EP81 Fujifilm X Half: The Most HONEST Review of the X-HF1

[00:00:12] Speaker A: That's a bit wild, isn't it? Sit here and jam all day. [00:00:22] Speaker B: We needed something special for a camera release. [00:00:25] Speaker A: We do need something special for a camera release. And maybe we'll work a little harder next time to have something special for a camera. [00:00:30] Speaker B: I'll find a camera review song, a specific intro song. I think I can find something better. [00:00:37] Speaker A: I'm sure you can, but. Welcome everybody to the Camera Life. This is more randomness than our random photography show. It's the 23rd of May, 2025. This is episode 81 of the camera Life, proudly brought to you by Lucky straps. Head to Luckystraps.com and use code Greg at checkout for a sweet little discount on straps, belts and merch. G' day, Justin. How are you? [00:01:03] Speaker B: I'm good. How are you? [00:01:05] Speaker A: I'm not bad, not bad at all. Yeah, we're here to talk. Talk about a little. A little camera that dropped yesterday. It did. [00:01:15] Speaker B: And you've. You've been, you've been up close and personal with that little camera, haven't you? [00:01:20] Speaker A: I do. I've had it for like three weeks. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Got it right there. You've got it right there with you still. Look at that. [00:01:26] Speaker A: It is huge. Get to the details in a minute. [00:01:30] Speaker B: What is that? A camera for ants? Did you like the thumbnail that I made? [00:01:37] Speaker A: I do like the thumbnail. Let us know in the chat who's. Who's joining us. I know this was very random and very late notice, but we decided to. Not long after we completed yesterday's wonderful show with Andrew Ravenko talking about his Rocket Girl Chronicles fine art project. Make sure you watch that one because it was a really inspirational and very thought provoking show. I, I think I went away thinking a lot about. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was great. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's wonderful, wonderful speaker, wonderful interview. So, yeah, if you're looking for just. [00:02:13] Speaker A: A humble guy, like. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. He kept saying, I'm not a real photographer. Well, your photos are pretty awesome. So. Yeah, so go back and check that one out. But stick with us now if you want to find out all the. All the juicy details of this really, really weird camera, we're going to dig into it because Greg's fully reviewed it. You've had it for weeks. So Greg's done a full review on the camera. I haven't touched it. I. I got a sneak peek of it from a distance in person a few weeks ago, but I wasn't allowed to touch it. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Not from me. [00:02:50] Speaker B: No. Not from Greg. No, no, no, not from Greg. It was actually. [00:02:53] Speaker A: I respect the embargo. [00:02:54] Speaker B: That's right, Greg. He won't even tell me any of the details about this stuff. He's super secret. Whereas I, I spotted it at an event and I won't say where or who showed it to me, but it was like a little, they were basically. They did this, they're like. And then that was all I got to see. But I've, I've sort of been scouring the Internet for details. I've read a little bit of Greg's review, but I decided to not, not go too deep into it because I want to ask him all the questions myself about this strange Fujifilm X half camera. And then we were also going to. So we're going to find out what Greg thinks, look at his review and talk through the things and discuss if you're in the comments and you want to hit us up with any questions or just your thoughts on whether this is a hit or a miss. I guess as a camera, from your perspective, because that's the thing with cameras, they're always, they're good for someone, they're not good for someone else. Everything's an opinion and nothing's, you know, just because someone doesn't like it doesn't mean it's not a good product for somebody else. But speaking of other people, I have been doing a little bit of digging on the cesspool that's known as Reddit. And we'll, we'll pull that up, we'll pull that up later in the show and see what those people, those cool people think of this camera. [00:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah, and, and just for the doubters out there, a couple weeks ago we had a, a comment, a couple of comments after Matt Crummins and I Talked about the GFX100RF and one of our lovely commenters on YouTube suggested that neither, neither of us had actually even touched the camera or seen it, you know, and that we were reviewing basically. But here it is here, the Fujifilm X half to half frame digital camera and we're going to dive into all of it. It's probably going to be easy for you to see it with. You can see Justin in the reflection there somewhere. [00:04:46] Speaker B: Cool. [00:04:46] Speaker A: But yeah, we'll, we'll dive into it. But you know, I think we've got a lot to say on the subject. You know, it's always interesting when a new camera drops. And lately Fujifilm have been push into new territories. You know, I mean, they always have strived to lead their own way. You know, they made a Very conscious decision when they launched the X series to go with a retro aesthetic, especially with the X Pros and the XT models, let's say with the XH models. But The X Pro 1, 2 and 3 very much replicate old school rangefinder film cameras and they're gorgeous to shoot with. And the same goes for the XT from 1 to 5. They also have a very retro aesthetic SLR style look to them. So it is interesting that Fuji, you know, the GFX100RF again, rangefinder styling, fixed lens, compact, medium or sorry, larger format sensor camera. And they push the boundaries again with this Fujifilm X half. Instead of going bigger and bigger like everyone else is, they slice their sensor in half and packaged it into this camera. So interesting times. I, you know, despite. We will get to my final thoughts on the camera at the end and what I recommend people who I think it's for. But I do applaud Fujifilm's bravery, you know, of, you know, pushing boundaries, basically. [00:06:21] Speaker B: That's right. It's no matter my thoughts on a camera, it's cool that people are making cameras and trying new shit. Either way, that's what we want. We want the industry to keep trying stuff. So despite what I end up thinking about a particular new camera, that doesn't mean I think they shouldn't have brought it out. Just means maybe it's not for me. Your audio, Greg, is a little funny. I don't know if it's funny for you guys in the chat. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Let me give it a little. [00:06:51] Speaker B: I don't know if it's the. I think that it was just glitching a little bit. Maybe the mic, maybe a plug in and plug out. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Let me just turn up my mic volume. How's that? [00:06:59] Speaker B: It wasn't the volume. It was more like, I don't know, maybe someone in the chat can tell me if it was glitching for them or if it's. Maybe it's something on my end, but. Okay, do that again. Push on. [00:07:11] Speaker A: All right, we'll push on. [00:07:13] Speaker B: Speaking of the chat, we've got Dave Digifrog in there who says. Morning, Fellowship. Good morning, Dave. Good to have you with us. What do you think about this new camera, Dave? Tell us. Should we just go through? Do you want to just talk through it? Do you want to just give everyone a quick rundown? I mean, most people that are interested in this camera probably already know roughly what it is. And if they're thinking about listening to a podcast about it, they're probably pretty interested. But just Give us a. What's the deal? What is the deal with this camera? [00:07:42] Speaker A: So what Fujifilm have made here is a. Basically it's a half frame digital camera with film photography like functionality and we'll get to that special element to it in just a moment. But basically what Fujifilm have done, they've made a very small compact camera. This is my Fujifilm X70 which is quite old but it's pretty much identical in size. But obviously the lens is quite a bit smaller, almost the same thickness. So it is tiny. This is it against my Fujifilm x x 4 which in itself is not a big camera. So it's very hard for me to do this. But yeah, it's quite a bit. Fuck, I'm terrible at that. It's quite a bit smaller. It's like shaving in the mirror, quite a bit smaller. And so what they've packed in it is a 17 megapixel type 11 inch half frame CMOS image sensor. They've. But they have packed in it to their credit the Fujifilm X processor 5 which is the same processor that's in the XM5. The X100, a variation of it is in the some of the GFX cameras, the later models. So it's a pretty powerful processor which is a really interesting choice. I guess it makes sense financially for Fujifilm just to stick to one processor type rather than have multiple processes because manufacturing is expensive of chips these days, that sort of thing. It is a fixed lens. It's a 10.8 F 2.8 which is a 32 mil full frame equivalent and it is tiny. For those in Australia it's about the size of a 20 cent piece. If you're in Japan it's like a 500 yen piece. If you're in the US it's probably like what's the. A quarter. A little bit bigger than a quarter actually. So it's quite small just for reference or maybe a half dollar, I don't know. Anyway it's. Yeah, so that's what there is to it. But given that sort of throws back to what we tried to get through on Monday night about verticality. The thing with the half frame camera, like when was it Pentax brought out the seven recently. The half frame film camera with frame technology it takes a 35 mil full frame, let's say sensor or even a film and it basically halves it vertically. And so when you want to take a portrait shot you hold the camera in landscape orientation and when you want to take a landscape shot you turn the camera 90 degrees into portrait orientation. So sorry, I should have done that with a camera, duh. So that's how you take portrait photos, that's how you take landscape photos. So it's actually the sensor is running long ways and as a result the screen on the back which you can see there, hopefully it might be better off bringing up an image of it, but it has like half an LCD face. And then over here you have a sub monitor which is also menu control and film simulation control. So interesting. And not to forget, also it has a viewfinder, but it's an optical viewfinder. So the viewfinder is also vertical orientation and it's an optical viewfinder that you look through to see your shots. And it's an interesting little product. So there's two sides to using this camera. And you'll notice also that there's, there's only two buttons on it apart from the shutter button, there's on the top there's an exposure compensation dial, there's a cold shoe that doesn't anything. And it only has two buttons. One to flick between still images and movie mode and one to playback either your still images or movies. But everything else is controlled by touching and swiping either of the two screens. There's a range of different functionalities. The camera packs I think about 13 film simulations, about 13 special filter effects including light leak and ones that make them sort of replicate old film stock from 35 mil film days. There's two elements to this camera. One is to use it like a traditional digital camera. So go about taking shots. You can compose them through your optical viewfinder or you can compose them on the rear screen just like you would with any other camera. Half frame, you've got to flip and tilt it. The second part of the camera, which is what we're looking at the back of here, is what they're calling film camera mode. So what Fujifilm have done, Fujifilm have got a 90 year history of optics, cameras and film, especially film technology. And what they're trying to do is replicate the old half frame film cameras, which is called a Fujika half from back in the 60s. And so a Fujica half was a 35 mil film camera that worked through the half frame process. So in film mode in this new Fuji camera, what you do is it means there's a Fujika on the screen, the Fujika half. When you use this camera in film camera mode, the rear lcd, if we can just go back to that previous image takes on like an old school LCD kind of with that sort of calculator style text. There it is, there you can see it. And a couple of basic settings. The sub monitor to the left of that main monitor lets you choose your film simulation mode to begin with. And then once you're in film camera mode, when you take a shot, you then have to use this wind lever. So the top of this, when you turn it on, it has wind lever that pops up. [00:14:01] Speaker B: Let me just bring you up big. You show it. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah, so there's a wind lever that popped up. Okay. And so when you're in film camera mode, if you take a shot, you then have to wind the lever to move to the next frame. Yes, it's still digital, but it's replicating that film look and feel. The thing when you're in film camera mode is the rear lcd. You cannot preview your images either to compose or to review them after you've taken the shot. Okay. So film camera mode locks you out. And you can't turn film once you're in it and you've committed to either a, I think a 36, 54, 72 frames, you can't get out of film camera mode so much like a film camera, once you've committed to a roll of film, well, you're stuck with it. And when you're in film camera mode, the, the compositional options are fairly limited. Again, replicating old school film cameras. So you wind, you shoot, you keep winding and shooting until you finish the roll. And then on that little LCD screen that we showed you earlier, the film literally rolls back to zero. And the only way you can view and edit those images is to then pair the Fujifilm X Half camera with Fujifilm's new X Half app. And the XR Half app acts like a development platform to develop and view your images or your video. [00:15:30] Speaker B: It's like a tiny little dark room inside your phone. [00:15:33] Speaker A: Exactly. You can build contact sheets with it. [00:15:37] Speaker B: So hold on a second, Greg, I don't know, you're glitching a fair bit more. Now this audio, what I might do, just in case, I was going to say, yeah, you go, you do a usb, unplug in, back in, or maybe even leave the studio. And while you do that, I'll just hold down the fort here and let a few people know. So some of the things I've been looking at this camera in Australia, the price obviously and how that compares to not only other cameras broader in the market, but also within Fuji's like Fujifilm specific product range and what else you could get that's within Striking distance of that camera. So that's something that Greg's gonna dig into later is sort of like where does this sit? Because obviously there's the unique value proposition of this. Value proposition's a bad word. But the unique selling point of the feel of this camera, the fact that it replicates a vintage half frame camera. But then there is also the practical side you've got to look at and just go, well, hang on, if I'm going to spend this much money, what else could I get that's within maybe $102 of this that potentially has a whole lot of other features. Maybe it doesn't have the feel, but it's got other capabilities. So that's something we want to dig into later and we will get there. We've got a few more people joining now, a lot more people actually. So hit us up in the chat if you've got questions because Greg can answer them literally right now by live. He can play with the camera if it's something that you want to find out about how it works. Uh, we've got the drunk wedding photographer from LA in the chat. He shoots only analog weddings. Have you looked at this camera and what do you think of it? Like this is sort of, this is trying to appeal to people like you that shoot analog, but it's digital. Have they hit it or have they missed it? Jim also wants to know, will this replace my Z8? We can save you the time, Jim. You probably don't need to listen to this podcast. It will not. [00:17:37] Speaker A: But you know we love that you're here, Jim. Make sure you like and subscribe. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Safe to say that there is nothing that this can do that your Z8 cannot do other than probably fit in your pocket unless you get a big pocket. [00:17:48] Speaker A: He says. [00:17:49] Speaker B: I haven't seen anything on this yet. It's not really. This is probably not on the radar of. Of you. [00:17:55] Speaker A: No. However, this, this would fit in Jim's flanny shirt pocket. [00:18:00] Speaker B: You know, it would fit in his flanny shirt pocket. [00:18:02] Speaker A: I think we should compare everything against Jimmy's. Jimmy's, Jim's. [00:18:06] Speaker B: Jimmy's. Yeah. But I don't know what's going on with that audio. Can you try one last thing for me, Greg? Just like leave this, leave the studio. I'll just come back out in. Hopefully that just resets it while he's doing that. The drunk wedding photographer. I think I'm just trying to remember. I'm pretty sure he's Dave, one of our Dave's. Dave, number four. Just found out about it today. I like the concept, I don't like the suggested price. Yeah, that's something we're definitely going to talk about because for the capabilities, it's pretty pricey. That's it. David Cruz. David Cruz, good to see you again. Boom. Greg's back. [00:18:50] Speaker A: I'm back. [00:18:51] Speaker B: You're back. We'll see how that goes. [00:18:54] Speaker A: All right, you guys can get a gist for what's going on with this camera. So I, I think I want to talk about what Fujifilm we're intending. Is that something you have? [00:19:05] Speaker B: Yeah, let's. What were they, what do you think they were trying to do with this? [00:19:11] Speaker A: A couple of things. When I wrote my review for this, I almost called it A Bridge Too Far, which is an old movie. But I think this is a bridging camera. I think Fujifilm built this for a younger crowd of influencer style people. People that love to take creative photos, love filter effects, love the film simulation options. It's small, it's compact, it's portable, it's vertical like a phone. And by bridging camera, I mean it's a camera to get people off their smartphones and into digital cameras. So and why I think that is for a couple of reasons. One is that all the verticality, the young people love the verticality of products at the moment, especially the influencer crowd. It's all about verticality. It's all about what transfers quickly and easily to social media platforms that can be viewed on a smartphone. Its image quality is quite low given the sensor size and the quality and also that of the lens. But I think the images would look quite good on a smartphone. They don't look good blown up on a computer. But that's not. [00:20:24] Speaker B: They don't look good big. [00:20:26] Speaker A: No, because this camera only shoots jpeg. It does not shoot RAW at all. And it only shoots. They say. [00:20:34] Speaker B: A good JPEG can look good. [00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, a good jpeg. [00:20:39] Speaker B: So you're saying it. Maybe it's not because you're used to Fujifilm's X series cameras, APS C sensor or the vfx. Yeah, well, we won't bring that into the equation, but yeah, it's not as fun. What I found interesting, this is probably my first point of contention with this camera. The half frame sensor is what the X series already is. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Take that back. [00:21:14] Speaker B: It's half the size of a full frame sensor like that. They already. [00:21:18] Speaker A: Well, yeah, all right, it is. [00:21:20] Speaker B: So they already make. All of their cameras are already technically half frame. They're not traditional in terms of the vertical orientation. But this is like I say, this is actually quite smaller than what would be considered half a 35 mil frame. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, well, if you're going to throw stones, let's just make it very clear that the 35 millimeter full frame size came from cutting 70 mm film stock in half cinema stock. That's how full frame first came about. So watch it, buddy. You're shooting with a half frame camera, you're shooting with a half frame camera, you're shooting with a half frame, you're shooting with a half frame camera, which. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Means X series camera is a quarter frame and this thing's like a sixteenth of a frame. Couple, couple of sensor for hands, couple of quick comments. I like this one. Drunk wedding photographer says found out about this camera by the thumbnail of this very podcast. That's two cameras I found out about from here. Well, well done. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Look at us. We might even reveal another one a bit later if we get time. [00:22:21] Speaker B: Look at us doing marketing. We're, we're killing it. He also asked, does it do video? This is another point of contention I have with it because yes, it does. It's got a really nice neat little. I'm just going to ask Greg about this little video still switch on the back, which I think is exactly what cameras need to have these days because a lot of people want to shoot both. And it's really simple to just go from video to photo and back again with a little, a simple little switch right where your thumb is. What I think the miss is. And maybe you can tell me this Greg, but based on the specs, my, my iPhone 15 would, would smoke the video specs of this. It's, what was it, 1440 by 1080 video or something? [00:23:02] Speaker A: Yes, well, they, Fujifilm in the marketing have said it's full hd. It's not quite full hd. [00:23:07] Speaker B: It's not, it's not even hd. That's, that is a big miss in my opinion. And obviously this is primarily, they're positioning it primarily as a stills camera by that spec and by, by all the sort of the film features and the optical viewfinder. But then don't put a prominent video still switch as one of the very few mechanical inputs on this camera because they've kept it very minimal. That to me says, okay, the video mode is going to work well and then it doesn't. [00:23:39] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:39] Speaker B: So I don't know. That's another thing. [00:23:41] Speaker A: The camera has three mechanical switches. One is to turn it on and off, one is for stills video, the other one is to turn a flash LED lamp, tele lamp on and off. And it only has two buttons and one is the shutter button or video record and the other is the playback button. The thing with the video also is that it's only. It's cap which only shoots 24p. 24 frames. Yep. [00:24:08] Speaker B: You can't do, can't do 25 or 30. It's only 24. [00:24:10] Speaker A: No, 24. [00:24:12] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:24:13] Speaker A: And I didn't, I didn't know this because when I got this camera I didn't have spec sheet. I, they had not included an instruction manual and I didn't have access to the Fujifilm X half app. So I was very hamstrung in terms of actually getting the full understanding until only a couple of days ago did I actually get the final spec sheet. And that's fairly typical with a new product launch because they don't want, they want to limit the amount of info that goes out early. But they also get a bit worried about specs changing because what I've got is a pre production model. [00:24:47] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say because also I assume they're often doing a lot of things in the background in the lead up to the launch, sort of finalizing things, working through bugs and stuff like that. Which is why there's always that disclaimer on review like this that are like hey, this is, you know, it's a pre production. There could be differences in image quality and all that sort of stuff. Which is normal for every camera brand. [00:25:09] Speaker A: Absolutely every camera I've reviewed that happens. The other video is the audio quality. It has stereo microphones on the top, on the top plate. It does have a shoe, but it's a cold shoe. There's no connection at all. It does offer the only port on this camera is a USB C port. It did include a dongle. I don't know if that's standard or if they just put that in for the reviewers. So that you can connect your USB C to headphones but not a microphone. So you can't connect this to an external mic at all? [00:25:42] Speaker B: At all? [00:25:43] Speaker A: No. So it's really limited. It's just headphones. Like I would rather a mic over headphones if I was going to do video. [00:25:50] Speaker B: Yeah. They should not have put that movie switch on there. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I think videos are kept at 60 seconds because when the guys on I, I haven't fully tested video functions. I, you know, I checked out what it was. But when the guys at DP not DP review, what is it? PETA Pixel Yeah. If you watch their video. Not now, later. Their video was capping. I think their video was capping at like 55 seconds. [00:26:18] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:19] Speaker A: So again, going for that social experience. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Which, which I don't, I don't particularly have an issue with that. If they're not like, if they're like, this isn't, you know, a video camera. It just makes it even harder to justify the price sometimes when, when comparing it to other products. And we'll get into that later, but that, that's, we will have a look at worry me. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Yeah, in particular, I want to, I want to compare it and we can do that on the Fujifilm website. Compare it against the Fujifilm XM5 which I've shown you guys on the show before. I've reviewed it. I've owned it. Not owned it. I've had Fujifilm sent it to me twice because I considered buying one and I wanted to test it out again and we'll compare it against that because it's interesting about price point and features. So video options are very limited and again I think they've done that so that they don't want you. You don't need to have a computer with this camera. You just need a smartphone in the app. So you can transfer everything to your smartphone, play around with the editing and things like that and then upload it to your socials. That's Fujifilm's aim with this camera. It's a social media camera. [00:27:31] Speaker B: All right, well let me push back on that a little bit. Do you need a computer to shoot with the X106? [00:27:41] Speaker A: You don't. But if you're going to do some serious editing on 40 megapixel images. [00:27:46] Speaker B: Yeah, because you, because you can edit them because it shoots raw, but let's. [00:27:50] Speaker A: You can edit them in camera. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So it's like you could basically you could, you could shoot the X100 in JPEG. You can still, I assume you can connect it to the same app or, or a different Fujifilm app. Or is it the same app? [00:28:07] Speaker A: Oh, I haven't tested that. I don't know because this one is pre production and so pairing was a bit weird. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:28:13] Speaker A: But, but it also directly, it also pairs directly with all of the Fujifilm Instax printers. [00:28:20] Speaker B: That's pretty cool. So do the other cameras. Do the other cameras do that at all or. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Okay. [00:28:26] Speaker B: All right, so what I'm kind of getting at is those features like, like being able to seamlessly, you know, like I, I don't need, I can shoot with the, the Leica Q3 and not use a computer. I can, I can get the, the images straight to my phone and they look great. [00:28:40] Speaker A: Most cameras you can. [00:28:41] Speaker B: That's right. So that's not like a unique feature, but they're trying to make that the, I guess the standard workflow. Whereas I think for a lot of us photographers with cameras, we think of it as an optional workflow. Like, oh, sometimes I go straight to my phone, but most of the time I put it on my computer and you know, edit it and do all that stuff. Whereas they're trying to make it. The default is that this is just a seamless flow through to your phone to then post wherever you're going to post the image. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah. If you want to take a camera on a holiday and you like the size and the funness of it, then it's perfect for that. You know, if you want to take it on a little trip, all you're taking is that your smartphone, you can easily share your, your experiences with your friends and your family and your socials, which is why it's only JPEG images. They don't. There's no raw. So JPEGs obviously transfer pretty quick to your smartphone. So it alleviates some of that heavy processing that, that we do with our images when we shoot with other cameras. It's just making that very simple. Put it in the app and then have fun with it in the app and send it off. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a comment in here that I think this camera is a bit polarizing and that's what I've seen on the comments online. It's actually how I feel. It's quite, it does make people go, why did they do that? Or why didn't they do this instead? [00:30:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:05] Speaker B: You know, everyone's all hanging on the edge of their seat for an X Pro 4. And I know that's a completely different camera in a completely different category, but everyone's like, well, why didn't they just make that instead of this? Because that's what we've all been waiting for. And so this comment here from Stephen, he says stupidity is being glorified, hence this camera. Stephen, can you elaborate on that for us in the comments so we can. What, what do you mean by that exactly? I'd like to know. But yeah, this, this camera's got people riled up in terms of. It is. It is different to, I mean, I guess it's different to any camera. The closest cameras are either actual film half frame cameras like the Pentax 1717. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:30:49] Speaker B: Or I don't know what else? Like, what else is it? [00:30:54] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you can. You can pick up an old Fuji get X half for like, 200 bucks on Marketplace or ebay. [00:31:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:01] Speaker A: But films, yeah, you got to process. [00:31:03] Speaker B: You got to process the film. All that sort of stuff. Completely different thing. But then on the other hand, you can also pick up numerous compact cameras. Numerous, probably. All right, this might be too early in the show for this question. You bought. You bought the cheapest camera you could find a month or two ago. Matt Crummonds roasted you for it. And you. You ran around Melbourne, had a great time taking street photos with his very, very cheap. What brand was Ilford? [00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a little. Well, yeah, I'm putting an Ilford sticker on it. [00:31:36] Speaker B: Sticker on it. On a tiny little. How much better is the image quality specifically out of this camera than your Ilford $60 camera? [00:31:49] Speaker A: I think the Ilford was better. [00:31:51] Speaker B: Oh. [00:31:54] Speaker A: Maybe. [00:31:54] Speaker B: What? [00:31:55] Speaker A: Yeah. In some case in bright light. Yep. It was better at. I think the image clarity was better. The colors weren't. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because Fujifilm has very nice film simulations. Their JPEGs are great. That's the thing with this camera. [00:32:09] Speaker A: The problem with this camera is that they've put a really powerful processor. And like I mentioned at the start of the show, it makes sense that they did that because why build another process adjust for this little camera when they already have proven architecture around chips? All right, let's just stick with the one chip. It's cost effective just to make the one chip for every camera now, which is what they seem to be doing. But it has a very small. You know, this lens only protrudes from the camera by about 18 millimeters. It has a leaf shutter behind the lens. [00:32:43] Speaker B: But. [00:32:43] Speaker A: But it's a very simple build. In fact, they keep saying that the lens and the evf, even though they're vertical, have the same kind of perspective as the Fujifilm disposable cameras. The quick snaps. And for a second, it made me wonder, have they put that lens in this camera? Because the quality out of this lens isn't great, right? Yes, it. Look, it has an aperture ring. It has manual focus ring. They're tiny, but they work. It does have autofocus. It's. It's very slow. In fact, it's probably about as slow as that Ilford point and shoot. When I. When I was shooting street with the Ilford with that little cheap. It was like. It was 60 bucks. When I was shooting street with the Ilford, I would have to time about a second before someone walked into my kind of focus zone that I'd set up to capture the shot. I'd have to press the shutter button a second before I wanted that person to be where I wanted them to be. And so that's very hit and miss. This one here is also slow. The focus system is very slow. And when you're used to a modern digital camera or a current gen digital camera and you press the focus button, you expect fairly snappy response. For most of the part, this isn't snappy at all, it's slow. And so there is a delay and especially in film mode there's an even longer, it feels like there's an even longer delay between when you press that button and it actually acquires focus and takes the shot. [00:34:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:18] Speaker A: But the thing with, with the film camera mode is that because it's an ovf, you don't know if things are actually in focus because the back screen won't let you preview the image before you take it. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:29] Speaker A: So you're trusting the camera's autofocus which is slow and has a delay. So yeah, anyway, I think I went off topic but you know, that's good. [00:34:40] Speaker B: That's. It's just, you know, it's, we're so used to Fujifilm making great cameras that make great images, you know, like the whole X100 series. The reason that got popular to start with is because it was one of the smallest cameras that had great image quality. It wasn't like, it was just a, like, just the fact that it had a vintage aesthetic that people wanted. [00:35:12] Speaker A: No, no, no, no. [00:35:13] Speaker B: All the photographers were keen on it because they're like, wow, APS C size sensor, you know, really sharp F2 lens. [00:35:22] Speaker A: And most were shooting JPEGs. [00:35:23] Speaker B: Yep. And it felt fun to shoot. And I actually saw in a comment somewhere that was like you would be better off with an original X100 for a lot less money second hand than this new camera. And it's hard to argue with that. Although there's a lot of differences, but it's hard to argue with that. You know, it doesn't have. Yeah, it'd be fun to have a Fujifilm person on this. You're a Fujifilm person, but an actual one, you know, like what someone gets paid by Fujifilm to like, you know, push back on all the, on all the stuff like that where they would say, well this has got, you know, it's got app connectivity, it's got touch screens and all sorts of stuff. That's not in the original X100. [00:36:03] Speaker A: But you know, image quality is what we're here for. We're here to make images. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Good question here that you can answer, Greg. Is it plastic or metal? [00:36:13] Speaker A: Yeah, really good question. It's interesting. Like I said, it's, it's fairly comparable in size to my X70. So the X70 is about 10 years old now and it's a full metal body like it, you could hammer in nails with this thing. [00:36:25] Speaker B: What did you hit it against then? [00:36:26] Speaker A: Just a wall. [00:36:28] Speaker B: Just a wall. [00:36:28] Speaker A: This, this is much lighter. It's a couple of hundred grams lighter, if you can believe that. Maybe 100 and maybe 100 grams lighter. [00:36:35] Speaker B: What's it weigh? 240 grams. [00:36:38] Speaker A: 240 with the battery memory card. [00:36:41] Speaker B: That's light. Really. [00:36:43] Speaker A: It's really light. But it's, it's hardened plastic. It feels like there's a metal chassis or some metal chassis under it, but it's all plastic. Having said that, it's actually quite top heavy. So it feels a little unbalanced. I said that in my review that just picking it up, it just, it just feels top heavy, you know, whereas this thing is grounded and solid. [00:37:05] Speaker B: It's not going anywhere if it was metal. So if it was metal, let's say, you know, it's a, you know, a little bit heavy, 100 or 200 grams heavier, which is a bit. But you know. So if it was metal but it was a bit heavier, would that help you in your mind justify the price tag because of the premium build quality? [00:37:23] Speaker A: No, because that, that's irrelevant. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Yeah. In this level of camera you're like. [00:37:28] Speaker A: At this level I think it's irrelevant. Yeah, it's, you know, it's interesting. When I first picked, looked at it and I think I said this in my review, but when I first pulled it out of the box and looked at it, I thought, they've made a toy. Is it a kid's camera? Fujifilm made a camera targeting sort of 10 to 16 year olds. [00:37:47] Speaker B: I mean if it was that, if it was that priced accordingly, it would have to be durable. Obviously it would, but it would compete. [00:37:56] Speaker A: With kids cameras today. [00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it'd be, it would be an epic kids camera. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:02] Speaker B: But there's no price for that. [00:38:05] Speaker A: It's not priced for kids. No. Maybe rich kids, but with, well, rich parents. So yeah, it's an interesting, it's an interesting build. It's got, you know, a synthetic wrap. It's available in silver, charcoal and black, which are very standard Fujifilm colors. They often bring out those three colorways with cameras that they hope will be popular. Yeah, it's a really. The biggest thing I found through being, well testing and then reviewing this camera is that everything felt like it had a compromise and I think that's the biggest challenge that Fujifilm will have with a Mach 2. So let's say this sells enough because don't forget we're not the only market in Asian countries, especially at the moment, Japan and China. Compacts are king fun cameras are king things that are good for social media because a lot of Asian countries were late to the social media game to compare to Western countries. And so they're really going through a renaissance of enjoying what social media has to offer. This camera is perfect for that. If you don't want to use your phone because you get instant filters and you get the whole fun of downloading a film, a digital film so to speak, and processing it on your, on your smartphone and then sharing it with your friends and sending it to socials and sending to your Instax printer and not having to touch a computer at all. You know, there's a lot of joy in that. But yeah, everything has a compromise. So yes, it has a flash, but it's an LED flash that also acts as a tally lamp when you shoot video. So you can't freeze subjects. [00:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that was that. That got brought up a lot online and in other reviews I think in the, in the Petapixel review and a few other reviews that when you're going for this style of camera it is a bit of a miss not having a traditional flash that will freeze the subject even if you've got a bit of motion blur because it's dark. And to get that, just that, that look. Yeah, I'm sure it was a price decision probably. [00:40:18] Speaker A: Oh yeah, I'd say so. [00:40:19] Speaker B: To go with led. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think so. And you know, well, they wanted it to be a tally lamp as well, all in one, you know, so they really pushed for that low power consumption video lamp, you know. And speaking of power, it's got the same battery as a lot of the smaller like the XM5. It's the NPW126S. So that's in my XE4. It's in the. I think it's like the X T3, XM5 has this. So it's. And, and because this, this camera doesn't really do much. It. You can get, you know, you can get up to 900 shots off a battery. Usually Fuji batteries are rated much Lower with some of the high end cameras. But some of the other compromises, they've gone with an optical viewfinder, which I applaud. I think that's brave. It's still got a diopter. So. Not a diopter, A. A sensor. So when you hold it up to your eye, the screen goes dead. And when you pull it away from your eye, the screen pops up. So that's, that's a nice little feature. But it's only 9. I think it's only 90% coverage of the actual frame of what the lens will see. So much like an Instax. Sorry, an instant Fuji camera. The optical viewfinder is more of a guide than an accurate viewfinder. And it's a vertical viewfinder, which feels really unnatural. You know, we talked about how vertical doesn't feel natural the other night. Yeah, it's weird. It would take some getting used to. I found it. Given that I have poor eyesight, I found it very hard to use it because there's no diopter. You can't adjust it. [00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah, saw that in your review. That, that was one of the issues. [00:42:03] Speaker A: I love that they got rid of the. On this camera that they've gone for almost no buttons and using touchscreen interface. But the touchscreen is clunky as fuck. [00:42:13] Speaker B: I saw that. Okay, so that's true. So because there was actually a real advertising. This camera, not from Fujifilm, was from, you know, someone who got to play with it before release, obviously. And they were showing the film simulations how you scroll through them and every time they had to swipe twice to get the film simulation to move. You could actually see in their video. And they were saying, how cool is this little camera? And I was like, wow, the touchscreen doesn't work properly. [00:42:40] Speaker A: Really. You go really slow and purposeful. But we don't work that way anymore. [00:42:45] Speaker B: Can you show us? Can I. Can you like, is it. Can you turn it on? I'll bring it. I'll make you big. Can you show us what. What it looks like when you. Oh, the eye thing. Hang on. Yeah, the eye thing's making it. The sensor turns it off. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. [00:43:02] Speaker A: Sorry guys, let me swap hands. Yeah. [00:43:06] Speaker B: So everything. See, it's like an older GoPro. That's how the older GoPro they were. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:12] Speaker B: Because every second swipe it didn't quite register enough to move the menu. Yeah, show us something. [00:43:18] Speaker A: So the sim, this is. This is much more responsive. So you can flick. It's not great. I'm finding it hard to do because I'M doing it all in reverse. Yeah, it's there. And this also acts. You can actually get into menus with this as well. So it kind of shares the menus across the two screens. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:38] Speaker A: Which is kind of weird and hard to. You'll get used to it like any other menu system, but it's clunky. It's, again, a compromise. [00:43:45] Speaker B: It's fun. It's fun. I think what that could be good is, is them testing out tech that could end up in something like the X Pro 4. You know, like, do we do a second, A second touch screen that shows the film sim? Because they had that screen on the back of the X Pro 3 that shows the film sim. But it wasn't a touchscreen. It was just a. Like a low power display. [00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it was like when you would break the end, cut the end or the end off your film box and, and put it in the little metal frame on the back of your 35 mil film camera. So you knew what film you were using and you knew what ISO you were you're shooting with. Or, sorry, not. What was it called in film? Aso. Speed. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. So, you know, again, powerful image sensor. But it doesn't, it, it does feel like it's not being utilized. [00:44:39] Speaker B: The processor, you mean? The processor. [00:44:42] Speaker A: The processor. The process doesn't feel like it's being like the processor, you know, runs GFX cameras. Right? [00:44:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:49] Speaker A: With 102 megapixel sensors and fast autofocus and it just feels unutilized. But, you know, I said in my review that the sum of any camera is often determined by three things, especially fixed cameras, fixed lens cameras, the image sensor, the processor, and the lens quality. You know, you look at the Leica Q or the Fujifilm X100, those three things are in unison. They're humming. Yeah, exactly. They work well together. [00:45:19] Speaker B: No one's buying a Leica Q that has shitty image quality. It just wouldn't have happened. Everyone would have gone, nope, not buying that. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Yeah, there's no point having, you know, good focus performance if the images are going to be shit. You know, there's no point having great power consumption and being able to take a thousand frames if every frame is out of focus because the focus is delayed because the lens just can't keep pace with the processor. You know, so there's this. There's compromises baked in here. And yes, this is not a flagship camera. This is not designed for you and I to go out and do jobs. I would even suspect that I would Find this tricky? Well, I did. I tested the camera and I've got sample images there getting out and about with the camera. I found it slow. Yeah, slow to access the menus. You can change, you can go. There's, you know, you can go program mode, you can go aperture priority, you can go full manual. I always shoot full manual anyway. But having to change ISO and shutter speed on the touchscreen, that was pure fuckery. [00:46:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So. So it's really designed to be just used in auto with. With exposure compensation. Because that's the dial that's there. That's what. And because if it's. So if this is a bridging camera, let's get people into photography, let's get them off their smartphones. They're going to be just starting with just. Just full auto. But here's the dial to control your brightness, basically your exposure. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:50] Speaker B: And then here's film simulations, essentially. Swipe through them like filters, you know, like you would on an app, sort of. [00:46:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:58] Speaker B: Let's get a bit. Let's get a bit negative for a second. I want to circle back to Steven's comments because he's got a few in here, because I did ask him to elaborate on why he thought it was stupidity being glorified. And so he just says, I guess I find it to be a stupid camera. I mean, come on, it's a toy, which we did. I mean, it would make an amazing toy camera. Obviously they can't make a camera like this at a toy price point, but if they did, it'd be freaking so cool. Okay, fine, I'm a purist and all of this is just me. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:30] Speaker B: And that's why we can have opinions. But this is where he sort of digs into it. This is funny. First of all, his comment says, I get it, but it's like it come out half done. Yes, it is. Maybe a little bit. Half. Half frame. There's been a lot of jokes online about, yep, maybe half the price and, yeah, maybe half done. I don't know. But this is the question, who is it really going to reach for the price? So there's. We sort of know who they're trying to reach. But will they reach them at that price point? [00:48:02] Speaker A: I don't think they will in Western countries. I think they will in Asian countries. People don't mind spending money. I mean, it's globally true that people don't mind spending money on good photography equipment, but I think that this will appeal far more to a Chinese and Japanese market than anyone else. I think that's who it's for. And they don't mind investing money in tech. And don't forget, in countries like Japan, most people have two smartphones. They'll have an iPhone or a Samsung and they'll have a Japanese made phone that's a lot simpler. It's less like a smartphone and more like a true communication device. Text and phone calls and things like that. You'll see that if you ever travel to Japan, you'll see that all the time. People will have multiple phones. They love their tech. You know, most of this tech comes out of those countries and the development of it. So I think it'll appeal to those markets more than it will our sort of market. But you know, I'm 52, I may be out of touch with what young people are looking for in terms of this sort of experience. If you had no prior experience shooting with a camera, then have at it, this would be great. It'd be fun. You get to play around with film sims, you know, filter effects, play around with the cam, the film camera mode, get it on your app, expose your images, look at them, appear on a contact sheet, like old school, all that sort of stuff. There's fun to be had and it is engaging. It's just not the photography experience we've ever been used to. [00:49:48] Speaker B: And then you sort of get to that point is, does it border on. If you're listening, anyone from Fujifilm, we love your products, especially those beautiful GFX that one day will be sitting on this shelf. One day I'm biding my time. So we do love you and we love the, the products that you make. And we're a little bit, I guess we're a little bit obsessed with image quality, you know, more from a professional side than, than this. But does it, are they bordering that line? Are they pushing up against the line of gimmicky? When it's like you say, like the experience is fun, the lever is fun, all that stuff is cool. But is it bordering on. Yeah, more like it's like you can buy this camera, you can pretend to be a photographer, you know what I mean? As opposed to actually being a photographer. Is it a little bit of that or is it really engaging and it actually does drag people into this thing that we do? I don't know. [00:50:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. You know, when I wrote my review, I toyed around with the title and the overall theme and I settled on is it a gimmick or is it genius? And I think it's a Bit of both. I think it straddles that boundary and I think it straddles it fairly well. If we can remove from what we know about the capabilities of cameras and in terms of focus and performance and image quality and all of that stuff, noise reduction and video quality, if we can remove all of that and put ourselves in the mind of a 17, 18, 20 year old who's got a bit of money or you know, parents have offered to buy them a camera, then it would be a very exciting option for the price point if you wanted a compact fixed lens, point and shoot. You know, it's just not priced right I don't think. And it's an interesting choice that Fujifilm have made. And look, for all we know, sensor components have maybe gone up in price. Who knows? A lot's happening with prices globally due to America's fuckery with tariffs and the economy. This may be the price, may be in response to that. Even though it's a global. Well, you know, it's a relatively global price in Australian dollars. It's Fujifilm. I've got it listed, I think for 1400. [00:52:07] Speaker B: 1400. Let's, let's have a look. [00:52:10] Speaker A: 1350. [00:52:11] Speaker B: Sorry, 1350. Let's talk about it because there's a couple of comments and then I've got something to bring up about the price as well. So let's we there, let's talk about price. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Okay, let's. [00:52:23] Speaker B: J.S. hanny just tuned in. Good to see you, thanks for coming. My first impression is that at that price it cannot afford to feel plasticky. I would agree. [00:52:33] Speaker A: I agree. Look, don't get me wrong, it doesn't feel plastically like a traditional toy camera. It's just not as solid as most Fujifilm cameras. It's solid, it's robust, there's no shaking bits, everything moves as it should. Just some elements feel less premium than we're used to in a Fuji camera. Yeah, you know, it's not to say it's not built well and it's not durable, it's just, it feels a bit, you know, it's, it's only a couple hundred grams. [00:52:59] Speaker B: Yep. The drunk wedding photographer says I would have purchased one at 350, 450 if metal. But at 850, and these are US, US prices he's talking. But at 850, miss me with that price. Okay, well it's what it's called. Good to know though. So this appeals to you. You're, you're a film shooter, you shoot film cameras all the time for a job so this, it actually does. So you like the design, feature set and that kind of stuff, but you just think it's not something you would spend that kind of cash on. You just want it as a cheap kind of throw in your pocket, you know, extra camera. [00:53:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:39] Speaker B: And again, from JS Hanny, you can get a genuine half frame metal body film camera in the Pentax 17 for literally half that. No pun. Yeah, but that is, again, it's a different prospect and there is, there is a lot of sort of rumblings online that people are just basically saying Fujifilm should have just made an actual film camera and just give us, give us what we want, you know. [00:54:04] Speaker A: Yeah, potentially. And maybe that maybe. You know, one thing I questioned when the GFX100RF came out is that, you know, maybe they're just testing the waters. I know it's an expensive way to test the waters and there's some opportunities in that camera for them to improve it next time round. And maybe this is testing the waters. I think this camera will sell, like I said in those markets we talked about. It just won't appeal to the sort of photographers that we are. You know, it'll appeal to people that have never picked up a camera before and like a gadget and a bit of fun and film sims and it just creates that simplicity. Just before we move into pricing, can I just take a moment to remind everybody that you are listening to the Camera Life podcast? This is a very random show for us. We dropped this in because of the camera coming out yesterday. We knew that the camera was coming out yesterday because I was reviewing it. But we've got a lot of people watching along or listening along live at the moment. If you're new to the channel, drop a comment, say hi, let us know who you are, where you're from. If you haven't, please like this video. It helps with all the, the Al Gore rhythms as I like to call them now and subscribe. Hit the, hit the bell icon and you'll get notifications for random videos like this. Justin and I have some plans for the channel and we're going to start increasing the amount of content that's coming out here. So yeah, let us know what you're up to. What do you shoot with? Where are you? [00:55:28] Speaker B: Join us, join us. We'll be doing, we will be doing more camera content like this, more reviews, more collaborative reviews. Something we really want to get into is getting as many photographers opinions as possible on new cameras that they've had their hands on, especially photographers that don't necessarily have the time or platform to make content about new cameras. You know, we also, there's a ton of people on YouTube that do amazing reviews, but that's, that's kind of their job. We want, we want to get opinions of photographers who don't have the time to make those videos, but they do have the knowledge and they have the experience to give us their hands on opinions on camera. So also, if you're one of those kind of people, hit us up, maybe join us on a show. Here's a little sneak peek of what our next review will be. I haven't even opened the box yet. It's an OM3. For anyone that's on audio, it's just a box of the OM3 which is another filmish vintage style camera, but very, very different in that it's almost as capable as OM Systems flagship camera. It's kind of the opposite direction to this particular camera. [00:56:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And so stay tuned for that. We're going to review that. We're going to produce some video content, I'm going to do a written review, we're going to do some street work with it in Melbourne, maybe also in Bendigo. So, yeah, stay tuned for that. [00:57:00] Speaker B: Fun times. [00:57:02] Speaker A: That's another polarizing camera too. [00:57:04] Speaker B: It was for different reasons though. And that was what was crazy. It was like they almost packed all of the flagship tech into this sort of vintage body and then they got, they got roasted because it didn't have all of the flagship tech in it. [00:57:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:19] Speaker B: And the price point. Yeah. So don't do this to me. Yeah, we're doing it to you. Yeah. You might have to come check it out. Let me know. What I wanted to bring up was this. And now I know this is not, this isn't fair, but this show is not about being fair, obviously. Obviously. So basically I'm bringing up a comparison here on that camera decision.com website, which I almost never use, but I thought for this it's actually quite interesting. Yep. So I've got in here there's probably more cameras that it none pop to mind. You know, there's this stuff like the Ricoh GR3 and stuff like that. There's a lot of cameras that fit into this in, in Australia we're talking 1350. I'm looking at that as basically anything that's like between a thousand and sixteen hundred is in that range. I know some are cheaper, some are dear, but if you're buying a camera for 1300, you would consider anything in that range, I think, and maybe even A little bit higher because it's a big purchase. Once it's in that 1300 range, if someone tells you, oh, you should spend $200 extra and get this, you'll be so much happier. That, yeah, that's doable for no one sort of says, I can't afford a dollar more than this. [00:58:35] Speaker A: Yep. [00:58:35] Speaker B: All right, so I've got in here the Fujifilm X, half the Canon PowerShot V1 and the Sony ZV1 Mark II. If anyone's got any other cameras that you reckon would be a good comparison to this price point wise, I know these two are very different, they're very digital. They're not as they don't have any of the cool vibes. They, you know, the user experience isn't going to be the same. Although I must say that the PowerShot V1 in the hand, the grip was super comfortable. [00:59:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a good looking camera too. [00:59:06] Speaker B: Yeah, good looking but not good looking in the same way that Fujifilms are. It's not going to appeal to people. People aren't going to. [00:59:11] Speaker A: No, no, no. It looked, it looked techy and smart. [00:59:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. But it's. People aren't going to want to have a selfie with it, you know, but. And they're both zooms as well, which is obviously a very different experience too. You know, they don't have the mechanical everything, but anyway, we're comparing them regardless. This is what's interesting. Look at the Canon. Obviously the Canon is far newer than the Sony, but the Canon sensor size, not only is it 22 megapixels, so it's got a little bit more resolution, but. But it's more than double the surface area of the sensor. Yeah, it's 1.4 inch instead of a 1 inch. So already you're going to get way better low light performance, slightly shallower depth of field. But it is a zoom lens so it doesn't have quite as bright of an aperture. It's variable aperture zoom lens, 16 to 50 equivalent zoom lens, I think. But then once you start going into like, look at the, you know, continuous shooting. One frame a second. Is it one frame a second on the Fuji, is that. Is it not? [01:00:11] Speaker A: It has no continuous shooting. [01:00:12] Speaker B: No continuous shooting. [01:00:14] Speaker A: You just take a photo. [01:00:15] Speaker B: You take one photo, you know, Whereas the Canon's 30 frames a second, the Sony's 24 frames a second, the burst. [01:00:22] Speaker A: Mode is how quickly you can push the button down and actually wait, then wait half a second for it to take the photo. So yeah, not a selling point. [01:00:32] Speaker B: Does it not have custom white belt, is it only got white balance settings? Is there no Kelvin setting or anything? Or how does white balance work on. [01:00:41] Speaker A: Just has metering, like basic metering. It doesn't have custom white balance options. You can't change your lighting effects. [01:00:48] Speaker B: Okay. [01:00:49] Speaker A: So in a lot of ways it works a bit like an Instax camera, you know, that simple, you know, you can't really control much. [01:00:59] Speaker B: Yep. Image stabilization. No, obviously. And that's not a big deal I don't think for this camera. But you've got optical on the Canon PowerShot V1. That's pretty cool. No built in flash on the other two. So that's, you know, that's a thing. So it's, you know, it's got that going down, going down. So obviously the big, another big difference is this has got an optical viewfinder. The other ones don't. They don't have any viewfinder. You just have to look at the screen. That's. That's a very different usability feature that if you want to look through a viewfinder and be, you know, a real photographer. These cheaper, smaller cameras often don't have it. And this one does. [01:01:40] Speaker A: Yep. [01:01:43] Speaker B: Display type. These ones are fully articulated. Great for street photography. Fujifilm X half, not articulated at all. It's a fixed, very small display on the back. So there is that. When it comes to video, there's not a lot on this camera decision thing. But I know that, you know, the Canon PowerShot V1, you could shoot amazing looking video with that camera. Yeah, like great. [01:02:10] Speaker A: That's what it's for. [01:02:11] Speaker B: Run, run a full YouTube channel with it. You're getting. And same with Obviously the Sony ZV1 Mark II which is a few years older, still has great video specs. That's what they're for. They've got a little fluffy thing that goes on the top to protect the mic from wind. You could just take that out and make videos all day long with it. Whereas this X half, you know, you're shooting vertical less than HD video in bursts of under 60 seconds. Potentially. We don't know that for sure. So that's one of the really big things when if you were, if you were really looking at getting into photo and video as your first camera. I don't think it could be this, it couldn't be the Fujifilm if you were interested in video. No, you basically it's going to be handy to get your snippets and a few extra. You know, if you leave your phone at home, you want to be fully Disconnected. But you take the X half out to an event or something like that, you can grab some video snippets with it and then make your reels and stories and stuff. But if you actually thought I might want to make some video content, the other cameras in this category are going to blow it away. [01:03:19] Speaker A: And that's actually wrong there. It says external microphone port. There is no external microphone port. There's only one port on this camera, which is a USB type C for charging and for use with a dongle to put a headphone jack on only. [01:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:34] Speaker A: So the, you know, the, the other side of video is the audio quality. And this audio quality is terrible. [01:03:41] Speaker B: Okay. [01:03:42] Speaker A: You know, your smartphone will pick it up better. Yeah, unfortunately. [01:03:47] Speaker B: And then you can see that. You can see the size here. It is compact, it is lightweight. Although the Sony is pretty close, the Canon's a fair bit heavier. And it does have that great battery life. It's same, but it probably has great battery life because it can't do a lot of stuff. [01:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:02] Speaker B: And it's got a pretty big battery in it, which is cool. So I don't know, I just thought that was interesting looking at it because I've actually been looking at this sort of this category of camera for Yelena because she. She's the potentially one of the perfect target markets for this Fujifilm X. Huh. She wants something. [01:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:22] Speaker B: She doesn't like having her phone out when she's socializing with people, but she wants to be able to take photos that sort of make memories from trips or, you know, gatherings or whatever. And so she was like, maybe I should get a camera despite the fact that my house is full of cameras. [01:04:40] Speaker A: Look, if it was under a thousand bucks, then I could almost justify it. [01:04:44] Speaker B: It would make it easier. Easier to make it an easy decision. [01:04:48] Speaker A: Can I just bring up a screen? [01:04:50] Speaker B: Yes. [01:04:51] Speaker A: That I want to share. Thanks, boss. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Don't forget, everyone hit us up in the chat. It's going quiet. There's tons of you listening right now. We appreciate it. [01:05:03] Speaker A: What are you thinking? What do you want to know? Ask me anything. Absolutely anything. Let's add to stage this one. So this is from Fujifilm Australia. So this is in Australian dollars. Just so everyone knows these prices and they're not direct currency conversions to other currencies because each region prices things a little bit differently. But we've got the three cameras here that I've chosen. This is the Fujifilm X half on the left. In the middle is the powerhouse X100 Mark VI. And on the right is the Fujifilm XM5. Granted, the XM5 is not a fixed lens camera, but when you think of. And this is, this is Fujifilm's price. This is not retail price. In Australia, retailers can offer it at a lower price. Our retail laws allow that they can offer it at whatever price they want. But I think it depends on, you know, how much margin they actually want to make. So the three cameras here, the Fuji X half in Australian dollars is 1350. The X100VI, much more premium camera, much more capable, 2900. And the XM5 is 1449. So when we then scroll down a bit, I mean, look at what the capabilities or the key features of these three cameras are. The left is. Let's just focus on the x half. 17 megapixel. Megapixel. Megapixel. I can't say it now. Mega pickles. And well, they say Full HD, but it's at 24fps. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:35] Speaker A: The XM5, which packs the same image sensor, has a 26 megapixel, can shoot 8fps in burst, and it can shoot 6.2 K 30fps video. Granted, it doesn't come with a lens, but many retailers will, especially here in Australia. You can pick up this camera, the XM5 with their XC15 to 45 kit lens. It's a very cheap. But it is a power zoom lens if you have a camera that supports that to go with the XM5. And in Australia you can actually pick it up for about the same price as the X half. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Now I'm looking at one here. I think it's. There's one for 1569. You know, with the lens it's like 200 Australian dollars difference. That's like 100 US dollars difference. Very, very close in price. And then you've got the ability to buy new lenses down the track, which is, which is obviously completely different category of camera. But that's a big bonus for someone that's looking at getting into the hobby of photography. [01:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And when this came out and I reviewed the. I thought it was a brilliant camera. It had a couple of things that I didn't like about it, mostly the screen because it doesn't have an evf, but neither does the X half. It has an ovf. That's a little kind of dodgy, I think anyway. But you know, even if you, even if you were to just go with that kit lens, I think this makes a more attractive option if you're looking for a pure photography camera. It doesn't it has film simulations. It has a film simulation dial on top so you can still choose your film sims if you love that aspect. It has a bunch of filters just like the X half. Not as many, but a bunch of filters. And it offers in camera RAW to jpeg, JPEG image conversion with editing and then you can just download those to your camera, to your phone. [01:08:31] Speaker B: Can I ask you a question, Greg? You've got the super cool and it is really cool. So that Fujifilm display the X half display of the film that you swipe and it changes the film and it displays it, which I think I really love that they put that in there. And I hope we see something around that kind of thing into maybe some of their more premium offerings. But to use out shooting, would you rather that or would you rather the dial, the mechanical dial that's on the xml? [01:09:04] Speaker A: I would rather the dial because it's tactile. It's on the top plate, which I love about Fuji cameras. It's been one of the biggest appeals for me about Fuji cameras is that I've got shutter and exposure compensation dials on the top plate of them. The same with my, you know, my old X70. It's a formula they've stuck with the touch. If I could assign the exposure compensation dial on the X half. So there's a nice big exposure compensation dial. It's a bit clunky, it's a bit hard, it doesn't have great movement. But if I could program that to be a film SIM dial that would be different. But as it is, I have to swipe this sub screen which is quite small and it's not as responsive as it should be for a touchscreen. So it's frustrating and I agree. I love the fact that they've got the graphic there of the sort of the film. Yeah, branding like the logo of each of the film types. [01:10:00] Speaker B: It would be kind of double handling. But would you almost rather it if it had that display but it was only changed by the mechanical. Mechanical dial instead on the top plate. But then it still had that cool display which I guess is kind of more like the X Pro 3 kind. [01:10:13] Speaker A: Of display where it's like XM5 had it as well. They didn't have a sub monitor but on the main monitor as you turned the film simulation dial on the left third of the. The rear touchscreen and in the EVF a little graphic would appear and it was a graphic of the film canister. Oh, that's with the logo with the branding on it. The Fuji branding. Of that particular film. And so as you scroll the film sim dial, it rotates on the screen. [01:10:40] Speaker B: XM5 got an articulating rear screen as well. [01:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that was my down. That was the biggest downside of the XM5 for me because I'm a street shooter. When it's one of those sort of, it folds out screens and then it. [01:10:52] Speaker B: Rotates and you can spin it around. [01:10:54] Speaker A: The whole way so you can use. [01:10:55] Speaker B: It like a. Yeah, I remember, I remember you saying that. But you can't, you can't just tilt it out and sort of shoot looking down in it. [01:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And so what it did was, is that, you know, my X, this One here, the X70, this has just a flip up screen if you want to do vlog mode or selfies. But it's, you know, completely. You can shoot up high, you can shoot from the hip. The XM5 folded out, it doubled the, the visible footprint of the camera and it made aligning your camera to take shots kind of a bit tricky, you know. Anyway, I, I get that the XM5 and the X half are very different cameras, but when they brought out the XM5, they were full on content creator focused with that camera. It shoots amazing video. It shoots great images. It's got a great process. It's got super fast autofocus. When the XM5 came out, it was just before they rolled out firmware to all the other Fuji cameras. It had the fastest autofocus of any Fuji X series camera. And I paired the XM5 with the Fuji 500 mil F. What was it, 5.6 or 4.5? Whatever it was. [01:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, 5.6, I think. Yeah, yeah. [01:12:04] Speaker A: I paired with that and went out shooting birds with it. It was that impressive. [01:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:09] Speaker A: But this, this, the focus on this is, in comparison, it's downright sloppy. [01:12:18] Speaker B: Interesting. [01:12:18] Speaker A: And you can only choose nine focus points to set. [01:12:21] Speaker B: I saw that. Yeah. [01:12:24] Speaker A: So it's, you know. [01:12:27] Speaker B: It just feels like a backward step in a lot of ways. [01:12:32] Speaker A: Which is. Yeah, that is the point. And I think what, and I think this is one of the things that we need to remember is that this is the first time anyone's done this again. Like we were talking about this with the GFX100RS. The first time anyone's done a medium format slash large format compact point and shoot. That's the first one someone's done a half frame digital in our current generation of technology. And it's a brave move. I applaud it. For an enthusiast or a professional photographer, it's not for them. It's for a beginner. And we're not, neither of us or anyone listening are beginners. And so it doesn't make sense to us. But to a beginner who hasn't had the experiences we've had and the joy of lightning fast autofocus and all those sorts of things, and RAW file management and being able to pull details out of shadows and push back highlights and all of that stuff you can do with modern cameras that doesn't mean anything to new photographers. [01:13:32] Speaker B: They'll get to that. I disagree. Here's my disagreement and then after this I'm going to pull up a couple of comments because there's a few cool comments. Smartphones are freaking great at like my iPhone 15 Pro. Admittedly, it's, it's in Australia. It's all, it's like $2,400 or something. Phones are getting expensive. Yeah, but, but if you put your $1400, you know, budget for a camera towards your phone and again, the experience is terrible compared to shooting with an actual camera, in my opinion. Shooting with a phone. But everything's fast. The touchscreen works really well. So when you take someone that is used to an iPhone 15 Pro and then say, hey, do you want your first camera? Your actual, first actual camera and then their first actual camera isn't seamless and it isn't as fast as an iPhone and the image quality isn't. It's not like you're going from an iPhone to a GFX100 and you see the images and you're like, oh my God, no wonder, you know, this is so much better than a phone. You're going, you probably, I don't know, the image is probably a better than a phone. But are they, are they really gonna blow someone's socks off or are they just. [01:14:49] Speaker A: Images are not better than a phone. [01:14:51] Speaker B: Oh, clip. [01:14:53] Speaker A: I don't think. [01:14:54] Speaker B: Well, especially, especially an iPhone like this. This iPhone. Yeah, really good images and it, hey, it shoots raw too. But you know, it's the way that it works. Like, I'm like, I love the. This can set itself at 28, like 24mil. 28mil or 35mil. My preference for my main camera. I can set that. But then I've got a nice little. The 2x zoom and a half. I've gotten really used to it. There's no, like, you don't have to. You just tap the lens that you want to use. It's a really. It's like you're shooting with primes. It's got a cool feel about it. I just hate the. I hate the ergonomics, obviously, because I have to hold it. [01:15:34] Speaker A: We'll get one of those sent out. [01:15:35] Speaker B: I thought about one of those. Those grips. So. Okay. [01:15:38] Speaker A: I will say this, though. On. On that point of image quality, if you took a photo with your, like, I've got an iPhone. I think this is a 14. It's just a standard. I don't like big phones. Not trying to compensate for anything like some people. If you take a photo with the X half and you take a photo with your smartphone and you load them both into Lightroom on a reasonable screen, then I think the iPhone photo is going to look better. But the photos out of the X half, people aren't intending them to go onto computer screens or displays. It's for phone use. So on a phone screen which has bright resolution and punchy visuals and they're backlit and all of that sort of stuff, the XF images will look okay. Because you're only. [01:16:25] Speaker B: Fourteen hundred dollars on okay photos, though. [01:16:27] Speaker A: I get that you and I don't. But if it's enough for visuals and reels and insta and whatever you're using, then it's enough. And it's a simpler process. And there's a fun element of film photography. You know, they're trying to entice people with a couple of little crumbs to get them into this system. More than a couple of crumbs, you. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Know, and, yeah, that's probably a bit harsh, but that. It's okay. I see what you're saying. [01:16:55] Speaker A: Let's go to some comments. Yeah. [01:16:57] Speaker B: Okay. So Eric says the X half looks like a fun camera. Hey, Eric, thanks for joining us. Also, there's a ton of people joining us. So again, if you've just joined us, we're Justin and Greg. We run a podcast called the Camera Life Podcast. We do lots of interviews. Every Thursday in Australian time, or Wednesday us, we do an interview with an amazing photographer. And then Monday nights in Australia, we do the random show where we talk about whatever. But this is a special edition of A Camera Review because Greg's been reviewing the Fujifilm X half for the last two or three weeks, and it got released yesterday. And we thought, let's do a live show so people can ask questions to Greg about his experience with the camera. And I can throw rocks at it from a distance because I've never actually touched it. But I have opinions, like all of us do. All right, so Eric says X half looks like a fun camera. I think a lot of casual consumers that would be interested in it might be priced out. The more serious photographers might look elsewhere since it doesn't shoot raw. And I think it's, that's where it's like straddling both of those lines. It's like it's almost something that you know, if the. For a lot of photographers now the X100VI for a secondary camera, hey, I just want to walk around pushing 3000 Australian dollars, 2899 or whatever it is. A lot of people are pushed priced out of that as a second camera because it's like, oh, do I buy a, do I buy an actual like pro. Not Pro, but you know, Canon R6 Mark 2. That to do, you know, my serious photography on or do I buy the X100 to have the X100 as your second camera? For some people now when the series first come out they were about 1200 bucks. I think now they're, now they're close to 3000. And it's at the point where maybe some photographers can't justify that as a second camera, as a walk around point and shoot, second camera, daily carry. And then they look at this and think, oh, will this be it? And for those serious photographers for a second camera, I don't think this is it. [01:19:00] Speaker A: This isn't it. [01:19:01] Speaker B: But, but then Eric's put the. Yeah, they're right in the middle there where it's like it also might be too expensive for a beginner. And that's what, what Glenn has put here. Will a beginner spend fourteen hundred dollars on a point and shoot? Some might, I don't know. [01:19:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think in our market. [01:19:18] Speaker B: No, not, not as much because this is the thing too I guess if they buy them off the Internet. But what happens when they go into a camera store? Because the people in camera stores, I guess they want to sell cameras and depends if they personally like this camera or not, but. But if they're depending on who they are. You know, I'm thinking about Brendan from like Camera, Camera and Photo. What's it called? Camera Photo. Oh, such a. Anyway, Brendan. Brendan Waits from the Down South Camera show. Yeah. No, but he's a photo store. I forget the name of it. It's anyway in down along the Great Ocean Road. Anyway, someone walks into his shop and says, oh, you know, I'm thinking about buying my first camera. Is he gonna kind of be like look, I know this one that you've come in inquiring about is very, very cool and it looks very Very cool. But I just want to show you this other option, you know, that's 100 or $200 dearer that if you get into this is going to be a great platform for you to stick with for a long period of time. It's got, you know, raw, it's got this, it's got that. Our camera stores going to sort of I guess guide people towards maybe a more flexible long term option. I don't know. That's it. Camera and photo ocean growth. I don't know what, my brain wasn't working. [01:20:40] Speaker A: Oh thanks Glenn. You know. Yeah, it's an interesting question that the whole price point is probably the biggest issue for Fujifilm with this camera and it kind of makes me wonder where did that money go? You know there's going to be a lot of research and development and you know, we don't know where every cent in a camera design goes. And you know, sometimes some, not always in photography but in other tech industries they'll take a hit in gaming for example, some brands will take a hit on the price of a console because they know they'll sell games and they make up the difference on the games. They won't make any margin on a console and some will even sell them at a loss, but they'll sell games. [01:21:21] Speaker B: So you're kind of hypothesizing that if they had priced this at say 799Australian dollars, which is a massive, they'd probably be potentially be losing money. I don't even know, I don't know how much it costs to make this camera. But are you saying they should maybe have done that to get people into the Fujifilm world? [01:21:38] Speaker A: Maybe so that or well, you know, it circles back to well where is the money actually going? Where has the money been spent? Yes, they've got processor but they've got the exact same process from the XM5 which is only a tiny bit more expensive. They've got a fixed lens and they tend to price their fixed lens cameras higher like the X100 and the GFX100RF but this lens is not excellent quality at all. You know, it's tiny, it's the focus performance is slow, the sensor is minuscule. You know, the touchscreens are low quality. They've got an optical viewfinder, not an evf. You know, it comes with a pretty standard battery which, you know, so it makes me question and it's not an all metal body, it's a lot of plastic is in use and you must have an app to make it Work properly. To make the most of film camera mode, you have to have a phone with an app. So there's a. My question is where did the money actually go? If we're spending, how do we justify a 1449 Australian. Sorry, not 1349 Australian dollar price point. When I'm left questioning, well, where did they actually spend the money other than the sensor? [01:22:57] Speaker B: I wonder whether. Okay, well this, let's, let's bring up Glenn's comment which we've sort of touched on before but interested to know whether it feels premium or just looks premium because it certainly does look premium in your product photos that you've done of it. People may buy online on looks but maybe not in store based on the feel. If they get their hands on it and they're like, it's not as cool as I thought it was. [01:23:22] Speaker A: It's a good question, Glenn. Look, it feels premium. Okay, it does feel premium. It's got a heft to it. It's not a huge heft. Like my X70 is heavier. That just feels solid, you know. That X70, you know, will probably outlast me. I think there's just a lot of plastic and yes, my product photos make it look like it's, it's a, you know, gleaming mono block of aluminium. Like that. [01:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I thought it was that. Yeah, I thought it was like. Yeah, same as the X100, basically like solid. Yeah, yeah. [01:23:57] Speaker A: And to its credit it does feel premium for what it is. But I did notice that this is a pre production model and I don't know how many hands this has been but there's scratches on the, on the. I took one scratch out using Lightroom when I prep these photos but it's already got a couple of scratches on it. And so for a brand new. I didn't put them on there, it came in the box that way. I'll just let Fujifilm up. For a brand new camera to already have those sorts of marks tells you that it's not high quality stuff. You know, wear and tear, it won't do well. [01:24:29] Speaker B: Look how tiny it is in your hands. Look at that. [01:24:32] Speaker A: Yes. [01:24:34] Speaker B: It's really little, is it, Is it uncomfortably small for you to use? No, no, it fits fine. You know, the size is good because it's light. [01:24:43] Speaker A: You know, you can single hand play with, you can do this and there's not much fatigue. It's only, what do we say, 230something grams. But the manual focus ring is quite tiny. But it's well dampened. But the aperture has like this little post on it, you can see it here in the image on the screen. There's a post on the aperture and it's got some key feedback. It's just a little. It's like you give it a tiny bit too much pressure and you go from F2 all the way to F21 or F11 or whatever it is very quickly. So it's hard to get precise aperture control. But it's not the camera for it anyway. So yes, it does feel premium for a plastic first price point. It feels premium. [01:25:29] Speaker B: I think Glenn says that lens looks terrible. [01:25:34] Speaker A: Like I said. I don't know if you're here earlier, Glenn, Fujifilm have actually gone out in their marketing and said and in their developer kind of videos that the lens has the same sort of field of view as one of the disposable quick snap cameras. I think they're called From Memory, which are beautiful cameras. They're fun. I've bought them when I've been traveling. They're just great for instant film photos. But it made me worry at first that they'd use the same lens in this just because it just won't. My initial images just weren't. Weren't what I had hoped for. But I don't think that's the case because I think that lens is just a single stick lens. I'm pretty sure this has got like four elements in it. [01:26:23] Speaker B: All right, a few more interesting comments. Let me just remove that and bring this like so. Ta da. JS Hanney. Ultimately they've built an experiential. Is that a word? Camera. So the question becomes whether or not they've nailed the experience. He goes on to say the camera film mode is a great idea, similar to a Leica md. But does the film winder have the correct tactile feel? For instance, what are your thoughts? [01:26:54] Speaker A: There's no ratcheting. You know, when you use it, you kind of feel a nice hefty bit of feedback. With a film wind. This is. It's got a little bit of resistance. It's. It's spring loaded. Sorry guys, I'm struggling with this. [01:27:07] Speaker B: This. [01:27:09] Speaker A: It sits when the camera's off. When the camera's off, it sits flush. When you turn the camera on, it pops out always or just in a film mode every time, no matter what. Now the winder does purpose in just standard digital photography mode. You can take a shot and then you. I think you have to double wind from memory. You can then take a second shot. It will create a square frame. So a full Frame or full cropped frame? [01:27:40] Speaker B: No, no, it. It puts two images next to each other side by side. Side by side. Not, not like a double. If it was a double exposure, that would have been cool. [01:27:51] Speaker A: I think that's one of the modes in it. You can do a double. Maybe I've got that wrong. But. [01:27:56] Speaker B: But yeah, basically stitches two images side by side, but it also leaves each individual image on your memory card. So you. So basically if you use this mode, you would end up your second image and then a third image where both of them are sitting on the same frame next to each other. Which. [01:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it wasn't working well when I did it. [01:28:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's how it was explained to me. [01:28:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're right. [01:28:23] Speaker B: Glenn. Glenn says I have a Yashica Y35 digital film camera that is plastic and crap. Has different films you put in it for different effects. No screen and a manual ratchet winder looks crap, is cool as. And cost about 120 AUD. Is that the one. Is that the one where you actually had plastic film canisters and it changed the look? Yeah, all they did was change the look. So it was, it was kind of like a cool toy camera where you had this physical thing where you're like, oh, I want to shoot black and white. You had to put your black and white plastic film canister into the thing. I didn't know anyone had those cameras. Yep, that's the one. He said, okay, so you've actually got that. See that? That's the kind of thing that's like, that would. That was. We like you say looks crap, you know, like it. But it, it's cheap enough that it's kind of fun and just. It, you know, obviously completely different thing to this. But yeah, I've got, I've got a Y35 as well. Complete garbage. But it doesn't matter because it was cheap and no one expects it. [01:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:31] Speaker B: Love it even more so when it works. Glenn says, yeah, right. Okay, so. And, and you never. And I don't know, you never want. Fujifilm would probably be mortified if they found out that this was getting compared to one of those Y35s. But yeah, different experience. [01:29:51] Speaker A: But yeah, it is. And I think, I think Jason's correct. I think, I think it was Jason who said this is an experiential camera. Fujifilm are selling an experience. That's what this is. It's not about image quality, definitely not about video quality. It's not about focus performance. It's about slowing down and thinking about your photography. And I think that is the bridging element that I respect the most from Fujifilm. That our photography with our smartphones we kind of tend to. And we all do it at home. You know, we've got cats and pets and we love taking photos of them and we're all constantly taking snaps but then popping our phone away and often forgetting that we took those photos. I don't know if anyone else is guilty of that, but it's certainly a habit that I'll then go through my iPhone, go through my photo library looking for a photo and come across some photos I took. They went, oh yeah, cool, I forgot about those. You know, we don't think about what we're doing. It's so quick. Even when we upload photos to socials, it's gone, you know, it's absolutely gone. So I think that's what this is. It's. It's an experience to slow down and think about photography. If you can slow down and you know, compose your frames and take your time and think about in camera settings to get the right exposure, compensate all of that stuff, then that this is the right camera for it because it's, you have to slow down. If you try to use it quickly like a current gen camera, then it doesn't work well. It doesn't respond. Even the film winder sometimes didn't actually wreck. And again this is pre production film winder, sometime when I was doing film camera mode didn't recognize that I was winding the film forward. It just completely ignored my input. So. But again that might be firmware, it might be that it's pre production. So it's hard to say. [01:31:46] Speaker B: But that's right. There is always the potential firmware update or something that they've done prior to the the actual production release could solve a lot of those problems. It could solve the touchscreen stuff, you know, like so. So we might have to reserve the official opinion on some of those things until a production model gets in in Greg's hot little hands. Ton of comments. [01:32:06] Speaker A: I'm gonna go with that in mind. Yeah. Just quickly on that pre production thing. You know, brands are starting to move away from sending out pre. They want to get them as close to right finish because they get into the hands of reviewers and we talk about the downsides that they may intend to fix by the time it hits the shops. But everyone's already got a bad taste in their mouth about autofocus performance or you know, whatever. So it's, it's to the Brand's detriment to send out pre production, I think. [01:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah, but obviously it's hard. They're trying to hit deadlines and things are moving constantly and yeah, it's a tough balance. And I guess that's the issue that they want all these reviews to come out on the one day, the embargo day, the big release, you know, as opposed to, I mean, they could just do a press release, no one's touched the camera, and then three weeks later the reviews start coming out. They could do it that way, but. All right, some funny comments coming in and a good question about the image quality. So let's just quickly go. So first of all, looping back, Glenn says it, it does show that there's somewhere between $120 and $1400 Australian. We're talking that there's potential to make something very interesting that is a fun experience to shoot with. Maybe $120 is so cheap that the, it's, it's actual garbage. The images, the quality as, as these guys have been saying for the Yashica Y35. But maybe 1400 is just a bit too rich for, for experienced camera in experience only camera that doesn't back it up with at least sort of a decent step up from, from smartphone image quality. And this is me saying that I haven't actually used the camera. So don't take my word for the image quality side of things. I'm just going by what Greg has said and the specs of the image sensor and lens. Glenn also says, I know why they called it the X. Half. Half hits, half misses. Regarding the usability. Good gag. I like it. And it does sound like maybe that's, that's it. Like they, they took a swing at the experience and. Yeah, maybe it didn't connect on. On in all spots. [01:34:14] Speaker A: Well, like I said in my review, you know, is it genius or is it gimmick? It's both. [01:34:20] Speaker B: Yeah. In certain aspects, yeah. It is brave. And that again, same as the GFX100RF that I decided was not for me. I'm glad they made it. You know, like it's, it's. Someone's got to do this stuff and someone's got to see what works and push the boundaries and not just make the same. And that's, that's what's hard when you compare it against the Canon PowerShot V1. It's like that thing is a really great, super usable camera, but it's, it's also just a bit of an iteration on Sony's ZV1. It's like they didn't. They didn't like break any ground. They were just like, okay, if we just, you know, update some of these, slightly better quality this, that two years newer than Sony's offering and put that out. And I. That's. There's a place for those products too. But, you know, it's cool to see just something that we had. No, it's completely different. [01:35:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:13] Speaker B: So a couple other comments. First of all, Chris317, good to see you. I think it's the first time we've seen you there. You've written insulting. Can you please elaborate? What is it? Is the camera insulting? Am I insulting? Is Greg's beard insulting? Just let us. We need a little more. Give us a little bit more. And who else? What else did we have in here? Oh my gosh, there's so many. Oh, this one. This was. Yeah, Nev. Good to see you, Nev. I wanted to get to. All right, can I get this name correct? Is that an L or an. It's got to be an I, right? [01:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:59] Speaker B: Anyway, good to see you. Thanks for joining us. What about the indoor shooting? How does it handle ISO? Yeah. Did you test high ISO? What. What did it look like? [01:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I did. Not very pretty, you know, using this lens that tiny against a sensor that, you know, has to do all the heavy lifting here. The. The processor is overpowered. The sensor and the lens are doing all the heavy lifting and they are struggling to create good low light performance. They create good images. Not great. They create good images, but in low light, it really struggles. Focus gets worse. The noise is pretty horrible. It has a 1200-800-12800 max ISO. Low end is only 200. It won't go below 200 ISO. Obviously it has flash and a tally lamp, but LED tip, so you can't freeze subjects in low light. You know, it kind of worked certainly better than an Instax camera that has like a digital index camera that has the, you know, where you can actually either choose to send the photos to a smartphone or print them straight away. Certainly better than that. But yeah, low light really struggled. It just doesn't capture detail in shadow. It just can't. The sensor is too small and too underpowered and the lens doesn't have the optics to pull it in. You know, it doesn't have. The lens is so tiny that, you know, like that front element there, which you can see. Hopefully, you know, that that's, that's like about 4 millimeters, 5 millimeters across. [01:37:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:37:42] Speaker A: Probably, let's say 5 millimeters to be generous. You know, that in itself is already a throttled intake of light to the sensor. And then once it gets to the sensor through the leaf shutter to the sensor, it's, you know, it's, it's already getting compromised image. Sorry, Compromised light input. And then it, you know, it's underpowered. It's trying to work out what to do with it. So, you know, and there's no computational image enhancement in this thing. It's not like an OM system where you can use computational management to upscale an image or improve image quality in my life. [01:38:15] Speaker B: So that's, that's what I was going to mention. That was something that, when I was sort of digging into this before the show today. Again, comparison with smartphone. I know it doesn't have a film winder leave or any of that other cool stuff, but smartphones have one big thing which is computational image. What do you want to call it? Manipulation. Whatever it is, the low light that you can do with a phone now is pretty insane. It's not, it doesn't always work. Obviously. You got to hold steady because it, what it, you know, it blends frames, it does long exposure, but it outperforms sometimes a lot of very cheap cameras. This isn't a very cheap camera. I'm worried that a phone could potentially outperform it in low light because it. [01:39:05] Speaker A: Doesn'T have that, it doesn't have that computational power. [01:39:08] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:39:09] Speaker A: So if you just pull out like I've got an iPhone 14. It's, it's not anywhere near as good at yours. Standard iPhone 14. Not nearly as good as yours in terms of the camera performance or the computational power. But I think this takes better low light images than the X half. But again, keep in mind, what is it used for? It's, you know, it's a, it may not be the sort of camera that, you know. [01:39:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:37] Speaker A: That you use for any sort of low light situation. I don't know. It's. It's tricky to know. [01:39:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:39:44] Speaker A: And you know, the, the other, the other. I know you want to jump to comments. Sorry, I just. [01:39:51] Speaker B: Keep going. [01:39:52] Speaker A: You know, maybe Fujifilm are just trying to carve a new path. Maybe this isn't intended for anyone in particular. Maybe they're just trying to carve a new path, open up a new market. [01:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:05] Speaker A: Create a new segment with this camera that, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't fall. It doesn't necessarily fall within the Fujifilm X series. Even though it's an X half. When the initial media stuff came to me. It said, this is a new product that sits aside from the GFX and the X series. It's like a third wing of the camera system. It's almost like going back to Fuji's old point and shoots that you could buy. I don't know if you can just buy them, you know, for a few hundred bucks from Ted's. From a camera store. Yeah, they were just basic digital, like the W series, all that sort of stuff. So is it just an enhanced version of that? [01:40:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And so this is the, this is the thing. Fujifilm can and should make whatever they want and it's cool that they're making different cameras. The worry is they saw an insane amount of success with the X100 series. Then they pushed that to the GFX100 is very cool. And it's almost like, okay, now we need a cheap option and let, let's go after a different market without, you know. So we've got three options of fixed lens cameras that are going to be just sell like hot takes. Yeah, we got, you know, the, the entry level, the, the, the Goldilocks which is the X100 is going to continue just to crush it. And then the GFX100 which is really just super premium high end camera. Yeah, great. Great to have a flagship in that fixed lens category. The problem is is that the DNA of this entry level one is so different to those other two. Whereas the other two, they speak to similar people at different ranges where it's like, hey, this is the photographer's camera, travel companion, street photography camera. Whereas this seems like it's none of that, it's not a photographer's camera. So it's a bit weird for us, for us looking in. And then what I really wanted to say is like the thing that, that I guess bugs us because we say make whatever you want, we'll either buy it or we won't buy it. And I do believe that. But when there's people that are also saying, where's our X Pro 4? Where's our XT6? Where's our. What do you want a new XC70? [01:42:27] Speaker A: XE4? [01:42:27] Speaker B: XE4? [01:42:28] Speaker A: XE 4. I want an XC4 for my workhorse. But yeah, what I want a new X70 as well. [01:42:34] Speaker B: Yeah, so, so there's just this, there's. I guess that's the only risk that you take when you put out products that are sort of forging a new path, trying something new. You've got a very invested Dedicated user base of absolute Greg fans. Greg. Greg Chromie Fuji X fans that would do anything to defend the brand going, where are our updates to our cameras? Or in sometimes where. Where are the cameras where x100, you know, like they've had issues with stock. They have issues trying. Like the Fujifilm GFX100 I believe is actually getting really hard to get like months wait time in Australia and people. [01:43:13] Speaker A: And that hasn't eased up since day one. [01:43:16] Speaker B: No. So it's like stock issue. Yeah, so. So those people can be. I guess whether it's true or not, like Fujifilm would probably tell us making this camera doesn't affect their capacity to build GFX100RFS. They're completely different production lines. It wouldn't matter. But that doesn't matter to the consumer who's just looking from the outside in going, why'd you make this when you could have made the camera that I want when they're already heavily invested in the system anyway. That's a long rambling. I'm gonna stop rambling and bring up. [01:43:48] Speaker A: Some because you guys, I think it's a good point. [01:43:51] Speaker B: Yeah. It can just put people off a little bit. You know, the dedicated user base. Anyway, I'm going to talk to some comments because you guys are what makes these shows fun and makes it more interesting. Otherwise this would just be like any other boring photography podcast. We need you to make these shows fun. [01:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:44:11] Speaker B: All right. Nev Clark says Fuji are different. They don't follow the standard path. I showed it to my two teens and they are interested and maybe that's it and that's what we're missing. We're just too old for this stuff. Too old for that stuff. Chris317 he says. Lowell, first time seeing the channel. Instant subscriber. Okay. I'm glad we didn't insult you. I was worried for a second there and now I've forgotten it. Yorislav Verotilov says thanks for pronouncing my name right. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Chris317 again says price point is brutal here in the US. I love my XT5. The XM5 feels like a good small counter to that. I guess I'm just bitter because I want Fuji to make a new point and shoot film camera. I won't hold my breath. Okay, so you want to see, you want to see a real film camera? Would you. Would you have been happy if this was just a half frame film camera similar to the Pentax 17 but with Fuji sort of DNA in it. Is that what you were hoping for, Chris, or would you rather a full frame film camera? Basically, man, if they made an X100 film film, it would sell like crazy. Especially if it was priced. If it was priced lower than the x100 is because it's got no sensor or anything in it. If it was like in Australian dollars, the X100 is 2899. If it was like 1999 or something like that, or even, you know, 1500 to 2000, which is expensive. But if it was premium build and. [01:45:49] Speaker A: If it had the same quality as the X100 which is, you know, a really solid camera. It's already got an ovf. Yeah, it's got a great lens with a leaf shutter. You just need to put a sensor behind like a. Take out the sensor and just rip. [01:46:07] Speaker B: The do a conversion. Simple, right? Simple, surely. [01:46:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:46:12] Speaker B: I'm sure they've looked into it and there's probably many reasons why they're not doing it, but. Yeah, I don't know if we've already pulled this up, Eric. Fuji are definitely selling this as an experienced camera rather than focusing on image quality, etc. 1400 is a tough sell. 1400 Australian time in the market will be a test to see if there is an appetite for this. Yeah, that's it. It's just gonna wait and see. I mean, we'll be able to find out of people at camera stores whether or not this is selling or not. Nev says, I don't think people are gonna take photos with this. Interesting. Because it is a camera and what exceptionally great photos. I really don't think it will be about the experiences walking around with something funky. Okay. So it's more like you just think people are just gonna enjoy having the camera rather than really. [01:47:00] Speaker A: It's a lot of money to spend a piece of jewelry. [01:47:02] Speaker B: That's true. [01:47:05] Speaker A: Or is it? Yeah, some people won't be. It'll be, yeah, I need to have that. I need that to complete my look. [01:47:13] Speaker B: So JS Hannity says really interesting contrast will probably come soon when we see the price of the XE5. [01:47:22] Speaker A: Jason, I'm scared. Well, it's rumored to come out this year. At the end of this year. Yeah, I'm scared for the price, but I hope that they stick to a couple of things with the, with the xe, you know, it's smaller than an X. It's around the size of an X100, but obviously it's interchangeable lens. You know, they'll probably bump up to the same X processor 5 and the 40 megapixel sensor, because the current ones are 26, I reckon it would be closer to $3,000 for an Etsy moving forward. And I reckon when an X Pro 4 does come, I think that will, that price will shock the shit out of us. [01:48:04] Speaker B: It'll be extreme that they'll make it four and a half grand or five grand or something and just be like, well, don't buy it, you know, like it's your call. [01:48:12] Speaker A: This is the premium. Yeah, yeah. [01:48:13] Speaker B: And if they want to do that, as long as they make it premium and as long as they keep other offerings that are in the lower price points for people to choose, you know, they don't, they don't sort of just cut that two to $3,000 price point out of their range altogether. As long as they keep offerings in that, that are high quality. Yeah, put a premium one out, whatever, if that's what you need to do to make the X Pro line continue, you know, if they look at it and go, we can't afford, you know, to keep it at this lower price point. Put other products in that price point and move the X Pro up to something that's, you know, higher end, that's fine. [01:48:49] Speaker A: Yeah, like the gap between GFX and X, quite a big, you know, let's say between five and say 8,000, there's that bracket there that isn't being filled. Say between four and eight, there's a bracket there that's not being filled. And the next Pro4 with IBIS and you know, the latest processor, latest sensor, 40 megapixel, you know, push, push that hard. But put a better screen on it, you know, and improve the, the viewfinder then. Yeah, I'd happily pay, if I had the money, I'd happily pay 4 to $5,000 for an X Pro 4. [01:49:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I might be tempted. Jason goes on to say, I applaud Fuji completely for building this, same as I applaud for Sigma for building that new block of aluminium camera. The Sigma bf, which looks very beautiful. [01:49:45] Speaker A: We want to get our hands on one of those. [01:49:47] Speaker B: We do try and get us one, Greg, come on. Both are going to struggle in the market, in his opinion. Yeah, I mean the bf, it doesn't sound like they want to make a ton of them anyway, so I think they'll probably be fine. I think there's enough people that find it unique looking and a unique feel that they'll probably sell the quantity they're planning to make what they say seven a day or something like that. [01:50:09] Speaker A: And isn't it a full frame? Yeah, it's full frame. Like it's a. [01:50:13] Speaker B: It's full frame. [01:50:14] Speaker A: It should produce. And it's got built in storage so it should produce decent image quality. Yeah, it should be fast. We'll see what the reviews say when it. When people get it in their hands. [01:50:26] Speaker B: Yeah. He also says not fast. If they build a film camera we just want more Fujifilm production. But build an X100 with a mechanical winder that cocks the shutter that sell truckloads. You're welcome Fuji. Here we go back to Glenn. Did I hear correctly? It only shoots 55 seconds of video? We think so. Can you even. [01:50:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Greg, can you test the boys that Petapixel Jordan did his test and they often you know they'll put on the screen what filming him with the camera to review the video features alike and the image quality was shocking. Let me just put it into movie mode and hit record and see what happens. We'll just let it. [01:51:09] Speaker B: While you doing that. While you're doing that. Chris317 says LOL. Maybe I'm the bastard. Full frame film. I use a Nikon F5 and Olympus was that mga u 2 second go around after freak accident on the original one as my wedding film cameras want a point and shoot that won't break down. Lol. Look at this drunk wedding photographer. I too only use the F5 as my main camera for weddings. [01:51:38] Speaker A: Nice and well. [01:51:40] Speaker B: What do I have here? A Nikon F5 that I don't shoot weddings with. But I do like one or two. I know but you know what happened. These guys are going to kill me. When I went to use it last it had been a little while. And the stupid battery holder thing. I say stupid. Probably my fault has got the terminals have got that green stuff on them. You didn't jump into toilet. No, not this one. I tried. I tried cleaning them and I still haven't been able to get it to. To fire up. So I might need to take it to someone that's a bit. A bit smarter than me. [01:52:16] Speaker A: But in answer to Glenn. Yes. It only lasted 55 seconds and then turned off and went storing. And it buffered. [01:52:23] Speaker B: It buffered after 55 seconds of not full HD video. It buffered. [01:52:28] Speaker A: Yeah. It buffered. Yeah. [01:52:30] Speaker B: Do you know my phone doesn't buffer when it shoots 4K footage for 8 minutes. [01:52:38] Speaker A: Again this is. This is not. It comes back to. It's an experience. They don't want people to create massive videos because they want you to use the app in your phone and there's no way you can store mass, like transfer massive videos wirelessly to a phone, especially from this camera, you know, so they've built in that limitation that it's going to cut itself off. But it's only 24p, so it's. Even the audio is not going to be great with it at all. [01:53:10] Speaker B: Just completely off topic, but apparently I missed this when I held the camera up. It's the Nikon F5 official sound effect. [01:53:22] Speaker A: That's good. [01:53:23] Speaker B: Anyway, Jason says if they make the X Pro 4 crazy expensive, my X Pro 2 will be worth more. Yeah, well, that's a. That's a very true. [01:53:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very true. Yep, yep. Because they hold their value. My God, they hold their value. [01:53:40] Speaker B: These. These guys in the comments having a good chat about what lenses they're using on the. Oh, the 58 1.4 is. That is a beautiful lens. I shouldn't have sold it. I sold it when I shifted to mirrorless to Canon, but I loved using that on the film, the Nikon film stuff. And I sold it and shouldn't have. So anyway, I'm on the lookout for one, but I've recently. I've recently switched to this for film, which is an EOS. Canon EOS 1N with the 51.2, which is another delightful 50 mil lens. Anyway, just nerding out on film. Completely off topic from. I guess it's not off topic. This camera wants to have a camera. [01:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:54:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know what else, what else. What other thoughts do you have on it and what other questions do you guys have in the chat before we wrap this thing up? It's been almost two hours. This is the longest this could be. Also. Yeah. The most honest and longest X half review on the Internet. [01:54:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, most definitely. Chris, let us know your questions and. [01:54:52] Speaker B: Chris has got one for you. And this is. This was the question I had as well. And I don't know if you're sure or not. Does the X half use the same app as the other X series? [01:55:01] Speaker A: No. [01:55:01] Speaker B: Is it a unique. It's its own app, Brand new app. [01:55:05] Speaker A: So I couldn't use it while I was testing this camera because although other reviewers in the States, Canada and Europe did have access to the app in their previews, we didn't have access to it here in Australia. At least. I asked for it twice. I was told it's not available until after launch, but they sent me some screenshots of how it looked which was useless. [01:55:30] Speaker B: Did you review the screenshots? [01:55:33] Speaker A: I spoke to them. [01:55:39] Speaker B: Anyway, Chris, it's its own app. It's an official new app. I wonder if they're planning on sort of implementing more products that center around this app as well. Are we going to see more of this stuff that all funnels into that one app? More sort of lower priced experiential products? Chris also asked, how often do you guys do stuff like this? Only new releases. So. All right, so let's do. I'll give you the full rundown of the Camera Life podcast. We do every Thursday, Australian time, Wednesday US time, we do a, an interview with a great photographer. If you know any, if you are one, hit us up. We're always looking for more people, although I think Greg's got us booked out for a couple of months already. [01:56:17] Speaker A: Yep. [01:56:18] Speaker B: So those interviews are. We do everything live. Nothing's pre recorded, so we do all of our interviews live and you can jump in the chat, but we won't pull the chat up quite as much during an interview because it's more about the photographer we've got on there. But you can ask questions and we'll pull them up when we can. We do Monday Night Australia. So Sunday, whatever that is. Afternoon, morning. I've lost my. Anyway, Monday night in Australia, no, there. That is really late Sunday night for us viewers. We do our random show which is basically we just talk about news, whatever's going on, whatever topics we want to chat about. And you guys in the chat help us carry those shows. And then we do these when a new camera's come out, either if Greg's been testing one or if we just want to chat about what we've seen on the Internet and just throw stones, we do that. And we are going to be doing much more of these for probably not just new releases, but long term reviews of cameras and lenses and lenses and whatever gear. But we really want to get sort of a panel of photographers to essentially review a camera. Anyone that's had hands on experience with that camera want to try and get three, four, five people even on one, you know, big two hour episode and just do a massive deep dive on a piece of gear. So that's, that's the plan. But yeah, so that's, that's what we do here at the Camera Life. He also says, no, not the same app. Woof. Yeah, that's. Yeah, it is. It's probably not ideal. [01:57:52] Speaker A: I think someone asked if there was. If the camera had a hot shoe, the shoe on the top of the Camera. It is metal but it's a cold shoe. It's dead. And given that, well from what I was told it won't. There's no port or an external microphone. It kind of begs the question of why did they bother even putting that on. Is it purely aesthetic to replicate the Fiji half? [01:58:18] Speaker B: That's a good question. What accessory is it made for? It's a good question. The Fujifilm. [01:58:23] Speaker A: Well, I mean yeah, I mean you could put an external light on it that's self powered. Let's you know that has auto. But really it's, it's baffling. [01:58:37] Speaker B: That is a great way to put it though this question. Is it a fake hot shoe on top of the camera instead of a car instead of a cold shoe? Are you going to start calling them fake hot shoes? [01:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah, there's no connectivity. [01:58:46] Speaker B: I think that's great. Drunk wedding photographer says I'd like to be a guest but I can only do it after sunset time because of my chickens. Fair enough. We might be able to make, we might do some random, random slots as well. So we'll see. We might be fun to get you on as a roundtable film photography sort of show. Want to do some of that too? Some themes, you know, a landscape theme show with a few landscape photographers. Film photography. Maybe an editing show would be fun. Nev Clark wants to know does it need a grip? [01:59:23] Speaker A: No, it's not really. It's kind of like holding. It's kind of a similar weight to a high quality smartphone really. And it's small and compact enough that it doesn't like it's, you know, you need a lucky strap on it. Speaking of which, sponsor of today's show is Lucky straps. Head to Luckystraps.com we make straps, leather, handmade here in Australia. [01:59:46] Speaker B: Ship them around the world. [01:59:48] Speaker A: And to its credit it does have proper lugs for a strap. A lucky strap. It has a thread on the bottom for a mount. It. Yeah, it's like I said it's, it's for what it is. It's, it's built well except for the fact that the cold shoe was fake. [02:00:08] Speaker B: It's fake hot shoe. It's a genuine cold shoe. Genuine cold shoe. Fake. Glenn says cold shoe is for lighting your crappy 55 second videos. [02:00:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:00:20] Speaker B: Rough. [02:00:21] Speaker A: So like I said for everything at the, at the top of the show I said, you know, for everything here. That is brave and in and, and genius. There's a compromise. [02:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Jason says can you lock the manual focus and just shoot like hyperfocal distance? No It's a good question. No, no. [02:00:40] Speaker A: And it does have, I. It does have eye tracking. It has face and eye detection for humans only. It doesn't have any subject or animals or anything like that. It's really simple and it was reasonably sticky. The eye auto focus, it attract. Okay, but you know, it's. Yeah, but the problem with that is that the focus is so slow that you know, by the time it's actually taken the shot, it's probably out of. [02:01:08] Speaker B: Focus if someone's moving. [02:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [02:01:13] Speaker B: That's not cool. No, no. Distance scale for manual focus. So nothing, nothing like that. [02:01:18] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no, no. You're just going to have to eyeball it. The one thing I will say that you know, with the screen there's a lot of info like overlay on the screen. So it takes up a lot of. Because the screen's so small, the overlay of info that we all are used to on a typical camera screen that' three inches in that, what is it, a three by two aspect ratio. Usually it's cluttered. It feels cluttered because, you know, a good third of the screen is lost to data. [02:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:01:47] Speaker A: And info and you know, so yeah, it's compromises. [02:01:54] Speaker B: This is actually a really great point. Now we're starting to get the usability and long term sort of at home good side of I call things at home good. Sometimes things seem like they're in store good or these days online good. But then you get them home and you start using them. And there's often the pain for me with camera bags, you think it's going to solve all your problems and often it doesn't. This is one of those questions. Would you trust the eye autofocus for the film camera mode, the mode where you can't review your images and that kind of stuff. Are you just going to be disappointed when you look back through the 36 exposures you took at this party, 21st birthday party or something? Would you trust the eye autofocus for that when you can't review the images? [02:02:37] Speaker A: No, I'm pretty sure I haven't had this confirmed because I couldn't read the instruction manual. But I'm fairly certain that when you go into film mode, it's either straight autofocus or manual focus. When you're in film mode, there's a distance scale that you can actually move back and forth if you're in manual focus. [02:02:57] Speaker B: Can you show us that on the screen or will that not work? [02:03:01] Speaker A: So you can see. [02:03:03] Speaker B: Oh, down the bottom there, that's the distance scale. [02:03:06] Speaker A: If you put it in manual focus so you use the front thing, there's actually a distance scale. I. Autofocus doesn't work in film camera mode, I'm fairly positive. [02:03:17] Speaker B: Which makes sense because you would have to have some sort of thing in the OVF to tell you what it's focusing on and that obviously can't happen. So that makes sense that when you turn the back screen off you can't. I mean it could still be tracking it but you would have no feedback as to whether it's actually working or. Okay. So, so there's, there is a manual focus mode and it does give you a distance scale. So there's a little there focus ring in front of the aperture ring. Is that how that works? [02:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a focus ring. [02:03:42] Speaker B: Okay. [02:03:43] Speaker A: And it's actually quite smooth and well dampened. It's the aperture ring that's clunky. [02:03:48] Speaker B: Okay. [02:03:48] Speaker A: But yeah, to its credit, it's actually, you know, it's tiny but it's there. [02:03:54] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. Interesting. [02:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah, great. That was a good question. Thank you. Nev. Clark says I'd be up for a GFX one hundreds two, one year review. I love this thing. Bias acknowledged. I really. That is one of the next things. I'm going to try and get Greg to use his connections to get me a GFX100 kit of some sort to test because I want to try it out and I want to try it out in some pretty intense ways with sports and stuff like that. So that's coming. And yes, Nev, we'd love for you to be a part of that because we know you've put yours through its paces. [02:04:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. [02:04:35] Speaker B: And Greg's already had his hands on it a few times, but I think you could, you could do more stuff. [02:04:41] Speaker A: Give it another crack. [02:04:44] Speaker B: Okay. Anything else? Is that a speaker on the bottom? [02:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. So on the top it has the dual mics and on the bottom. Yes. There is a speaker speaker here for. [02:04:56] Speaker B: Playing back the video or is it got like speakers? [02:04:58] Speaker A: No, no, it's for playing back video. That's in mono. This. The microphones are stereo. The speaker is mono. Oh. That's the other weird thing is that when you go into film camera mode, you can't get out of it until you either choose to rewind your film. Even if you're halfway through a roll, you can rewind it, but then it ends. Film camera mode. The only way to get out of film camera mode is to take the SD or The battery out. [02:05:23] Speaker B: But. Okay. But when you rewind it, that just ends it anyway and you get all those photos. Okay. So you can get out of it. You just, you don't just switch the mode. You, you end the roll. [02:05:35] Speaker A: You got to interrupt what you do. Yeah, end the roll and go. Actually, I'm done shooting in because once you're in film camera mode, your film simulation is stuck. Can't change it. So I'm done with Sepia for this one. I'm done with Sepia. I want to go to classic Chrome. [02:05:50] Speaker B: It's got Sepia. [02:05:53] Speaker A: Every Fuji camera has Sepia. [02:05:57] Speaker B: Let us know if you're listening. Back later. Let us know in the comments below. Do you ever use Sepia? Ever? Does anyone ever? Tim Siama's in the chat. Dropped in for a minute. The chat is popping off. Hey, Tim, did you. Did you. I think you might have ordered a little lucky strap the other day. Day. I think I saw your name pop up because we made a little super secret discount code for you. If anyone else wants a super secret discount and just use my name. Justin, when you check out @lucky camera straps.com, don't use Greg. Use Justin. [02:06:27] Speaker A: Greg. Use Greg. It's easy to remember. [02:06:30] Speaker B: Justin's cooler. [02:06:30] Speaker A: Was it Justin? Justine, Jason. But Greg is just. It's just Greg. [02:06:36] Speaker B: Justin will definitely work and Greg will too. He says, love a bonus episode. I'm a Fuji fan, but this isn't for me. I'm sure it'll be fun, but too limiting for anything serious. And yeah, I guess that's. That's where, that's where we're all kind of sitting. [02:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it is for kicks. Let's face it, it's for kicks. [02:06:54] Speaker B: Oh, you've already got your strap already, Tim. That's cool. It's on the Nikon ZF and looks amazing. If you get. If you get a chance, send us a little picture, a little phone picture or something. [02:07:02] Speaker A: Yep. [02:07:04] Speaker B: Paul Henderson. Good to see you. Paul says about the X half. It just feels like a baby, only its parents would love it. Or perhaps Fuji parents. [02:07:13] Speaker A: Yeah, true. [02:07:15] Speaker B: Could be. And Glenn says I like silver effects, yellow tone, sepia ish. Without the Blair. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I agree. I'm not a sepia person. I tried it when I was in the early days of photography and I was like, this just doesn't make sense to me. I've never, never used it again. [02:07:35] Speaker A: No, it reminds me of those staged. Where do we used to go? Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. We used to go to school. Every Victorian kid Went to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat for a school trip and a weekend. Sovereign Hill is like a. It's a. What would you call it? It's like a theme park. [02:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of like a reenactment of the 1850s gold mine era, the gold rush in Australia and then. And yeah, it's basically, you can go and do all the activities. You can pan for gold and you can stand there and get your photo taken looking old and all that. [02:08:08] Speaker A: And they do it in sepia. Like you get dressed up into, into, into the period clothing and smudge some coal on your face and get a sepia shot done in a tacky frame. So. [02:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. All right. And this is a very appropriate comment for right now. Jason says. Great show, guys. I better go do some work. We probably should, too. Yeah. Anything else, Greg, before we finish up? No, I guess we. We need to make it clear Greg has done a full written review on this. It's at ShotKit. I'll link it in the show notes below. But otherwise just go to shock kit.com and go to the gear review section or type in Fujifilm X half or whatever and it'll come up. But I'll link it below. [02:08:48] Speaker A: And I apologize for the ads. There's a lot of ads on that site. That's out of my control. [02:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. But it is. It's a solid review. Tons of work has been put into it and it probably, while we covered a lot, like a ton in this podcast, probably into the sort of the opinion side of things and the nitty gritty that it's got. All of. It's got sample images, it's got stuff. So if you, if you are interested in this camera, head to shotkit.com and read the full review. [02:09:14] Speaker A: Yep. But I think we've covered enough. I think we've explored all of what it could be, all of what it isn't, all of what it is, you know, and there's a lot here that's great, you know, you know what? And I think it's brave and it's a pioneering push. [02:09:33] Speaker B: We, we didn't even get to the Reddit comments, but we don't have to because I think we covered everything that I saw on Reddit, popping, like from different opinions and all that sort of stuff got covered in our chat and in our own opinion. So we didn't even need to pull those up because, yeah, it's, it's, it's controversial and it's definitely not for everyone. But we're glad Fujifilm are Making new cameras and doing cool stuff. [02:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that they did this. Just, you know, Mark 2 version needs a little bit more time to bake. [02:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll wrap it up there. If you knew we really appreciate you being here. You Chris, first time senior. He says great presentation. Hope to catch the next one. Make sure if you do want to catch the next one, subscribe and if you press the bell thing, you will actually get a notification will pop up on your phone to say we're live whenever we go live. So if we do do a random show show, you'll get a notification and if you press the like button on this video, that does really help us as well. If you're not really a YouTube kind of person. We do put everything up on Apple podcasts, Spotify, all that kind of stuff as audio only, usually about a day after the show. So you can subscribe on those platforms as well if you prefer audio only and otherwise. Awesome seeing you're here. We'll be doing more of this. [02:10:53] Speaker A: Yep. And if you are new to the channel, check out our back catalog. We've, you know, we're at 81 episodes now. We've interviewed a lot of photographers, we've covered a lot of different genres, a lot of different gear discussions. There's a lot to and it's all like this. It's all live, it's all real people that use real cameras talking about how it impacts their day, their job, their experiences, their joy, all those sorts of things. And that's what we love to do here. That's why we do this channel is because we wanted to give a platform for us and for our guests and for the chat. More importantly, to engage in the conversation live and share thoughts and you know, ask us anything. So yeah, please make sure you like and subscribe. If you're keen for a new leather camera strap for your favorite camera, whatever that may be, make sure you head to Luckystraps.com Justin is the founder of Lucky Straps. I'm just a pleb, but we do make. I don't know what's worse next you'll be calling me a gimp. But yeah, we make handmade Aussie made leather camera straps. Whole range of sizes, shapes, you know, whether you want wrist straps or you want something to carry a medium format or a large format camera, we've got those too. So head up the site and if you've got any questions about it, just let us know. [02:12:12] Speaker B: Yep. And with that, thanks guys. [02:12:16] Speaker A: This has been the camera life. [02:12:17] Speaker B: Thanks Nev. Thanks. The drunk wedding photographer. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, Chris. Jason, everybody. Glyn, Tim, Paul, everybody. It's good to see you. [02:12:30] Speaker A: Have a good weekend, everyone. Be safe. Get out and shoot.