Okay, stop me if you've heard this one before. I'm very excited that I did this because it's definitely something that I can grow with. And I know I just said that with the X-T4, but I really do feel like this is my camera for a while. So what happened? I only made this video one year ago and I had the X-T5 for exactly seven months. I'll get into that. But before I get into all of this, I'm going to give you chapter markers so you can just jump to the part that you're curious about between the X-T5 and the X-H2. So the first thing I'll talk about is the X-T5, what I wanted from it. Then I want to talk about the design of the camera, the make of the camera that makes you want to sort of pick it up and use it. I'll get into the doubts that really started to occur when I was making video. How I traded it in, when I traded it in for the X-H2. Then I'll get into how I've grown into the X-H2. The final thing I'll get into is the differences of the X-T5 versus the X-H2. I waited to make this video before I had both for about seven months. It's a it's an equal comparison. So with that out of the way, let's get into it. When I got the X-T5, I was definitely after that 40 megapixel sensor. I had just bought the X-T4 and I knew I was going to be miserable knowing this 40 megapixel sensor was out there. So I had value in the X100V because the market for that camera was ridiculous. And I had some value in the X-T4 because I literally just bought it. So I decided to sell them both and get the X-T5. I would have my 35 millimeter that I just got for the X-T4, which I had already fallen in love with. I had recently traded in my 16 to 80 that came with the X-T4 for this 16 to 55 2.8, which I'll touch on in a sec. And I decided that if I could trade in my cameras, my two cameras, get the X-T5 with this 27 millimeter pancake lens, that the X-T5 would essentially fill the void of both cameras. With this pancake, I would have my X100V experience, but I would also be able to interchange the lenses and use it for YouTube and everything else. That was the thinking behind getting the X-T5. The funny thing about street photography is I don't need to crop as much with street because I sort of compose my shots the way I see them. So I don't crop as much as I do with like landscapes. And it wasn't until I began using this lens that some light bulbs started to go off. I was really trying to find the place for this lens and I wasn't using it and it was winter. So I hadn't been going to the mountains as much. And it wasn't until I went to Washington and I went to the Olympic peninsula that my eyes were opened. [Music] As I traveled around the Olympic peninsula, I often stopped by the sides of the road and I was pretty far away from some of the photography, some of the photos that I was trying to get. There was an image of a house on a lake and I took the photo and it's a great photo. It really shows how it was snowing that morning. So the snow capped trees at the top and all the way down to this blue house reflecting perfectly off the lake. All of that was beautiful and it was wonderful. But it wasn't until I cropped in and I could crop to that blue house on the lake that I really just started to understand the X-T5 at that point, I was in love with it. It was the best camera I had ever used. It was so amazing to have such a powerful camera in my kit. So I was in love and when I came home and I realized that I was still having trouble with it in a street setting, I was looking already at the X-Pro3. And as I started to look for it, just like everything else with Fujifilm over the last couple years, they were all sold out. Now we get into some of the nitty gritty. First of all, I just need to say if you have an X-T5, I am not bashing the X-T5. I'm not bashing it for street photography. I'm not bashing the way it looks. I actually think it's a very nice camera. When I do street photography, I want to be about as incognito as you can be. My comfort level is not very high with street photography. And that's what this is about. What I'm getting at is I do worry, especially in downtown Denver where things have gotten a little rough. I don't want to make myself a target for robbing. I knew that in order to continue to grow and be successful, I wanted to get a camera that I could use as a companion to my X-T5. And when I got this little camera, I was very happy to get this camera. And it had that back that didn't make it look digital. And that was the whole goal. You know, I couple it with this 35 millimeter lens, which also has a bit of a classic feel to it. And I walk around town with something that appears to be something that I got from my dad. It's not a camera that I think draws a lot of attention to itself. And that's exactly what I wanted. There's no logo or anything on the front. It completely is understated what kind of camera it is. And if I want to, I can use the optical viewfinder and never look at anything digitally. And there's no way a person would know that I have a digital camera in my hand. And what started to happen when I did this, when I made this change, was I was using the X-Pro3 a lot. I mean, I took it out all the time. As much as I love to go to the mountains and I love to do landscape photography, that's a larger trip for me. Going downtown and taking photos is one hour out of my day. You know, I go down on a Saturday and I can walk around taking photos. And then I have the rest of my Saturday, the rest of my weekend. And that's what happened. I was using it more and more and my X-T5 was sitting at home. I was using it less and less. And I started to feel kind of guilty about that. These two objects share the same space in my mind. They're both photography objects. They're both for the act of going out and taking photos. And I knew that that was going to be a problem. And now the other thing that was happening was I was trying to use my X-T5 for video. I feel like if I had practiced a little bit longer, just a little bit longer, I probably would have gotten it. Like I did a video about my channel, Creatoring. I did that video in June of 2023. And I did that completely sight unseen, no monitors or anything. I just, I kind of set the camera to where I thought everything needed to be. I took a leap of faith and I did one of these talking head videos in a hotel room and it turned out pretty well. It worked. And so I think if I had practiced a little longer, I would have gotten it. But I had way too many videos that were just slightly out of focus. My eyes were slightly out of focus. Things were wrong in the video. And there was no way to tell because that screen doesn't flip around. So I tried monitoring systems. I tried the Axun C-Mo using my phone as a monitor. I used my iPad as a monitor. I used my computer as a monitor. I just, I never really enjoyed any of those experiences as much as just flipping the screen around and being able to see myself. So it was in this, I started to think the new XS20 might solve my problems. I thought, okay, I'll get the XS20. Then I would have two cameras for video and I would have my X-Pro3, which I don't really use for video. And as I thought about that idea longer rationally, it started to make less sense because if the X-Pro3 and the X-T5 were competing for Headspace and I got an XS20 specifically for these talking head YouTube videos, then where was the X-T5 going to fit in with all of this? It was around this time that I started to occur to me that maybe the answer was the camera that I passed up when I decided to get the X-T5. When I made this choice and when I decided to do this, it was about taking my X-T5 and getting the exact same sensor, just replacing the X-T5 with the X-H2. So I would essentially get the same magic in photography, but I would also have the ability to do these videos. When I looked at it that way, it became very easy. This would be my workhorse. This would be my fun everyday documentary camera. So I decided to package up my X-T5. And that brings me to what happened after I initially got the X-H2. On July 28, I got my X-H2 back from MPB after they had inspected my X-T5. And my initial reaction was negative. Very, very negative. In fact, I made a quick video thinking I was going to save someone else from making the same critical error that I made. And here's a couple of highlights from that video. I was completely off base. The X-H2 is significantly heavier and bulkier than the X-T5. So much so, I was shocked. As I go through YouTube videos, since I received this camera, the cameras on video don't look that big of a difference. But it is a much bigger camera. I immediately miss the dials. Although I think with a little bit of time, I'll get used to this. My immediate reaction to this camera is it is not fun. I don't want to pick it up and use it at all. And as I stated in the video, it was big. It was so much heavier. I just, I was really surprised by how heavy it was. I felt like I had just stepped back into the DSLR world. I mean, I know that the mirrorless is still smaller than the DSLRs, but geez, it was so much bigger. And I was very, very concerned. And the only way to alleviate that concern was to go out and try it because I don't even know how MPB would have handled it if I told them, no, I don't like this. I don't want this. Would they have been able in their warehousing system to give me my camera and my lens back to me? You know, I felt like such a black hole of a way to trade in a camera that I'm not actually sure if I'll do that again. If I'll trade something in that I like and hope for something better back, I think I might go through local camera stores in the future. But in the spirit of, you know, not creating a problem and trying to learn this new system, this new camera without my precious dials and the custom settings, I stepped into the world of the XH line. I had made up my mind to learn the XH2 and start using it. And one of the things that actually did surprise me pretty quickly was even though it was a heavier camera, even though it weighed more, when I took it into the mountains and I started doing landscape photography with it, trying to see if I could recapture the magic, the first thing I noticed was how much I love the new grip, how much I love how the grip came up over, and I could really hold on to it. My hand would really get a hold of this camera, so much so that I would walk around with this wrist strap. And the wrist strap was just kind of dangling behind the camera. I just when the moment arose and I needed to take a photo, I just felt so confident and comfortable holding the grip of the XH2 that I just would grab it and take a photo without even thinking of putting the wrist strap on. A couple of things happened early on with the camera that while I'm ashamed of it from how stupid I was, I'm very happy with the fact that I got more of a tank of a camera. And the first thing that happened was I set my camera on my backpack, which the back flaps open so you can get another lens. And I was concentrating on something I was doing with another camera. My Insta360 Flow and my iPhone, I was trying to set up a video shot and I reached down and just my brain was off. I reached down, I grabbed the lid and the camera fell off and into this ravine right next to me. Now, it was a pretty grassy ravine. I wasn't like terrified that it was going to be hurt or anything, but I had to climb down and get it. There was a lot of mud on it that I had to clean off. And then the next one was similar, but I had my camera on a tripod and it was sitting on a picnic table and I opened my lid and it hit the tripod, the tripod flipped and the camera went head first into the pavement below and it took damage. It hit pretty hard. I was actually very worried after that one. And I'm happy to report that it is still working just fine. I have that was about four months ago and I haven't seen anything other than this little piece of plastic chipped off. In that regard, I'm very happy with the fact that I have a workhorse and that's why I got the X-H2. That's why I wanted it. I wanted a workhorse. I wanted something that could just do my talking head videos, something that I could take with me on landscape adventures, something I could take with me to travel, something that I just felt like could handle all the day and day out of the punishment that I was going to put it through. It does not at all compete in my mind with this camera. I have come around and one thing that I didn't realize was how much I would come to love the custom settings. With the custom settings, I'm able to create settings very specific to very specific needs. Being able to program the dials and everything the way I want to has become a very useful feature to me. I feel like with my total growth path, as I went from the X100V, the X-T4, the X-T5, I finally found myself understanding the entirety of the camera. I'll bet I could pick up a Canon or a Sony and I could immediately start to use the camera, start to program the dials the way I want to use the camera. All of it is just this complete growth that I'm really excited about. I do use the custom settings on my camera. Right now I'm on C7, which is Talking Head. And all of the features for Talking Head are set. Everything is set in camera when I turn it on. And then all I have to do is make some adjustments to the white balance or change the ISO a little bit. But it's like all right there in one dial. Bam, C7, I'm talking. I have definitely come around to enjoying the X-H2. Okay, this brings me to my final thoughts about this. Using the X-T5 for seven months and now using the X-H2 for seven months. This isn't a cop-out at all. I'm telling you, for real, you can't go wrong with either one of these. I experienced both of them and they both just have great image quality. The 40 megapixel sensor is no joke. So, you know, these cameras share almost all the same internals. Internally speaking, inside the camera itself, you're gonna get the best processors, the best image quality. Everything is shared. The big difference there is the price. You know, the X-T5 starts at $1,700 US and the X-H2 starts at $2,000 US. Those are body-only prices. And that's, you know, not that big of a difference in the camera world. Like I said, either way is good. What it boils down to the most is really what parts of the camera are you looking for? If you are looking for lightweight with lightweight materials, if you're looking for a screen that flips up towards you as you look straight down at it, so you can compose photography, then the X-T5 is a much better choice. If you're looking for a larger hand grip or you need this flip-out screen, so you can see that you're in focus when you do your own video work, then obviously the X-H2 would be a better choice. That's how these cameras differ. What's inside them is the same. So that's what's really great. Either one of these, whichever way you choose to go, you're gonna like these cameras. I can highly recommend both cameras. They are amazing cameras. Okay, that is my very, very long take on why I made this switch. And I hope you found some joy in it. I mean, it's a long video I know. Okay, thank you so much for watching. Please remember to like and subscribe if you did like it. It always helps the channel grow. I thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.
