Camera test 33
Photography News | Issue 60 | photographynews.co.uk
To get to ISO 6400 before seeing significant noise is a notable achievement, and even at this high speed fine detail remains nicely recorded and smooth, with pretty low noise levels. At the last true ISO setting of 12,800, noise is much more in evidence and it does impact on fine detail, and that is even more the case at the two expanded speeds. As a comparison, the same scene was also shot with an X-T2, its resulting Raws also processed through Capture One. Speed for speed the differences were minor in terms of resolution. The X-T3’s noise levels were lower but I think both cameras can be used at high ISOs with confidence. Looking at JPEGs straight out of camera, I thought the X-T3 had a slightly clearer edge in terms of overall quality, but to be honest you need to get deep into pixel-peeping territory to see any differences. All told, the X-T3 and its new BSI sensor delivers a really impressive noise performance. at its back you’ll see the X-T3 is made in China not Japan, where cheaper labour costs may possibly have a benefit to the customer in terms of price. (The X-T2 was made in Japan.) However, as you’d expect, in terms of production values and quality of finish there are no differences between the two cameras. The EVF has a 3.69-million dot LCD with a 0.005sec time lag and 100fps refresh rate that helps accurate composition of moving subjects, while a new sports finder mode also helps. This means you get an outline of the actual image area within the overall frame, so you can see subjects as they enter your picture (however, using the sports finder does mean the image is cropped by 1.25x, so the full image size of 6240x4160pixels becomes 4992x3328pixels). For action, the X-T3 can shoot at 30fps (with a 1.25x image crop) with
AF and AE tracking, while the effect of rolling shutter has been halved compared with existing models. With the mechanical shutter the X-T3 gives a top shooting rate of 11fps ap to 36 shots, andyouget 20fps up to 34 shots with the electronic shutter. This is with the basic camera body and shooting full-size uncompressed Raws. My tests showed these to be accurate figures. There is a pre-shot feature (with a 1.25x image crop and electronic shutter) where the camera starts shooting, but without recording, up to 20 shots with partial depression of the shutter release, and up to 20 more when the shutter release is fully depressed. It’s a handy feature if your reflexes are a tad slow or when something unexpected happens just before you push the shutter button all the way. See the panel on this feature for how the mode performed in practice.
The mechanical shutter on the X-T3 gives a top shooting rate of 11fps up to 36 shots, and you get 20fps up to 34 shots with the electronic shutter
Above Spot the difference. The X-T3 below has a smaller exposure compensation dial, a lockable dioptre control and 160 on the ISO dial.
Performance: ISO
The X-T3’s new sensor comes with an extended ISO range, with the option of ISO 160 at the bottom end of the normal ISO range and ISO 80 with expansion. The top end stays at ISO 12,800 with the option of expansion to ISO 25,600 and 51,200, both available in JPEG and Raw files. With the two high speeds, you can decide what speed the H setting represents via the camera’s menu. OurtestshotswereRaworiginals, shot with the X-T3 fitted with an XF 23mm f/2 lens with the combination on a Novo Explora T20 carbon fibre tripod. In-camera noise reduction was set to zero. The low light scene required an exposure of 1sec at f/5.6 at ISO 200. The Raws were processed in Capture One Express Fujifilm (downloadable from phaseone.com) default NR and sharpening. This is a new free software that supports Fujifilm cameras and includes essential editing tools such as Raw processing and a catalogue function.
If you want tethered shooting, layers and cloning/healing features then you’ll need Capture One Pro Fujifilm, which is €159 a year or €16 a month. As you’d expect, image quality at ISO 160 was very impressive, with clean, crisp, fine detail coupled with lifelike, saturated colour reproduction. There was little change as you progressed up the speed scale and even close scrutiny of the ISO 160 and 1600 showed few, if any differences. There was perhaps a very slight deterioration in the recording of very fine detail. The picture at ISO 3200 was little different, with an incremental drop-off in the reproduction of fine detail but not much else, and no sign of any noise, so we are talking an impressive ISO performance from the X-T3 here. If the lighting situation demanded it, I’d be happy using ISO 3200 for critical results knowing detail would still look very good with minimal noise, considering the high ISO.
ISO 800
ISO 160
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO 6400
ISO 12,800
Original image
ISO 25,600
ISO 51,200
X-T2 ISO 3200
X-T2 ISO 12,800
Above Impressively high ISO performance from the FujifilmX-T3 (and X-T2) and good results are possible even at ISO 3200.
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