Sponsored. While there is no ‘one camera to rule them all,’ the Fujifilm X-T5 ticks most of the boxes if you are looking for a versatile body that can cope with a wide range of genres and shooting situations – and at a great price too.
A lot of enthusiast photographers like to try a range of genres – wildlife, landscape, travel, macro and street being perennially popular examples. Our photographic interests often change over time, too. So buying a versatile ‘all-rounder’ camera makes a lot of sense, and the Fujifilm X-T5 is a great example.
First and foremost, it’s a proper ‘photographer’s camera.’ This isn’t to say that the Fujifilm X-T5 is short on video features – far from it, as you can record 6.2K 30p / 4K 60p video, which will be plenty for most people. But the X-T5 is a very tactile and intuitive camera for stills photography, with great handling and analogue-style controls that fall easily to hand.
Furthermore, if you feel you are somehow missing out by not using a full-frame camera, the Fujifilm X-T5 puts such concerns to rest. Its 40.2MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS 5 HR sensor delivers very high resolution images, as w see later. It is fast too. You can also shoot at 15 frames per second using the mechanical shutter, or 20fps using the electronic shutter with a 1.29x crop (which gives 24MP images).
The electronic shutter also offers super-fast shutter speeds up to 1/180,000sec. And all this comes at a very reasonable price – around £1499 or $1700 body only. Another few hundred pounds gets you the body with a versatile lens, such as the XF 16-80mm.
Compact dimensions
I particularly love travel and street photography, genres where you don’t want to be lugging heavy camera bodies and lenses around all day (that said, I don’t know of any genres where people favour bulky and awkward gear).
Despite featuring a tough magnesium alloy shell and weatherproof construction, the Fujifilm X-T5 weighs only 557g including memory card and battery.
The lenses I’ve been using with the camera, the XF16-55mm II and XF8-16mm, are light too. So an XT-5 system is an ideal travel companion for this summer’s trips, and won’t cause any hassle or excess charges at airports.
Fast AF
As well as well-placed camera controls, a resolution sensor and compact dimensions, the quick reliable autofocus also makes the X-T5 an excellent day-to-day camera.
The AF offers 3.3 million on-sensor phase detection pixels that cover almost the entire frame, while AI subject detection, which can recognise and focus on faces, animals, birds, cars, motorcycles, airplanes and trains, greatly ups your hit rate.
I also find the 7 stops of shake reduction in the Fujfilm X-T5 really helpful too – this will be particularly useful for shooting fast-moving subjects such as birds or motorsports.
Using the 3-way tilting rear LCD makes no difference to AF performance; this is a godsend for street and travel photographers who want to stay discreet, or if you need to capture architecture shots with minimal distortion.
Cropping flexibility
Returning to the sensor, if you need even more resolution, there is the option to use a pixel shift mode which takes it up to a whopping 160MP pixel-shift multi-shot mode. You need to mount the X-T5 on a tripod, which is not really my style, but it will be a great option for landscape and architectural photographers.
No less than 20 raw files are generated and you can put together the high-res composite image on your computer. Needless to say, both standard and pixel-shift modes give you a lot of options for cropping.
Lovely colours and film simulations
This being a Fujifilm, colours look great straight from the camera – vibrant and rich, without any of that lurid overprocessed look you often get with phone shots. I was very happy with the results when shooting JPEG, while raw obviously gives you more latitude at the editing stage. The Fujfilm’s wide dynamic range comes in really useful for travel and landscape photography in particular.
Fujiilm is famous for its film simulations, and they are easily accessed on the X-T5. My favourites are Astia for everyday colour shooting, while Velvia really gives punch to landscapes.
For more retro-looking effects and the analogue look, I also enjoy using Classic Negative, Acros and Realla Ace, while ProNeg is also superb for characterful portraits.
Good in low light
I don’t have much to say about the camera’s low light performance as it’s not something I ever needed to worry about. Image stabilisation and fast lenses obviously help, and you can push the ISO as far as 12,800 without noise ever becoming an issue. ISO is easy to adjust via a dedicated dial on the top plate of the camera, or the handy Q menu (which enables you to adjust a lot of other settings too).
Not forgetting video
I mentioned earlier how the Fujifilm X-T5 is designed to make stills shooting as intuitive and enjoyable as possible, evoking the best bits of using a 35mm film camera with all the convenience of digital. But the video performance is right up there too.
//YouTube video here//
You can record at 6.2K resolution at 30fps, with 4:2:2 10-bit colour and a 1.23x crop. 4K HQ output is also available at 30fps via 6.2K over-sampling with the same crop, while standard-quality 4K can be output at 60fps from the full sensor width. I don’t shoot that much video, but I found the X-T5 very easy to use for quick movie-making, and you have plenty of flexibility if you want to try longer-form projects.
Summing up
As a take-anywhere camera, the Fujifilm X-T5 is hard to beat. It offers a sturdy yet light and compact build, high-resolution images, totally reliable AF, fast continuous shooting and good ISO performance, allied with genuinely useful extras like Fujifilm’s acclaimed film-simulation modes. Video is covered too, and there is a wide range of sharp lenses to complement the camera. What’s not to like?
Fujifilm X-T5 key features
- 40.2MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS 5 HR sensor
- ISO 125-12,800 (standard); ISO 64-51,200 (extended)
- 15fps shooting (mechanical shutter, full-resolution); 20fps (electronic shutter, 1.3x crop, 24MP file)
- 6.2K 30p / 4K 60p video
- 5-axis in-body image stabilisation
- 3.69m-dot EVF, 0.8x magnification
- 3in, 1.84m-dot 3-way tilt LCD
