First look 24
Photography News | Issue 64 | photographynews.co.uk
Andreas Georghiades, marketing manager of electronic imaging, Fujifilm The X-T20 is our best-selling X Series camera ever and so Fujifilmwas never going tomove away froma popular formula. Around 90%of the sales for this camerawere to non-professionals and, for this audience, it’s not just the performance of the camera that’s important, but also the look of it. It’s a lifestyle product and theywant something that’s nice- looking, aswell as being easy to carry around. With that inmind, the X-T30 is very similar in appearance to the X-T20and it’s similarly compact. Inside, it’s gotmuch of the functionality of the hugely popular X-T3, which picked up a camera of the year award last year, while costing considerably less. Of course, there are a few compromises given howmuch smaller the camera is, but these are thingswe feel many people will be happy to livewith, particularly if they are looking for a compactmodel. So, while video functionality is right up there, there’s no headphone socket included, although one can be used via a 3.5mmadaptor connected to the USB-Cport. It alsowon’t deliver 4K 60p recording, because there isn’t roomon board for a large enough heat sink, and the tilting LCD touchscreen is two- rather than three-way. There’s also a single SD card slot rather than the two on the X-T3, but all of these are thingswe believemany enthusiastswould trade off against amore compact and flexiblemodel. The camera is a result of Fujifilm reaching out to its customers and responding to their needs. We’re asking things like: what firmware updates do theywant to see? What lenseswould they like to see introduced next? The ability of modern cameras to be updated throughout their lifetime is also crucial. At the time of its launch, the X-T30will have the latest firmware algorithms and there will be regular updates available down the line. These days, when people buy a camera, they don’t want to feel it’s out of date a year or so later, and thiswaywe’ll be able to keep it at the cutting edge for much longer.
For enjoy photographing high action, the camera offers blackout-free 30fps in ES (electronic shutter) with a 1.25x crop, while the AF is formidable on a number of levels. The X-T30 offers real-time face and eye detection thanks to an improved algorithm, which currently betters the features offered by the X-T3 (until the next firmware update kicks in). It also comes with low-light AF that works down to -3.0 EV, 240 simultaneous AF/AE calculations and 300% faster PDAF focusing between near and far subjects. In use, the AF felt very responsive and the X-T30 would make a formidable street camera. Also highly impressive were the video specifications – something more and more hybrid operators need to be aware of. The X-T30 comes with advanced 4K 30p video functionality, including eye tracking while the AF is formidable on a number of levels those who The camera offers blackout- free 30fps in ES with a 1.25x crop,
Above The X-T30 offers cutting-edge image quality in a compact, nicely priced package
during video recording. It can also record in 6K to create high-quality 4K footage and the camera supports the DCI format (17:9) to enable a cinematic look. Meanwhile, 4K 30p video can be recorded at 4:2:0 8-bit to an SD card, while F-Log recording
and 4:2:2 10-bit via the HDMI port capabilities means the camera can record video suitable for more serious videographers. In short, this camera can do almost anything the X-T3 can on the video front – except from 4K 60p recording. Quite an
achievement for a camera at this level and at this price point. Overall, this appears to be an important addition to the Fujifilm range and one can only imagine it will follow in the footsteps of the X-T20 and become hugely popular.
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