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Fujifilm X-T4 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 28th, 2020

When I finished up reviewing the Fujifilm X-T3 in late 2018 (my first Fuji review), I praised it as the most well-rounded APS-C camera I had used.  Its amazing burst rate, excellent tracking abilities (with the right lens!), and solid sensor performance really set it apart for me.  I longed for the inclusion of in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS) to help the Fuji lineup be more competitive with Sony’s offerings.  Since that point, of course, Nikon has released mirrorless cameras with IBIS and now (finally), Canon is joining the game too in the new EOS R5 and R6 cameras.  But Fuji has stepped up to the plate, and with they new Fujifilm X-T4 they have included a fantastic IBIS system with up to 6.5 stops of rated correction that tops anything from Sony at the moment.  I’m well versed with Sony’s IBIS (I currently own two full frame Sony mirrorless bodies with SteadyShot), so I know what to expect from IBIS, and I can tell a difference.  Fuji’s stabilization is just a little better. 

The X-T4 is more of an evolution rather than revolution, as it uses a similar focus system and sensor to the X-T4 while adding some key new features. The inclusion of IBIS is probably the single biggest reason to upgrade from the X-T3.  In many ways it is a blend of the X-T3 and X-H1, and Fuji is promoting the X-T4 as a complimentary model to the X-T3 rather than a replacement model, which suggests the two will be sold side-by-side for a while, with the X-T4 carrying a price premium of $200 USD.  At essentially $1700 USD, the X-T4 is certainly one of the most expensive APS-C cameras on the market, but it is also arguably the most complete.  But is the whole package enough to sway potential buyers who aren’t yet committed to a camera system, and is a premium APS-C worth buying over some similarly priced full frame options?

Questions worth exploring, for sure…

My review of the X-T3 came when I was just becoming familiar with Fuji and had little exposure to Fuji’s lineup. I did that review while using Fuji’s most expensive premium lens (200mm F2 OIS) along with an exceptionally competent little prime (35mm F2).  I was extremely impressed with both lenses, which for obvious reasons influenced my opinion of the Fujifilm ecosystem at large.  Since that point, however, I’ve spent time in reviewing 9 different first party Fujinon lenses along with a few third party options for Fuji.  I come into this review with a slightly different perspective than I did then.  During that period both Sony and Canon made huge improvements to the effectiveness of their focus systems via firmware and new development, vastly improving Eye AF performance and overall quality in tracking action.  There was a noticeable change in the effectiveness of autofocus performance on even existing lenses, and the bar was raised.  The X-T3 also received firmware updates, but none of these put it in contention with what Sony or Canon was doing and I felt like the performance gap widened during that time.  The X-T4 is a good camera for tracking action, but retains a fundamental flaw that we’ll highlight in the autofocus section.

Another area where I became disappointed with more exposure to the brand was in reviewing more of the Fuji lenses.  Fuji has some excellent lenses in their XF (Fuji X-mount) catalog (and some rabid fans that support them!), but as someone who reviews a broad range of products (and not just within one brand), I have felt that in many cases the Fuji lenses didn’t quite measure up to their counterparts on other systems in the “price-to-performance” ratio.  Put simply, many of the Fuji lenses I’ve tested over the past couple of years have seemed overpriced while others feel a little dated.  I think part of this is due to the fact Fuji is a fairly closed system.  There is very little third party development for the XF mount other than manual focus options from a lot of small players.  Years ago (2013) the Zeiss Touit series was released in Fuji XF with autofocus (I reviewed them all on Sony), but those lenses now also feel overpriced and dated in their performance.  Fuji has never (to this point) gotten autofocus lenses from Sigma, Tamron, or Samyang – the kinds of quality, less expensive autofocus lenses that are making Sony such an attractive platform right now.  The most exciting trend in the past two years is that Chinese manufacturer Viltrox has produced several quality autofocus lenses in both Sony and Fuji mounts.  I’ve reviewed the 85mm F1.8 AF lens from them, and am reviewing the XF 33mm F1.4 from Viltrox as a part of my review of the X-T4.  Those Viltrox lenses have only gotten minor headlines on Sony because there are so many options there, but I know from my audience that these lenses on Fuji have been enthusiastically received.  And it’s no surprise:  the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8 costs $399 USD; the Fujinon XF 90mm F2 costs $950 USD!  

I’ve also noted that in many cases the autofocus performance of Fuji lenses on Fuji cameras does not rise to the level of similar lenses on other systems.  That’s particularly been true of video AF performance, where I often see very obvious stepping rather than smooth focus transitions.  Eye AF performance, while improved, doesn’t match either Sony or Canon in effectiveness. My point is this:  the closed nature of the Fuji ecosystem and general lack of competition has resulted in some stunted development in some key areas when compared to competing systems.  The Fuji X-T4 has great video specs, but I want to (need to) see smoother, better video AF performance for me to consider it a viable alternative to Sony.

One area where Fuji definitely has an edge, however, is in the range of lenses available for APS-C.  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’ve owned multiple Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras), 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…and all of their development is specifically for APS-C (other than a few medium format lenses every year).

As we’ll explore in this review, it becomes clear that the Fujifilm X-T4 may just be the most complete APS-C camera on the market.  Some key improvements have made a good camera (X-T3) even better (X-T4).  It is impossible, however, to evaluate a Fuji camera without revisiting the debate over APS-C vs full frame, as cameras like the X-T4 creep up into the premium range where one can legitimately choose between Fuji’s APS-C approach and either the APS-C or full frame cameras from other brands.

So let’s take a closer look if the Fuji X-T4 meets your needs for photography and/or video.  If you would prefer to watch your reviews, you can choose either my long format definitive review or shorter standard review video below.

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What’s New on the X-T4?

Here’s a quick bullet point breakdown of the key X-T4 improvements:

  • In Body Image Stabilization
  • New battery with improved battery life
  • Fully articulating LCD screen
  • New mechanical shutter mechanism rated up to 15fps (from 11fps on the X-T3) and with a life of 300,000 actuations.

When I reviewed the X-T3, I highlighted a few concerns with the feature set and handling of the camera.  One of those was the lack of In-Body-Image-Stablization (IBIS), which is now definitively solved.  The 5-axis stabilization is rated at a fantastic 6.5 stops of assistance, which means that if one could effectively handhold the shot at 1/200th of a second, the IBIS would (in theory) allow one to effectively handhold the shot in the same conditions at a shutter speed as low as 0.4″.  Fujifilm says this 6.5EV figure is maintained with 18 of its 29 X-series lenses (currently) and that 5EV of stabilization is the lowest figure for any of the remaining lenses.  I’m most impressed by this latter specification, as I’m assuming it would apply to the lenses on the margins (ultra-wide and telephoto), where the numbers tend to drop.  I find, for example, that I’m only effectively getting about 2.5 stops of assistance at 200mm with Sony’s IBIS (that’s if there is no lens OS), so if Fuji can double that with IBIS, that is very, very impressive and opens up a lot of room for improving the use of a variety of lenses.  I remain a bit of a skeptic, however, on the ratings when applied to the margins.  I’ve yet to see a situation when I’m handholding anything like a one second photo handheld effectively with any IS system.  I tested the 50-140mm F2.8 OIS at about 130mm (195mm full frame equivalent) and found that 1/8th of a second (5 2/3rds stop) shutter speed I was getting some reasonably stable shots, but nothing tack sharp, and that is one of the easier tests (it doesn’t go down into truly low shutter speeds).

As noted in the intro, I have found that the IBIS performance in real world use does improve on what I’ve seen with Sony, though, as always, I find that getting perfectly sharp images at extremely low shutters speeds is an unreliable process.  I don’t find that there is a huge amount of practical value in trying to handhold one second shutter speeds.  I’m more concerned with eliminating motion blur in normal shots where the shutter speeds fall outside the margins, and in this I think the performance is strong.

What’s also very important is the ability to effectively handhold video.  For many of us the moments when we want to capture video don’t always come when we’re all kitted out with a gimbal and monitors.  Many times it is a scene or opportunity that presents itself on the fly, and you need to be able to swiftly change over to video mode and grab some footage.  The IBIS on the X-T4 works really well for that, allowing you to get smooth pans and to capture footage without a lot of bouncing or chop.  Nothing matches the smoothness of a gimbal for when you are walking, but I’m impressed with the stability in most situations.  The addition of a IBIS could potentially be a game changer, and it makes lenses like the 16-55mm F2.8 or the 90mm F2 much more attractive to me.

The X-T3 used the NP-W126S battery pack, which CIPA rated at 390 shots, a rating which I would call conservative.  It never seemed to eat batteries at the same pace as say the Sony a6500 (a camera I owned for years and am very familiar with), but I noted that it would be wise to have a spare or two.  Fuji has addressed this criticism by moving to a new battery, the NP-W235 battery, which is now rated by CIPA to give 500 shots per charge (a 28% increase) but with a huge power increase from 1260 vs 2350 mAh.  This is essentially like Sony’s jump from the a7RII battery to the Z series battery in the a7RIII.  The battery life is now competitive across the board (for mirrorless), and I think it worthy of note that (like that of the X-T3) the X-T4’s battery can be charged via the USB-C port in camera by most any power source…including a portable power bank.  That definitely adds versatility when compared to, say, Canon’s mirrorless cameras, which typically require a “power send” capable device to internally charge the battery.  I’ve been saved more than once with a Fuji camera by being able to connect a power bank to give me a little extra power in a critical situation.

When reviewing the X-T3, I did express my preference for the fully articulating LCD screens that Canon has employed, and Fuji must have agreed, as they have move from a tilt screen to a fully articulating one on the X-T4.  This is useful on a number of levels.  It allows you a lot of freedom for using the camera at extreme positions (very high or very low) while being able to move the screen to a preferred position for visibility.  One also has the ability to use the camera close the body (waist, for example), but putting the screen out to the side and tilting it up (you might want to temporarily disable the sensor that switches between the LCD screen and viewfinder, however).  It’s also useful for monitoring video from in front of the camera.  I’ve been saved on some potentially wasted video framing while sitting in front of the camera by being able to monitor it via the screen rotated towards the front.  I suspect that most people will find the articulating screen more flexible than the tilting screen after they adjust to it.

I’ve heard concerns about durability in the past with articulating screens, but, after owning at least five cameras thus equipped, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a problem with durability even after long term use.  Camera makers clearly know that this could be a tension spot, and they engineer accordingly.  If this were an actual issue, you could expect the internet to be flooded with people complaining about broken or failed articulating screens…and that just isn’t the case.  My first camera with such a screen was in 2010 – the Canon EOS 60D.  Canon has only expanded its use of such articulating LCD screens since that point, so it clearly has not been a major trouble spot.

We’ll explore the new mechanical shutter a bit more in the autofocus section, but suffice it to say that even in normal operation one can easily feel that it is more refined and nicely damped.  I suspect this also helps to reduce vibration at low shutter speeds…which helps the IBIS get the job done.  The shutter has a nice sound to it; a client actually commented on it during a portrait session where I was using the X-T4 along with a Sony camera.

There is one other area where people are somewhat divided on Fuji cameras.  The X-T4 (like the X-T3 before it) has more physical controls on it than any modern camera I’ve seen.  There are dials, switches, and buttons all over the camera body, and many of the cameras functions can be accessed without ever looking at a menu.  It’s a decidedly analog approach to a very digital camera, and I personally love it.  It’s a classic SLR design that reminds me a lot of my old Pentax Spotmatic film camera.  Initially it took me a few days with the X-T3 originally to discover how to do everything I wanted to do (mostly because every camera manufacturer seems to have their own names and descriptions for certain functions.  Case in point:  Canon calls continuous autofocus “AF Servo”, Sony calls it “AF-C (Autofocus Continuous)”, while Fuji has Continuous AF, broken down into drive modes as CH (Continuous High) and CL (Continuous Low).  Know that you may need to either spend a little time in the manual to learn all the functions if you aren’t familiar with Fuji’s control scheme.

Another strength of Fuji’s cameras (though one that takes some familiarity to execute) is that most of the buttons and dials can be customized and have different values assigned to them.  This may prove important to you, as while all the buttons and dials are in essentially the same place, Fuji has decided to shuffle some of their default values.  I’m not sure I consider the changes an improvement…particularly the change of the Q-menu button, which has moved from right over the mini-joystick to the upper right side of the camera where the AF-L button used to be.  The Q button has been in that zone of the camera (to the right of the LCD screen) in every other camera that I’ve used, so I find that I naturally go to click the button in that location for the Q menu, which is no longer there by default.  You can customize back there if you so desire (I do), but some of you that are more OCD may not enjoy having the button mislabeled.

There’s also a tweak to one of the two “two layer” dials.  The one to the left of the viewfinder remains unchanged, having a top mode dial for ISO with a secondary dial underneath operated by a front facing lever.  Underneath the ISO dial is the drive mode dial, allowing your to quickly choose basic things like Single AF, CH, and CL, but also to switch into bracketing exposures, panoramas, and more.  The one thing that has changed there is that video is no longer one of those options, as Fuji has chosen to move that over to the second dial located to the right of the viewfinder.  It is now underneath the TV (shutter speed) dial where the metering mode dial was housed on the X-T3.  I still don’t find a dial for controlling shutter speed to be a very efficient way to control shutter speed, so I find this dial a little unnecessary, but your mileage may vary.  It can only select full stops (you go straight from 125th to 250th second, for example) and bottoms out at 1 second of exposure, which means that the shutter speed that you actually need may not even be accessible via the dial.  The byproduct is that I personally only the dial for three settings:  A (controlling shutter speed via one of the two wheels as per usual), B (Bulb Mode, ditto on selecting the value), and T (shutter speed priority, ditto on selecting the value).

The bottom half of that dial has only two options now:  Still and Video.  This allows you to easily change the camera between stills and video setup, but some may really miss losing the ability to switch between metering modes on the fly.  The upside of the hybrid stills/video approach is that you can actually customize everything in each mode (including buttons and wheels) and switch between a fully customized video mode along with your typical stills setup. 

Some will take full advantage of this, others won’t, so the bottom line is that some will enjoy these changes, others will prefer the X-T3’s control setup, and others will be ambivalent.  I’m personally mixed on the changes.

The third main control dial is for Exposure Compensation, and it’s a dial that I’m always happy to have.  It’s the quickest and most logical way to bias exposure in one direction or another if you are shooting in a mode like AV mode, which I often choose if I’m in lighting conditions where visually confirming exposure is more difficult (very bright conditions, for example).  The On/Off dial is located around/under the shutter button, and I personally like this location.  

The shutter button itself also has a very classic style, as it is threaded on the inside to allow for customization (soft touch accessories, for example). I find the X-T4’s shutter to be very sensitive, and even a seasoned pro like myself can’t manage to squeeze off a single shot with any success even in CL (low speed) mode.  I have to go right to single shot if I don’t want any burst.  I’m able to do this by pressure in equivalent modes on Canon or Sony…but not here.

There are two other control wheels, one located beneath the shutter button and the other located at the back near the thumb rest.  These are typically going to be used for shutter speed and aperture value.  What’s unique about these control wheels is that they also can be clicked and serve a dual function as a button as well.  The rear wheel, for example, I currently have assigned to magnify the image when I’m manually focusing.

There is one final small switch located on the front of the camera, and it is a quick access AF Mode switch, which allows you to switch between M (Manual), C (Continuous), or S (Single Shot).  Perhaps the best thing about this switch is that it gives you an easy, dedicated way to access Manual Focus and replaces an AF/MF switch on the lenses themselves.  It works well once your muscle memory extends to remembering that it is there.  What’s also useful is that on the front of the camera near the grip and on top of the camera between the dials are two Custom Function buttons.  The front one (by default) is a quick access to drive mode settings based on your current drive mode.  For example, if I’m in CL (Continuous Low), it opens up the menu setting where I can choose a speed for CL (from 3-8 FPS).  If I were in CH, it would give me both the mechanical and electronic shutter burst mode options.  The second button by default gives you control options for Eye detection.  Some of those options include selecting a priority for which eye (right or left) that you want focused on.  It’s an interesting mechanic that does give some diversity from Sony’s approach.  

Other physical controls take the form of seven buttons on the back of the camera along with a four-position directional pad (each direction can also be programmed for a different function).  One of these is a dedicated Q (quick menu) button.  This is similar to Canon’s approach, though I prefer Canon’s method of navigation in that menu.  There are a number of options there (16, typically) in the Q Menu, which is good, but when you select one of those options with the tiny joystick also located on the back, the logical (at least for me) choice is to select the option you want to change by hitting either the OK button on clicking the little joystick (clicking it in works similarly to the OK button).  Instead of opening up the options for that choice, however, it okays the choice already made and closes the Q menu. 

Frustrating.  Just like it was on the X-T3.

What the camera actually wants you to do is to move over to the desired setting you want to change and then rotate the rear wheel to change the settings (without another dialogue box ever being opened).  I don’t find this a very intuitive process even after spending time with Fuji cameras over the past several years and, more often than not, I’ll click either the joystick or the OK button and have to start the process over again.  What’s interesting about this is that while you cannot use the touchscreen to select in the regular menus, you can tap on the icons for the various options in the Q menu and it will open up a dialogue box and allow to select the option you want (by a tap on it) in the way that you would expect the menu to work all the time.

The X-T4’s touchscreen is still somewhere in between the most recent Canon and Sony mirrorless cameras in functionality.  It isn’t as responsive or useful as Canon’s mirrorless cameras (where all menu options can be accessed via touch and the screen is nicely responsive), but it is much more useful than Sony’s (where no navigation can be done on the touchscreen).  The X-T4 does allow for things like dragging the focus point around with a thumb when you are looking through the viewfinder, and will also allow one to tap an autofocus point and even take a photo through that means.  I didn’t find it as responsive as either Canon or Sony’s touchscreens for touching to focus during video mode.  There’s some definite input lag before autofocus responds.

Fuji has a wide range of menu options, and nearly all controls can be customized to the user’s preference.  Every camera maker has a different way of organizing such menus, and so expect to have to learn where everything is if you aren’t a long-time Fuji shooter, but I found the menus fairly logical once I began to learn how Fuji labels things.  Everything is organized under size main groups: (Image Quality, AF/MF, Shooting Settings, Flash Settings, Movie Settings, and Setup).  There is a seventh tab called “My” (My Menu) that will be populated once you select custom functions to be there.  I like to task commonly used settings that I haven’t assigned to a physical control to that area.  If you aren’t confident navigating menus, however, you may find these menus a little overwhelming.  There is a LOT of room for customization, and little instruction for what different settings do.

An experienced user will probably enjoy the controls of the X-T4 (I do), but, as noted, not everyone will love the sheer number of controls.  It will be intimidating to some.  I view the X-T4 as being designed for those with a fairly strong grasp of camera operation, and probably not designed for beginners.  You need to make a realistic evaluation of where you fall on that spectrum in evaluating if the X-T4 is the camera for you or not.

The changeover to a new battery has by necessity required some changes to the grip portion of the camera…and, to me, these are changes for the better.  It is deeper, wider, and enables you to grip the camera more naturally.  I would still prefer a grip extender to have more room for my medium-large hands, but I can definitely get by better on the X-T4 than I could on the X-T3 without.  Thus far Fuji has not released a grip extender, though there is a battery grip (VG-XT4) available. 

This battery grip is very robust (read BIG) and dramatically changes the shape and functionality (at least in vertical mode) of the camera (in part due to the larger batteries).  It’s fairly pricey, too, setting you back about $330 USD.  It does give you redundant controls in vertical mode, however, and also provides one port that is missing natively on the camera – a headphone jack.  You can attach headphones via a USB-C adapter on the main camera, but that means you have to have a dongle along.  Not having a dedicated headphone jack is an unfortunate omission on a camera so clearly designed for video…and unfortunately the X-T3 had one.  What we’ve got instead in that spot is a remote release port.  These days that could be argued as being less important with Bluetooth connectivity and the ability to control the camera remotely already via a smart device.  A curious choice here, but I suspect that this might have been what had to give to accommodate the hinge for the articulating screen…so the USB-C dongle might have been the compromise to deal with that.

Let’s complete the physical overview.  There is a little port on the front of the camera that is the flash sync port.  It unscrews and pops off, but is also very small, so be careful not to lose it!  On the left side of the camera is a cover that, when popped open, reveals the main connectivity ports, including a micro-HDMI, USB-C, Remote Shutter release, and Microphone port.  Charging can be done via the USB-C port, and I was happy to find that even small power-banks would help to quickly charge the camera.  

The right side of the camera houses the card slots.  The X-T3 has two UHS-II compatible SD card slots, which is something a lot of us value for a variety of reasons.  This helps the camera to feel more professional grade.

On the bottom of the camera there is a battery door.  There’s also a covered port where one could connect the VG-XT4 vertical battery grip if one required more battery life (it will take two batteries + the one in the camera).  It should be noted, however, that the X-T4 (like the X-T3) does not require a battery grip to enable faster burst rates like previous cameras.  All of the abilities of the camera are native to it.  There is switch on the grip where you can select economy, standard, or boost modes.  This is something you can select from within the menu system, but the grip gives you the option of accessing it on the fly.  This is mapped here because these are power profiles and alter the behavior of certain settings depending on your priorities at the moment.

The X-T4 sports a OLED electronic viewfinder design with 3.69m-dot resolution and a high 0.75x magnification (same as the X-T3), specs which rival many full frame bodies and exceed the typical specs for the better APS-C cameras.  It has a good refresh rate (100fps) and I saw no blackout under any kind of shooting conditions.  The resolution on the LCD screen has improved from 1.04M to 1.62M-dot, which makes reviewing images on the screen (and zooming into them) a better experience.  Just to give you perspective, the Sony a6600 sports a 0.92M-dot LCD.

The camera body is made of a magnesium alloy and sports quality weather sealing.  The dimensions of the camera are (W x H x D) 5.3 x 3.65 x 2.51″ (134.6 x 92.8 x 63.8 mm) and it weighs in at 1.16 lb / 526 g (Body Only).  The battery grip has build and sealing to match.  This is definitely one of the better made APS-C mirrorless cameras out there.  

There’s a lot of great stuff happening in the build and design of the Fuji X-T4, and it’s here where most of the improvements over the X-T3 lie.  The addition of IBIS was at the top of my wish list, and improved battery life and an articulating LCD screen with better resolution are just icing on the cake.  The only persistent sheer number of physical controls is somewhat polarizing (according to feedback from my audience), and I’m a little ambivalent to some of the new button changes, but overall I continue to think that Fuji has done a great job of using the real estate of this compact body.  There are a lot of controls, a tremendous degree of customization, and everything works logically once you become familiar with it.  They’ve taken a good camera and made it even better.

Fuji X-T4 Autofocus Performance

Improved autofocus was one of the core areas of improvement with the X-T3, and the X-T4’s focus system is largely carried over from the X-T3.  Improvements are more along the lines of improved focus algorithms and potentially better processing of the focus data.  Fuji touts improved focus acquisition speed, “A new AF algorithm introduced with X-T4 enables focusing speeds of 0.02 seconds“.  They say that this is the fastest among APS-C cameras.  They also state that, “This same new algorithm significantly improves AF tracking. By recognizing color information and shape, X-T4 is able to instantly and accurately lock on to a subject…”  Fuji is also marketing improved Eye AF and low light AF performance.  The problem is that every camera maker essentially touts their focus system as the best, so let’s do our part to actually evaluate real world focus performance.

It’s certain is that the Fuji X-T4 has a remarkably robust autofocus system on a lot of levels.  It has 2,160,000 phase detect points, which is somewhat meaningless in real world use, as all of those focus points actually boil down to 425 selectable AF points (which is about all you would ever want packed over an APS-C sensor anyway!). 

The vast majority of the sensor is covered with AF points, and the improved sensitivity of those points means that many of you who have lenses that you’ve used with previous Fuji cameras will probably note a marked improvement in your low light focus.  I had good focus results (though some reduced focus speed, as per usual) in very low light conditions.  It always helps to have an edge on your subject (a contrast point) to aid AF, but I was able to lock accurate focus in varied lighting conditions with good success.

An area where Fuji’s focus system excels in it tracking of high speed action.  I didn’t have the advantage of the amazing 200mm F2 this time around, but I used the more typical (but still pro-grade) 50-140mm F2.8 zoom for my burst tests.  Before we look at the results, let’s highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the system.  On a positive note, you have the ability to fire off a LOT of frames very quickly.  The limit with the improved mechanical shutter is 15 FPS (with full continuous autofocus).  This is obviously exceptionally fast, and actually easily exceeds the 11FPS offered by the Sony a6600.  The mechanical shutter allows you up to 1/8000th second shutter speeds.  You can go faster, however, by selecting the electronic shutter which enables up to 20FPS and is rated at shutter speeds up to 1/32,000th of a second.  You can also switch to a Sports Crop Mode (1.25x) that gives you a bit of additional reach and allows the burst rate to climb to an insane 30 FPS.  If that were the end of the story, this would be one of the best sports camera on the market. 

But the limiting principle here is the buffer depth. 

With the mechanical shutter at 15 FPS, you can capture about 38 RAW images or 110 JPEGs before the buffer fills.  That means that in under 2.5 seconds you will fill the buffer if you are shooting RAWs.  That’s not enough time to capture any kind of extended action (like the hard charging running dog sequences I like to use to test tracking with).  I had to switch to JPEG only to capture a full 5-6 second running sequence.

Things are even more limiting in the higher frame rates with the electronic shutter, however, as at 20 FPS you can capture up to 36 Frames (Raw) / 79 Frames (JPEG), so you’ve got less than 1.5 seconds with RAW files and roughly 4 seconds even in JPEG mode.  In the sports mode the file size drops to 20.9 Mpx due to the crop, but the buffer fills even faster with the 30FPS.  You get up to 35 Frames (Raw) / 60 Frames (JPEG), so barely more than a second when shooting RAWs and only 2 seconds worth when shooting JPEGs.  These unfortunate limitations reduce the effectiveness of those blazing burst rates and make the X-T4 less of a serious action camera.  It’s a shame, as the focus system and shutter promise results that the buffer depth can’t quite deliver.

On a positive note, the camera does quite a good job of quickly clearing the buffer without the penalties a lot of Sony cameras have (sitting and waiting!)  

My “torture test” (like with the X-T3) was tracking our dog (about a 23 pound King Charles Cavalier Spaniel) playing high speed fetch.  It’s a fairly small subject moving at a very high rate of speed, and inferior focus systems just can’t track this combination (trust me, I’ve tried!)  I found that my results weren’t quite as good as with my Sony a9 and a competent lens (though, to be fair, the a9 costs twice as much), but the speed for tracking is nonetheless excellent.  I saw a few front/back focus swings in my running series, but there’s definitely enough focus speed and accuracy to keep up with my subject.  One area of real strength is that I find the focus system continues to effectively track even when the subject gets close.  Here’s a few shots from one 60 shot series.

Bottom line is that the AF system is excellent for tracking action.

Fuji also touts the improvement in Eye AF performance, though I’m less impressed here.  Canon and Sony have made significant improvements to their Eye AF tracking abilities via firmware updates, and while Fuji has done the same, I feel like the gap has widened rather than closed.  I did a portrait session using a Sony a7RIII and an inexpensive Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8 STM II lens that I was reviewing alongside the X-T4 and the much-more expensive 50-140mm F2.8 zoom.  I had a $400 third party lens on the Sony and a $1600 first party lens on the Fuji, and yet the Eye AF tracking on the Sony combination was far more effective.  It was much “stickier”, immediately detecting the eye and staying locked on it even as the model or myself moved around while composing or posing.  I found the Fuji combination less reliable in terms of tracking, with the little Eye AF box sometimes switching onto the torso or getting stuck on the nose between the eyes.  

The focus accuracy results also favored the Sony combination.  I find that the current Canon/Sony eye tracking is so good that I basically never miss in a portrait session with a reasonably competent lens.  There was definitely more variance in my focus results on Fuji, with some shots not quite perfectly focused on the eyes.  Things will very likely continue to improve with firmware updates, but, at the moment, Fuji’s Eye AF, while useful, is not as effective as some competing systems.

Overall I found good autofocus consistency throughout the course of my review period.  You have a number of different focus modes you can access along with multiple ways to interact with those focus points.  You can use your thumb on the touchscreen to move an autofocus point or zone around, or you can use the little joystick to do something similar.  Which is better for you will ultimately be a matter of preference.  The focus system is fairly flexible and easy to use.  

As this photo and crop show, however, autofocus is extremely precise.

I got good results even in challenging conditions, too.

Fuji’s focus system in the X-T4 is an effective one, with only Eye AF as the area where I think it lags behind some competitors.

Fuji X-T4 Sensor Performance

The 26.1Mpx X-Trans sensor in the X-T4 is carried over from previous cameras.  This is the third model I’ve used it with (X-T3, X-T30, and X-T4).  Fuji said of the X-T3’s sensor, “[with] a newly developed sensor, the X-T3 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.”  

I’ve spent time with and reviewed most all of the competition, so, my quick conclusion is that this sensor is a competitive one but not a clear winner in any category.  The Sony 24Mpx sensor in many of its cameras has a bit more dynamic range and slightly better ISO performance.  Canon has the resolution win with 33Mpx in its M6 Mark II.  This video breaks down in detail how the sensor (in the X-T30) compares to the common Sony 24Mpx sensor (here in the a6400).

Real life isn’t about comparisons, however, it is about making images…and the Fuji X-T4 can make some beautiful ones. 

Many people love Fuji colors, and they include a number of their film emulations that can give a unique “feel” to images and/or video footage.  Feel free to skip over the technical information if it doesn’t interest you; any modern camera can give you fantastic images.

Fuji X-T4 ISO Performance

The native ISO range of Fuji’s 26Mpx X-Trans sensor is more limited than alternatives from Sony or Canon, running from ISO 160 to 12,800, with an expanded range going doing to ISO 80 and moving up to 51,200 on the high end.  I personally don’t ever use expanded ISO range, though from what I’ve heard, Fuji tends towards the conservative end of things when calculating the ISO abilities of its cameras.  The native range is usable throughout, and even images ISO 12,800 are perfectly usable in many situations.  Here’s a look at an image and crop taken at ISO 12,800:

If you want more detail on specific ISO performance and how it compares to other cameras, you can check out this this “Sensor Wars” episode.  The X-T3 has the same sensor as the X-T4.

It would be difficult to disseminate all the information covered in the video, but I’ll hit some of the highlights.  At ISO 800 there is a mild addition of noise only detectable in the shadows.  There isn’t a lot of difference from base ISO, however, and moving on to ISO 1600 shows little difference.  At ISO 3200 there is slightly less contrast and slightly more noise, and that pattern continues at ISO 6400 and 12,800, where the noise becomes rougher and more visible in shadow areas.

The most natural competitor for the X-T4 is the Sony a6600 (the a6500 has the same sensor).  In the comparison above I found that the Fuji and Sony results looked more similar than different, though I would say that I found the a6500’s noise pattern a little rougher.  The Sony’s native range does extend up higher, however, without going into “expanded” modes.

Fuji says that the X-Trans sensor produces a more film-grain-like noise pattern, but frankly this seems a little hyperbolic.  I don’t really see it.

Fuji claims that they are delivering “full-frame-equivalent” results with their APS-C X-Trans sensors.  Obviously the recent full frame competitors have a much greater ISO range (up to a native ISO 40,000 + expanded), though, as noted, Fuji does tend to be a little conservative on that front.  When I compare to the Canon EOS R or my Sony a7RIII, I do find the size of the pixels/noise less obvious, but neither is it marked difference:

The most obvious difference would be if I downsample the resolution of the a7R3 down to the 6240 x 4160 resolution of the X-T4.

That’s not entirely fair, however, as the X-T4 actually has a greater pixel density than the a7R3.  A rough calculation of the pixel density on its 1.53x crop factor sensor means that you would need a full frame camera with around 60 megapixels to have a similar pixel density (closer to that of the Sony a7RIV).  The a7R3 has more megapixels in an absolute sense, but relative to sensor size it actually has less.  Pixel pitch is a measurement of the distance between each individual pixel (from the center of one to the center of the next.  The a7R3 has a pixel pitch of 4.5 µm; the X-T4 has a pixel pitch of 3.74 µm.  To put it more clearly:  the Fuji X-T4 has a tremendous number of pixels packed into a a very small areas.  So, the fact that it does as well as it does in this comparison speaks well of what Fuji has accomplished.  You are able to get highly detailed images with relatively low noise even at higher ISO settings.  Pretty impressive, really.

Fuji X-T4 Dynamic Range Performance

I’ve got a great video episode that both teaches dynamic range and compares the X-T4 to other leading cameras in this area both at base ISO and at ISO 6400.  Watching this will be the best to get the information.

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.  The current leaders in this category are the best sensors from Sony and Nikon (which may be a redundant statement).  The value of good dynamic range is in the margins of photography, as eliminating shadows or recovering blown out highlights doesn’t always produce the better image.  Having good dynamic range (particularly if you shoot RAW), allows you a lot more creative vision over how the final image will turn out.  

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-T4 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-T4does 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. Even at 3 stops of recovered highlights there is damage done to the image with both “hotspots” (information that cannot be recovered) and every uneven, unnatural areas of the 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.  I also find that you retain better contrast even if you underexpose and recover using this method (here’s the DR400 recovered result compared to the base ISO recovery):

Note how much more detailed and bright the right (DR400) recovery result looks.  The better retention of highlights is keeping the contrast results up.  There is a bit more noise in the shadows due to the ISO 800 vs ISO 160 results, but that’s only really because this isn’t even using it for the intended purpose.  Where things really get good is if you use this technique to preserve highlights.  If we compare the three stop highlight recovery at base ISO compared to the 3 stop highlight recovery using DR400, you get a VASTLY improved result with better sharpness, brightness, and a more even brightness.

I would pick the image on the right every time.  It looks like a natural photograph despite the fairly radical recovery of highlights.  Here’s how the original photo looked before and after recovery:

The original looks like a complete mistake (misfiring flash, wrong settings, etc..), while the recovered image looks like a perfectly exposed shot.  This is a technique well worth utilizing where needed.  In this shot, for example, I purposefully chose a very difficult scene.  Bright directional sun, a lot of highlights on the concrete blocks and needles, and deep shadows in the woods. 

I was able to have clean shadows, retain all the highlights, and even recover the sky using the DR400 technique.  Very impressive.  That’s not to say that you should shoot this way all the time, as often retaining contrast and either crushed shadows or blown out highlights makes for a better photograph, but having this technique available to improve dynamic range certainly has its uses…just don’t go too crazy on those sliders!!

X-T4 Resolution and Detail

As I’ve previously noted, the X-T4 has a lot of pixels packed into it’s APS-C sensor.  We’ve already seen that they’ve managed to do a good job of keeping noise down despite that densely packed sensor, but what about details in the images?  That’s going to depend a lot on the quality of the glass you put in front of the sensor (better lenses make sharper images!), but the Fuji X-T4 is able to deliver highly detailed images that are crisp right down to the pixel level.

I think the amount of detail in images will be very satisfying to end users.  There’s one minor Fuji quirk that may be related to the X-Trans arrangement on the sensor, and that is that sharpening of images needs to be handled a little differently.  When you start to push sharpening on images from cameras, a pattern almost like tiny brush strokes starts to emerge.  Now, maybe you’ll like this, but I can definitely say that it is different behavior than what I’ve seen before.  I really noticed this when I compared the E-mount version of the Kamlan on the a6500 to the X-mount version on the X-T3 and shot the same sharpness test.  The two images sharpen very differently in Lightroom (look closely to see the pattern).

There are articles out there that explain techniques to minimize this behavior if it bothers you.

X-T4 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.  I personally use high end 4K displays in my desktop array that are calibrated on a regular basis to make sure that colors are accurate, but when I release digital files to the internet, I lose all control over how and on what they are going to be viewed.  Put simply:  not everyone is seeing the same thing.  

You have a lot of choices in camera for film emulations or “looks”, and, if you shoot RAW files, it is easy to choose those same options in your editing software (I primarily use Adobe products, myself).  So, here’s a beautifully colored image where I’ve chosen Adobe’s Landscape profile.

Now Astia (Soft)

Now Classic Chrome

Provia

Velvia

Eterna (Cinema – a new addition to X-T4)

Classic Chrome is little less saturated but often has a tasteful look to it.  I find Velvia (which is Vivid) is often too intense for me, but can be great for landscapes.  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.  Velvia looked great on this landscape image:

Velvia is terrible for portraits, though, leaving skin tones very oversaturated.  I choose something more muted for portrait work, like this:

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.  Here’s a lovely portrait with Acros + Red filter.

There’s a lot of subtle variations available there to allow you to shoot an image to taste.  I find that you have to learn how to process color from each camera maker (and sometimes down to the individual camera).  After years of shooting with the Sony a7R3 I find that I’m much happier with the color I can get out of it…but I had to learn how to handle the color in post.  I did that by developing custom profiles over time.  I like to use Datacolor’s Checkr and develop a neutral color profile and build my color preferences from that.

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-T4 might be a great choice.  It’s certainly got a lot of customization available for influencing the output.

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.

Fuji X-T4 Video

If you’ve read this far, then you’ve probably figured out that the X-T4 is definitely a feature-packed camera.  The same applies to the video front, where the X-T4 boasts internal UHD 4K60p video recording at 4:2:0 10-bit, as well as 4K60p 4:2:2 10-bit via HDMI output, both at up to 400 Mb/s—and simultaneous external and internal recording is possible. DCI 4K30 and Full HD 1080p120 recording is also possible, and video files can be saved using either MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 or HEVC/H.265 compressions, and 4K. The quad-CPU X-Processor 4 enables fast read speeds of 17 ms when recording 4K60 video, which helps to reduce rolling shutter distortion when filming moving subjects. You can also choose to use a F-Log gamma setting, which provides a flat picture for use in advanced color grading software during editing. This maximizes the potential dynamic range in difficult scenes and image adjustments can be made, as well, to highlight tone, shadow tone, color, and sharpness. When working in F-Log, an updated noise reduction algorithm is available along with 4K inter-frame noise reduction, and the Minimum sensitivity has been lowered to ISO 640 to suit working in a broader range of scene types.”

Bottom line is that Fuji has nailed the specifications.  From the bitrates to the frame rates (4K60) to the inclusion of F-Log, there are a host of choices here.  My experience with the video is that the X-T4 is capable of producing beautiful footage either with the standard film emulations or with F-Log.  

The addition of IBIS is obviously a huge benefit to the X-T4, and the ability to quickly choose between a Stills and Movie setup also helps.  My only remaining criticism is that I still don’t find that focus transitions during video AF aren’t as smooth as what I’ve become accustomed to on Sony and Canon, and there are a LOT of Fujinon lenses that don’t work particularly well in video AF.  Lenses like the popular 56mm F1.2 are really rough in video AF.  Eye AF tracking during video (like in stills) isn’t as sophisticated as on Sony or Canon.

My conclusion is that the focus of Fuji’s refinement needs to be on the AF front.  The competition is getting better…and they need to get better with it!  There’s a lot of amazing video functionality here that is being (slightly) held back by the focus system.  If video is your priority, be careful to prioritize the lenses with LM (Linear Motor) on them, as they tend to be the smoother video lenses.

Conclusion

The FUJIFILM X-T4 is a great evolution of the X-T3, essentially taking the best bits of the X-T3 and X-H1 and combining them.  Yes, it has essentially the same focus system and sensor, but the addition of an effective in body image stabilization system takes the camera to the next level.  The improved battery life, articulating screen, and improved shutter make it an ever more pro-grade camera than before.  Getting 15FPS with a mechanical shutter bumps the X-T4 to the head of the pack of APS-C cameras, and even more speed is there with the electronic shutter (much like a high end Sony a9 series camera).  Unlike the pro-level a9 cameras, however, the X-T4 is held back a bit by buffers that fill far too quickly.  It’s a shame, as the camera has the shutter speed and tracking abilities to capture action exceptionally well.

Some may be a bit daunted by the massive amounts of physical controls, though I personally enjoy that aspect of the camera, and one always has the option to utilize the Quick or Regular menus to make changes instead.  The great film emulations and beautiful JPEGs are a delight to many Fuji fans, as are some of the quality lenses available for the system.

But here is the counter argument:  the closed nature of the Fuji platform is what keeps it more as a niche player.  The massive third party support for Sony, for example, means that you can get high quality full frame lenses at affordable prices.  Tamron in particular has been developing aggressively priced, lightweight, high performing options for Sony.  I couldn’t help but wonder what I would find if I compared a couple of those Tamron high speed zooms with a body like a Sony a7III.  Here’s what I found when I compared current prices (July 24th, 2020) prices from B&H Photo along with the weight of the combinations.

  • Fuji X-T4 ($1700) + 16-55mm F2.8 ($1200) and 50-140mm F2.8 ($1600) zooms = $4500 USD | Total Weight = 2176g
  • Sony a7III ($1800) + Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 ($880) and 70-180mm F2.8 ($1200) = $3880 USD | Total Weight = 2010g

Now, to be fair, the Fuji combination covers slightly more zoom range (24-213mm vs 28-180mm) and there are a few areas where Fuji has the advantage (faster burst speed, better viewfinder).  But there are also areas where Sony has the advantage, including superior Eye AF, better ISO and dynamic range performance, better video AF, and better sharpness from these pairings (the Tamron lenses are sharper than the Fuji lenses).  My point is that the lack of third party development on Fuji means there really isn’t either a cost or size/weight advantage there…and that’s even changed since I did my X-T3 review.  The lack of third-party development is robbing Fuji of a competitive advantage as you are essentially stuck with first party lenses…and some of them aren’t competitive with lenses at similar prices on other systems.  I do think Fuji has the most well-rounded APS-C performance and catalog out there, but to say that one can only compare Fuji to other APS-C options is to deny the choice that consumers actually have.

The X-T4, taken alone, is an excellent camera.  But the Fuji system needs to open up to truly become competitive and grow their market share beyond their rabid fan base.  The X-T4 is solid evidence that this is worth doing!

 

Pros:

  • New IBIS system works fantastic and makes the X-T4 even more competitive
  • Beautiful build with a classic sensibility
  • Excellent focus system for tracking action
  • Extremely fast frame rates with continuous autofocus
  • New shutter mechanism is smooth, fast, and well damped
  • Shutter now rated up to 300,000 actuations
  • New battery really improves performance
  • Articulating screen is well implemented and useful
  • 26MP X-Trans sensor produces good detail, ISO performance, and dynamic range
  • Great video specs, including 4K60P options
  • Huge amounts of customization available for images and controls
  • Solid ergonomics
  • Great lens selection
  • Flushes buffers quickly

Cons:

  • Eye AF performance lags behind Sony and Canon
  • Video AF transitions not as smooth as Canon or Sony
  • Buffer fills up REALLY fast when shooting action
  • Touchscreen has serious input lag when choosing focus point
  • Few third party lens options on Fuji = more expensive lenses

 

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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T4, Fuji X-T4, X-T4 Review, Fuji X-T4 Review, Fujinon, Dustin Abbott, Review, Sensor, Tracking, IBIS, Stabilization, Eye AF, 50-140mm, F2.8,  Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 35mm F2, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, APS-C, X-Trans

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Fujifilm X-T4 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 28th, 2020

When I finished up reviewing the Fujifilm X-T3 in late 2018 (my first Fuji review), I praised it as the most well-rounded APS-C camera I had used.  Its amazing burst rate, excellent tracking abilities (with the right lens!), and solid sensor performance really set it apart for me.  I longed for the inclusion of in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS) to help the Fuji lineup be more competitive with Sony’s offerings.  Since that point, of course, Nikon has released mirrorless cameras with IBIS and now (finally), Canon is joining the game too in the new EOS R5 and R6 cameras.  But Fuji has stepped up to the plate, and with they new Fujifilm X-T4 they have included a fantastic IBIS system with up to 6.5 stops of rated correction that tops anything from Sony at the moment.  I’m well versed with Sony’s IBIS (I currently own two full frame Sony mirrorless bodies with SteadyShot), so I know what to expect from IBIS, and I can tell a difference.  Fuji’s stabilization is just a little better.  In many ways the X-T4 is an evolution rather than revolution, with the inclusion of IBIS being the single biggest reason to upgrade from the X-T3.  In many ways it is a blend of the X-T3 and X-H1, and Fuji is promoting the X-T4 as a complimentary model to the X-T3 rather than a replacement model, which suggests the two will be sold side-by-side for a while, with the X-T4 carrying a price premium of $200 USD.  At essentially $1700 USD, the X-T4 is certainly one of the most expensive APS-C cameras on the market, but it is also arguably the most complete.  But is the whole package enough to sway potential buyers who aren’t yet committed to a camera system, and is a premium APS-C worth buying over some similarly priced full frame options?  Read the review if you would like help with that answer, and perhaps checking out these photos will help a little bit, too!

If you would prefer to watch your reviews, you can choose either my long format definitive review or shorter standard review video below.

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Images of the Fujifilm X-T4

Images Taken With the Fujifilm X-T4

 

Purchase the Fujifilm X-T4 @B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

Purchase the Viltrox AF 33mm F1.4 XF @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

Purchase the FUJIFilm X-T3 @ 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 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 Exposure Software X5 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything) Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

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Keywords: Fujifilm, X-T4, Fuji X-T4, X-T4 Review, Fuji X-T4 Review, Fujinon, Dustin Abbott, Review, Sensor, Tracking, IBIS, Stabilization, Eye AF, 50-140mm, F2.8,  Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, High ISO, Autofocus, Dynamic Range, XF 35mm F2, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, APS-C, X-Trans

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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

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
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FUJIFILM X-T3 Review

Dustin Abbott

December 12th, 2018

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I’ve been enjoying spending time with the FUJIFILM  X-T3 mirrorless camera body and the monster XF 200mm F2 OIS lens – evidence that Fuji is getting serious about sports/action photography.  The X-T3 and Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS are a marriage that could probably only happen on Fuji, for they alone have focused their their development on APS-C (and Medium Format, to a lesser extent) and skipped over full frame altogether.  That has produced perhaps the most serious APS-C (crop sensor) development that I’ve seen.  Fuji has (by far) the best selection of pro-grade APS-C lenses, and, if you think that APS-C is for you (and I’ll detail a few reasons why that might be the case), then it is hard to argue against going Fuji…and the X-T3.  At the same time, I don’t think the Fuji X-T3 is for everyone, and I’ll detail why in this review as well. 

In this review I’ll break down the handling, image quality, sensor performance, video performance, and autofocus performance of the Fujifilm X-T3 along with a few lenses (I’ve also got the XF 35mm F2 on hand along with my favorite budget prime lens at the moment – the Kamlan 28mm F1.4).  You can find photos from all three of these lenses in the image gallery and perhaps get a sense of whether or not the X-T3’s autofocus and sensor produces images that you can love.

First of all, a few arguments for and against APS-C.  After spending an extended period of time with the X-T3, I feel like it (along with Fuji’s robust catalog of lenses), may just be the best approach 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.

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 to 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).

I’ve run a number of sensor tests as a part of this round of reviews, as I had the new Canon EOS R, the Sony a7R3 and a6500, and the Fuji X-T3 on hand at the same time.  It allowed me to test them all at their limits, and, while I do believe that there are still a few advantages for full frame, 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.  I was able to get as good of high speed tracking images in some situations as I ever have before:

What about full frame?  In an absolute sense, full frame remains my favorite platform.  It still has more flexibility at the limits, and I often prefer the smoother gradations of both color and noise.  The performance at higher ISOs remains my favorite, and I also feel the images have more tolerance for how you will approach sharpening.  But I also found my typical preconceptions challenged somewhat during this review, and, while I still maintain my position, I can also safely say that the line between the two platforms has become somewhat blurred.  I would say that there are very few shots that you cannot get with the Fuji X-T3.

So let’s take a closer look if the Fuji X-T3 meets your needs for photography and/or video.  If you would prefer to watch your reviews, you can see my thorough video review here:

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X-T3 Handling and Features 

I would recommend watching this video, as there are a lot of dials and switches on the X-T3, and this is the best way to both see them and understand what they do.

There are two things that I think will be a potential deterrent to those considering a Fuji X-T3.  The first is universal, and that is that it lacks In-Body-Image-Stablization (IBIS), and optical stabilizer in the camera body that applies to all attached lenses.  This has been an extremely popular feature on Sony’s mirrorless cameras (and others), and Fuji actually employs it in their FUJIFILM X-H1 camera (and one would assume that the X-H2, when it arrives, will also employ IBIS).  It would seem that Fuji is using this to differentiate the X-T3 from the more expensive X-H1, though at the moment the market is complicated, as the X-T3 actually has a number of superior specs – from resolution to buffer to video modes to a superior autofocus system.  One would assume that the X-H2 will help clarify the market again by embracing the upgrades to the X-T3 along with some of its own (IBIS being one of them).  From my perspective, a lack of IBIS is the only thing that really holds this camera back.

But others will have a second issue with a camera.  The Fujfilm X-T3 has more physical controls on it than any modern camera I’ve seen.  There are dials, switches, and buttons where many of the cameras functions can be accessed without ever looking at a menu.  It’s a decidedly analog approach to a very digital camera, and I personally love it.  It’s a classic SLR design (particularly in the optional silver finish that I’m reviewing) that reminds me a lot of my old Pentax Spotmatic film camera.  It took me a few days to discover how to do everything I wanted to do (mostly because every camera manufacturer seems to have their own names and descriptions for certain functions.  Case in point:  Canon calls continuous autofocus “AF Servo”, Sony calls it “AF-C (Autofocus Continuous)”, while Fuji has Continuous AF, broken down into drive modes as CH (Continuous High) and CL (Continuous Low).  Know that you may need to either spend a little time in the manual to learn all the functions, or, at the least, you should watch my video above that demonstrates the function of most of those dials and switches.

There are two “two layer” dials, with a top mode dial (one for ISO, the other for Shutter Speed), with a secondary dial underneath operated by a front facing lever.  Underneath the ISO dial is the drive mode dial, allowing your to quickly choose basic things like Single AF, CH, and CL, but also to switch into video mode, bracketing exposures, panoramas, and more.  Underneath the TV (shutter speed) dial is a secondary dial where you can select the metering mode.  In my review of the Canon EOS R, I complained that it had one dial too few.  Here I’ll take the opposite tack, as I don’t find a dial for controlling shutter speed to be the most efficient approach to selecting shutter speed and thus find it unnecessary. It can only select full stops (you go straight from 125th to 250th second, for example) and bottoms out at 1 second of exposure, which means that the shutter speed that you actually need may not even be accessible via the dial.  The byproduct is that I personally only the dial for three settings:  A (controlling shutter speed via one of the two wheels as per usual), B (Bulb Mode, ditto on selecting the value), and T (shutter speed priority, ditto on selecting the value).

The third main control dial is for Exposure Compensation, and it’s a dial that I’m always happy to have.  It’s the quickest and most logical way to bias exposure in one direction or another if you are shooting in a mode like AV mode, which I often choose if I’m in lighting conditions where visually confirming exposure is more difficult (very bright conditions, for example).  The On/Off dial is located around/under the shutter button, and I personally like this location.  On the EOS R, for example, it is on the left side of the camera, requiring a more intentional activation (since most of the camera operation typically is right handed).  This allows for very quick access, and is more similar to the Sony A7 series.

The shutter button itself also has a very classic style, as it is threaded on the inside to allow for customization (soft touch accessories, for example).  There are two other control wheels, one located beneath the shutter button and the other located at the back near the thumb rest.  These are typically going to be used for shutter speed and aperture value.  What’s unique about these control wheels is that they also can be clicked and serve a dual function as a button as well.  The rear wheel, for example, I currently have assigned to magnify the image when I’m manually focusing.

There is one final small switch located on the front of the camera, and it is a quick access AF Mode switch, which allows you to switch between M (Manual), C (Continuous), or S (Single Shot).  Perhaps the best thing about this switch is that it gives you an easy, dedicated way to access Manual Focus and replaces an AF/MF switch on the lenses themselves.  It works well once your muscle memory extends to remembering that it is there.  What’s also useful is that on the front of the camera near the grip and on top of the camera between the dials are two Custom Function buttons.  The front one (by default) is a quick access to drive mode settings based on your current drive mode.  For example, if I’m in CL (Continuous Low), it opens up the menu setting where I can choose a speed for CL (from 3-5.7FPS).  If I were in CH, it would give me both the mechanical and electronic shutter burst mode options.  The second button by default gives you control options for Eye detection.  Some of those options include selecting a priority for which eye (right or left) that you want focused on.  It’s an interesting mechanic that does give some diversity from Sony’s approach.  

Other physical controls take the form of seven buttons on the back of the camera along with a four-position directional pad (each direction can also be programmed for a different function).  One of these is a dedicated Q (quick menu) button.  This is similar to Canon’s approach, though I prefer Canon’s method of navigation in that menu.  There are a number of options there (16, typically) in the Q Menu, which is good, but when you select one of those options with the tiny joystick also located on the back, the logical (at least for me) choice is to select the option you want to change by hitting either the OK button on clicking the little joystick (clicking it in works similarly to the OK button).  Instead of opening up the options for that choice, however, it okays the choice already made and closes the Q menu. 

Frustrating.

What the camera actually wants you to do is to move over to the desired setting you want to change and then rotate the rear wheel to change the settings (without another dialogue box ever being opened).  I don’t find this a very intuitive process even after spending more than a month with the camera and, more often than not, I’ll click either the joystick or the OK button and have to start the process over again.  What’s interesting about this is that while you cannot use the touchscreen to select in the regular menus, you can tap on the icons for the various options in the Q menu and it will open up a dialogue box and allow to select the option you want (by a tap on it) in the way that you would expect the menu to work all the time.

The X-T3’s touchscreen is somewhere in between the Canon EOS R and the Sony a7R3 in functionality.  It isn’t as responsive or useful as the EOS R (where all menu options can be accessed via touch), but it is much more useful than Sony’s (where no navigation can be done on the touchscreen).  The X-T3 does allow for things like dragging the focus point around with a thumb when you are looking through the viewfinder, and will also allow one to tap an autofocus point and even take a photo through that means.

While Fuji does not use the fully articulating screen like the EOS R, it does improve on the tilting screen by allowing the screen to be tilted both horizontally and to be released on the left side (there’s a small release button there) and tilt vertically.  This solves the problem whereby a tilting screen is useless if used in a vertical/portrait orientation.  It’s a nice touch.

Fuji has a wide range of menu options, and nearly all controls can be customized to the user’s preference.  Every camera maker has a different way of organizing such menus, and so expect to have to learn where everything is if you aren’t a long-time Fuji shooter, but I found the menus fairly logical once I began to learn how Fuji labels things.  Everything is organized under size main groups: (Image Quality, AF/MF, Shooting Settings, Flash Settings, Movie Settings, and Setup).  There is a seventh tab called “My” (My Menu) that will be populated once you select custom functions to be there.  I like to task commonly used settings that I haven’t assigned to a physical control to that area.

An experienced user will probably enjoy the controls of the X-T3 (I do), but, as noted, not everyone will love the sheer number of controls.  It will be intimidating to some.  I view the X-T3 as being designed for those with a fairly strong grasp of camera operation, and probably not designed for beginners.  You need to make a realistic evaluation of where you fall on that spectrum in evaluating if the X-T3 is the camera for you or not.

The natural grip on the X-T3 is nicely shaped, but not particularly robust.  As per usual, a person with bigger hands (like myself) is going to find that their pinky finger has no natural place to go.  Fuji does make a grip extender (the MHG-XT3), which helps with this.  I used an inexpensive alternative from McoPlus (not yet available to the public) which I estimate will cost about a third of the price of the Fuji one and does a great job.

The McoPlus Metal Grip allowed me to have a thicker grip to hang onto along with enough length to give me a place to put my pinky finger.  It is a sleek, tool-less design that mounts in seconds, and in a very useful addition, has Arca-Swiss compatible grooves along the bottom that allow it to quickly be attached to a tripod without the need of a quick-release plate.  It adds a lot of functionality for very little money, and I found that it improved my ergonomic experience.

There is a little port on the front of the camera that is the flash sync port.  It unscrews and pops off, but is also very small, so be careful not to lose it!  On the left side of the camera is a cover that, when popped open, reveals the main connectivity ports, including a micro-HDMI, USB-C, Headphone, and Microphone port.  Charging can be done via the USB-C port, and I was happy to find that even small power-banks would help to quickly charge the camera.  This turned out to be a “life-saver” at an event I was shooting at, as I had put the camera in a bag with it left on, and various jostles had kept it active, so I discovered the battery was nearly dead when I went to shoot in the evening portion of the event.  I ran out to my camera and grabbed the Rescue A6 that I keep in my car.  Within about 20 minutes I was able to charge the camera enough to complete the event with plenty of battery to spare.  Above this is a separate, smaller cover that hides the remote shutter release port.

The right side of the camera houses the card slots.  The X-T3 has two UHS-II compatible SD card slots, which is something a lot of us value for a variety of reasons.  This helps the camera to feel more professional grade.

On the bottom of the camera there is a battery door.  The X-T3 uses the NP-W126S battery pack.   CIPA has rated this battery pack at 390 shots with the X-T3, which I would call conservative.  It doesn’t seem to eat batteries at the same pace as the a6500, but it would be wise to have a spare or two.  There’s also a covered port where one could connect the VG-XT3 vertical battery grip if one required more battery life.  It should be noted, however, that the X-T3 does not require a battery grip to enable faster burst rates like previous cameras.  All of the abilities of the camera are native to it.

The X-T3 sports a OLED electronic viewfinder design with 3.69m-dot resolution and a high 0.75x magnification, specs which rival the Sony a7R3 and exceed those of the a73.  Not a bad place to be for a camera that costs literally half as much as the a7R3.  It has a good refresh rate (100fps) and I saw no blackout under any kind of shooting conditions.  It’s just one more way that the X-T3 exceeds its apparent market position.

The camera body is made of a magnesium alloy and sports quality weather sealing.  There’s a lot of great stuff happening in the build and design of the Fuji X-T3, but the sheer number of physical controls is somewhat polarizing (according to feedback from my audience thus far) and the lack of IBIS is a factor that may sway some to Sony despite Fuji’s other advantages.

Fuji X-T3 Autofocus Performance

Improved autofocus is one of the core areas of improvement with the X-T3.  People’s expectation of autofocus performance of mirrorless bodies has continued to grow, but fortunately the technology seems to be rapidly improving.  The X-T3 has a completely new sensor with higher resolution, and autofocus is actually part of that package.  In Fuji’s words, “The sensor’s design also includes an expanded phase-detection autofocus system, which now has an impressive 2,160,000 points that cover nearly the entire sensor area. This AF system delivers faster, more accurate focusing performance along with low-light sensitivity down to EV -3. Complementing the imaging and focusing capabilities, an updated X-Processor 4 is also featured, and delivers faster focus response for subject tracking and also supports Face- and Eye-Detection AF when working in AF-C mode and when recording video.

The X-Processor 4 also utilizes four CPU units for faster image processing and it benefits overall performance with AF speeds as low as 0.06 sec. 0.17 sec shooting intervals, 0.045 sec shutter lag, and a 0.3 sec start-up time. Quick continuous shooting is possible, up to 11 fps with a mechanical shutter or 30 fps with an electronic shutter and a 1.25x crop, and internal UHD 4K60 video recording with 10-bit output is also supported.

I had a unique opportunity to test these claims as I was simultaneously testing Fuji’s first super-telephoto lens, the XF 200mm F2 OIS (a stunning lens, by the way).  In a sense, Fuji had to develop an incredible autofocusing camera to make this lens worth buying, so I think that the development of these two products had some overlap.  What is certain is that the Fuji X-T3 has a remarkably robust autofocus system on a lot of levels.  As noted, it has the part which frankly I consider mostly marketing, namely the 2,160,000 phase detect points.  Every camera maker has different ways of disseminating this kind of information, but it’s obviously essentially impossible to either verify or debunk this claim, as all of those focus points actually boil down to 425 selectable AF points (which is about all you would ever want packed over an APS-C sensor anyway!). 

The vast majority of the sensor is covered with AF points, and the improved sensitivity of those points means that many of you who have lenses that you’ve used with previous Fuji cameras will probably note a marked improvement in your low light focus.  Because I don’t have a history with Fuji, I can’t tell you the difference.  What I can say, however, is that I had good focus results (though some reduced focus speed, as per usual) in very low light conditions.  It always helps to have an edge on your subject (a contrast point) to aid AF, but I was able to lock accurate focus in what was a 1/17th second exposure at ISO 12,800 – essentially a dark room with a little bit of light spilling in through a doorway.  My focus accuracy in general was nothing short of excellent.

We might as well start with the extreme – high speed tracking.

First of all, in a camera like the X-T3 you have the opportunity to select different AF-C custom modes, though my Fuji expert (one of the Fuji Guys!) feels like the standard “Multi-Purpose” mode often does the best job.  I tried a few different modes but didn’t notice a major difference in the effectiveness.  Still, it’s worth taking a look and trying to match the mode to your priorities for a given sequence.  The other thing that I noticed was that I got much better results when I started off a sequence with focus locked rather than trying to pick it up on a moving target while already taking photos.  I think you are better served by taking a second and locking focus on the moving target before holding the shutter button down and bursting.  

You have the ability to fire off a LOT of frames very quickly.  The limit with a mechanical shutter is 11 FPS (with full continuous autofocus).  This is obviously exceptionally fast, and represents the practical limit of what I would ever need and more.  This is very close to what the Nikon D5 or Canon 5D Mark IV are producing…and at higher resolution to boot!  Where the X-T3 lags behind those sports/action cameras is in the buffer, where the X-T3 can capture about 36 RAW images or 145 JPEGs.  That’s still very useful, but that also means that you can fill the buffer in a little over three seconds!  You can select an 8FPS option to give you a little longer sequence and still plenty of frames.

If you want to go the other direction, however, you can switch to Electronic Shutter mode and jump to 20 FPS with continuous autofocus.  Be ready to nail your subject, though, as your buffer drops to 34 RAW files or 79 JPEGS.  In RAW you’ve got less than 2 seconds before the buffer fills.  But that’s not all!  You can also switch to a Sports Crop Mode (1.25x) that gives you a bit of additional reach but also reduces the size of each file so that you can extend your buffer.  You can select a 10FPS mode that will give you nearly 39 RAW (uncompressed) or 500 JPEGs.  Jumping to 20FPS gives you 34 RAW and 114 JPEGs, and finally a 30FPS option (WOW!!) that gives you 33 RAW frames or 60 JPEGS.  The latter mode is obviously for very unique circumstances, and it will be imperative to time things properly.  Fuji’s guidelines on buffer seem to bear up in testing.

One final plus is that the camera does quite a good job of quickly clearing the buffer without the penalties a lot of Sony cameras have (sitting and waiting!)  The combination of the buffer, frame rate, and an excellent focus system make this a surprisingly capable action camera.

My “torture test” has been tracking our dog (about a 23 pound King Charles Cavalier Spaniel) playing high speed fetch.  It’s a fairly small subject moving at a very high rate of speed, and inferior focus systems just can’t track this combination.  This is compounded in this case by the fact that a 200mm lens at F2 on an APS-C body has a depth of field at 20 feet of less than 3 inches (8 cm or so).  That’s a very small margin for error, and thus it is a very, very demanding scenario. I found that when I started a sequence with focus locked, I was able to have accurate focus on a high percentage of the frames in a burst (and at 11 frames per second on the X-T3, those add up quickly!).  Here’s one such sequence:

You can see that focus remained locked until the subject got too close to the camera.  Here’s another favorite little sequence because of the nature of the shots with my Bengal cat chasing the dog rather than the other way around:

I also had excellent success when tracking a panning sequence, though in many ways this is less demanding as the distance between the subject and the camera changes less significantly.  What this sequence shows, however, is that the focus system effectively keeps from being “distracted” away from the subject.

I’ve done a little post-processing on one of the photos from the burst and added a crop so that you can just how well focused these images actually are:

If I didn’t start off with focus lock and just started a burst, however, my success rate went way down, with the camera/lens often not picking up focus until late in the burst (if at all).  With such a small margin for error (shallow DOF), even a minor miss is pretty obvious.

I don’t doubt that with more familiarity with the combination, I could get even better results.  Still, what I’ve seen is enough for me to know that this will make a very effective action pairing (X-T3 + XF 200) for photographers.  If I can get successful results with the scenario described above, then more typical action (larger target and lower rate of speed) should be very easy.

Moving on to more moderate subjects, I found that I experienced universally excellent autofocus consistency throughout the course of my review period.  You have a number of different focus modes you can access along with multiple ways to interact with those focus points.  You can use your thumb on the touchscreen to move an autofocus point or zone around, or you can use the little joystick to do something similar.  Which is better for you will ultimately be a matter of preference.  As this photo and crop show, however, autofocus is extremely precise.

When I was just learning the camera and the XF 200mm, I was desperate for subjects.  A neighborhood cat had strayed into our yard, and I wanted a subject, so I took a few photos.  There’s nothing particularly wonderful about this photo, but I was curious about the nature of the autofocus accuracy.  I was pleasantly surprised by the intuitive nature of the autofocus system that locked onto the cat even though it was mostly hidden behind a little oak sapling.  I felt like this was an intelligent autofocus moment, and it increased my respect for the abilities of this system.

The X-T3 has its own version of Eye AF (and mentioned in the previous section), which actually allows you to prioritize what eye you want in focus (a clever feature).  While Sony’s Eye AF seems more robust in its ability to lock onto eyes and track them in real time even with exaggerated movement, I actually found the Fuji’s performance just as good for practical purposes.  Let’s start with events, where I found I had a near perfect track record of locking on faces/eyes with either the very expensive XF 200 F2 but also the relatively inexpensive XF 35mm F2.

The same was true when I did portraits with the X-T3.  I had essentially all perfectly-focused images from some portrait sessions with multiple lenses.  The full spread of AF points means that you can essentially put focus anywhere and get accurate results.

I had very little to complain about with the autofocus performance I got from the X-T3.  It handily leaves the nearest competitor that I’m familiar with – the Sony a6500 – in the dust.  The AF is more sophisticated, faster, and has much better controls attached to it.  My final illustration was taken in deep twilight conditions, ISO 6400, with the 200mm F2 + 1.4x TC, so a 280mm F2.8.  Despite the dusk lighting conditions, in shadow, with a long lens/TC combination, autofocus accuracy is nailed.

 

Fuji X-T3 Sensor Performance

I had the opportunity to test the X-T3’s sensor against a number of other mirrorless competitors, including the Canon EOS R and Sony a7R3 (my stand-in for the a73, which I don’t have) and the Sony a6500.  I tested a number of different metrics and came away pretty impressed with what Fuji has done.  Every camera is a balance between different priorities, but I think Fuji has managed to strike a pretty good balance with its new sensor in the X-T3.

From Fuji, “[with] a newly developed sensor, the X-T3 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?  

Fuji X-T3 ISO Performance

First of all, this is my first time testing a camera with a base ISO HIGHER than ISO 100.  I’ve tested a few with a lower-than-100 base ISO, but never a higher one.  This proved a little bit of a challenge for some of my comparisons, since all of my mental maths for calculating proper shutter speeds and stops is based on a base ISO of 100.  Those quandaries aside, I actually didn’t find the higher base ISO affected my day to day shooting very much other than ending up with some different shutter speeds than I’m accustomed to seeing.  The native ISO range of the camera is more limited than any I’ve reviewed in modern history, running from ISO 160 to 12,800, with an expanded range going doing to ISO 80 and moving up to 51,200 on the high end.  I personally don’t ever use expanded ISO range, though from what I’ve heard, Fuji tends towards the conservative end of things when calculating the ISO abilities of its cameras.  After running extensive tests, I will say that I believe the X-T3 to be very competent throughout its native ISO range.  This shot is at ISO 6400:

The best way to see how the X-T3 performs at higher ISO values and how it compares to the other cameras is by watching this “Sensor Wars” episode. 

It would be difficult to disseminate all the information covered in the video, but I’ll hit some of the highlights.  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.  

The most natural competitor for the X-T3 is the Sony a6500.  They looked more similar than different, though I would say that I found the a6500’s noise pattern a little rougher.

Fuji says that the X-Trans sensor produces a more film-grain-like noise pattern.  I’m not sure I can see much of a difference.  Here’s a real world shot at maximum ISO (12,800).  I’ll let you decide for yourself whether that looks like film to you or not.  I’ll include a monochrome to help you pretend that it is film.

Fuji claims that they are delivering “full-frame-equivalent” results with their APS-C X-Trans sensors.  Obviously the recent full frame competitors have a much greater ISO range (up to a native ISO 40,000 + expanded), though, as noted, Fuji does tend to be a little conservative on that front.  When I compare the new EOS R or my Sony a7R3, I do find the size of the pixels/noise less obvious, but neither is it marked difference:

The most obvious difference would be if I downsample the resolution of the a7R3 down to the 6240 x 4160 resolution of the X-T3.

That’s not entirely fair, however, as the X-T3 actually has a great pixel density than the a7R3.  A rough calculation of the pixel density on its 1.53x crop factor sensor means that you would need a full frame camera with around 60 megapixels to have a similar pixel density.  The a7R3 has more megapixels in an absolute sense, but relative to sensor size it actually has less.  Pixel pitch is a measurement of the distance between each individual pixel (from the center of one to the center of the next.  The a7R3 has a pixel pitch of 4.5 µm; the X-T3 has a pixel pitch of 3.74 µm.  To put it more clearly:  the Fuji X-T3 has a tremendous number of pixels packed into a a very small areas.  So, the fact that it does as well as it does in this comparison speaks well of what Fuji has accomplished.  You are able to get highly detailed images with relatively low noise even at higher ISO settings.  Pretty impressive, really.

Fuji X-T3 Dynamic Range Performance

I’ve got a great video episode that both teaches dynamic range and compares the X-T3 to other leading cameras in this area both at base ISO and at ISO 6400.  Watching this will be the best to get the information.

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.  The current leaders in this category are the best sensors from Sony and Nikon (which may be a redundant statement).  The value of good dynamic range is in the margins of photography, as eliminating shadows or recovering blown out highlights doesn’t always produce the better image.  Having good dynamic range (particularly if you shoot RAW), allows you a lot more creative vision over how the final image will turn out.  Take this image, for example.  The original is pretty flat and lifeless.  I’ve had to do this review during some rather poor conditions when the lighting has been mostly grey and flat.  Still, with a few tweaks in Lightroom (perhaps 20 seconds of work), I’ve created an image that is perhaps a little too vivid.  If I were sharing this image I would refine things a little further, but it does a good job of illustrating what dynamic range in a modern camera allows you to do in post.  You can see much more information in both the highlights and shadows, and that’s dynamic range at work.

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.

In my tests, I found that the X-T3 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-T3 does excellent with shadow recovery.

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, highlight recovery lags behind shadow recovery.  I’ve only done a three stop overexposure here, and yet you can still see that there are a few unnaturally bright areas in the global scene where some information has been lost.  This is what we call hotspots.

Taking a look at a pixel level, we can see places like the facade of the Spotmatic where some of the texture has been permanently lost.  Increased dynamic range would allow that to be recovered.

Sony is class-leading in this category, and the main reason is in highlight recovery.  I find other cameras (including the X-T3) competitive in shadow recovery, but where Sony pulls ahead is in highlight recovery.  

Here’s a final little anecdote on this topic.  I was shooting at an event, and a photographer friend was very excited to try the X-T3 and XF 200mm F2 combo.  Unfortunately he didn’t know the controls, so his early shots were, well, pretty brutally underexposed as the event was over and I had been shooting for stage lighting conditions while he was randomly shooting subjects under house lighting.  My first inclination was to just delete the following image, but then I thought, “What a great opportunity to show a real-world example of recovery”.  Unfortunately the image itself is probably not worth recovery, but it does illustrate the point even under far less than ideal lighting conditions (and at ISO 1600 rather than base ISO).  This is a 3-stop recovery and I have done nothing but add exposure and adjust the white balance – no noise reduction of any kind.

The Fujifilm X-T3 is competitive within the segment but not class-leading when it comes to dynamic range.  I would estimate that it sits around 1.5 stops behind the best from Sony.

X-T3 Resolution and Detail

As I’ve previously noted, the X-T3 has a lot of pixels packed into it’s APS-C sensor.  24 MP has been the previous standard limit, though Samsung did push past that to 28 MP in the NX500.  While the rumors ahead of release were that Fuji would do something similar, instead we see that they elected to split the difference at 26 MP.  This is, frankly, where Fuji’s commitment to APS-C over full frame will be a challenge.  We’ve already noted that this 26MP APS-C sensor has a much higher pixel density than the highest resolution full frame camera (at the moment of this release that remains to be the Canon 5DsR with its 50.6MP sensor and pixel pitch of 4.13 µm.  Without some kind of breakthrough technology it will be hard to push resolution much higher on APS-C without introducing too many other compromises.  In the past few camera generations we’ve seen full frame cameras jump from around 22MP to the 50MP of the 5DsR, whereas over that same period APS-C had gone from 18-20MP to as high as 28MP (and that camera is no longer being produced).  Not quite the same giant leap.

All of that aside, however, the Fuji X-T3 is delivering the most detailed APS-C images I’ve personally seen.  There is a tremendous amount of information packed into photos, and I’ve found the resolution perfectly suited to my own work. Look at the amount of information in the fur of our dog (and this is at F2 from that amazing XF 200mm F2).

In many ways resolution has more to do with marketing than reality, as most photographers are sharing photos that are displayed on screens with much, much lower resolution than what even the lowest end mirrorless or DSLR camera is capable of.  My main display is a 4K monitor, but if you did the same calculations for “megapixels” with it’s resolution, it would be only a 8.2MP display.  There are some 8K displays out there now (that’s a 33MP equivalent), but at current sizes you would have to look at them from about 12 inches away to appreciate the difference…and at the moment there aren’t really consumer graphics cards that can drive that kind of resolution.  

Most photos are being viewed at much lower resolutions than what the camera that captured them is capable of producing.  There are some exceptions to this rule.  If you shoot commercial photography, for example, your work might need to be blown up to billboard size.  If you do a lot of large format printing, a very high resolution camera might make a difference.  But for most people in most situations the 26 MP resolution of the X-T3 is going to be plenty.  There’s even a crop mode at 1.25x which gives you a still-useful 16.6 MP resolution but with additional reach (and also enables some of the insane frame rate options mentioned above).  I found that I’m getting the most detailed APS-C images that I’ve gotten before.

Even when using an inexpensive Kamlan 28mm F1.4 that I reviewed on Sony earlier this year (I grabbed a copy of the lens for Fuji X because I like it so much), I was able to get incredible amounts of detail:

I think the amount of detail in images will be very satisfying to end users.  There’s one minor Fuji quirk that may be related to the X-Trans arrangement on the sensor, and that is that sharpening of images needs to be handled a little differently.  When you start to push sharpening on X-T3 images, a pattern almost like tiny brush strokes starts to emerge.  Now, maybe you’ll like this, but I can definitely say that it is different behavior than what I’ve seen before.  I really noticed this when I compared the E-mount version of the Kamlan on the a6500 to the X-mount version on the X-T3 and shot the same sharpness test.  The two images sharpen very differently in Lightroom (look closely to see the pattern).

There are articles out there that explain techniques to minimize this behavior if it bothers you.

X-T3 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 Fuji portrait in Classic Chrome (with some tweaks).

The color from the X-T3 seems closer to Canon than Sony, from what I can tell, but it doesn’t handle identically.  I find that you have to learn how to process color from each camera maker (and sometimes down to the individual camera).  After nearly a year with the Sony a7R3, I find that I’m much happier with the color I can get out of it…but I had to learn how to handle the color in post.  I did that by developing custom profiles over time.

Getting good color out of Fuji is less complicated, though I don’t feel that I’ve yet maximized the potential of what I will be able to do.  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

I feel like I’ve been able to develop a feel from Fuji color fairly quickly, and, while I’m not as familiar with it yet as I am with Canon (and to a lesser extent, Sony), I’m very happy with the images I’ve been able to get from it.

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-T3 might be a great choice.  It’s certainly got a lot of customization available for influencing the output.

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.

Fuji X-T3 Video

If you’ve read this far, then you’ve probably figured out that the X-T3 is definitely a feature-packed camera.  The same applies to the video front.  Fuji says this, “More than a stills camera, the X-T3 offers an enticing array of video capabilities, including internal UHD 4K60p video recording at 4:2:0 10-bit, as well as 4K60p 4:2:2 10-bit via HDMI output, both at up to 400 Mb/s—and simultaneous external and internal recording is possible. DCI 4K30 and Full HD 1080p120 recording is also possible, and video files can be saved using either MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 or HEVC/H.265 compressions, and 4K. Greatly benefitting overall video performance, the speed of the quad-CPU X-Processor 4 enables fast read speeds of 17 ms when recording 4K60 video, which helps to reduce rolling shutter distortion when filming moving subjects.

In addition to the supported 10-bit color depth, the X-T3 also includes the F-Log gamma setting, which provides a flat picture for use in advanced color grading software during editing. This maximizes the potential dynamic range in difficult scenes and image adjustments can be made, as well, to highlight tone, shadow tone, color, and sharpness. When working in F-Log, an updated noise reduction algorithm is available along with 4K inter-frame noise reduction, and the Minimum sensitivity has been lowered to ISO 640 to suit working in a broader range of scene types.”

Bottom line is that Fuji has nailed the specifications.  From the bitrates to the frame rates (4K60!) to the inclusion of F-Log, there are a host of choices here.  My experience with the video is that the X-T3 is capable of producing beautiful footage either with the standard film emulations or with F-Log.  You can see some footage in the final video review.  

I’ve got two criticisms on the video front.  One will apparently be solved via firmware update soon, according to this article.  Currently the X-T3 has a 4GB file limit, after which the camera instantly starts a new file.  For many people that’s not a big deal, but I use these cameras to record longer format clips for my YouTube Channel (in 4K), and I had four separate files after one of my reviews that I filmed on the X-T3.  It just creates more work for me, as I synchronize audio in post, so having to do that four times rather than once creates more steps for me.  The V2.0 firmware is supposed to eliminate that limitation (along with introducing some other new specs). 

The second issue that I saw may or may not be related to the two lenses that I had on hand to test with.  I found that focus transitions during video AF weren’t as smooth as what I would like.  There was at times a visible stepping instead of a smooth transition.  It appears that this is an area where Fuji lags a bit behind Canon and Sony.

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.

Conclusion

The FUJIFILM X-T3 is, quite simply, the most versatile, well-rounded APS-C camera of any type that I’ve ever seen…mirrorless or otherwise.  It may be the most compelling reason to NOT go full-frame out there, particularly if you value the smaller/lighter philosophy.  Fuji has developed a wonderful ecosystem of lenses to support their cameras, and without question they have the best selection of higher-grade, better performing lenses designed specifically for APS-C out there.  Most of these lenses are priced reasonably when compared to the full frame equivalents for other systems.  The X-T3 has a great focus system, excellent image quality, strong sensor performance, and impressive frame rates both for action shooting and for filming.  I’ve got only one serious complaint, and that is Fuji’s choice to not include IBIS (In-Body-Image-Stabilization) and cede that major advantage to Sony.  Some may be a bit daunted by the massive amounts of physical controls, though I personally enjoy that aspect of the camera, and one always has the option to utilize the Quick or Regular menus to make changes instead.  Still, I think some would fear dials and settings getting changed and then not knowing how to “fix” things.

There are very few images you can’t get with with the X-T3, as both its focus system and sensor are capable of a lot.  It’s price (right under $1500 USD) makes it feel like a bargain when you consider all that it has to offer.  If you want a small, light, versatile camera, look no further than the Fujfilm X-T3.  It might just make you this happy:

Pros:

  • Beautiful build with a classic sensibility
  • Excellent focus system that exceeds anything from Fuji previously
  • Extremely fast frame rates with continuous autofocus
  • Tracking ability works well
  • 26MP X-Trans sensor produces good detail, ISO performance, and dynamic range
  • Great video specs, including 4K60P options
  • Huge amounts of customization available for images and controls
  • Solid ergonomics
  • Great lens selection
  • Performance available without the need for any accessories
  • Flushes buffers quickly

Cons:

  • No IBIS
  • Some may find number of physical controls overwhelming
  • Battery life is average at best
  • Video AF transitions not as smooth as Canon or Sony

 

Gear Used:

Purchase the FUJIFilm X-T3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Purchase the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XF 35mm F2 @ B&H Photo  | Amazon  | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK  | Amazon Germany  | 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)

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

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Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

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Keywords:  Fujifilm, X-T3, Fuji X-T3, X-T3 Review, Fuji X-T3 Review, Fujinon, Fuji 200mm F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fujinon 200mm, Fujinon 200 F2, , Dustin Abbott, 200mm, F2, F/2, XF, OIS, WR, Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS, Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, 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.

Fujinon XF 35mm F2 Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

November 30th, 2018

I’ve just started a brand new partnership with FUJIFilm where I will start to spend some time reviewing some of their products, and I’ve started with the newest and brightest – their X-T3 Flagship camera body and the monster XF 200mm F2 OIS lens.  That’s a rather extreme combination for doing my basic sensor reviews, so I asked for a solid prime lens to be sent along for that purpose.  I chose the XF 35mm F2, and it is a little lens that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by in a number of ways.  It’s impressively sharp, delivers nice color and bokeh, and is genuinely useful at a very reasonable price.  My review of it will come after I wrap up covering the new release “rush” over the next couple of weeks.

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Photos of the Fujinon XF 35mm F2

Photos taken with the Fujinon XF 35mm F2

Gear Used:

Purchase the FUJIFilm X-T3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Purchase the Fujinon XF 35mm F2 @ B&H Photo  | Amazon  | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK  | Amazon Germany  | 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)

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

B&H Logo

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Check me out on:

My Patreon:  | Google+: | Facebook: | Twitter: | Flickr: | 500px: | Sign Up for My Newsletter :





Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords:  Fujinon, Fuji XF, Fuji 35, Fujinon 35, XF, Fujinon XF 35mm, F2 F/2, Fuji, Fuji 35 review, Fujinon 35 Review, Fujinon 35 F2 Review, Dustin Abbott, Fujifilm, X-T3, Fuji X-T3, X-T3 Review, Fuji X-T3 Review, Fujinon, Review, Hands On, Video Test, Sharpness, Autofocus, CA, Video AF, XF 35mm F2, Lens, Comparison, Test, Dustinabbott.net, Sample Images, Sample Video

 

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.

FUJIFilm X-T3 Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

November 19th, 2018

I’ve just started a brand new partnership with FUJIFilm where I will start to spend some time reviewing some of their products, and I’ve started with the newest and brightest – their X-T3 Flagship camera body and the monster XF 200mm F2 OIS lens.  Fuji has invested their development into APS-C (and Medium Format) and skipped over full frame altogether.  I’ll be investigating if this was a good choice or not, looking at the image quality, sensor performance, and autofocus performance of the Fujifilm X-T3 along with a few lenses (I’ve also got the XF 35mm F2 on hand).  In this gallery I’ve got a variety of photos of the camera along with photos taken with each of these lenses.  Check back often for new photos and information as my review deadline approaches.

Check me out on:  My Patreon:  | Google+: | Facebook: | Twitter: | Flickr: | 500px: | Sign Up for My Newsletter :

Photos of the FUJIFilm X-T3

Photos taken with the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS WR

Photos taken with the Fujinon 200m F2 + 1.4x

Photos taken with the Fujinon XF 35mm F2

Photos taken with the Kamlan 28mm F1.4

Gear Used:

Purchase the FUJIFilm X-T3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Purchase the Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 
Purchase the Fujinon XF 35mm F2 @ B&H Photo  | Amazon  | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK  | Amazon Germany  | 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)

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

B&H Logo

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Check me out on:

My Patreon:  | Google+: | Facebook: | Twitter: | Flickr: | 500px: | Sign Up for My Newsletter :





Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords:  Fujifilm, X-T3, Fuji X-T3, X-T3 Review, Fuji X-T3 Review, Fujinon, Fuji 200mm F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fuji 200 F2, Fujinon 200mm, Fujinon 200 F2, , Dustin Abbott, 200mm, F2, F/2, XF, OIS, WR, Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS, Fuji 200 F2 OIS Review, 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.