in the Sony a6000 series.  The a6400 and X-T30 are probably the most natural competitors in this space.

From Fuji, “[with] a newly developed sensor, the X-T30 features an APS-C-format 26.1MP X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor, which has a back-illuminated design to afford smooth tonal rendering, improved low-light performance, and a low native ISO 160 setting. As an X-Trans sensor, it still utilizes the randomized pixel array, too, which provides a high degree of image quality and sharpness due to the omission of an optical low-pass filter. Versus conventional pixel patterns, the X-Trans design more closely mimics the organic nature of film in order to produce nuanced colors and tonal transitions, while also reducing moiré and aliasing.”

All of this sounds very good, of course, but how does it play out in real life?  The best way to find out is by watching this head to head comparison video where I cover ISO, Dynamic Range, and Color Fidelity.

HIGH ISO

Here’s a quick look at ISO performance (with the X-T3 as the “stunt double”). At ISO 1600 there is virtually no difference from base ISO (160) on global examination of the image. There is no additional apparent noise, color fidelity remains the same, and global contrast looks identical.

If we zoom in to a pixel level, we see, well, pretty much the same thing. You might be able to find slightly more noise if you looked really hard, but without the two images side by side, I doubt you’d be able to spot it. This is still a very, very clean result.

If we advance two more ISO stops, to ISO 6400, we see pretty much the same thing on a global level. If I compare the ISO 1600 result (on the left) with the ISO 6400 result (on the right), they look essentially the same.

At a pixel level it is possible to see some increased noise now, though it tends to show up mostly on places that are smooth and have no texture of their own. Contrast and color fidelity remain strong, and I’m not seeing any real color banding or color casts.

At max ISO (normal range), I can’t objectively say I see much of a difference on a global level, though I know that there is additional roughness at a pixel level. Earlier cameras would often deliver a low contrast, color-tinted result at their ISO limits, but that’s not at all the case with the X-T3. The color and contrast at ISO 12,800 looks nearly identical to the ISO 6400 result.

At a pixel level we can primarily see additional roughness (noise). I would classify it as being noticeable but not destructive.

When I tested the X-T30 against the a6500, I found that up until ISO 12,800 I would call them very close but with the slightest edge for the X-T30:

Unlike the X-T3, Fuji elected to increase the limit to ISO 25,600 before going into the expanded range.  Here I found the situation reversed, and gave the edge to the Sony:

I would keep ISO at 12,800 or lower as much as possible to maximize your results.

Dynamic Range

I value dynamic range within a camera in two specific areas: the ability to cleanly lift shadows without introducing noise or color banding and the ability to recover highlights without introducing “hot spots” where information has been permanently lost. There are many scenes in nature where the variance between bright areas and shadows exceeds a camera’s ability to record the whole range of light (our eyes are extraordinarily good at this). The ability to recover highlights means that a blown out sky might be recovered and add a lot of visual interest to an image, or perhaps to eliminate “hot spots” on a person’s face that has gotten overexposed by a flash. The ability to recover shadows allows you to, for example, underexpose a bit so that the sky is not blown out while still safely recovering information in the shadows. It can also be a lifesaver if a flash doesn’t fire, for example, or settings are wrong, and a crucial image that could have been lost can be saved in post. This is the real-world value of dynamic range.

Fuji has an extra trick up its sleeve to help you maximize dynamic range performance in such scenes, which we’ll get to in just a moment.

In my tests, I found that the X-T30 did an excellent job of recovering shadows very cleanly. Here we have an image that I purposefully underexposed by four stops. As you can see in the original RAW image, there is very little information left there. In post I added those four stops back into the recovered image. What we find is an image that has been recovered with very little penalty. The X-T30 does excellent with shadow recovery; roughly equal to the excellent Sony sensor.  Even if we look in at a pixel level, we see very little noise introduced and no color casts or banding.

As is often the case, however, highlight recovery lags behind shadow recovery. A similar four stop overexposure and attempted recovery results in an unusable image.

Sony is about a half-stop better in this regard, but Fuji has one other trick that I previously mentioned.  If you move beyond the base ISO to either ISO 400 or 640 (and beyond), two new options open up in the menu.  These are DR200 and DR400.  What these do is essentially split the sensor readout so that the shadow information is gathered from the current ISO setting while the highlight information comes from base ISO.  At ISO 320 that gives you one additional stop in the highlights, while at ISO 640 you gain two.  This allows you to overexpose the image slightly so that you have plenty of information in the shadows, but since there is one or two stops less exposure in the highlights, you have plenty of ability to recover blown out areas in post.  Case in point:  here is an attempt to recover a heavily overexposed image at base ISO (160):

Not very credible, is it?  There are a lot of hots spots (blown out highlights), and the whole image looks…off.  But if I use this technique at ISO 640 (same shutter speed), the overexposed result looks similar but the recovered result looks much, much better. 

It becomes possible to actually get a slightly greater dynamic range out of these Fuji cameras by utilizing this built in “hack”.  

I’ve used extreme examples, but the right way to do this is to overexpose by only one or two stops (depending on the situation), which allows you to have very clean shadows (a lot of exposure there) while also having a lot of additional latitude in the highlights.  This shot, while perhaps still a little extreme, helps illustrate the point:

Very clean shadows and highlights are well managed in the end result.  This is definitely a more practical approach than HDR in many situations, as there is no concern about movement of your subject in between frames.

Color

Color science is a fairly divisive topic. I’ve found that my work in comparing color science has been both popular and controversial. Here’s at least part of the reason why: people don’t all see color identically. This has become evident based on a number of photos that circulate around the Internet featuring a dress or sandals that people perceive to be very different colors. Part of this has to do with the way that people’s eyes process color (some have more red cones in the eye, others more green), but it also comes down to the reality that in the Internet age people view images on screens that vary widely in their color calibration and accuracy. Put simply: not everyone is seeing the same thing.

I use two displays in my personal desktop array. My primary display is a high-end BenQ SW271 (I reviewed it here), with my secondary display being an older Dell U2410. I calibrate both of them on a monthly basis using a Spyder5 Pro. I also view my photos regularly on the screen of my iPad Pro and my Dell XPS 13 laptop (which also has a high end 4K display). In short, I use a lot of high quality screens in my work, and, based on what I see on them (and from prints), I feel like Canon produces the best, most natural color.

A lot of people are big fans of Fuji’s color, however, particularly when it comes to the quality of the JPEGs and looks you can create in camera.  It starts with selecting a color profile in camera or in post. Fuji’s approach to this is a little different, as instead of basic color profiles they instead offer film simulations with names that evoke classic film stocks (the company is called FujiFILM after all!) This includes stocks like Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, and more. I’m still experimenting, but I most frequently reach for Classic Chrome. It’s a little less saturated but often has a tasteful look to it. I find Velvia (which is Vivid) too intense for me. Provia is the Standard, and it is fairly neutral. Astia is “Soft”, and it’s another one I like. Your mileage may vary, and what I like for one type of image is not necessarily what I like for another.

Still, here’s a look an image with a number of different profiles applied in Lightroom. First, Adobe Standard:

Now Astia (Soft)

Now Classic Chrome

Provia

Velvia

Definitely a lot of control over how an image will look.

You’ve also got a lot of great options on the monochrome front, with classic film emulations but also the ability to go into the menus and tweak the look in several ways. For example, if I select Acros, I’ve got the added ability to select whether to apply a Yellow Filter (more contrast, darker skies), Red (slightly more extreme of yellow), or Green (for better skin tones). There is also an option to warm or cool the monochrome image in camera. You can move to near-sepia on the warm side and near-selenium on the cool side. I’ve included three different looks in this little gallery, including an Acros monochrome, an Eterna Cinema look, and a Provia Standard:

You can also control grain (if that’s your thing) in camera as well. Most of these tweaks in-camera will only matter if you are shooting JPEGs. If you are shooting RAWs you can do all of this in post. Many that have chosen Fuji have done so for their ability to shoot JPEGs and get what they like right out of camera. If that sounds like you, then the Fuji X-T30 might be a great choice. It’s certainly got a lot of customization available for influencing the output.

Here’s a few images I think show off Fuji’s colors very nicely.

I would recommend that you take a long look at the Image Galleries page to see if you like what is there – most of which has received minimal processing so you can make a fair determination.

CONCLUSION

The FUJIfilm X-T30 is a nice upgrade over previous cameras in the series, and provides a reasonably priced alternative to the more feature rich Fuji X-T3.  The X-T3 certainly has some real advantages, but Fuji has kept enough of the goodness in the X-T30 to make it a very compelling option for those looking for a smaller, lighter system.  I recently reviewed Sony’s a6400 and found it to also be an excellent camera with a lot of strengths.  There are certainly areas where one or the other does something a little better, but truthfully they both can produce excellent stills and video.

If you are trying to choose between the two cameras, I would encourage you to base your decision on the whole systems.  Sony is more open-source, with an increasing amount of third party development (including the excellent Sigma DN lenses).  Fuji has relatively little third-party support, but what it does have is the most robust catalog of APS-C lenses out there…many of which are genuinely excellent.  I don’t think there is a wrong choice here, but one system might be more “right” for you than the other.  Choose carefully!  If you choose the Fujifilm X-T30 (at $899 USD at the moment), you will be getting a lot of little camera for your money!

Pros:

  • Robust focus system that does a great job
  • Well executed physical controls
  • 26MP X-Trans sensor produces nicely detail images
  • Great JPEGs with a lot of customization
  • Good burst speeds with a wide range of choice
  • Fuji’s DR modes give more creative options
  • Good video specs and quality footage
  • Fujifilm’s excellent catalog of lenses designed for APS-C

Cons:

  • Buffers fill quickly when shooting bursts
  • Grip is really thin for large hands
  • Poor Q button placement
  • Very little third party development for Fuji

Purchase the FUJIFILM X-T30 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T30, Fuji X-T30, X-T30 Review, Fuji X-T30 Review, Fujinon, Fujinon 18-55mm, Fuji 18-55mm, Dustin Abbott, XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 35mm F2, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, Sony a6400, Sony a600, Fuji X-T3

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FUJIFILM X-T30 Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

June 9th, 2019

The Fuji X-T30 is Fujifilm’s fourth generation “bargain” mirrorless camera.  It has inherited a lot of trickle-down goodness from the X-T3 that I reviewed last year, including an improved sensor, better autofocus, 4K video, and more.  It has a lot packed into the compact little body that’s nearly 30% lighter than the X-T3.  In my review I’ll be looking at the autofocus performance, the sensor performance, and also giving feedback on the handling of the camera in real-world shooting, so stay tuned.  In the meantime you can also see photos from the camera taken during my review period.

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Images of the FUJIFILM X-T30

Images taken with the XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS

Images taken with the Kamlan 28mm F1.4 & 50mm F1.1 MK II

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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T30, Fuji X-T30, X-T30 Review, Fuji X-T30 Review, Fujinon, Fujinon 18-55mm, Fuji 18-55mm, Dustin Abbott, XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 35mm F2, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.