1 year with Fujifilm X-H2 - Long Term Review [ Fuji XH2 ]

hello my friends Fujifilm xh2 is easily one of my favorite cameras released in 2022 Fujifilm has introduced a lot of new technologies with both xh2 cameras in a package that is much better suited to compete with mainstream hybrid cameras the feedback was mostly positive but the xh2 hasn't really caught as much attention as I expected I've been using my xh2 for one a year and in this video I would like to share my long-term experiences with X mounts high resolution Flagship regarding the physical appearance of the xh2 I still think that it is one of the best body styles on the market Fujifilm was able to retain just enough wintage styling to retain the general design language at the same time they were able to come up with efficient design necessary to accommodate technology and ergonomy of a pragmatic wareh horse device the build quality is great mine still looks as good as new and and I would say that it is one of the most premium feeling cameras on the market it is not the smallest or the lightest apsc camera at 660 G but the size to Performance ratio is still really good as I will explain throughout this video probably the most important piece of technology premiered in the xh2 is the new XTR 5 HR backside illuminated 40 megap sensor after all of the testing that I have done over the last year I can conclude that Fujifilm got this part right some people including myself were skeptical about 40 megapixel resolution on apsc fortunately the lens design has come a long way in the past couple of years and I am confident to say that there is sufficient selection of lenses that can take advantage of this kind of resolution Fujifilm xh2 can capture a great amount of detail when paired with one of those lenses it can actually capture a a very solid amount of detail even with below average lenses one more thing that I haven't talked about before is the raw detailed feature in the Lightroom handling of extr files in the Lightroom has been a controversial topic for a while my conclusion with the XTR 5 is that in the real world use you don't have to be worried about it at all if you for whatever reason want to zoom in to more than 200% and see as much detail as possible I recommend using raw detailed feature in the enhancement menu that will fix Blended fine textures that you can see if you zoom Beyond 200% it doesn't seem that it is doing anything other than fixing those textures so I wouldn't say that it is cheating or anything like that Theo performance is roughly the same as with the XTR 4 maybe a tiny bit better despite that the base ISO has been lowered to 125 that is actually a big success as proven by the new g92 which seems to have sacrificed quite a lot of high ISO performance in order to achieve lower base ISO the dynamic range is improved over the XTR 4 and not that far from full-frame cameras especially at the base ISO you won't notice much of a difference in comparison to full frame in real world situations the difference will get bigger at higher ISO values but for apsc it is probably the best performance that I have seen so far I've talked about the colors in my original review I think that they are generally very good with an interesting tasteful approach to coldstone preference all 19 film simulations that have been released so far are available as well overall this sensor provides the best amount of detail that you can get with apsc and outstanding dynamic range without sacrificing High ISO performance so I'm more than happy with this result despite that the xh2 uses a high resolution sensor it is still a fairly fast camera it can shoot 15 frames per second with mechanical shutter and autofocus continuous which is quite respectable the buffer capacity is also great especially when you pair it with CF Express type B card the autofocus is a bit of tricky Topic in Stills it works very well Focus acquisition is very fast 100% accurate with no hunting that applies even in low light and low contrast situations the tracking has been improved in firmer 2.0 I actually was able to get a perfect hit rate in my usual walking towards the camera test but still not in every run despite that I would still trust this system for fast action you should get enough Sharp Images to choose from even in more difficult situations subject detection is also very solid so I don't really have any major complaints when it comes to steals autofocus that is not necessarily the case with video autofocus as I said in my original review it works well in most reasonable real world situations and that hasn't changed it has actually gotten a lot better with new firmware in more difficult situations there still may be a slight Poe during the focus transitions when focusing from close distance to Infinity what has changed is the context Panasonic s52 is another camera with pretty much perfect video autofocus that works flawlessly in any situation that moves Fujifilm towards the bottom when it comes to video autofocus performance the latest firware update has closed maybe half of the Gap but there still is a lot of work that needs to be done and what absolutely needs to be fixed are video Focus area settings and touch tracking which is not available at all there is no excuse for for that anymore and my disappointment with fujifilm's refusal to fix this issue is growing worse with every new Fuji camera that repeats this mistake fortunately video specifications may be a reason to forgive Fujifilm for that xh2 can shoot 8K and despite that some people say that 8K will never become a standard I think that I've heard that one before I appreciate it a lot in terms of the image quality and detail it is definitely a real deal the 8K video is extremely detailed and looks great in every way the only negative is the rolling shutter which will limit the usability of 8K the same applies to fully down sampled 8K to 4K HQ video the image quality is fantastic in every way but rolling shutter is pretty significant fortunately there is non HQ 4K which is roughly as detailed as Fujifilm xt4 video with a rolling shutter that is completely fine for all around use 4K 60p video comes with a 1.14 times crop and some pixel binning which is in my opinion acceptable with a high resolution camera as I've explained in my original review there is absolutely no compromise when it comes to frame rates aspect ratios and bit rates the highest video quality that it can shoot internally is 8k 30p in press 422 HQ 10bit 422 at staggering 3,520 megabits per second with this kind of specifications it goes deep into the serious film making territory fog 2 is one of the best log profiles on the market especially if you stay around the base ISO in 8k or 4K HQ mode overall Fujifilm xh2 is in my opinion a great video camera not only for Content creators but also for pretty serious film making the INB body image stabilization in the xh2 is rated at seven stops the strengths of this IB system are Steals and static shots in steals mode I was able to get almost 1 second exposures at 24 mm fullframe equivalent without a stabilized lens static shots in video are very stable even Beyond 100 mm fullframe equivalent which is one of the best results of all cameras that I've ever tested walking is not as good as with Panasonic s52 or Sony A7 R5 that isn't really something that was expected from a dslm cameras until recently Fujifilm xh2 is a purely pragmatic Fujifilm camera that is better suited to compete with A7 R6 or S5 lines I think that creating a fully pragmatic camera has helped the xt5 as much as it did the xh2 the existence of the xh2 has allowed the xt5 to focus more on being an experience oriented Steels camera XD controls and shape were never really meant for hybrid Workhorse camera and some of the elements of the xt4 such as the camcorder style screen fell out of the place on the other hand the xh2 is very well suited to be a hybrid camera it uses conventional controls with psam dial and command dials that is definitely a correct choice for a camera that is meant to get the job done in in the first place the grip is in my opinion very well shaped deep enough and there is sufficient gap between the grip and the lens I think that most people will be happy with this grip including integrated strap mounts the xh2 has two command dials a joystick d-pad and sufficient amount of logically positioned buttons the buttons have a very solid feel to them probably the only thing that I miss is a dedicated dry mode dial there is a well-placed drive button though also worth mentioning is that you can set up seven custom presets that can be selected on the psam dial any of them can store steals or video setting top plate LCD is also available opinions on that one are split some people say that it is absolutely necessary other people say that it is a waste of space what I like about this one is that it is always on and it shows the remaining battery life even when the camera is off I actually look at it from time to time but I would probably trade it for a dedicated dry mode dial nothing has changed when it comes to the user interface but now in late 2023 I feel like it could use some modernization or at least touch functionality even without redesign son's menu items are even smaller and it still works with the touchcreen so why not the struction of the menu is actually still one of the best in my opinion and the full screen que menu is probably the best again in my opinion both the display and electronic viewfinder are among the best in the class the display uses a 3in 1.62 million dot panel it is a very good panel it is sharp color accurate and bright enough for outdoors use the electronic viewfinder is even more impressive it uses 5.76 million dot panel with 80 times magnification this is the best panel in the class very detailed and bright I have made my piece with a rotating screen on the xh2 but it still wouldn't be my choice it just doesn't feel right on Fujifilm one of those hybrid mechanisms or even three-way tilting screen would be more fitting in my opinion the battery life depends a lot on how you use the camera when I'm taking steals it will easily last a day of usual testing which is quite similar to Trail photography scenarios it is also possible to get up to 90 minutes of down sampled 4K or 8K which is pretty solid but there are some cameras that will give you more 4K recording time the xh2 uses the npw 325 battery with 220 Mah hour capacity of course I feature the xh2 in two comparisons with fullframe hybrid cameras the a74 and s52 when compared to either of them it does what the apsc high-end camera is supposed to do it provides generally better feature set in exchange for having a smaller sensor it is much more nuanced than that of course but I can say that it provides enough compensation for the smaller sensor to be competitive with either of them both comparisons will be linked in the description regarding the lens selection the x-mount selection is very good in some areas but some of the lenses are due for an update update I think that it is time for a new premium standard Zoom 16 to 55 f2.8 is still a good lens but the bokeh isn't particularly nice it is quite large and it is not par focal Optical qualities are good but not excellent by 2023 standards I'm sure that Fujifilm can make a much better bright standard zoom and now I think that it is time to do it on the other hand 18 mm 23 mm and 33 mm RL MWR primes are among the best crop lenses that I've ever tested 56 mm non LM is optically great but the choice to use that super loud focusing motor is very difficult to understand a big part of the x-mount selection are now the wheel tru's lenses 27 mm and 75 mm f1.2 pro at least match RL MWR Primes from Fujifilm 13 m mm f1.4 is also great to sum up Fujifilm xh2 is a high resolution apsc camera done right there are some annoyances but overall the pros outweigh the cons significantly first of all the sensor and the output are the best among apsc cameras the dynamic range is great and the iso performance is not compromised as I've explained I would say that it also strikes a good balance between being a high resolution camera and all around camera continuous shooting speed is very solid especially when combined with CF Express card the video specifications are great as well including 8K capabilities and fully downsampled 8K to 4K autofocus in the steals mode is very good and it is getting better with updates the video autofocus is also improving but at the moment it can't fully match the competition I also have to criticize the lack of area modes and touch shreking in video the physical aspects are very good though it is very well made and the handling is solid the choice of the rotating screen is questionable one more thing that I have to say is that the xh2 still retains a lot of Fuji Factor despite being a pragmatic camera I won't say that it is hugely different from the competition from Sony or Panasonic in terms of the user experience but it looks good in my opinion the control elements are a bit different and you also get those film simulations that are a lot of fun to use I think that this is a great option for Fujifilm users who were using XT camera semi-professionally or even professionally I think that it is a very good camera overall not perfect but the strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses that means that I can recommend it so that's it for this video thank you for watching I hope that you like this video and that you have found it to be useful stay tuned for more videos and maybe consider subscribing if you don't want to miss my future content I appreciate your feedback in form of thumbs up or thumbs down if you would like to ask anything or share opinion please do so in the comment section and see you next time

Channel: The Hybrid Shooter

Views: 59,483

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Id: yIz0pwZ_93w

Length: 16min 13sec (973 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023