Fujifilm X-T30 _ A MONSTER Budget 4k Video Camera
# The Fuji XT 30: A Tiny Powerhouse for Video Creators
## Introduction
The Fuji XT 30 is a camera that defies expectations. Despite its compact size, it packs a punch when it comes to video capabilities. In this in-depth review, we’ll explore why the XT 30 might just be the best online video camera under $1000.
---
## TheXT 30: A Smaller Package with Big Features
For someone who’s never considered Fuji cameras before, the XT 30 is a revelation. It brings most of the features of its predecessor, the XT 3, into a smaller, more affordable package. Whether you're an amateur or a professional, this camera offers something for everyone.
---
## Video Quality: Image and Audio
The heart of any video camera lies in its image quality. The XT 30 boasts a 26.1 megapixel APS-C X-Trans BSI CMOS sensor, capable of shooting up to DCI 4K at 30 frames per second (200Mbps) for up to 10 minutes. It also supports 1080p at 120fps. The camera’s phase detection autofocus system with 425 points ensures sharp images and smooth focus tracking, even in challenging conditions.
While the image quality is impressive, there are a couple of drawbacks. There's no built-in stabilization, which can be a downside for handheld shooting. Also, the audio input jack is only 2.5mm, requiring an adapter for standard 3.5mm headphones or microphones.
---
## Ease of Use
One of the standout features of the XT 30 is its ease of use. The manual controls are well-placed and intuitive, with control wheels, a shutter speed dial, and a mode dial that make adjusting settings straightforward. However, the lack of an articulating screen can be frustrating when trying to monitor your shots.
---
## Menu System and User Interface
The Fuji XT 30’s menu system is robust but can feel overwhelming for first-time users. With so many options available, navigating through the interface can be a challenge. While it’s not as straightforward as some competitors, it does offer enough customization for serious shooters.
---
## FID Leanliness: How Easy Is It to Use After Hitting Record?
FID leanliness refers to how easy a camera is to use once you’ve started recording. The XT 30 excels in this area with its excellent autofocus and image quality right out of the gate. However, without an articulating screen or tally light (which some Sony cameras lack), monitoring your footage can be tricky.
---
## Lens Options and Upgrade Paths
Fuji’s commitment to APS-C sensors means a wide range of lenses are available for the XT 30. From affordable f/2 primes to stabilized zooms, there’s something for every shooter. If you outgrow the XT 30, Fuji offers clear upgrade paths with their XH and XT lines.
---
## Conclusion
The Fuji XT 30 is a remarkable camera that punches well above its weight. Its combination of portability, powerful features, and affordability makes it an excellent choice under $1000. While there are some drawbacks, such as the lack of stabilization and a non-standard audio jack, these don’t outweigh the camera’s many strengths.
---
## Outro
Thanks for watching! Whether you're upgrading from an older model or just starting out, the Fuji XT 30 is a fantastic option. Stay tuned for more camera comparisons and reviews in future videos.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe Fuji XT 30 is a seriously tiny camera with seriously powerful video chops in fact when you consider everything packed into this little camera pound-for-pound it potentially could be the best online video camera under $1000 right now but is it let's find out what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out this is only my second Fuji camera I've ever used I've never really considered Fuji as a company for video cameras until the XT 3 came by and straight-up blew my mind last year and what's awesome about the XT 30 is you get most of what you need of the XT 3 in a smaller package for less money I mean seriously who wouldn't want that I mean seriously whoo 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 now when I consider a good online video camera there are a few things that just have to be on point it has to be easy to use have a decent enough image quality and it has to have a way to grow with you or have an upgrade path from this camera to another one if you decide to move on to bigger and better things some of us buy more cameras than others and we need places to grow to so how does the XT 30 stack up to those requirements first up video quality which for newcomers includes both image quality but also the audio quality of a camera photographers I'm sorry we're not gonna be talking much about your stuff today the XT 30 is rocking a 26.1 megapixel aps-c x-trans BSI CMOS sensor it can record an upto DCI 4k 30 frames per second at 200 megabits per second for up to 10 minutes at a time and you can do a pretty standard 1080p 120 frames per second what DC I mean is it's at a 17 by 9 aspect ratio instead of the normal UHD 16 by 9 aspect ratio it can do both but being able to do cinema 4k and a cheap camera like this is incredible to make sure your video stays in focus it's rocking a 425 point phase detection autofocus system that can do both face detection but so I detection in continuous focusing modes though quick quick note here something I found is that if your eye is blocked with say sunglasses the XT 30 struggles a bit to keep you in focus even when it defaults to face focus another awesome benefit of the xt 30 is it has the Fujifilm simulations including my favorite aterna this gives you the ability to get great results straight out of the camera one thing the xt 30 is lacking unfortunately much like ext3 is there is no built-in stabilization on the camera which yeah that kind of stinks as far as audio goes this is something that I'm not as happy about while the XT 30 does have an audio in Jack this jack is 2.5 millimeters it's not a 3.5 millimeter that means you'll need an adapter so while the audio from the camera is fine I just wish this was 3.5 millimeter I mean the camera body is not I mean there's not there's plenty of space to work with I hate bringing extra pieces and parts when you could have just fit the normal thing there in the first place but as far as overall video quality goes I think it does a great job the image looks great especially for such a small camera and the autofocus works perfectly well and that's really the big benefit here the more I use Fuji cameras the more I'm just impressed with what they can pull off aps-c is my favorite sensor size and the best thing about Fuji is unlike Sony they have the glass to back up their smaller cameras that's incredibly important I do wish there wasn't as steep of a recording limit on 4k 30 but 10 minutes is doable especially for work that involves smaller clips like mine I don't really do a lot of big long takes except for these narrative talking head parts so that I'd have to work around that but I wish it was a little bit longer but for the price I can't fault anything about the video quality think about it the rx100 mark 5 costs about the same as this and this does so much more but don't take my word for it let's hop outside real quick for a video slash vlogging test welcome to the vlogging test of the XT 30 and really quick you know we mentioned this on Monday and I've mentioned this throughout the video but something when it comes to vlogging I want you to see like look how small this camera is like the biggest benefit of the XT 30 is all of the recording modes that you get in this tiny package like I just don't want to the video I just was so impressed that I wanted to mention it again so we're on we're hitting record there you guys are there I am vlogging test begin whoa okay so this is the vlogging test of the Fuji XT 30 again so like the benefit of this camera is how small it is like it's smaller than the Aged 6400 which you just saw a second ago like this guy right here that's the a 6400 this is small it's powerful it's got most of what I liked about the XT three it's missing a few features like 4k 60 a lot of the higher bit rates but do you really need that like if you don't specifically need those things this is an incredibly powerful camera and one of the nice things because the XD 3 in the XT 30 do not have in body image stabilization one of the things you really get with the XT 30 is that light weight so the light weight combined with the OIS in the lens I find that the stabilization isn't half bad if you can get a Fuji stabilized lens like the kit lens right now the 18 to 55 is stabilized so this footage should be perfectly usable now one of the negatives if you want to use this as like a vlogging style camera is there's no flip screen but one of the positives you see that that's the tally light so when this light is on you can set it to when this light is on that means it's recording like even the H 6400 all of the Sony cameras don't have anything like this so the a 6400 not to talk about it too much but it's the only one that really lets you know what's going on in front of it whereas this simple feature lets you know when you're recording like that's incredible when I had an aged 73 I would lose whole videos because I didn't know if it was recording or not or it would just stop recording and I wouldn't know I love the tally light okay vlogging test over back inside okay and this is the indoor slash studio test of the Fuji X 230 now we are shooting this in 4k 30 frames per second with the 18 to 55 2.8 to f/4 kit lens now this will look a little different than the gh 5 because the gh 5 has a 1.4 prime lens on it so there will be differences but I think the image quality out of the XD 30 looks fantastic even with the kit lens on it it's got that aps-c sensor it's got really good autofocus the colors are great we're in the aterna picture profile everything else is the same that you just saw in the gh 5 the only difference is that we're on a different camera a different camera that I actually really like the audio is still being recorded - gh five because I refuse to get an adapter for audio I'd rather just record audio off camera than needing an adapter my whole workflow has moved away from eating extra little pieces to make things work for the most part this image quality works really well and looks even better back to the video okay the video quality is great at all but that begs the question how easy is it to get that video quality out of a camera another thing that Fuji is known for are all of the manual controls they include on their flagships what's nice is while this isn't a flagship camera it still has a lot of these same manual functionality with the to control wheels a shutter speed dial and a mode dial that's just so much better than the competition like Sony does not have these kind of things on the top of their camera the back is lacking any kind of scroll wheel though and it just has this tiny little joystick which I assume would be impossible to use with any kind of gloves like I mean look how tiny that thing is something you will have to brace yourself for if you've never used a fuji camera is the menu system is robust and by robust I mean pretty confusing and can be hard to navigate part of the you know I don't want to say problem but there are just so many options inside of this camera that trying to scroll through them all can cause you to feel lost in the user interface if you haven't used one of these before and yes I personally think it's worse than the ever maligned Sony menu system I know I know setting it up is one thing what's really most important for how a camera works is a little thing I like to call FID leanness what is fiddle eNOS fiddle eNOS is how easy is a camera to use after you hit record so right now we're currently recording on the Fuji XT 30 and if you wanted to use this as a studio or an out and about camera and you want to be able to monitor what you're doing how easy that's usual as you can see here you're gonna need some kind of a monitor that's the big negative of the Fuji cameras they don't have any kind of articulating screen that lets you see what's going on but that's not to say that they are fiddly cameras I don't think the Fuji XT 30 is a fiddly camera at all it's got amazing autofocus it's got really good easy to get image quality and it's got enough customization for one of these small bodies that as you can see it doesn't have all of the mode dials of like the XT 3 but it has more than like other cameras out there the auto exposure modes are really great if you can understand how a Fuji menu system works you'll be able to get through that as we already talked about in ease of use but for fitness it's perfectly usable the problem is gonna be the real two big issues I have like we said one there's no flip out screen for ease of monitoring but two its that audio inject being 2.5 millimeters really hampers your ability to easily capture footage because you got to have a good audio so like right now we're recording audio off camera to a zoom h1 and just because I don't feel like messing with the 2.5 millimeter audio in jak look at that look at that craziness we can't see it cuz it's dark out but it's right there trust me if the sun's not yet out we're trying to do like some some quick quick before the Sun comes up footage today when it comes to fiddle East the Fuji XT 30 not the best but it's also not the worst and we're back I just about broke the chair this time that would not be a bad thing so we've seen the image quality and we've seen how easy the camera is to use to get that video quality but there's still one more thing we need to cover where can I go from the XT 30 and the kit lens like we mentioned earlier Fuji is fully invested in aps-c so there is a huge line of lenses that can really get the most from this body from 2.8 zooms to 1.4 primes it's really got it ball I wish I could say that about my a 6400 I mean it just doesn't have this kind of lens lineup there are even super affordable f/2 Prime's that are adorable and tiny I mean they're perfect for an adorable and tiny camera but if you find you want a bigger camera with more Oh is there a way to grow outside of the XT 30 and I would say absolutely you have a dual-track above the xt 30 with the XH line of cameras on one hand and the XT line on the other both are fantastic and again with the X III being just about one of the best cameras on the market today period so yes this is definitely one of the if not the best cameras you can get for under $1,000 click here for a whole range of other awesome camera videos and I'll see you for the XT 30 versus a 6400 video coming out this Friday thanks for watchingthe Fuji XT 30 is a seriously tiny camera with seriously powerful video chops in fact when you consider everything packed into this little camera pound-for-pound it potentially could be the best online video camera under $1000 right now but is it let's find out what's up everyone I'm the everyday dad and if I can figure it out you can figure it out this is only my second Fuji camera I've ever used I've never really considered Fuji as a company for video cameras until the XT 3 came by and straight-up blew my mind last year and what's awesome about the XT 30 is you get most of what you need of the XT 3 in a smaller package for less money I mean seriously who wouldn't want that I mean seriously whoo 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 now when I consider a good online video camera there are a few things that just have to be on point it has to be easy to use have a decent enough image quality and it has to have a way to grow with you or have an upgrade path from this camera to another one if you decide to move on to bigger and better things some of us buy more cameras than others and we need places to grow to so how does the XT 30 stack up to those requirements first up video quality which for newcomers includes both image quality but also the audio quality of a camera photographers I'm sorry we're not gonna be talking much about your stuff today the XT 30 is rocking a 26.1 megapixel aps-c x-trans BSI CMOS sensor it can record an upto DCI 4k 30 frames per second at 200 megabits per second for up to 10 minutes at a time and you can do a pretty standard 1080p 120 frames per second what DC I mean is it's at a 17 by 9 aspect ratio instead of the normal UHD 16 by 9 aspect ratio it can do both but being able to do cinema 4k and a cheap camera like this is incredible to make sure your video stays in focus it's rocking a 425 point phase detection autofocus system that can do both face detection but so I detection in continuous focusing modes though quick quick note here something I found is that if your eye is blocked with say sunglasses the XT 30 struggles a bit to keep you in focus even when it defaults to face focus another awesome benefit of the xt 30 is it has the Fujifilm simulations including my favorite aterna this gives you the ability to get great results straight out of the camera one thing the xt 30 is lacking unfortunately much like ext3 is there is no built-in stabilization on the camera which yeah that kind of stinks as far as audio goes this is something that I'm not as happy about while the XT 30 does have an audio in Jack this jack is 2.5 millimeters it's not a 3.5 millimeter that means you'll need an adapter so while the audio from the camera is fine I just wish this was 3.5 millimeter I mean the camera body is not I mean there's not there's plenty of space to work with I hate bringing extra pieces and parts when you could have just fit the normal thing there in the first place but as far as overall video quality goes I think it does a great job the image looks great especially for such a small camera and the autofocus works perfectly well and that's really the big benefit here the more I use Fuji cameras the more I'm just impressed with what they can pull off aps-c is my favorite sensor size and the best thing about Fuji is unlike Sony they have the glass to back up their smaller cameras that's incredibly important I do wish there wasn't as steep of a recording limit on 4k 30 but 10 minutes is doable especially for work that involves smaller clips like mine I don't really do a lot of big long takes except for these narrative talking head parts so that I'd have to work around that but I wish it was a little bit longer but for the price I can't fault anything about the video quality think about it the rx100 mark 5 costs about the same as this and this does so much more but don't take my word for it let's hop outside real quick for a video slash vlogging test welcome to the vlogging test of the XT 30 and really quick you know we mentioned this on Monday and I've mentioned this throughout the video but something when it comes to vlogging I want you to see like look how small this camera is like the biggest benefit of the XT 30 is all of the recording modes that you get in this tiny package like I just don't want to the video I just was so impressed that I wanted to mention it again so we're on we're hitting record there you guys are there I am vlogging test begin whoa okay so this is the vlogging test of the Fuji XT 30 again so like the benefit of this camera is how small it is like it's smaller than the Aged 6400 which you just saw a second ago like this guy right here that's the a 6400 this is small it's powerful it's got most of what I liked about the XT three it's missing a few features like 4k 60 a lot of the higher bit rates but do you really need that like if you don't specifically need those things this is an incredibly powerful camera and one of the nice things because the XD 3 in the XT 30 do not have in body image stabilization one of the things you really get with the XT 30 is that light weight so the light weight combined with the OIS in the lens I find that the stabilization isn't half bad if you can get a Fuji stabilized lens like the kit lens right now the 18 to 55 is stabilized so this footage should be perfectly usable now one of the negatives if you want to use this as like a vlogging style camera is there's no flip screen but one of the positives you see that that's the tally light so when this light is on you can set it to when this light is on that means it's recording like even the H 6400 all of the Sony cameras don't have anything like this so the a 6400 not to talk about it too much but it's the only one that really lets you know what's going on in front of it whereas this simple feature lets you know when you're recording like that's incredible when I had an aged 73 I would lose whole videos because I didn't know if it was recording or not or it would just stop recording and I wouldn't know I love the tally light okay vlogging test over back inside okay and this is the indoor slash studio test of the Fuji X 230 now we are shooting this in 4k 30 frames per second with the 18 to 55 2.8 to f/4 kit lens now this will look a little different than the gh 5 because the gh 5 has a 1.4 prime lens on it so there will be differences but I think the image quality out of the XD 30 looks fantastic even with the kit lens on it it's got that aps-c sensor it's got really good autofocus the colors are great we're in the aterna picture profile everything else is the same that you just saw in the gh 5 the only difference is that we're on a different camera a different camera that I actually really like the audio is still being recorded - gh five because I refuse to get an adapter for audio I'd rather just record audio off camera than needing an adapter my whole workflow has moved away from eating extra little pieces to make things work for the most part this image quality works really well and looks even better back to the video okay the video quality is great at all but that begs the question how easy is it to get that video quality out of a camera another thing that Fuji is known for are all of the manual controls they include on their flagships what's nice is while this isn't a flagship camera it still has a lot of these same manual functionality with the to control wheels a shutter speed dial and a mode dial that's just so much better than the competition like Sony does not have these kind of things on the top of their camera the back is lacking any kind of scroll wheel though and it just has this tiny little joystick which I assume would be impossible to use with any kind of gloves like I mean look how tiny that thing is something you will have to brace yourself for if you've never used a fuji camera is the menu system is robust and by robust I mean pretty confusing and can be hard to navigate part of the you know I don't want to say problem but there are just so many options inside of this camera that trying to scroll through them all can cause you to feel lost in the user interface if you haven't used one of these before and yes I personally think it's worse than the ever maligned Sony menu system I know I know setting it up is one thing what's really most important for how a camera works is a little thing I like to call FID leanness what is fiddle eNOS fiddle eNOS is how easy is a camera to use after you hit record so right now we're currently recording on the Fuji XT 30 and if you wanted to use this as a studio or an out and about camera and you want to be able to monitor what you're doing how easy that's usual as you can see here you're gonna need some kind of a monitor that's the big negative of the Fuji cameras they don't have any kind of articulating screen that lets you see what's going on but that's not to say that they are fiddly cameras I don't think the Fuji XT 30 is a fiddly camera at all it's got amazing autofocus it's got really good easy to get image quality and it's got enough customization for one of these small bodies that as you can see it doesn't have all of the mode dials of like the XT 3 but it has more than like other cameras out there the auto exposure modes are really great if you can understand how a Fuji menu system works you'll be able to get through that as we already talked about in ease of use but for fitness it's perfectly usable the problem is gonna be the real two big issues I have like we said one there's no flip out screen for ease of monitoring but two its that audio inject being 2.5 millimeters really hampers your ability to easily capture footage because you got to have a good audio so like right now we're recording audio off camera to a zoom h1 and just because I don't feel like messing with the 2.5 millimeter audio in jak look at that look at that craziness we can't see it cuz it's dark out but it's right there trust me if the sun's not yet out we're trying to do like some some quick quick before the Sun comes up footage today when it comes to fiddle East the Fuji XT 30 not the best but it's also not the worst and we're back I just about broke the chair this time that would not be a bad thing so we've seen the image quality and we've seen how easy the camera is to use to get that video quality but there's still one more thing we need to cover where can I go from the XT 30 and the kit lens like we mentioned earlier Fuji is fully invested in aps-c so there is a huge line of lenses that can really get the most from this body from 2.8 zooms to 1.4 primes it's really got it ball I wish I could say that about my a 6400 I mean it just doesn't have this kind of lens lineup there are even super affordable f/2 Prime's that are adorable and tiny I mean they're perfect for an adorable and tiny camera but if you find you want a bigger camera with more Oh is there a way to grow outside of the XT 30 and I would say absolutely you have a dual-track above the xt 30 with the XH line of cameras on one hand and the XT line on the other both are fantastic and again with the X III being just about one of the best cameras on the market today period so yes this is definitely one of the if not the best cameras you can get for under $1,000 click here for a whole range of other awesome camera videos and I'll see you for the XT 30 versus a 6400 video coming out this Friday thanks for watching\n"