I can’t believe I haven’t written anything here since April. It’s been a roller coaster couple of months with the arrival of our new granddaughter, Nellie. A complicated delivery, and prolonged hospital stay for mum and daughter and time flew by.
So, to photography. Last week I picked up the new Fujifilm X-Half. After a few days here on Anglesey I’ve gathered some thoughts. I don’t have the technical knowledge to write reviews, so if you want a qualified review, head over to DP Review. This is just my experience as an amateur.
I should start this by saying I knew this wasn’t comparable to my X100 cameras, or my Ricoh GR3s’. I knew this would be more a of a family snaps style camera.
Why did I buy this camera? I like the idea of a film like work flow. The film mode should make it so you choose a film sim and set the number of exposures you want to take. Then the camera locks the user out of changing any settings other than aperture (the camera has aperture priority, or auto modes). Once you’ve taken the full roll of film, you ‘develop’ your exposures in the app.
So far, I’ve tried three times to use this experience, twice it’s failed and gone back into normal shooting mode. The one time it worked, I found the ‘developing’ process an unnecessary gimmick. It takes a while, and serves no purpose. If you could change the look of the final image during processing, then that would be fun. It would be educational tool on how film development works.
How does it work as a camera? It’s ok. But, just, ok. The most frustrating thing is the lag. There’s a seriously annoying lag from pressing the shutter to the ‘click’ of the image being captured. This needs addressing in an update. My wife took several photos and she couldn’t tell if the camera had worked.
The rear screen is very poor in any shade of daylight. You can’t see it at all. Which, isn’t an issue if you use the optical viewfinder to compose, but in film mode you can’t see how many exposures you have left, or if it has moved to the next frame (when it works).
The images aren’t great. I expected the same or slightly better quality than my iPhone 16. My expectations were too high. My iPhone is infinitely better. There’s no RAW, but I knew that before I bought it. Fuji’s jpegs are generally brilliant, so I didn’t mind. Maybe it’s the one inch sensor? Sony did a decent job on one inch sensors though.
A lot of this wouldn’t really be an issue IF this camera didn’t cost £699. If I’m honest, this acts and feels like a toy camera. It should be called ‘my First Fuji’.
If I was asked to name a price to buy this, I’d say £100 a most. Do I feel a bit ripped off? Absolutely.
Out of curiosity I looked at what I could have bought for £699.
– A Canon EOS RS100 with an 18-55mm, for only £529
– A Lumix TZ99 for £469
– A Sony ZV1A for £649
That’s just three of a much bigger selection. I had to stop looking because the more I looked, the more I felt like I’d wasted my money.
If you’re looking for a small, fun camera then look at a second hand Lumix GM1. You can get one with a decent lens for less than this.
Can the issues in the X-Half be fixed? Maybe an update can fix the lag and the film mode failures. Maybe it could improve the final images. The screen will always be rubbish.
I’m tempted to sell if before the world realises how bad this camera is. Fuji, I expected a lot more from you.
Update; I ended up selling this camera to MPB, at quite a hefty loss. Lesson learned? Probably not.
2nd Update. I changed my mind and kept it. Maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance.
3rd Update, it’s gone. Hated it.
Shaun Madill Photography 