Fujifilm X Half hands-on: the most analogue digital camera

The Verge

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.

Transcript

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.

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