Even though Nikon has been the company in charge of creating my workhouse cameras for the last 12 years or so, I've actually had another camera maker as my favourite when it comes to my own, personal photography. From the X-E1 to the X-T20, the X-Pro 2 I picked up a Fujifilm X-T3 at the end of 2018. After having it as my companion for most private trips I made since then, as well as countless casual walks around Tokyo, I have finally gotten around to share my thoughts about this camera with the rest of the world.
Controls and Haptics
Let's start with what I would consider is the most noteworthy aspect of this camera, and in extension, why I think Fujifilm is such an exciting camera manufacturer. The design and haptics of their cameras in general. Since the launch of the Fuji X-system, with the First generation Fuji X100 back in 2011, it has been obvious that Fujifilm has chosen a different approach to camera design compared to most other major manufacturers. Fujifilm decided that an old-school approach with big and clearly marked physical dials for most of the essential settings, like aperture and shutter speed. Instead of relying on looking on LCD screens to verify what settings the camera is currently set to, an approach that most camera manufacturers use today, a glance at the body itself quickly reveals those details. Fujifilm has stayed true to this approach ever since, a choice that has made countless photographers, including yours truly, very happy ever since.
A few iterations of design changes have taken place since then, but in large, the basic controls of the Fujifilm X-T3 are the same as they've been on its prequels. There's a nice clicky wheel on top of the camera where the shutter speed can be set in full stops, and by using the rear thumbwheel, more granular changes can be made.
Most X-series lenses have a physical clicky aperture ring, and for those lenses that lack one -- Primarily the entry-level lenses -- there's another wheel on the front of the camera that is used to set the aperture instead.
ISO too is set by a physical dial on top of the camera; just like the shutter speed dial, it has a lock button that is used to prevent accidental changes. Another slightly smaller wheel on top of the camera sets exposure compensation. The shutter button is threaded for an old-school cable release or screw-in soft release shutter buttons -- A feature that I've come to enjoy more than I would have expected, as it just further helps to make the camera a joy to use.
On the rear of the camera, you'll find buttons for both AE-L and AF-L, as well as both a joystick for setting the focus point, a four-way controller as well as buttons for entering the quick menu and a display settings button. On the left of the viewfinder, there's a play button and a delete button as well.
A large portion of these buttons, including all the four directional buttons, AE-L and AF-L can be customized extensively. Two additional custom buttons are located on the camera as well. One of these is on top of the camera and the other on the front of the body, next to the lens mount.
While the number of buttons might seem daunting at first, it means that few users should find the camera lacking in the customizability department. After setting everything up, all but the most demanding users should be able to customize the camera to their liking.
All the buttons are clicky and have enough tactile feedback to make them easy to use, even when wearing thinner gloves. But the relatively compact size of the body means that they are not as big as on some full-frame cameras. Shooters who often work in harsh conditions where thicker kinds of gloves are necessary might want to look elsewhere.
And oh, The high-resolution LCD on the back of the camera body is touch-enabled as well, and allows for even more customization options, as swipes in various directions on the screen can also be customized and used in the same way as the custom buttons.
The viewfinder on the X-T3 is one of the best ones I've ever used. It's big, bright and has a 3.69 million dot resolution, high enough to make manual focus relatively easy, especially when factoring in the vast array of focus aids that can be activated. By activating a "boost mode", the refresh rate of the viewfinder bumps up to 100fps, which makes everything super smooth, but it doesn't look bad at the standard setting of 60fps either. In terms of shooting experience, I found the frame rate difference to make a smaller difference than expected.
In summary, the controls and haptics of the Fujifilm X-T3 are among the best I've experienced. They make shooting with this camera genuinely fun and inspiring, and this is the main reason why I like Fujis cameras so much. Even though the pure image quality can't challenge my full-frame Nikon cameras, the Fujifilm is just so much more enjoyable to shoot with, which is why this has been the camera of choice for my photography.
Lenses
Fuji has been one of the top lens manufacturers for nearly half a century by now. While most of their lens manufacturing business revenue comes from high-end broadcast TV and other high-end equipment. This experience is tapped into when creating consumer-grade lenses too, something which X-system users certainly also benefit from. The quality of the lenses released for the system throughout the years is impressive, and the selection is now mature enough to cover the needs of most photographers, with Tilt-Shift lenses being the only glaring omission by now.
Most noteworthy is the impressive line-up of high-quality prime lenses. These cover most of the focal lengths we are used to, from 21mm to 200mm equivalent. Most of the most common focal lengths, like 24mm, 35mm and 50mm equivalent, even comes in two different flavours, one bright 1.4 variant as well as a 2.0 (or in the case of 24mm, 2.8) variant. The lenses are all well designed, particularly noteworthy is the consistently high build quality, and they come with sensible price tags as well.
I won't dig deeper into the lens ecosystem in this review, as it's a topic deep enough for its own set of articles. But for the sake of writing this review, I spent a weekend using the standard zoom that the camera often comes bundled with, the stabilized 18-55/2.8-4. It's a high-quality zoom without any apparent flaws. Image quality is solid throughout the zoom range, and the metal exterior means that build quality leaves little to be desired as well. This lens, while getting a bit long in the tooth by now, is still a definite step up from most other kit zooms, and comes highly recommended. It's small size and weight means that it balances well on the X-T3, more so than the "professional" 16-55/2.8 which omits the stabilizer in favour of a few more millimetres of with and an extra stop of light at the far end.
I think that the smaller sibling makes much more sense. The stabilizer is very useful, especially when shooting at night, I found that it gives me a high ratio of sharp shots down to shutter speeds as low as ¼ of a second on the wide end, when combined with the electronic shutter.
Image Quality
Fuji X-series cameras have their own unique colour filter array dubbed "X-Trans". According to the manufacturer, it's supposed to improve image quality by lowering noise and moire, despite lacking a low-pass filter. Personally, I think the entire X-trans hype is nothing more than a marketing stunt, and see it more as a drawback, as the unconventional filter array leads to lowered performance when editing the files in Lightroom. Although software support is much better now than back in 2014 when I got my first X-trans camera, I still notice a performance difference in Lightroom when comparing responsiveness and export speeds with files from conventional Bayer sensor cameras. The difference is not huge, but it's nonetheless still there.
Other than the editing performance, however, I see little to complain about when it comes to the 26-megapixel files from the X-T3. Image quality is as good as it gets in the APS-C world, which I still think is quite a noticeable step down compared to full-frame or medium format when making side-by-side comparisons. But for what it is, this camera performs well in the image quality department. The slight decrease in base ISO, from 200 to 160, is welcome, and perhaps a more meaningful upgrade in the sensor department than the minimal bump in resolution from 24 to 26 megapixels.
Fujifilm has also got themselves a large number of fans thanks to their JPG processing engine, which includes a handful of "film simulation modes", that purposely mimics the colour rendition of several classic analogue film stocks made by the company. While I always shoot raw, this functionality isn't applicable for me, other than it gives the preview images on the back of the screen a distinct look that generally looks quite pleasing.
For JPG-shooters, however, I can imagine that this feature can be quite a big deal, potentially even a reason to pick a Fuji camera over any other brand, as the JPGs do indeed look quite lovely straight out of the camera.
Video Quality
Another powerful feature of the Fujifilm X-T3 is the video features. This camera features 4K video capture at 60 fps, which a stand out feature even today, nearly two years later. It also offers log recording, both via HDMI in 10-bits or directly to an SD-card in 8-bits. Bitrates up to 400mbits are supported when recording internally, and there's a choice between the newer H.265-format as well, which is supposed to lead to even more efficient use of that high bitrate, at the cost of editing performance.
While I'm not primarily a videographer, I do get requests for video from time to time and I also run a YouTube channel called Tokyo Explorer, where I’m filming walks around Tokyo and elsewhere. And I have been very pleased with the results I've been getting out of the X-T3 so far. It's certainly much better in the video department than my Nikon Z7, a full-frame camera that costs more than twice as much.
Videographers should be pleased to learn that there are both headphone out and mic in jacks on the X-T3. Image output is limited to the flimsy micro HDMI standard. Still, at least the cover over the video-centric I/O can be removed easily, making mounting the X-T3 on a cage or some other sort of video rig, a breeze.
Autofocus
So what's the X-T3 like to shoot with? In short, it's delightful, and I find very little to complain over. Fujifilm has vastly upped previous weak spots, such as their autofocus algorithms since the release of the first generation X-series cameras, and today I would say that they are among the best when it comes to both face- and eye-tracking. The continuous autofocus modes are reliable in most situations, and having phase-detect points that cover even the extreme corners of the viewfinder is undoubtedly a step up compared to what most traditional DSLRs can offer.
While Autofocus was already good when the X-T3 was released in 2018, It's worth noting that Fuji has improved the autofocus capabilities even further through subsequent firmware updates. At the time of writing this review, the most recent one promised a 30% increase in autofocus accuracy when using the eye detect mode, among other things.
The impressive autofocus capabilities with an 11fps burst rate when using the mechanical shutter, or 20 fps with the mechanical shutter, and even the most demanding sports shooters should be satisfied with the speed of this camera. And for those who aren't there's even a "sports mode", which increases the burst rate to a mind-boggling 30 fps, although with a 1.25x crop. It's worth noting that AE and AF are maintained even in the high-speed shooting modes.
Another detail worth noting is that the autofocus speed can vary quite dramatically depending on the lens used. The zoom lens I used for this review, as most of the "slower" f2.0 zooms, are very quick and nimble thanks to its linear autofocus motor, but some older lenses, like the otherwise impressive 58mm f1.2 portrait lens, are quite slow, and probably not the best choice if you are planning to shoot fast-moving subjects with the X-T3.
Battery life is good but not great. For casual shooting, you'll most likely be fine. But 4K video shooters might find it troubling that each battery only gives about 25 minutes or so each. There's a vertical battery grip that holds an additional two batteries, for a total of three, that might be useful to some users, and the camera supports USB-C charging as well. One welcome feature is that the camera can even be powered via USB-C when in use as well, so that's one-way video shooters can get around the issue of frequent battery swaps. Not all external battery packs are supported though, so I recommend doing a bit of research if you are planning to go down this route.
Extra batteries are easy to find, and there are plenty of knock-off variants sold for cheap on amazon too, so in practical terms, I don't think many users will find the options for powering this camera a significant issue.
Value for Money
For still shooters, the Fujifilm X-T3 finds itself at a somewhat awkward position. It's relatively premium price tag means that it's more expensive than some full-frame cameras, especially if considering the used market. At the time of writing this review, in early 2020, the X-T3 is more expensive than a new Sony A7II here in Japan, and one could even pick up a Sony A7RII for just a little bit more than the price of a new X-T3. This makes the price proposition quite challenging to justify for anyone who will only use the camera for still photography. But for anyone who also shoots a significant amount of video, the X-T3 suddenly becomes a much more attractive proposition, as it outclasses both the sony options in the video department.
But the price of the X-T3 is likely to drop soon, as most rumours point towards an imminent launch of the X-T4. So any price comparations right now might soon be irrelevant.
Conclusion
Personally, I think that X-T3 is a camera that talks more to my heart than to my brain. It's a camera that makes me inspired and one that I often reach for when I want a small and light carry everywhere camera, despite having the choice of bringing technically superior full-frame options like the Nikon Z7. If you find that the Fuji camera does the same to you, it might be worth a closer look, as I find it unlikely that you'll be left disappointed in case you decide to pick one up.
All the photos in this review has been shot with the Fujifilm X-T3 and the 18-55/2.8-4 or Kamlan 50mm f1.1 lenses.
If this review was helpful to you, please consider supporting me by purchasing the Fujifilm X-T3, Or any other equipment, on Amazon by using this link. The price will be the same to you, but I will get a small commision from your purchase. Thank you!
