Brian Williams

For FW 2.3, am I crazy or has the ability (or burden) of being able to shoot stills with v-log been added? I don't remember this being the case previously, but now if I set the dial to movie mode, set the Photo style to 'V-Log L', and then change the mode to Aperture-priority to take some stills, the V-Log is still on, so my photos end up in V-Log. Or conversely, if I'm shooting stills in Aperture-priority mode using photo style 'L.Monochrome D' and then switch the dial to Movie mode, the L.Monochrome carries over. I just don't remember the hassle of having to keep switching back and forth between styles when switching between stills and video, I thought for some reason that movie mode would remember that it was last used in V-Log.

I've spent too much money, blood, sweat and tears to just give away all my secrets. You'll have to go buy all the cameras yourself to find out.

Well I liked the E-M1ii quite a bit, but knowing that the GH5 had 10bit, 400mbps ALL-I kept gnawing at me (even though I had no issue with the video I was getting from the E-M1ii), so I ended up switching. And the GH5 I quite liked as well, though its AF was definitely a step down from the phase-detection on the Olympus, so again I'm never happy. But everything was fine, until the A7iii was announced, for basically the same price I paid for the GH5, and it just seemed to be by far the smart choice all around. And I've owned quite a few Sony's, and besides the rolling shutter and boring erogomics, the picture and AF was always solid. The problem is the waiting for the A7iii to come out, I start seeing all these rave reviews of the Fuji, a company I also love quite a bit, so here I am. I think it comes down to the fact that I can't afford more than one camera, so I want to make sure I'm getting the best deal for the price (which is completely relative and unobtainable). I really had been doing quite well with sticking to one camera for the past year or so until a few months ago...

All true, I guess I'm just coming off my few months of GH5/E-M1ii ownerships where I was truly spoiled in that regard.

Here's an example I shot of the hamster my kids are babysitting this week where the IBIS worked great. When there's not much movement going on with the camera, it is a real improvement.

Well, the more I've played with the camera the past few days, the more I'm liking it, in spite of my issues with the IBIS, so I think I'm gonna keep it and just hope for some future firmware improvements. And I may just turn off the stabilization in the meantime.

Done Deal.

Ahh, it took Max to get you to believe me! I'll take it.

Hopefully Andrew will include some moving shots in his review.

And, I'll add, for a pretty expensive APS-C camera at that. Yuryev's stuttering while panning is pretty similar to what I was getting, so I doubt its just my camera.

I'm not sure I fully understand, but I like this comment a lot!

Sure, and likewise, people should just say "yeah, the IBIS isn't that great", as opposed to "you need to fix your technique... there's no perfect camera... quit being such a downer". If this was a sun blackspot in a Blackmagic camera, or overheating in an A6300, or IBIS panning issues in a G80 (later fixed by firmware), it would be recognized as a real issue. I'm hoping Fuji pulls through, like they usually do, and offers a kickass firmware update at some point that improves things. Yeah, I'm shooting at 48 on the T dial. No, I only have this 35mm. I'm pretty happy with AF, its not great in this test just because my office is so poorly lit I think.

One more test, a little better, a littler less movement.

Ture, though the store is BHPhoto and on the other coast, I don't know any stores that sell the X-H1 here. Good suggestion though, I'll look around some more.

Yeah, I did make sure it was on continuous. And just to compare, I shot this, also with a 50mm-equivalent lens, on the GH5 handheld... JUST LOOKING at IBIS, it is way smoother (except maybe that Minions shot). And thats it, I won't write anymore about this, I'm sure Andrew will come out with some footage any day now and it'll look great and I'll say "What the hell am I doing wrong?"

Yes, probably, or the most likely outcome, I return the camera and go back to m43, where you can be that casual.

Ok, yes, like I said, this was a quick test of the IBIS. I'm not sure what techniques I should be improving, a shot like this would look pretty damn steady with the GH5. And again, I understand the reason is the smaller sensor equal better IBIS, I understand that there are trade-offs between the cameras. I'm not here to bash the X-H1, I love everything else about it. I'm just demonstrating how good (or bad) it is at stabilizing. But its not my technique here that is making the shot look so shitty. Also, I don't want to put my camera on a tripod! I don't want to have to cut shots, I'm not shooting a short film here, I'm shooting home videos. Saying I should try putting the camera on a tripod is like if we were having a conversation about a camera's low-light performance and you said "You should just add more lights". Thats not really the point of the conversation. I have owned gimbals before, and yes, of course they are way better, but they suck to take along when you are going out for the day with your kids (which is the type of thing I'm shooting). My Osmo Mobile 2 arrives today actually, that is about as big as I'm willing to go gimbal wise at this point.

?

Here is a quick test i just did with my 35f/2 The movement here is pretty typical of how I usually shoot, and I was doing my best to hold the camera steady. But it looks really jerky to me, i can't think of a better word to describe it.

I'm talking through my tears is what I'm doing. Yes, this is true. The GH5 had such crap AF though. The E-M1ii, that's the one I think I'm missing, though the general lack of low light ability on m43 is what was nagging at me to upgrade sensor size, so I guess I'm damned either way. All I know is I've been shooting the same way I shot with my GH5 and the stabilization seems not as good, for reasons given above I guess. I supposed the same reason the A6500 and A7series has been lacking in the same department. I love everything else though, that little screen at the top is pretty rad.

I got my X-H1 today, I have to say, from a stabilization standpoint, I'm pretty disappointed. Having just come from the GH5 and the E-M1ii before that, Fuji's IBIS is so lacking. It works great for a second, then jerky for a second, then its trying to catch up to your pan, it's all over the place. I'll do some more testing tomorrow. If I thought the A7iii's ibis would be ok (I know it won't), this would be so much easier.

Maybe because there is no way I can try out the camera without buying it first- this is not a camera you will find at your local Best Buy- which necessitates me having to read other people's opinions of the camera online and basing my decision on that. Once I get the camera, and have a chance to use it myself, then I can make my own decision. But I have to have something to go by in order to make the decision to buy it in the first place. And I'm not asking anyone "whats the best camera for me?", I'm asking about a specific feature of the camera and how well it works because these people have had a chance to use the camera. Why would you even come to a site like this if you don't give two shits what anyone else thinks, especially people with more experience??

Andrew, this camera is arriving to my house on Monday, but the more footage I see online of the Fuji's IBIS, the more worried I am getting. I sold my GH5 to get this, and having owned both the GH5 and the E-M1 ii and their amazing stabilization, would you really say the Fuji is on par, or even better, that those two? I've just seen so many videos where it seems so jerky. Yes, in every video it blows away every IBIS Sony, but still worrisome in its ungracefulness. I also don't understand this, as, again having just sold my GH5, the GH5 AF pretty much stinks compared to all of its competitors. The E-M1ii was fantastic for AF, the Sony's are pretty fantastic. The X-T2 was on par with the A6XX. I'm just suprised to see you say "I dare say", considering I've read things saying that the X-H1 has the best AF of any APS-C camera. So I'm not questioning your judgement here, just why do you think the GH5 AF (or any Panny really) was hard to beat? I've bought way too many cameras based on your reviews, so please don't take any of this the wrong way, I trust your words otherwise.

"What the faster sensor DOES allow is faster video AF in contrast-detect mode!" Thank god for this, if true. For the past week I've had an E-M1 mark II and a GH5 sitting in my bedroom, and as beautiful as the GH5's 400mbps footage is, I ended up going with the Olympus as I just couldn't accept the GH5's focusing, and this was with firmware 2.1. For stills it was ok (though still not as confident as the E-M1), but for video it was laughable, even just back-button-focusing before I started the shot took a good few seconds to slowly get to where it needed to be. Yes, I usually shoot MF, but I still think a $2k camera should have usable AF.

Ok, fair enough, though have you read Andrew's reviews here for both the E-M1ii and X-T2? Both companies have had abysmal video up to now, but I think both have pulled it together with these two newest cameras. I have the Olympus now, it's video quality is easily as good as the G80. The X-T2 has the same sensor as the A6300, with it's X-Trans business added to it, and it's just as good as the Sony, just with better colors and the same crappy rolling shutter. I've owned all four cameras and all had amazing video quality. But if you're basing your displeasure with Olympus and Fuji on their past cameras, I can understand that.