Fujifilm X-T2 Review

The X-T2 and the X-Pro2 are the flagship cameras of this company and they were thought of as two distinct options for photographers as the X-Pro2 is suited for their range of lenses and the X-T2 is designed with for the fast zoom lenses. These two cameras do have many things in common such as the sensor but the purpose of the X-T2 is to be more of an all-round camera that can be adapted to any conditions you require.

General Features

The 24.3MP APS-C X-Trans III CMOS sensor is present on the X-T2 and it wants to offer great results that will definitely stand out when you compare them to the 16.3MP sensor of the X-T1. The sensitivity range goes from 200-12,800 to up to 100-51,200 and this now works with raw capture, not only with JPEGs as was previously the case.

The electronic viewfinder has also received important improvements even if the OLED display with 2.36 million dots and 0.77x magnification are the same as the X-T1 versions. The viewfinder is twice as bright now and you have an automatic brightness adjustment function as well as a higher baseline frame rate that reaches 60fps instead of the 54fps we had before. The addition of the Boost mode can raise the rate to up to 100fps but that will obviously drain your battery much faster.

The rear display has the same resolution of 1.04 million-dot but it now features a double-jointed articulated design that allows you to pull the screen outwards when the camera is tilted on the side so it is easier to use from more angles. No touchscreen for this one though which can be a drawback for some.

The video recording is 4K UHD at a 3840×2160 resolution and a bit rate of 100Mbps at 30, 25 or 24fps. You can record up to ten minutes but you can extend this with the VPBC-XT2 battery grip and there is also a HDMI output while the audio volume can be monitored and adjusted during recording.

With the battery grip you can improve the burst performance from eight to 11fps and they will last you for 1000 shots according to Fujifilm. One other thing to mention is that you get dual SD card slots which are both UHS-II compatible and this is obviously a great feature especially when you are on the road.

Design and Handling

The magnesium alloy offers a durable and solid camera which is weather-sealed and if you add a weather resistant Fujinon lens then you will have a camera that should work well under any conditions. When it comes to the controls, the designers took the previous model and tried to improve on it, making it a bit easier to handle the X-T2 and they added a dedicated video button.

Among the most significant changes it is now easier to grip the camera, you get an exposure compensation dial that has a C position to change the compensation of up to +/-5EV, there is a multi-directional focus lever and the six dedicated function buttons along with the AE-L and AF-L buttons will offer you a lot of room to customize your own settings and options to suit your needs.

Autofocus

The X-T2 has a hybrid AF system that combines phase-detection and contrast-detection points with 169 phase detect points that are arranged in a square formation along with two grids of contrast detect pointers amassing together 325 focusing points. Aside from the single point autofocus, there are the Zone and Wide/Tracking choices which decrease the arrangement to 91 points.

The autofocus algorithm has been overhauled to permit you to fine tune the reaction the camera has to the movement in the frame and to place bias for focusing in the frame. Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity and Zone Area Switching allow you a lot of room to explore and experiment with and the level of complexity is certainly a plus for those who want to control every detail of their shots. This is a very big advancement from the X-T1 and it puts the new version in a much better ranking when compared to other professional cameras.

Performance and Color Quality

The TTL 256 zone metering system is the same one they used for the X-T1 and it works well as even in places where the contrast is really high you can see the exposure in real time and use the compensation dial to adjust it.

The viewfinder has a great refresh rate and the image is really clear, while the white balance works well with almost any environment. You have a lot of presets that can do the work and obviously you can tune them in more detail to your liking.

The raw files offer great colors and the JPEGs too have the set of Film Simulation modes that really work aside from some over-smooth skin details at really high ISO. The image is quite close to the previous model since they use the same sensor but the X-Trans CMOS technology solves some of the details across the sensitivity range.

At the lower end of the ISO range the results are very clean and you need to have a very attentive eye to find traces of noise or blocked-color areas. These only become more evident at ISO3,200 or beyond that and post-processing can take care of the majority of them.

Conclusion

The X-T1 was quite a great product but it had some problems when it came to the auto focus performance, especially if you were using continuous mode, and Fujifilm paid attention to that and solved these issues with the X-T2.

They took everything that worked well from the previous model and improved on it while at the same time fixing some of the problems and the rear display with double hinges is certainly a big step forward.

The new sensor which provides very sharp results is another big attraction for the camera and combining that with detailed 4K footage, great response and only a few minor drawbacks, these all make the Fujifilm X-T2 an extremely good camera that is going to provide a great competition for the other brands.