Fujifilm X-S20 Review: The BEST Midrange Camera?

hey welcome back to petapixel it is Chris Nichols and it's finally the review that you've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for in fact you've been waiting longer than it takes to get a free Stampy breakfast at Stampede time it is the Fujifilm xs20 let's get to it [Music] hey Jordan I know people are waiting a long time for this review but I just can't stop thinking about pick flow but tell me more so pixel is this amazing software that lets the photographer and the client collaborate on the final image so first off I can make client galleries upload full res raws and then the client can see that they can make notes annotations suggestions edits that they want to see then I can bring my editors and my retouchers into the conversation as well we can just all collaborate to make sure the images are the best possible and the best part is that everybody involved will have access to files through the picflow software so you definitely want to check it out you can get right now 50 off for the first hundred people that sign up through the link in the description below so Jordan get on it I'm on it all right so now we do finally have a Fujifilm xs20 and I'm excited to play with this this is significant for me because the Fujifilm xs10 is actually probably my favorite Fujifilm camera I know I'm in the minority with that but the fact of the matter is I really like the styling of it I like the more modern SLR controls personally versus the sort of vintage kind of controls on the XT and XC series of cameras but I also really like the value that it represented for the dollar we actually recommended the xs10 to pretty much everybody looking for a camera that's for a thousand dollar price point now we have the xs20 let's see what kind of upgrades we have and let's start with handling so the layout structure of the buttons is very similar to the Fujifilm xs10 which is a good thing because that's what I like so much about the camera now Fujifilm said they did kind of change the feel of buttons and dials and I agree with that I mean when I first picked it up it's been a long time since I used an xs10 but everything feels just like a little bit stiffer a little bit tighter a little bit more pronounced and I think that's actually a nice thing Everything feels good but I love how many control dials I have here so I've got that front control out I've got my thumb dial I've got another dial over here so I can set my aperture on the lens I can have my shutter speed here on the front dial maybe my back dial can be exposure compensation I can have this other control dial just to go through all my film simulation modes I mean you can customize this however you want the auto focusing button on the back you know this selector joystick it's a little bit small and fiddly but it does have a more positive press when you're pushing it in I do like that now I always like the xs10's grip but this actually feels better it's just a little bit wider and that's to accommodate the brand new w235 battery now this is a huge upgrade I mean we were going from about roughly 400 shots to now about 750 Super rated shots in the normal power mode now on the side here we've got our USBC port and of course you can power the camera while it's running off USBC power micro HDMI now above here we've got our mic Port that's the same but here's a big change we now have a headphone jack that means you have to tie up the USBC port or use a dongle to have your headphones I will say it's kind of in a weird position but I'm glad that at least we have that now in the camera now we've also got a robust mode dial on here which is to say there's lots of functions on it for custom modes filter effects and there is a new vlogging setting which George is going to talk about we do still have the pop-up flash as well that we had on the Fujifilm xs10 I mean I don't use this very often but certainly on a bright sunny day like this if you've got Shadows on somebody's face or you're trying to shoot in Darker areas with a lot of contrast might be nice just provide a little bit of fill now the last thing is this the camera does look a little bit bigger than maybe the XE or the XD Series of cameras especially the smaller xt20 30 style cameras but it's actually quite lightweight 481 grams with a battery and compared to other cameras in its class and price range that's actually quite Compact and lightweight under a quarter of a knot okay so that's it for handling I know you guys have been waiting a long time for this review but let's wait a little bit longer go take some photos come on [Music] all right there's something you don't see every day uh a mass of red beetles if anybody knows what's going on let us know but I assume it's some sort of beetle orgy hot yeah yeah yes I know you've been waiting we're doing the review right now like we're doing it right now [Music] what are you taking pictures of uh literally art so at the heart of the Fujifilm xs20 we've got the same Fuji X trans backside illuminated 26 megapixel sensor that we had in the XS tan we've had in a lot of Fujifilm cameras since 2018 and sure it's not a brand new sensor but we do have better processing power here and that does give us some advantages when it comes to autofocus things like that but frankly Jordan and I wanted this 26 megapixel sensor versus the newer 40 megapixel sensor because first off we've got good color good dynamic range good detail for an aps-c camera but it's also better for video and primarily this camera is trying to be a powerful hybrid camera we also do have a nice upgrade here the xs10 I always preferred over some of the other Fujifilm camera bodies in an affordable range because it had Ibis six stops but this now improves that to seven stops so we're getting a nice upgrade in the Ibis this is still the most affordable Fujifilm body that gives you that Ibis and compared to other brands that also give you Ibis in their cameras this is an incredibly competitive price okay so let's talk displays here so first this back back panel three inch 1.84 million dot LCD back panel that's actually pretty high res compared to the competition and it's this fully articulating style and I think obviously for video work that makes sense for the Vlog mode on this camera that makes sense but even for photography as nice as the tilting screens are on the other Fujifilm bodies I think this works just great for photography so I like that now the evf 2.34 million dot evf do I wish it was higher yes but at the same time the Sony a6700 is in the same category that Canon EOS R7 is in the same category I could criticize all three of these cameras for wanting more in my evf but at the price point this is still just fine so I know that guy just did it Jordan but I don't want to lay on this couch it's like soaking wet it's the sky oh wait there's one out in the sun over here okay reclining on a dirty couch to make one small point but now the xs20 adds nostalgic nag to all the other Fujifilm fun color simulation modes it is one of my favorites I've been using it a lot today and just gives you that nice kick to the warm tones oranges yellows Reds get a bit of a boost and just has that kind of classic vibe to it love it yes I know I know I'm doing it I know I know doing it right now so one of the big changes here on the Fuji xs20 is the fact that we still have a single card slot but now it's a uhs2 rated SD card slot and the buffer is actually pretty decent here so shooting lossless compressed raw files at eight frames per second we were getting basically pushing past 80 shots that's basically 10 seconds of sustained burst shooting at eight frames per second that's actually pretty fantastic I put it on party maybe a little bit ahead of the Sony a6700 now if you're going to shoot jpegs basically the processor and the buffer you're able to shoot like a thousand at a frames per second I mean just beyond whatever you want to do remember on this camera you can shoot 20 shots per second electronic shutter mode you could even do crop jpegs 30 frames per second but I do still find this sensor to have a little bit of rolling shutter I would think eight frames per second mechanical is just about right Jordan I haven't been to the crossroads clean Market in like a decade let's go it's the People's Market yeah [Music] thank you [Music] foreign autofocus now on the Fujifilm xs20 now although we still have the same sensor as the predecessor we get better processing and that brings a lot of cool stuff like the new subject detection mode so now we're getting animals but also Planes Trains motorcycles you know automobiles all that kind of stuff I still do have the same complaint that I've had on the other Fujifilm bodies where human eye and face detection is separate from the subject detection modes I really think we should be in the same menu because what will happen is I'll go to shoot automobiles or I'll go to shoot animals and that automatically kicks me out of human eye and face detection and even if I cancel the subject detection modes I'm not in any detection mode so then I have to go back into human detection turn on the face turn on the eye it's just an extra step so much so that I've actually customized a button to just automatically toggle eye detection on or off it's odd that if you go into the full auto mode it actually has automatic subject detection which works pretty well but if you go into any of the other modes like aperture priority shutter priority whatever you can't actually let the subject action be automatic I hope they change that in the future still let's actually talk about the performance it's actually quite good we're getting something very similar to what we see in the xt4 or the xt5 I mean you can see here iron face detection is working great from long distances Fujifilm is definitely improve their autofocus game in the last few years and the xs20 is the beneficiary of all that okay so we have quite a few upgrades when it comes to the photographic capabilities of the xs20 but now we need to talk about video because that's one of the biggest upgrades let's go to Jordan okay Jordan here to talk about the video capabilities of the Fujifilm xs20 and I'm very impressed with what they've been able to cram into a camera at this price first of all we get basically all the features that we saw on the xt4 that were unavailable in the xs10 so that means we're getting 4K 60 recording you can do that in 10-bit if you're willing to use that flimsy micro HDMI port you can kick out Pro reserado and atomos unit or b-raw to a black magic recorder at 6.2 K but they've also brought over some of the features that we first saw on the xh2s a camera that costs almost twice as much as this so we've got 6.2 K open gate recording using the entire sensor up to 30 frames per second and this is a mode I absolutely love for recomposing your shot or if you have to deliver in horizontal and vertical it's an absolute Lifesaver and I was also really happy to see the new f-log 2 profile which does offer a more dynamic range than the previous f-log though on this camera you're not going to get quite as much as on the xh2s with its stacked sensor that can read out in 14-bit with so much new on the xs20 a lot of people were disappointed that we're using the older 26 megapixel sensor but I think this is a perfect fit with this obviously the stack 26 megapixel chip in the xh2s is going to be too expensive to hit this kind of price and the new 40 megapixel sensor is very capable for photography but not really ideal for video it is a much slower to read sensor than the older 26 megapixel one so I'm glad they went with this it's going to give you full width recording in 4k up to 30 frames per second organ in open gate up to 30 frames per second there is a crop when we jump over to 4K 60 mode but thankfully the footage is still slightly over sampled so you'll still get good detail there alright let's do a quick Vlog with the xs20 since this is something that the camera manufacturers are taking very seriously right now Fujifilm has taken it so seriously that there's a vlog mode on the mode dial here and this gives you really easy access for beginners to some commonly used functions when you're vlogging they have a product mode where you can hold something up to the camera and it'll switch Focus from your face to that object and a background defocus which will just shoot at the widest possible aperture and knock the background out irregardless of the shutter speed that you've selected and these are really handy things they write on the touch screen so you can access them when the camera is pointed at you it's funny Sony has offered similar features to this for a while but oddly enough the a6700 Sony's competitor to the xs20 doesn't have those features so if you're looking for a hybrid camera with some Vlog functionality xs20 has a lot to offer but even if you're not using the Vlog setting this does have some nice functionality we've got in-body image stabilization on it I've got that turned on as well as the digital image stabilization which gives you a 1 0.1 crop factor in most of its 4K record modes and I do find that the in-body stabilization is wonderful when you're trying to hold a shot steady but if you're doing deliberate pans and tilts it can sometimes be a little bit jerky in terms of the autofocus it does a really nice job with a single person like we've got right now but in more complicated scenes I really wish it had a tap to track function like we're seeing in the Sony Canon and New Nikon bodies that would be a big upgrade okay but enough of this beautiful outdoor footage you want me to get back in my basement so I can test overheating so let's go there next okay we're back inside to talk about overheating on this camera and I did the test the same way I typically do so we're shooting indoors at room temperature with a half hour cool down between all the tests and I thought I'd start with the 6.2 K open gate recording at 30 frames per second seemed like the most demanding mode and there I was able to record 34 minutes before the camera overheated and shut down following that up I did 4K 60 and actually got very similar record times there I was getting 36 minutes before the camera shut off so both of those modes could pose a problem if you're recording very long takes like live music or sports or something like that but when I switched it over to 4K 24p then I was able to record over two hours the camera was certainly warm at that point but in controlled situations I think the 4K 24 and 30 won't give you any issues but the xs20 is compatible with fujifilm's fan accessory that you can clip on the back to get longer Record Times jumping back to the open gate 6.2 K recording I was able to look at the comments on YouTube asking me where the xs20 video was for over an hour and the camera didn't even give me an overheat warning and wasn't warm to the touch so the fan is making an absolutely huge difference if you are really worried about those overheat thresholds just grab the fan it's a shame it's an extra cost but at least there is a really nice solution for you so I would say that the xs20 is just a very very well-rounded camera and a huge step over the xs10 if you're planning to use it as a video camera but it doesn't exist in a bubble in the future we're going to be comparing it to the Canon R7 a very capable hybrid camera and the Sony a6700 now all of these are excellent hybrid cameras and I'm not going to tell you which one would be right for you now you'll have to wait for that episode but I can spoil things a little bit and say that for me personally the xs20 has the best balance of video features I love having open gate recording F log 2 is wonderful to work with and the autofocus didn't really give me any issues back to you Chris all right so we are now coming to you from Ryan HK Studio here at rad Studios you may remember him from our recent laoa 28 mil F 1.2 video he has given me a tall boy of fantastic corn lager and lots of whiskey so here you go for the conclusion so the Fujifilm xs20 I mean a lot of people are saying on the internet okay this isn't that big an upgrade they haven't really changed much but really if you think about it even just as a photo cameras strictly they've upgraded almost every aspect of this camera yes the sensor is the same the controls are similar but they didn't need changing we now have a better Ibis unit we've got more advanced auto focus we have added film simulation modes let's also remember that the SD card slot's been upgraded the Buffer's decent the battery life has been vastly improved I mean the camera also has substantially improved video capabilities and I know a lot of people are saying okay well I don't care about video this is absolutely an excellent hybrid camera if I remember that Fujifilm is a company that makes excellent photo based cameras as well I mean the xt5 is really definitely more suited for high-end photographic applications but if you're looking for a mid-range camera that can do pretty much everything I think they've really done a great job here so what are the Alternatives and how does this compare to the competition well first compared to the Canon EOS R7 I actually really like the way the Canon EOS R7 handles but I still think this is the best handling camera at this price and now that we have support from Sigma and Tamron as far as lenses go it really opens up the third party support something can and can't do I think that's a real Advantage here versus the Sony a6700 I do like that camera but even though this doesn't have the Vintage cachet of the XT cameras it still infinitely sexier than the Sony a6700 and I still prefer the handling here the thing that the Sony really beats out on is to autofocus but this is definitely improved over the older xs10 and let's keep in mind that compared to both of those cameras this is definitely more affordable alright so Fujifilm xs20 review is finally done you can stop commenting about when we're going to do it it's done but definitely put your comments below about what you think about this camera if you have any questions we would love to see that big thanks to Ryan HK for getting me drunk I really appreciate every time I see you and definitely do check out our podcast if you haven't already it's on this channel or you can listen to it on all your favorite podcasting apps you know maybe when you're out shooting or driving to a photo shoot or cooking food or thinking about us in bed okay um otherwise click that notification Bell subscribe to the channel thanks so much for joining us we'll see you soon with more petapixel okay go sleep thank you [Music]

Channel: PetaPixel

Views: 134,792

Keywords: PetaPixel, Jordan Drake, Chris Niccolls, Chris Nichols, Jordon Drake, Fuji xs20 review, fujifilm x-s20 review, fujifilm xs20 review, fuji xs20 vs canon r7, fuji xs20 vs sony a6700, best mirrorless camera for $1500, best mirrorless camera for video, best camera for vlogging, best camera for youtube, x-s20 footage, xs20 footage, dpreview, dpreview tv, fuji xs20 stabilization, fuji xs20 autofocus, fuji x-s20 autofocus, is the fuji xs20 good, best digital camera under $1500

Id: h4csLWvxFkw

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023