Fujifilm X-T2 - Review 2022

The Fujifilm X-T1 made many SLR owners accept notation of mirrorless systems as serious options for demanding photographic subjects, including fast-moving action. Its successor, the X-T2 ($1,599, body only), is an even better camera. It ups the sensor resolution significantly to 24MP, packs an incredible autofocus organisation that tracks moving targets at 8fps, and records video in 4K. It excels in both lab testing and real-globe use, and displaces the older Olympus OM-D E-M1 equally our Editors' Choice in the loftier-end mirrorless category.

Design and Controls

The 10-T2 is styled like a slimmed-down SLR. Its viewfinder is centered and slightly elevated backside the lens mount, and the omission of a mirror box decreases the distance between the lens mount and sensor, reducing the overall dimensions of the body in kind. Information technology measures 3.vi by 5.2 by 1.ix inches (HWD) and weighs just ane.1 pounds without a lens. There'southward no in-body flash, but a clip-on external flash is included. Fujifilm offers the X-T2 in black or a Graphite Silver Edition, simply exist enlightened that the latter carries a $200 premium.

If y'all adopt a beefier camera, y'all can add together the VPB-XT2 Vertical Power Booster Grip ($329.99). The grip holds two additional batteries—they have to be purchased separately for $69.99 each. It can triple the life of the X-T2 from a CIPA rated 340 images to i,020 when set to Normal fashion. The grip likewise adds a Boost mode that improves overall functioning—more than on that afterward. And, if you think that charging three batteries can be a hassle, the grip doubles every bit a battery charger when plugged into the wall.

Fujifilm has done a blindside-up job in designing the Ten-T2. Its controls are well idea out and comfy to use. The forepart includes a control dial and a customizable Fn2 button, both accessible via your right mitt. Fn2 adjusts Drive settings by default, only similar all the customizable buttons can be remapped via the bill of fare organisation. A focus toggle switch (Single, Continuous, Manual) sits at the bottom corner; you'll use your left mitt to suit it when holding the X-T2 to your eye.

On the top plate, to the left of the hot shoe, there's a locking ISO control dial. It has an A (automatic) setting, with manual aligning available in third-stop increments across the native ISO 200 through ISO 12800 range and High (ISO 25600) and Low (ISO 100) expanded options bachelor as well. The Bulldoze fashion control punch is integrated into its base, offer options for Moving-picture show, Bracketing (BKT), Continuous High (CH), Continuous Low (CL), Unmarried (S), Double Exposure, Avant-garde Filters (ADV), and Panorama.

Angled on the left of the EVF is a diopter control to accommodate its focus to match your eyesight. On the right is the View Mode push button, which switches between the EVF, rear LCD, and an eye sensor that automatically switches between the two.

On the right side of the tiptop plate you'll detect a Shutter Speed dial, which also features a locking pattern with a middle button to ready it to plow or remain in ane position. It is adjustable from one second through 1/1,8000-2d, with the wink sync speed (1/250-sec) marked with an 10; A (Automatic), B (Seedling), and T (Timed) exposures are also available, the latter of which is used for exposures longer than one second.

At its base is the Metering control dial. Information technology has options for Spot, Center-Weighted, Multi, or Average. Multi is the most intelligent, every bit information technology analyzes the composition, colors, and brightness of a scene in lodge to determine the proper exposure.

The lone programmable button on the the top plate is Fn1, set to control Face and Eye Detection settings by default. It'southward joined by the On/Off switch, which surrounds the shutter release. The release is threaded and then it tin can accept a soft release push button or a standard mechanical cablevision release. At that place'south also a defended dial to prepare EV compensation. It has marks for -3 through +3EV in third-stop increments, as well as a C setting to transfer EV control to the camera's on-screen carte du jour system for times when more than than a 3-stop adjustment is required.

The Delete and Play buttons sit side by side on the rear, just to the left of the eyecup. To its right you'll find the AE-Fifty button, rear control dial, and AF-L button. The correct rear houses an ergonomic thumb rest, with the Q push, focus indicate selection joystick, and four-way management control with the Card/OK push at its center, and the Disp/Back button running in a column from top to bottom, between the thumb rest and rear display.

Each direction of the iv-way pad is a programmable Fn button, with Fn3 at the 12-o'clock position. Running clockwise the other buttons are Fn5 (White Remainder), Fn6 (Performance), and Fn4 (Film Simulation). The focus joystick is a welcome addition to the Ten-T2—the small nub allows you to move the active focus with ease when the focus area is set to something other than Wide.

Pressing Q brings up an on-screen menu of additional settings. From here you can arrange the focus area, white balance, file quality, and attribute ratio settings, enable film simulation modes, optimize JPG output settings, toggle Face Detection, set the self-timer, command the flash settings, and adjust screen effulgence. In that location's also a Custom setting that lets you salve upwardly to eight banks of customized camera settings so yous can hands switch between favored configurations—prepare ane for color photography and another for blackness-and-white, for example. Additionally, if you lot're not happy with the options in the Q menu, you tin change what's displayed by making a dive into the carte arrangement.

The optional Vertical Power Booster Grip duplicates some of the on-body controls for use when shooting in portrait orientation. It includes a shutter release likewise as Fn2, Q, AE-50, and AF-L buttons, as well as front end and rear control dials.

The rear LCD is 3 inches in size with a ane,040k-dot resolution. It's very crisp, and its effulgence is easily additional for use in outdoor conditions. The LCD features a dual-hinge mount that makes it possible to tilt it to face upward, down, or to the correct. Information technology'south not quite the same range equally the vari-bending LCD used by the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, which swings out from the trunk to face straight forward through straight downwardly. The X-T2's display too omits a bear on interface, so yous can't tap on a function of the epitome to set focus, but the small focus joystick ameliorates that shortcoming.

Yous can as well bring the photographic camera to your eye and frame shots with the EVF. The viewfinder is i of the largest and sharpest you lot tin go in a mirrorless camera. It has a 0.77x magnification charge per unit, on par with full-frame SLRs, refreshes at 60fps, and squeezes ii.36 million dots into its 0.five-inch frame. If y'all add the Vertical Power Booster Grip and utilize its Boost mode, the refresh rate improves to 100fps.

Film Simulation, Wi-Fi, and Connections

Like other Fujifilm X cameras, the X-T2 includes a number of moving-picture show emulation modes. If you want to requite your JPG shots a more than analog look, yous can opt for Provia (Standard), Velvia (Vivid), Astia (Soft), Archetype Chrome (Kodachrome), Pro Negative How-do-you-do Contrast, Pro Negative Standard Contrast, Acros (Black-and-White), Monochrome, and Sepia options. Grain level is adjustable, with no boosted grain, weak grain, and strong grain options bachelor. And if you lot shoot in Acros or Monochrome mode you lot tin utilise a digital Yellow, Green, or Red color filter. My typical preference for shooting with the X-T2 is to use Classic Chrome or Acros with a Yellow filter applied, both with strong grain, but your mileage may vary.

The X-T2 features built-in Wi-Fi. This feature makes information technology possible to transfer images to your Android or iOS device for piece of cake online sharing. The free Fuji Cam Remote application provides ample manual control and the ability to tap on your phone's screen to set a focus point. Information technology also makes it possible to button images from the camera to your phone's photographic camera roll, or to browse your camera'southward retentivity bill of fare via the phone and pull images wirelessly.

The camera's body is weather resistant, so you can utilize it in all types of environments when pairing it with a lens with the WR designation. A flap on the left side protects the data connection ports—micro USB 3.0, micro HDMI, 3.5mm microphone, and ii.5mm remote. The memory card door is on the correct, housing ii UHS-II SD/SDHC/SDXC slots. The front plate houses a PC Sync socket for studio flash systems. Adding the Vertical Power Booster Grip adds a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Operation and Autofocus

The 10-T2 is congenital for speed. It starts, focuses, and fires in most 0.8-2nd, an excellent mark for a mirrorless camera. For comparing, the Sony Alpha 6300 requires one.8 seconds.

Autofocus is very quick, with the X-T2 locking and firing in just nether 0.1-second when paired with the XF 23mm F2 R WR. In dim light the focus slows to about 0.three-second. In burst style information technology shoots at about 8fps, a rate information technology tin manage for 29 Raw+JPG, 36 Raw, or 403 JPG shots when paired with a SanDisk 280MBps retentivity card.

Come across How We Test Digital Cameras

The 8fps flare-up rate is maintained when switching to continuous autofocus (AF-C). The 10-T2 enjoys an excellent striking rate in terms of focus in our standard examination, in which we shoot an object moving toward and away from the lens. It also delivered splendid focus in our field tests.

The focus system is extremely customizable. For the well-nigh part I used it at its default Multi Purpose way, but it as well has settings for shooting subjects when obstacles may enter the frame, for subjects that accelerate and decelerate while in motion, for subjects that may suddenly enter the frame, and for subjects that motility erratically while irresolute speed. Each offers customizable tracking and speed tracking sensitivity settings, as well as a setting to adjust how often the focus expanse is changed.

If you lot opt to add the Vertical Power Booster Grip, the 10-T2 becomes a faster camera. This is due to Boost manner, which draws power from all iii batteries simultaneously, giving the camera the free energy it needs to run just a scrap faster. The focus speed is cut to about 0.05-second, the viewfinder refreshes more chop-chop, and the burst charge per unit jumps to 11fps. It can go on that pace for 24 Raw+JPG, xxx Raw, or 94 JPG shots. It doesn't manage 11fps when tracking subjects, instead dropping to 9.6fps in our tests, only still capturing images in crisp focus at that charge per unit.

Speed and accuracy are not the just strengths of the X-T2'due south autofocus system. Its area of coverage stretches almost the entirety of the epitome sensor. Focus coverage reaches from edge to edge, only omitting narrow strips at the acme and bottom of the frame. This isn't something you often see in SLRs, with only the premium Nikon D500 offer a similar surface area of coverage.

Image Quality

The Ten-T2 sports a 24MP image sensor with an X-Trans colour filter. Fuji's proprietary X-Trans pattern uses a more complex colour filter assortment than the Bayer sensors that nearly other cameras employ. Fujifilm states that this gives racket (grain) a more flick-like appearance, and improves overall image quality at higher ISO settings. The design also minimizes the appearance of colour moiré, while at the same time eliminating the need for an optical low laissez passer filter (OLPF)—the result is crisper images than cameras that use an OLPF.

I used Imatest to run across how well the X-T2 does throughout its ISO range. When shooting JPG images at default settings, it keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 6400, which is a solid result. A close expect at photos shows at that place is a bit of item loss when pushing the photographic camera that far. You can shoot the X-T2 through ISO 1600 without experiencing any noticeable loss of image fidelity. At ISO 3200 some slight smudging of fine detail is visible, and merely a bit more blur is visible at ISO 6400. There'south a little bit more blur at ISO 12800, only it's not detrimental. ISO 25600 is just a little chip softer, just I'd still feel comfy using the photographic camera at that farthermost when shooting JPGs.

You can eke out more than item at loftier settings by shooting in Raw format. Fine details are visible through ISO 6400, an excellent result. Grain erases some very fine lines at ISO 12800, and gives photos a rough appearance. Image quality is a little rougher, just notwithstanding quite strong, at ISO 25600. The 10-T2 is ane of the best APS-C format digital cameras for shooting at the high sensitivities you lot'll use in dim lighting.

Video

The X-T2 shoots video at upwards to 4K quality. Clips are limited to 10 minutes—xxx minutes with the Vertical Power Booster Grip. You can shoot at 30 or 24fps in 4K. In both cases the frame is slightly cropped at the left and right, and the jelly-like rolling shutter event is axiomatic when panning or shooting subjects that move from left to right or vice versa. There's no in-body stabilization, so if you lot're working with a lens that doesn't include its own stabilization system, you'll find that handheld footage is noticeably shaky.

The proficient news is that the 4K footage is very crisp, and the Ten-T2's autofocus arrangement delivers smooth, pleasant focus transitions. And you can apply any of the film simulation looks that are available in nonetheless shooting to video. For scenes that don't take fast-moving action and when working from a tripod, the X-T2'due south 4K capability is quite strong.

But if 4K recording is a big function of your workflow, yous're likely going to be served amend by another mirrorless camera. Panasonic'southward GH5 is on the horizon and is set to offer the well-nigh robust professional suite of video features of any mirrorless camera. Of models currently shipping, the Olympus OM-D Due east-M1 Mark II and full-frame Sony Alpha 7S Ii both deliver better 4K footage and both offer the do good of in-camera stabilization.

Opting to shoot in 1080p—which allows you lot to up the frame rate to 60fps if desired—delivers an uncropped frame that doesn't exhibit the rolling shutter effect. As long as you pair the camera with a stabilized lens or use a tripod, its 1080p output volition not disappoint.

The internal mic picks up voices clearly, albeit with a lot of background noise. Equally always, an external mic is recommended for serious projects, and the 10-T2 has a standard microphone input.

Conclusions

The X-T2 is the best mirrorless camera that Fujifilm has made to date. Its autofocus system is superb, and information technology's backed by excellent image quality and a strong lens system. The photographic camera itself has a smart control scheme, and only feels like a natural fit in your hands. And when paired with a WR lens, you lot can utilize it well-nigh any type of weather condition.

You lot'll get a chip more performance out of the X-T2 if you opt to add the Vertical Power Booster Grip, a worthy investment for photographers who tend to shoot fast-moving action. If you're pairing the trunk with 1 of the larger lenses in the X family like the XF 100-400mm f/4.5-v.vi R LM OIS WR, yous'll find that the extra heft added by the grip improves the overall residue of the system.

As stiff as the Ten-T2 is for nevertheless imaging, it's not perfect. Information technology omits in-body stabilization, which is a feature that's now commonplace amidst tiptop-tier mirrorless bodies—it'southward supported past competing models including the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Marking II, Panasonic GH5, and Sony Alpha 6500. Fujifilm does put stabilization in most of its zoom lenses, just none of its electric current prime number options include it. That'due south peculiarly a business for videographers, equally image stabilization goes a long way to steadying handheld footage.

Despite the lack of in-body IS, and some rolling shutter issues with 4K video footage, we're naming the X-T2 our Editors' Choice for premium mirrorless cameras. It doesn't shoot as quickly as the E-M1 Marking II, but information technology surpasses information technology in image quality, handles ameliorate, and costs $400 less. It'due south a fiddling more expensive than the $1,400 Sony Alpha 6500, but offers dual card slots and has a stronger dedicated APS-C lens system behind it. If you're in the market for a new mirorrless camera, and desire a model that doesn't cede anything when information technology comes to paradigm quality, command, or speed, the X-T2 is your best selection.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/cameras/14119/fujifilm-x-t2

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