I'm thinking of getting the Fuji X-T2 for stills and a bit of video - advice?

[Oliver Daniel]

Hello there. 

For video, I currently own an FS5 and DJI Osmo RAW but I don't really have anything on the stills front, or video in a small mirrorless package.

I have mostly EF lenses. BUT...

I'm thinking of getting the Fujifilm X-T2 for mainly stills stuff and a bit of video. It will be a device mostly for pleasure and personal stuff. 

The thing that draws me to this is the colour (which is just beautiful), the body and the compact size. 

I'd be looking at a couple of XF lenses that cover wide to telephoto with OS. As I'd be looking for optimal autofocus performance, I don't think I'll adapting my EF glass unless the performance was very close for autofocus via an adapter. 

I know you guys talk about the Fuji cameras a lot, and I don't them them that well. I've had a play with an X-T1 for 5 seconds. 

I'm just asking for any kind recommendations about the Fuji system, such as preferable lenses, OS performance, battery grip... anything really. 

Thanks!

 

[jonpais]

Sorry to be blunt, but just go ahead and buy it already. From what you've described - mostly stills, a little video here and there - that's the camera I'd purchase in a heartbeat. Most recently, the 23mm f/2 lens (35mm full frame equivalent), which doesn't cost a fortune (but which isn't stabilized either to the best of my knowledge) is excellent. 

[Oliver Daniel]

3 hours ago, jonpais said:

Sorry to be blunt, but just go ahead and buy it already. From what you've described - mostly stills, a little video here and there - that's the camera I'd purchase in a heartbeat. Most recently, the 23mm f/2 lens (35mm full frame equivalent), which doesn't cost a fortune (but which isn't stabilized either to the best of my knowledge) is excellent. 

Haha, well it's looking likely!

I don't mind getting a bit of Fuji glass as I can see them really improving video in their cameras in the near future. 

I'm more looking at the XF 16-50mm, the 50-140mm, 18-55mm etc. 

[jonpais]

Yeah, stabilized lenses might be a better choice, since there is no IBIS. 

[Oliver Daniel]

20 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Yeah, stabilized lenses might be a better choice, since there is no IBIS. 

I believe the 16-50mm isn't stabilised which is a shame. 

I'm not convinced of any alternatives to the X-T2.... I could go Sony but I just find their cameras really boring for stills use. Not sure why. Just feels a little vacant. 

[Cinegain]

I like the Fujifilm, but Olympus has always been good with color too. Plus the new E-M1 Mark II has insane speed for stills. Does feature dual card slots as well, but then has that vari-angle touchscreen. Comes with 4K and a flat profile. And does feature the 5-axis in-body stabilization, something the Fuji lacks; then features both mic-in and headphone jack to really make it a nice allrounder. What's not to like? Well, people are complaining about the hefty price tag 1999 USD/EUR, 1849 GBP. There's some seriously capable glass out there; albeit also with a price tag. The 7-14 & 12-40mm PRO zooms for example. 75mm f/1.8 is like the crown jewel for portraits (I always enjoy the shots taken with one on the weekend showcases over at 43rumors). Use one of them all manual f/0.95 lenses and enjoy sensor stabilization! If you don't really need the APS-C sensor and Fuji mojo, I'd definitely consider that one. Can't wait to see more from this camera.

Or... if you can live with 1080p, maybe the Nikon D750. Or like mercer did, go with the D5500 even. Those always grab great stills and nice bits of video. Just hope you enjoy using an optical viewfinder. I'm no fan, so I do love the sensor performance of my D5300, but I don't really enjoy shooting with it at all. That flippin' mirror drives me flippin' mad. I'm a mirrorless-kinda guy I guess.

[Inazuma]

I have had the 23mm f1.4 for about two months now (using it on the X-T10). Really beautiful images from it. I've yet to actually process any raws on my computer - the jpegs are that good. I did have the XT2 briefly before that but decided to return it until it became cheaper. I was hoping for better AF performance/usability in video. 

Before the 23mm I used the 35mm f1.4. The image from this lens is also really nice and it produces a wonderful rainbow flare. But the AF on it is very poor by today's standards. 

The 18-55mm f2.8-4 is also a nice lens. Good images, AF, stabilisation. 

Having said all that im currently eyeing up an EOS M5. You might want to consider it as well since you have lots of EF lenses. No 4k and even the 1080p is mediocre but seems like the usability will be much better that the XT2 due to the body shape and touch screen. Also it has digital stabilisation like the NX1 did. Not ideal but better than nothing (maybe).  

[Viet Bach Bui]

Since you're owning an FS5 I suggest you go with Canon for their EF lens which adapt well to E-mount. Something like an 80D would do nicely with some L glasses. IQ is a bit average but for casual video shooting the DPAF is awesome.

[Oliver Daniel]

16 hours ago, Cinegain said:

I like the Fujifilm, but Olympus has always been good with color too. Plus the new E-M1 Mark II has insane speed for stills. Does feature dual card slots as well, but then has that vari-angle touchscreen. Comes with 4K and a flat profile. And does feature the 5-axis in-body stabilization, something the Fuji lacks; then features both mic-in and headphone jack to really make it a nice allrounder. What's not to like? Well, people are complaining about the hefty price tag 1999 USD/EUR, 1849 GBP. There's some seriously capable glass out there; albeit also with a price tag. The 7-14 & 12-40mm PRO zooms for example. 75mm f/1.8 is like the crown jewel for portraits (I always enjoy the shots taken with one on the weekend showcases over at 43rumors). Use one of them all manual f/0.95 lenses and enjoy sensor stabilization! If you don't really need the APS-C sensor and Fuji mojo, I'd definitely consider that one. Can't wait to see more from this camera.

Or... if you can live with 1080p, maybe the Nikon D750. Or like mercer did, go with the D5500 even. Those always grab great stills and nice bits of video. Just hope you enjoy using an optical viewfinder. I'm no fan, so I do love the sensor performance of my D5300, but I don't really enjoy shooting with it at all. That flippin' mirror drives me flippin' mad. I'm a mirrorless-kinda guy I guess.

Funny that you mention the EM1 II, I'm also looking at that camera aswell due to t's stills capabilities in a small body and also the promising video with the best 5-axis on the market. 

I was looking at John Brawley's EM5-II music video, bloody hell he's made that camera look awesome. Talented guy. I can see the nice color popping through. 

The Oly does have more appeal where video is concerned. It might be a useful video cam aswell as a nice stills camera. 

More expensive than I'd thought it'd be, and the lenses are also expensive. 

2 hours ago, Inazuma said:

Having said all that im currently eyeing up an EOS M5. You might want to consider it as well since you have lots of EF lenses. No 4k and even the 1080p is mediocre but seems like the usability will be much better that the XT2 due to the body shape and touch screen. Also it has digital stabilisation like the NX1 did. Not ideal but better than nothing (maybe).  

I liked the look of the M5, but the video samples look absolutely atrocious. Although I'm mainly looking at stills, having great video as a feature would be highly beneficial. 

7 minutes ago, Viet Bach Bui said:

Since you're owning an FS5 I suggest you go with Canon for their EF lens which adapt well to E-mount. Something like an 80D would do nicely with some L glasses. IQ is a bit average but for casual video shooting the DPAF is awesome.

Yes I've thought about the 80D too - definitely a contender if I ultimately find video not to be very important with EF lenses, however I do enjoy the small package and speed that mirrorless offers. 

[Trek of Joy]

I spent some time with the XT2 and 18-55 last weekend, its a great combo. Stabilization is pretty good with that lens - I can get three stops with it and I have some pretty shaky hands. Combined with really good rolling shutter (compared to say the Sony's and the NX1) handheld shooting is very do-able and has a great look, not jittery at all. It would really benefit from a touchscreen because the new AF system is up there with the best (excluding Sony's eye AF, though Fuji will continually refine its AF with FW updates). Lots of Fuji lenses and most can be had at a great price used. The best stabilized options are the 10-24, 18-55 and 50-140. I'd be all over the 16-50 if it were stabilized, its among the best standard zooms around. There's a post in the XT2 thread here that matched colors to the C100 pretty well, I'm sure you could do the same with a FS5. No aliasing and moire at all, Fuji really got it right with this one. And there's Flog with an external recorder if you were so inclined. Controls are so nice, everything is right there so adjustments are easy, plus you have the quick menu button and "my menu" in the menus so you can group all your most common menu items in one place. Its really well engineered/built, no plasticky feeling at all. Makes my a6300 feel like a toy in comparison. A cool little thing I noticed, when shooting video if you hit the menu button you always go to the video portion of the menus. So you're not cycling through endless garbage like Sony. The EVF is something to behold, the best I've ever seen and despite the A7rII's having a slightly better magnification spec, the Fuji's looks much better. Focus magnify isn't soft like it is on my a6300 either. I recorded an hour of video (in consecutive 10 min increments), the camera didn't overheat and there was still 15% of the battery left. The grip adds two batteries, extends record time to 30 minutes and adds the headphone jack. 

The EM1.2 really has my attention as well - touchscreen, IBIS, dramatically improved battery life, weather sealing, great ergonomics, blazing fast shooting, dual cards, headphone jack and so on. Like many I have a mental roadblock when it comes to a m43 camera that costs $2000. They surrounded a small/noisy sensor with the best feature set of any camera on the market IMO. Though I suspect the GH5 will cost even more, so the price bar has been raised in m43 land, its a new reality. I just have to decide if that reality is acceptable on the stills side as I'm not running two systems anymore.

Whatever I decide, I'm looking at getting two bodies and investing in the system. I prefer the sensor and the stills on the Fuji. And the price. The XT2 + 18-55 kit is $100 less than the EM1.2 body alone. 

[jonpais]

@Trek of Joy I think you summed up many of the advantages and disadvantages of both systems very well. And I get the feeling from what I've read here and elsewhere on the net that crossing the $2,000 barrier for a u43 camera is a tough pill to swallow for many photographers and video shooters. But having IBIS means you can get a lot of shots that would otherwise be impossible without lugging around a tripod (and a proper one can run from $500-$1,000, but I'm expecting a lot of debate about this) or investing in a stabilizer costing anywhere from $600 on up. And in the case of Panasonic, while we don't yet know how much the GH5 will retail for - if it is actually able to record 4K 60p and 10 bit internally - that would save thousands of dollars that would otherwise be spent on an external recorder. Of course, nobody knows the true specs of the camera yet. 

[jonpais]

The Olympus is made in Vietnam, Panasonic's GH4 hails from China and Fujifilm's XT-2 is made in Japan. Japan's hourly compensation for manufacturing jobs is over $30.00, China's is around $2.00, and while I couldn't find any statistics for Vietnam, it's the mantra that labor here is from 1/3 to 1/2 that of China. Here's  a chart from a few years back. Vietnam didn't even earn a spot... For a comparison of wages in the service sector, a barista at Starbucks in the States earns from $8.00-$11.00/hour, while the average barista working at your run-of-the-mill cafe here makes under 50 cents/hour.

chart.svg

[Trek of Joy]

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

@Trek of Joy I think you summed up many of the advantages and disadvantages of both systems very well. And I get the feeling from what I've read here and elsewhere on the net that crossing the $2,000 barrier for a u43 camera is a tough pill to swallow for many photographers and video shooters. But having IBIS means you can get a lot of shots that would otherwise be impossible without lugging around a tripod (and a proper one can run from $500-$1,000, but I'm expecting a lot of debate about this) or investing in a stabilizer costing anywhere from $600 on up. And in the case of Panasonic, while we don't yet know how much the GH5 will retail for - if it is actually able to record 4K 60p and 10 bit internally - that would save thousands of dollars that would otherwise be spent on an external recorder. Of course, nobody knows the true specs of the camera yet. 

Everyone is clearly following Sony's lead and taking their lines upmarket while jamming as much as possible into a body. The prices are reflecting that. I fully expect the GH5 to be in the $2500 range, and I felt that way before the EM1.2 price was revealed. Enthusiasts and wannabe's with cash to burn are boosting Sony's bottom line. Olympus and Panasonic are trying to get a piece of that, which makes sense as the bottom of the camera market has cratered and FF prices are dropping rapidly. M43 is fighting sensor size insecurity and for many as we're seeing, its a tough hill to climb.

Anyway, sorry to go OT. The IBIS and touchscreen are the main reasons I'm considering the EM1.2. The XT2 is a seriously capable camera. The bigger sensor will be better on the stills side and Fuji's jpeg's are so good you don't always have to shoot raw and spend time messing with things in post. If you like look of the film simulations, Fuji is tough to beat.

[Oliver Daniel]

4 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

I spent some time with the XT2 and 18-55 last weekend, its a great combo. Stabilization is pretty good with that lens - I can get three stops with it and I have some pretty shaky hands. Combined with really good rolling shutter (compared to say the Sony's and the NX1) handheld shooting is very do-able and has a great look, not jittery at all. It would really benefit from a touchscreen because the new AF system is up there with the best (excluding Sony's eye AF, though Fuji will continually refine its AF with FW updates). Lots of Fuji lenses and most can be had at a great price used. The best stabilized options are the 10-24, 18-55 and 50-140. I'd be all over the 16-50 if it were stabilized, its among the best standard zooms around. There's a post in the XT2 thread here that matched colors to the C100 pretty well, I'm sure you could do the same with a FS5. No aliasing and moire at all, Fuji really got it right with this one. And there's Flog with an external recorder if you were so inclined. Controls are so nice, everything is right there so adjustments are easy, plus you have the quick menu button and "my menu" in the menus so you can group all your most common menu items in one place. Its really well engineered/built, no plasticky feeling at all. Makes my a6300 feel like a toy in comparison. A cool little thing I noticed, when shooting video if you hit the menu button you always go to the video portion of the menus. So you're not cycling through endless garbage like Sony. The EVF is something to behold, the best I've ever seen and despite the A7rII's having a slightly better magnification spec, the Fuji's looks much better. Focus magnify isn't soft like it is on my a6300 either. I recorded an hour of video (in consecutive 10 min increments), the camera didn't overheat and there was still 15% of the battery left. The grip adds two batteries, extends record time to 30 minutes and adds the headphone jack. 

The EM1.2 really has my attention as well - touchscreen, IBIS, dramatically improved battery life, weather sealing, great ergonomics, blazing fast shooting, dual cards, headphone jack and so on. Like many I have a mental roadblock when it comes to a m43 camera that costs $2000. They surrounded a small/noisy sensor with the best feature set of any camera on the market IMO. Though I suspect the GH5 will cost even more, so the price bar has been raised in m43 land, its a new reality. I just have to decide if that reality is acceptable on the stills side as I'm not running two systems anymore.

Whatever I decide, I'm looking at getting two bodies and investing in the system. I prefer the sensor and the stills on the Fuji. And the price. The XT2 + 18-55 kit is $100 less than the EM1.2 body alone. 

It's certainly a tough one. 

I think I'll hold off until the Oly is released on try them out in the camera shop. 

The Fuji is more appealing for stills, but I can't help be pulled by the Oly IBIS for video. 

[Trek of Joy]

5 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

It's certainly a tough one. 

I think I'll hold off until the Oly is released on try them out in the camera shop. 

The Fuji is more appealing for stills, but I can't help be pulled by the Oly IBIS for video. 

Honestly from the early samples, I like the XT2's video IQ better, its just the IBIS...

[mercer]

Without a doubt, if you are looking for a good stills cam... Possibly the best for the money... Go with the D750. It can practically see in the dark and the Nikon Flat profile, for video, is just a pure pleasure to use.

[damoke]

Ive had a Fuji Xe2 for some time and im still enjoying it very much, one thing about Fuji is their Firmware updates are insanely good, it has completetly changed the camera from what it was when i first got it, Fuji colors are amazing, the bad thing in your case is having to buy a new line of lenses, and they are not on the cheap side, some are afordable but not cheap, i almost always use the 35mm 1.4 absolutely love this lens and it has a good price, the 18-55mm is a no brainer if you get it with the camera as you will have it for cheap and its not your normal kit lens, this thing is quality, not very fast, but quality and the IS for video is great. i also own the 10-24 great lens but only use it for real estate photography at the moment, but it would work great for video as it has IS, i have the 60mm but i really dont recommend it the AF is bad, very sharp but not worth it IMO, the new 23mm F2 feels like it would be great too.

As for your lens choices the 16-55 2.8 would be the perfect all round lens IF it had IS, and the 50-140mm is on the expensive side and i really dont see so much uses for it, unless you really need the long range, for portraits the 56mm is just beautiiful, for video/stills i would go for 18-55mm for IS handheld, and  a 35mm or 23mm to get started. 

hope this helps.

[Trek of Joy]

Good Fuji 4k samples in this piece. C-AF and IS look good too IMO. After spending a couple days with the XT2 I came to a realization, I'm done working around Sony levels of rolling shutter just to get the all the bells and whistles on their spec sheets. Being able to use color SOOC is big for me as my grading skills are very much a work in progress (in other words they're bad, but I'm working on that).

 

[mercer]

16 hours ago, mercer said:

Without a doubt, if you are looking for a good stills cam... Possibly the best for the money... Go with the D750. It can practically see in the dark and the Nikon Flat profile, for video, is just a pure pleasure to use.

Sorry to quote myself but I just wanted to add that with your collection of EF lenses, then the 80D may be the logical choice. Good stills. DPAF. And decent 96mbps 1080p video. 

Also, maybe look at the 70D, you still get the DPAF, plus ML is making some strides with the 70D and with their most recent 10/12 bit Raw discovery... It could be an amazing video camera as well. 

And finally, the M5 is always a choice. I know the couple videos released were less than impressive, but most of those Canon released/sponsored videos usually are. I believe they instruct the photographer to shoot everything in auto mode in the most generic easy to use method. I am going to hold off my judgement until it's released and gets into some capable hands.

[Chris Oh]

20 minutes ago, mercer said:

And finally, the M5 is always a choice. I know the couple videos released were less than impressive, but most of those Canon released/sponsored videos usually are. I believe they instruct the photographer to shoot everything in auto mode in the most generic easy to use method. I am going to hold off my judgement until it's released and gets into some capable hands.

Will the M5 have the same 96mbps 1080p video, as the 80d?