Recording Without a Microphone

We're recording without a microphone right now, so this is the audio that you can get straight out of the camera. I like this camera so much - the image is so good. I really just wish it had a little more usability, like the Canon m50. The Canon 50 has an okay image, but it's super usable. This camera, on the other hand, has a fantastic image, but it's not as easy to use.

Using the Camera

I'm continuously impressed by the images this camera takes. However, in the world of content creation, technical image quality is only important up to a certain point. It's not very far what's more important is how fiddly is the camera to use, both before and after you hit record. I mean, content creation basically means that the camera has to be part of the creation process - it's got to be its own operator. The physical body of the camera is actually really liked a lot. It's small, and while that should lead to not liking the holding experience, it doesn't bother me that much.

The Camera Body

There are hand grips available that can make it easier to hold if you want that. However, because the lenses are so small and the system is so tiny, I don't mind the weight of the camera one bit. The physical dials are very robust in the XT 30, and even though it's tiny, there is a little joystick for both picking focusing points and scrolling through the menus.

The Menu System

Speaking of menus, when I first started using a Fuji camera last year with the XT 3d, I was totally lost. Having so many options and settings and features and abilities is great until you've got to put them into a coherent user interface. The menu system in this camera is functional but does not win any points for elegance. You do not have an elegant menu system - you can learn any menu system, but this one is probably the least friendly of all the menu systems I've ever come across.

Setting Up the Camera

Setting up the camera with the combined physical dials and menus isn't terrible. However, it's not perfect either. The autofocus system could be improved upon, which is part of the three criteria that I judge this on: being awkward in all three areas. The lack of a flip screen on the back of the camera is also a major drawback for me.

Ergonomics

One of the things that I'm looking at right now - like there's a light on the front that will show you if you are recording - is insanely useful. It's one of those little features that makes this camera stand out from other cameras in its class. The lens ecosystem, which includes both the kit lens and various primes and zooms, is also fantastic.

Lens Ecosystem

The kit lens is probably the best kit lens of any camera ever made. Fuji has a fantastic assortment of glass - it's definitely one of the single best APS-C collections of lenses that you can find. They've got inexpensive but sharp Prime lenses, like the 35mm f/2, and their zooms are also very impressive.

Upgrade Options

If you want to upgrade bodies, the XT3 is one of the most feature-packed cameras ever made. It's really it was one of my favorite cameras of last year - come close to at the price range like it's shockingly good. However, I have had some problems with focus breathing on the f2 primes.

Focus Breathing

I wish more of their zooms had optical image stabilization built-in, but that's a minor complaint in an otherwise excellent set of lenses. They're not perfect, but they are pretty good. Now, let's talk about the XT 30's performance at the end of the month.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlook real talk if you've never heard of or considered Fujifilm for video work the xt 30 is like a slap in the face saying hey creator we're for real and this is our way of proving it I ask you what other camera can be had for under $1000 that has access to DCI 4k internal and for to to 10-bit to an external recorder while having some of the best looking straight out of camera images you're gonna find well-well none you know that's that's the whole point of the video what's up everyone I'm the everyday dead and if I can figure it out you can figure it out so on to the XT 30 now we've already done a series of videos of initial impressions about this powerhouse but I've been using this pretty solidly in my production workflow for the last thirty days and it's time to share my longer-term impressions longer-term impressions I mean I'm impressionable so I never actually say review because ain't nobody got time to go through every single my new detail of a camera especially a Fuji film camera have you seen their menus but before we get too far into the video I do want to thank my friends over at B&H Photo for loaning me this camera for a couple of weeks to make some videos if you'd like to get your own pocket powerhouse there will be links in the description below the Fuji XT 30 is a very weird camera or maybe a better way to put that as unique on the one hand yes it's the successor to the XT 20 but what it really is is a smaller less feature-packed which is crazy to call something with this much functionality less feature-packed then it's big brother the XT 3 and maybe that by itself doesn't make it unique but what does is for the asking price you gain recording codecs frame rates and resolutions you won't see again until much more expensive cameras and look how darn small this thing is this is one of the smallest cameras like around now if you saw last week's series of videos about the m50 this little guy back there the whole purpose behind those videos was me looking for a camera for my second youtube channel and what actually kicked off that entire hunt was this XT 30 this was the first camera I considered to do that but you know what let's pop this on the tripod really quick and have this be the B cam for the rest of the video there we go and all that fuji film eterna film simulation goodness now let's do a quick spec overview if this is your first XT 30 video but trust me we won't stay here long because specs are boring so boring the XT 30 is a twenty six point one megapixel x-trans CMOS sensor and it can record an up to DCI that means seventeen by nine cinema 4k and sixteen by nine UHD at 30 frames per second you can additionally do 2 K which is 17 by 9 and 1080p and up to 120 frames per second and II can do those recording modes in up to 200 megabits per second and it can do all of those resolutions in for 2 to 10 bit like we mentioned earlier if you're using an external record which again is nuts because you can find these used online for like 800 bucks like that's that's crazy plus it also is a 425 point phase detection autofocus system which sounds great but we'll talk more about this later so how is this did the test of time first up we got a talk video quality because the image coming out of the XT 30 is beautiful beautiful like legitimately some of my favorite straight out of the camera images I've ever gotten it's the XT 3 - it's the whole sensor that Fugees come up with like that looks good the colors are vibrant the image is sharp and the dynamic range is pretty inspiring for a budget sized version of a camera from a company that's not really known for their video prowess my favorite part of the XT 30 is the ability to record in the 200 megabits per second codec allowing you to capture a little more information and I this is important to me because I'm starting to dabble in a little bit of post-processing I might have even used a letter to analog format in the last couple of weeks and that little bit of information can go a very long way to move the image around later now we haven't mentioned it yet but the biggest negative about the XT 30 and this actually sucks pretty bad it's the recording limits and surprisingly enough I don't actually mind the 10 minute recording limit on the 4k like I think that's reasonable because that puts this more in line with other cameras of this shockingly small size like the RX cameras because there is absolutely heat I mean heat will absolutely be an issue if you record in high bitrate and high frame resolutions especially the cameras so small but my real issue is the 15-minute 1080p recording limit now that's real real unfortunate because even Canon cameras the cameras that get beaten up on all the time for having the worst specs even I do that I mean that can do 1080p for up to 30 minutes at a time 15 minutes is just too short and I would think that they could increase this with a firmware update if the engineers think they can manage that heat I really hope they figure out a way because it's just while Canon may give you less information might give you less recording resolutions and options I mean it's just more convenient to use another real issue I've had with the XT 30 and you might have seen it so far well recording I hope not but I can't see because there's no flip screen is the autofocus now the autofocus is labeled as Fugees most cutting-edge but i do have some problems with it now first off if i'm outdoors i have sunglasses on because i'm just cool but also my eyes are crazy sensitive so the second i go outside i have to have sunglasses on and why are you wearing sunglasses the autofocus has no idea what to do i tracking face tracking it just has no idea what to do i mean even the face tracking autofocus from not that far away will have problems holding even with well-lit situations and the settings turned to mac stick and slowest transition speed i'll still get it to warp in and out which i'm sure it's doing right now and that really sucks so the autofocus works fantastic for stills but for continuous video autofocus especially if you gonna use a shallow depth of field and one of the prime lenses it's not as great and the last real complaint I have about the video quality is on the audio side and that's the 2.5 millimeter audio jack instead of the standard 3.5 millimeter now sure buying a cheap little adapter in the grand scheme of things isn't a big deal but I'll lose dongles and little parts all of the time I mean I basically treat the XT 30 like an Rx 100 because of this and I'll never record internally to the camera itself all you bring my zoom h1 N or some other kind of external audio recording now those are legitimate problem for the camera and they suck but I want to say that if you can be behind the camera this thing produces an incredible image like these issues hurt more because of how good the XT 30 actually is at making beautiful images and I didn't forget the lack of in body image stable but the lens oh is that Fuji has especially in their kit lens it more than makes up for that in my opinion and to prove it let's hop outside real quick for a video slash vlogging test welcome to the vlogging test the Fuji XT 30 this camera we've been using it for about 30 days straight now and it just I've used it in video I've use it for photos the image quality on this camera is just like second to none like it is incredible the sharpness is awesome the dynamic range is awesome the colors are just great like straight out of the camera I don't know of another camera brand that looks this good just like without doing anything to it like I'm so impressed with the image quality the only big negative that you're probably seeing right now is there is no in body image stabilization but I do think that this kit lens has good enough oh is that it doesn't really matter I mean even right now we're just walking around hand holding the camera without a gimbal or anything like that and I think the stabilization works perfectly well the real problem the real problem that I have with the XT 30 is you might notice I'm not wearing my sunglasses right now because I've noticed even the eye tracking the face tracking all the autofocus is super unreliable if you're wearing anything that covers your eye even without that I've had some problems with the autofocus on the camera which is kind of unfortunate but yeah even now we're recording without a microphone so this is the audio that you can get just straight out of the camera like I like this camera so much the image is so good I really just wish that it had a little more usability like a la the Canon m50 the Canon 50 has an OK image but it's like super usable this is a super image and it's like a okay usability okay back to the video and we're back I'm just continuously impressed by the images however in this line of creation technical image quality is only important up to a certain point and it's not very far what's more important is how fiddly is the camera to use both before and after you hit record like how easy is it to get those images because we don't have time to mess around I mean content creation basically means the camera has to be part of the creation process like it has to it's own operator now the physical body of the camera I actually really liked a lot I liked how small it is and while that should lead to not liking the holding experience it doesn't bother me that much there are hand grips there are other things you can buy to make it a little easier to hold if you want that but because the lenses are so small and because it's such a tiny system I don't mind it plus the physical dials are very robust in the XT 30 and even though it's tiny you do get a little joystick to both picked focusing points and scroll through the menus speaking of the menus when I first started using a Fuji camera last year with the XT 3d I was totally lost I mean having so many options and settings and features and abilities is great until you've got to plop those into a coherent user interface and this one is functional but it does not win any points for elegance you do not have an elegant menu system you do eventually come around to it I mean you can learn any menu system but this is probably the least friendly of all the menu systems I've ever come across I even personally like Sohni menu systems more than the Fuji ones now setting the camera up with the combined physical dials and menus isn't terrible but how easy is it to use after hit record well we've already mentioned the autofocus the Ibis the lack of a flip screen and those are really the three criterias I judge this on awkward yes it's lacking in all three of those areas but it's not all doom and gloom because one of the things the tally light that I'm looking at right now like there's a light on the front that will show you if you are recording and that's insanely useful like we already mentioned the kit lenses oeus is fantastic and while there isn't anything to fix the flip screen because the app is garbage and it's terrible for me two out of the three isn't bad it could be worse and all of this time later Howard the lenses an ecosystem holding up now we already talked about the glass because this kit lens is probably the best kit lens of any camera ever made and Fuji has a fantastic assortment of glass it's probably the single best aps-c collection of lenses you are going to find they've got inexpensive but sharp Prime's we're currently on the 35 millimeter f/2 their zooms are definitely impressive and if you want to upgrade bodies that xt3 is one of the most feature packed cameras ever really it was one of my favorite cameras of last year it can do things that nothing else can come close to at the price range like it's shockingly good now I have had some problems with focus breathing on the f2 primes and I wish more of their zooms had oh is built-in but it's got lenses that I wish every single aps-c format camera could release like it it's the lenses are pretty good now at the end of the month so what right now listening back to this video I'm pretty rough on the XT 30 because it's missing a lot of features but it's it's the good that makes the bad so remarkable but you also have to remember the price because you could buy this today for 850 bucks now at that range you can buy the a 6300 the G 85 and maybe a used a TD and not a single one of those cameras could touch the internal recording specs of the XT 30 the G 85 does have unlimited recording which Trump's Dickstein 30 but it doesn't have DCI now I really really like this camera and I wish it had a few more usability features to it and it would be a no-brainer but if you want the best image from behind the camera or you just want a small travel camera and you don't need to film yourself that much absolutely give the XT 30 a shot it produces a beautiful image thanks for watchinglook real talk if you've never heard of or considered Fujifilm for video work the xt 30 is like a slap in the face saying hey creator we're for real and this is our way of proving it I ask you what other camera can be had for under $1000 that has access to DCI 4k internal and for to to 10-bit to an external recorder while having some of the best looking straight out of camera images you're gonna find well-well none you know that's that's the whole point of the video what's up everyone I'm the everyday dead and if I can figure it out you can figure it out so on to the XT 30 now we've already done a series of videos of initial impressions about this powerhouse but I've been using this pretty solidly in my production workflow for the last thirty days and it's time to share my longer-term impressions longer-term impressions I mean I'm impressionable so I never actually say review because ain't nobody got time to go through every single my new detail of a camera especially a Fuji film camera have you seen their menus but before we get too far into the video I do want to thank my friends over at B&H Photo for loaning me this camera for a couple of weeks to make some videos if you'd like to get your own pocket powerhouse there will be links in the description below the Fuji XT 30 is a very weird camera or maybe a better way to put that as unique on the one hand yes it's the successor to the XT 20 but what it really is is a smaller less feature-packed which is crazy to call something with this much functionality less feature-packed then it's big brother the XT 3 and maybe that by itself doesn't make it unique but what does is for the asking price you gain recording codecs frame rates and resolutions you won't see again until much more expensive cameras and look how darn small this thing is this is one of the smallest cameras like around now if you saw last week's series of videos about the m50 this little guy back there the whole purpose behind those videos was me looking for a camera for my second youtube channel and what actually kicked off that entire hunt was this XT 30 this was the first camera I considered to do that but you know what let's pop this on the tripod really quick and have this be the B cam for the rest of the video there we go and all that fuji film eterna film simulation goodness now let's do a quick spec overview if this is your first XT 30 video but trust me we won't stay here long because specs are boring so boring the XT 30 is a twenty six point one megapixel x-trans CMOS sensor and it can record an up to DCI that means seventeen by nine cinema 4k and sixteen by nine UHD at 30 frames per second you can additionally do 2 K which is 17 by 9 and 1080p and up to 120 frames per second and II can do those recording modes in up to 200 megabits per second and it can do all of those resolutions in for 2 to 10 bit like we mentioned earlier if you're using an external record which again is nuts because you can find these used online for like 800 bucks like that's that's crazy plus it also is a 425 point phase detection autofocus system which sounds great but we'll talk more about this later so how is this did the test of time first up we got a talk video quality because the image coming out of the XT 30 is beautiful beautiful like legitimately some of my favorite straight out of the camera images I've ever gotten it's the XT 3 - it's the whole sensor that Fugees come up with like that looks good the colors are vibrant the image is sharp and the dynamic range is pretty inspiring for a budget sized version of a camera from a company that's not really known for their video prowess my favorite part of the XT 30 is the ability to record in the 200 megabits per second codec allowing you to capture a little more information and I this is important to me because I'm starting to dabble in a little bit of post-processing I might have even used a letter to analog format in the last couple of weeks and that little bit of information can go a very long way to move the image around later now we haven't mentioned it yet but the biggest negative about the XT 30 and this actually sucks pretty bad it's the recording limits and surprisingly enough I don't actually mind the 10 minute recording limit on the 4k like I think that's reasonable because that puts this more in line with other cameras of this shockingly small size like the RX cameras because there is absolutely heat I mean heat will absolutely be an issue if you record in high bitrate and high frame resolutions especially the cameras so small but my real issue is the 15-minute 1080p recording limit now that's real real unfortunate because even Canon cameras the cameras that get beaten up on all the time for having the worst specs even I do that I mean that can do 1080p for up to 30 minutes at a time 15 minutes is just too short and I would think that they could increase this with a firmware update if the engineers think they can manage that heat I really hope they figure out a way because it's just while Canon may give you less information might give you less recording resolutions and options I mean it's just more convenient to use another real issue I've had with the XT 30 and you might have seen it so far well recording I hope not but I can't see because there's no flip screen is the autofocus now the autofocus is labeled as Fugees most cutting-edge but i do have some problems with it now first off if i'm outdoors i have sunglasses on because i'm just cool but also my eyes are crazy sensitive so the second i go outside i have to have sunglasses on and why are you wearing sunglasses the autofocus has no idea what to do i tracking face tracking it just has no idea what to do i mean even the face tracking autofocus from not that far away will have problems holding even with well-lit situations and the settings turned to mac stick and slowest transition speed i'll still get it to warp in and out which i'm sure it's doing right now and that really sucks so the autofocus works fantastic for stills but for continuous video autofocus especially if you gonna use a shallow depth of field and one of the prime lenses it's not as great and the last real complaint I have about the video quality is on the audio side and that's the 2.5 millimeter audio jack instead of the standard 3.5 millimeter now sure buying a cheap little adapter in the grand scheme of things isn't a big deal but I'll lose dongles and little parts all of the time I mean I basically treat the XT 30 like an Rx 100 because of this and I'll never record internally to the camera itself all you bring my zoom h1 N or some other kind of external audio recording now those are legitimate problem for the camera and they suck but I want to say that if you can be behind the camera this thing produces an incredible image like these issues hurt more because of how good the XT 30 actually is at making beautiful images and I didn't forget the lack of in body image stable but the lens oh is that Fuji has especially in their kit lens it more than makes up for that in my opinion and to prove it let's hop outside real quick for a video slash vlogging test welcome to the vlogging test the Fuji XT 30 this camera we've been using it for about 30 days straight now and it just I've used it in video I've use it for photos the image quality on this camera is just like second to none like it is incredible the sharpness is awesome the dynamic range is awesome the colors are just great like straight out of the camera I don't know of another camera brand that looks this good just like without doing anything to it like I'm so impressed with the image quality the only big negative that you're probably seeing right now is there is no in body image stabilization but I do think that this kit lens has good enough oh is that it doesn't really matter I mean even right now we're just walking around hand holding the camera without a gimbal or anything like that and I think the stabilization works perfectly well the real problem the real problem that I have with the XT 30 is you might notice I'm not wearing my sunglasses right now because I've noticed even the eye tracking the face tracking all the autofocus is super unreliable if you're wearing anything that covers your eye even without that I've had some problems with the autofocus on the camera which is kind of unfortunate but yeah even now we're recording without a microphone so this is the audio that you can get just straight out of the camera like I like this camera so much the image is so good I really just wish that it had a little more usability like a la the Canon m50 the Canon 50 has an OK image but it's like super usable this is a super image and it's like a okay usability okay back to the video and we're back I'm just continuously impressed by the images however in this line of creation technical image quality is only important up to a certain point and it's not very far what's more important is how fiddly is the camera to use both before and after you hit record like how easy is it to get those images because we don't have time to mess around I mean content creation basically means the camera has to be part of the creation process like it has to it's own operator now the physical body of the camera I actually really liked a lot I liked how small it is and while that should lead to not liking the holding experience it doesn't bother me that much there are hand grips there are other things you can buy to make it a little easier to hold if you want that but because the lenses are so small and because it's such a tiny system I don't mind it plus the physical dials are very robust in the XT 30 and even though it's tiny you do get a little joystick to both picked focusing points and scroll through the menus speaking of the menus when I first started using a Fuji camera last year with the XT 3d I was totally lost I mean having so many options and settings and features and abilities is great until you've got to plop those into a coherent user interface and this one is functional but it does not win any points for elegance you do not have an elegant menu system you do eventually come around to it I mean you can learn any menu system but this is probably the least friendly of all the menu systems I've ever come across I even personally like Sohni menu systems more than the Fuji ones now setting the camera up with the combined physical dials and menus isn't terrible but how easy is it to use after hit record well we've already mentioned the autofocus the Ibis the lack of a flip screen and those are really the three criterias I judge this on awkward yes it's lacking in all three of those areas but it's not all doom and gloom because one of the things the tally light that I'm looking at right now like there's a light on the front that will show you if you are recording and that's insanely useful like we already mentioned the kit lenses oeus is fantastic and while there isn't anything to fix the flip screen because the app is garbage and it's terrible for me two out of the three isn't bad it could be worse and all of this time later Howard the lenses an ecosystem holding up now we already talked about the glass because this kit lens is probably the best kit lens of any camera ever made and Fuji has a fantastic assortment of glass it's probably the single best aps-c collection of lenses you are going to find they've got inexpensive but sharp Prime's we're currently on the 35 millimeter f/2 their zooms are definitely impressive and if you want to upgrade bodies that xt3 is one of the most feature packed cameras ever really it was one of my favorite cameras of last year it can do things that nothing else can come close to at the price range like it's shockingly good now I have had some problems with focus breathing on the f2 primes and I wish more of their zooms had oh is built-in but it's got lenses that I wish every single aps-c format camera could release like it it's the lenses are pretty good now at the end of the month so what right now listening back to this video I'm pretty rough on the XT 30 because it's missing a lot of features but it's it's the good that makes the bad so remarkable but you also have to remember the price because you could buy this today for 850 bucks now at that range you can buy the a 6300 the G 85 and maybe a used a TD and not a single one of those cameras could touch the internal recording specs of the XT 30 the G 85 does have unlimited recording which Trump's Dickstein 30 but it doesn't have DCI now I really really like this camera and I wish it had a few more usability features to it and it would be a no-brainer but if you want the best image from behind the camera or you just want a small travel camera and you don't need to film yourself that much absolutely give the XT 30 a shot it produces a beautiful image thanks for watching\n"