Thoughts on the Fuji X-H1

I’ve already gone ahead and ordered a few Fuji X-mounts from Veydra for my Mini Primes, however – I’m not about to abandon my GH5 just yet! There’s a reason why my X-T2 has been sitting in a dry box for nearly a year while the GH5 goes wherever I go. The audio meters on the Fuji are pretty useless, and even if just for a scratch track, it’s nice to be able to confidently set peaking to -12dB without guesswork. Recording stopping after one of the batteries dies – who came up with that idea? No fully articulating screen, making vlogging a royal PITA. Image far too contrasty out of the box and not enough control over in-camera sharpening. When my X-T2 arrived, it didn’t even have a histogram or zebras, meaning there was no way for me to check proper exposure when shooting video. When initiating recording while viewing through the EVF, the LCD would black out – and not just momentarily! My very first shoot with the Fuji X-T2, I’m looking all over for zebras and histogram, poring over the menus, finally give up, press record and bam! no image on the LCD. An hour going through the menus again. Till I learn there was nothing I could do about it. AF-C was much faster and more accurate than my GH5 in video mode, but the transitions were so abrupt that many clips were still unusable as a result. The vertical power booster was an absolute necessity, but it made shooting with a single-handed gimbal or fitting the camera with a cage impractical. Like anyone who’s handled a Fuji, I love the colors, the build quality and so on, but so many quirks! Take the lenses for example – I’ve got a half-dozen I believe – all superb. But many have run into problems with things like stepping when changing the aperture in video mode. It’s to be hoped that not only are the problems that plagued the X-T2 solved, but that the X-H1 has a full size HDMI out and no issues recording 4K F-Log to the BMD Video Assist or the Atomos Inferno. And Fuji could at least have bumped up the resolution on the LCD of the X-H1 – as it stands, it doesn’t exactly scream premium. So yeah – faster AF and better low light sensitivity are all well and good, but the overall shooting experience was not – for me anyhow. Image quality is one thing, but when you’re out on a shoot, handling and reliability are number one.