Fujifilm’s new X Half camera is quirky, limited, and kind of fascinating. It ditches modern features like RAW, EVF and stabilization in favor of film-like charm, a small 1-inch sensor, built-in filters, and a digital “film advance” lever. It’s not for everyone — (mainly because of its price) but if you love capturing scrappy, spontaneous moments, this might be your new favorite camera. Here’s what it’s like to use.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00I'm solo, I don't know where to film, so just bear with me for a second.
00:05Is this fine? This mega ultra-wide lens? Yeah, that should be okay.
00:13Today we're looking at the Fujifilm X-Half. It is a half-frame camera made by Fuji. It is
00:19very light, very small, meant to be carried everywhere. And it's not a typical digital
00:25camera, but it is sort of a digital throwback camera designed for modern times.
00:32Okay, so I'm currently in LA and I only have a couple of hours with this thing, so
00:36let's go through some initial impressions. Hardware and design first.
00:41So the very first thing that you'll notice is how light and small this camera is.
00:45Usually I do like a little bit more heft to my camera. The X100 is over here and kind of like the
00:51materials and just the overall weight to it. It does feel a little bit plasticky. Not too much,
00:56but just a little bit. Other than that, you probably heard there are two screens on this.
01:00This is the main screen and there's also the sub-monitor where you can change your film
01:05simulations and film filters. Also there's this lever, which is super fun, does a lot of cool stuff.
01:10And there's also this exposure compensation dial. On the front, also there's a little flash. It's
01:15actually an LED light and in video mode, it turns on into continuous light. It is neat. It's not the
01:23most powerful thing in the world, but I think if you're in a dark setting, a dark environment or
01:29something like that, it'll come in handy. There's only a couple of buttons. There's very smooth focus
01:34ring and so on. We'll get into all of that, but first I want to go through some photos.
01:39The lens on this camera is 10.8 millimeters, which is the equivalent to 32 millimeters with
01:49the f2.8 aperture. I do wish that lens was a little bit faster, but it is okay. I haven't had an
01:56opportunity to do low light photos, but one inch sensor with a 2.8 lens, it's probably going to be
02:01a little bit noisy, but it's kind of the vibe with this camera overall. Otherwise, it is a decently
02:08sharp lens. And there are many other things on paper that I don't necessarily love about this
02:12camera. There's only one focus point. The focusing is a little bit slow and there is some focus breathing
02:17as well. There's no electronic viewfinder, but in practice, this camera won me over and I kind of
02:22forgot about those limitations. Fuji also made sure to add a bunch of fun little features to keep you
02:28entertained and also make this camera operate more like a film camera. So first things first, there is
02:33this two-in-one mode where you can merge two photos together as one single file, but you can also do
02:40that with video. So you can have one photo on one side and a video on another side. There's also a
02:46dedicated film mode. Here, the camera doesn't even let you monitor the photos that you're taking. It
02:51doesn't let you change film until you've completed your digital role. It doesn't even let you look back at
02:57the photos that you just took. And each time after you take a photo, you have to crank the lever so you
03:02can take the next photo like a film camera would. Unfortunately, the app that is supposed to be the
03:08companion app with this camera is not available yet, but all those things get saved onto your SD card.
03:13And this is what it looks like. What I love about it is that the contact sheet actually tells you which
03:19film you're using. So if you zoom in here, you'll see FMA, which is Fujifilm Monochrome Acros. And outside of
03:26popular Fujifilm simulations, there are also filters now. There's halation, dynamic tone, mirror,
03:33fisheye, selective color. There's plenty of stuff to look at here. And usually I really wouldn't try
03:39those things out, but this camera sort of forces you to just play around, explore, experiment with
03:45different looks. And they're kind of neat. I like it. But my favorite one is the light leak because it's
03:51fully randomized. So you're not entirely sure what you're going to walk away with after you take a photo.
03:56And one thing that you should know, and probably a lot of you will be very upset with this one,
04:01it doesn't shoot raw. It shoots only JPEGs, which means that everything that you decide to do in
04:08camera is basically your final decision. And I think that also just sets up the stakes a little
04:14bit when you're using this camera, knowing that what you take a photo off and how you take the photo
04:19off and which filter you use and which film simulation you use, that is it. That's all you're getting. And
04:25I think that's really clever. Okay, and there is a video mode on this camera. I have no idea what this looks like.
04:33Probably not that great if I'm being completely honest, but we're in full
04:37auto mode. You can't really monitor what you're doing. There's no screen in front or anything like that.
04:42So you kind of just like have to trust it. You know, this isn't meant as a video camera. It's just meant for you to
04:50grab some clips easily on the go to have something, you know, to show with your friends.
04:55The only negatives that I've noticed so far is that it is a little bit slow. When you're swiping across
05:05the screen, it seems like it's just taking a step too long. When you're going through the photos,
05:10it takes a little bit too long. When you're doing a dip tick with a photo and a video,
05:15the saving process takes a bit long. When you're in film mode and you want to go to the next photo,
05:20you have to make sure that the previous photo is done saving and then you move on.
05:25So you take a photo and then you have to wait for this thing to process.
05:30Then you can pull. And I feel like that just takes way too long. So it's blinking.
05:38And now I can pull. And there's been a couple of times where I would just pull the lever,
05:43try to take the next photo, realize that, oh, the previous one didn't save.
05:47Got to give it a beat, turn it up and do it again. And again, I only had this camera for a couple of
05:52hours, but it's been an incredibly fun camera to just use. And I do think that camera companies should
05:58be open to just experimenting more. I absolutely love purpose-built cameras and gadgets. And I do
06:05think that this is a good example of exactly that. It forces you to think differently about how you take
06:09photos. And I think a lot of your creative decisions depend on the hardware and the software that
06:14these companies are designing and I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. But this camera costs $850
06:24and that is pretty pricey. That is a lot of money for what some people just call a toy camera.
06:31It's definitely more than that, but I do understand $850 for something like this is a whole lot.
06:37And even for someone who had time to play around with this thing and genuinely likes it,
06:41I'm having a hard time justifying that price. So you let me know. What do you think?
06:47This is actually one of my favorite features. Just pushing the lever in
06:51shows you your last photo. Love it.