Which FUJI Camera to buy - FUJI X BUYING GUIDE

so you've decided that you want to shoot with the Fuji device of some kind there's something about Fuji maybe something in the brand that appeals to you in some important way maybe someone told you that this is the right brand for your personality type or maybe you saw some photos that inspire you and you found out that they were photographed with the Fuji device or perhaps it was the appeal of a smaller overall hit size and yet the fact that these Fuji devices can compete spec for spec with mos

t larger cameras or maybe it's the nostalgia the appeal of the film days and honoring the traditions of yesteryear that seem more valuable to Fuji as a brand than other brands and you aligned with that maybe it's the idea that you're more likely to have that analog spirit reflected in your work if you shoot with Fuji than with other brands whatever the reason you're here and you need some advice there are a lot of Fuji X cameras out there which one is right for you unfortunately though it's not

a simple answer and even if you were sitting across the table here from me and I could ask you about your budget your shooting style the conditions that you'll be shooting in the features you desire even in that situation it would be a complicated matter to help you find the right camera but as an aside if you do want that level of help please consider joining the channel at the mentorship level where I would love to directly help you find the right gear but also be able to help you improve your

photography as you start your journey that aside for everyone else when it comes to how to navigate the crazy complexities involved in this multivariate decision we need a place to start and I think the most natural place to start is with your budget for most of you I'm guessing you have sort of a gut sense of what it might cost you and you're probably figuring a certain dollar amount as a cap and I'm guessing here that most of you if I'm getting you at all correct are interested in finding the

right camera body first and then you'll plan to figure out which lens you get or maybe you're counting on your first lens being packaged up with a body that you decide on in sort of a package discount but guys if you want to take photography seriously there's an important lesson you need to have instilled before you buy anything and that is the old mantra which I agree with it goes something like this your camera bodies you date your lenses you marry guys bodies come and go they get worn out fe

atures to get deprecated models get replaced products lose support shutters fail weather ceiling gets compromised cameras get dropped or stolen camera bodies depending on how much you use them and how much you baby them they typically only last with you a few years but lenses on the other hand like this one here the 16 millimeter 1.4 this is my favorite Fuji lens this was the first Fuji lens that I purchased way back in 2016 and it will be the last Fuji lens that I sell if I ever sell it and it

has been attached to every Fuji body that I've owned and there's been many many of those even in four or five years that I've shot for you I don't know how long I shot Fuji but in that process there's been at least four or five bodies that have come and gone of course we're extreme case many of you won't go through that many but you'll still probably go through a body every couple years so with that in mind the place to start when budgeting for a new system is with the lens so if you have no ide

a which Fuji lens to choose first I do have a playlist of videos up yonder designed to walk you through the decision making process I'd encourage you to pause this video right here go through that first once you've got the price of the lens or lenses that you want to buy in mind you can use what's left to budget for a camera body now not all of you are here with a budget of course there are a minority of you who have enough expendable income and enough desire to not skimp that you're willing to

come away with the best or new your best camera a deal would be nice but you don't want the gear to hamper you at all by spending a few more hundred dollars on a little bit better of a body you'll get a slight edge or increase the likelihood that you'll take a few more keepers home at a better quality and you're perfectly willing to spend it and while I do think that that's a minority of you guys we will start there we'll start with Fugees flagship and most recent and most expensive Fuji devices

and there are three cameras in this category the newest of them is the Fuji XT for coming in at $1,700 u.s. dollars and we have a slightly more expensive Fuji x-pro 3 which starts at $1,800 but which you could spend more to get the dura coated version and finally we have the X 100 V which is the more affordable price of $1400 it's also worth noting though that this one comes with a lens fixed you can't take this lens off so that will also save you money because you don't have to spend extra on

lenses but you're limited by lenses to answer the question which of these is right for you I have a few simple questions for you that you should know the answer to first first is do you like the idea of having one fixed lens or do you like the idea of swapping out multiple lenses to fit your needs or to suit the environment of shooting next 100 V as I said has a fixed lens 23 millimeter f/2 this is a very nice lens and because it's fixed or cannot be removed from the camera it allows this camera

to be incredibly compact and minimal but obviously you're stuck with one lens at one focal length now this is a focal length that's good and versatile it's a favorite of street photographers or documentary photographers and there's a lot to be said for sticking with one lens at a fixed focal length to give you focus and to inspire creativity learning to see the world at the 23 millimeter or 35 millimeter full-frame equivalent focal length can do a lot for improving your awareness and your abili

ty to compose a scene but there are other advantages as well like I said size having a compact camera means you'll be more likely to have a camera on you and the more the camera is on you the more practice you'll have with photography and the more likely it will be that you will capture moments that you want to capture but if you prefer to be able to put a zoom lens on this camera or a prime lens at different focal lengths for different situations like if you want landscape photography wildlife

photography or if you just want to do portrait photography this is likely not the camera that you'll want you'll probably want one of these other two bodies so my next question is do you plan to shoot a lot of video if the answer is yes then that simplifies things I wouldn't really recommend the X Pro 3 or the X 100 V these have more limited video specs like max 4k recording time they have the potential of overheating and the user experience is not designed for video shooting which leaves you wi

th this the wonderful XT for this is an excellent hybrid device with incredible video specs this camera also has in body image stabilization unlike most other Fuji cameras that means that the sensor has some stabilization built into it to help smooth your handheld footage also get you better lower shutter speed access photography my next question for you is what sort of shooting style do you think you'll like the most - of these cameras have what I would call more of a rangefinder style shooting

the electronic viewfinder or hybrid viewfinder these both have an optical and electric viewfinder that just means that you can either see what the computer is showing through the through the lens with an electronic viewfinder or they can show you what what's really out there just looking right through right drip right through the glass to see the real world these are the only Fuji cameras that can do that really other than like of the only digital mirrorless cameras that can do that but in both

cases the hybrid viewfinder is on the left side this can be really nice because your nose doesn't hit the back side of the LCD and mess with your focal points if you've got touch enabled like it can with one of these devices if you have the you know like that you're gonna bump it with your nose also you'll get oily unless of course you have a hidden button anyway so a lot of people really like that but that's not gonna work if you are left eye dog dominant of course or it'll work less well beca

use obvious it should be obvious why but the xt4 has an electronic viewfinder only and it's centered and many people prefer the centered placement and then when it comes to waist level shooting you'll also find different styles on these devices the x100 V has an articulating style LCD this is one we'll see again as we go through the list of other cameras these work well for most circumstances where the camera is going to be faced away from you and it's probably more efficient than what we have h

ere with the XT 4 which is a fully articulating flip screen which that might be more fiddly right because you have to kind of pull it out and articulate it whereas this one you can just kind of tilt up or down but the fully articulating screen of the xt 4 might be more beneficial to you if you're ever gonna find yourself on the front side of the camera filming or photographing yourself finally we have the X pro 3 which has a screen that a lot of newer photographers will not appreciate I'm going

to tell you right now it has a flip-down screen which means that it's it's meant to encourage the use of that electronic viewfinder by hiding the LCD most of the time so it's more minimal I guess and some people like this approach because the only time they need an articulating screen is when their waist level shooting where they bring it down in which case it's really nice because it's just one single motion and it's it's at the waist level for you and all other times you've got it up to your e

ye these are photographers who aren't in the menus very often or looking back on their photos very often but for newer photographers where you are going to be learning the menu system of the Fuji device and where you will you'll probably be looking back at photos more often this will be extremely frustrating and this is why this is absolutely not the camera that I would recommend for newer photographers if you like the design and the styles and the aesthetic of it I would first get another camer

a maybe the X 100 V get to know it really well first to where your to the point where you don't depend on that screen before you force yourself to use something like this or you may be frustrated at first now there are a lot of other specs we could talk about we could spend hours talking about the pros and cons of these three cameras alone but fortunately when it comes to one of the biggest questions that you have which of these cameras has the best image quality I have really good news for you

they will all give you pretty much identical image quality the sensors are all the same on these three cameras and their specs as far as processor out of focus technology that sort of thing it's all very similar so most of the decision here is going to come down to which is your shooting style and ergonomics as far as image quality goes the only real advantage any of these have over the others is the xt4 like I said it has the in body image stabilization so you'll most likely get sharper images

when you're shooting it lower shutter speeds so like lower light or whatever and beyond that if you want a camera with the longest battery life you'll also want the XT four because it takes a much larger capacity battery this is a new battery this is the only Fuji X camera that takes it it's gonna last a lot longer and be significantly less frustrating than all of the other cameras which all utilize the same size I don't have it in here the same size smaller battery which many find frustrating b

ecause they don't they just don't last as long however if you want a more traditional shooting experience with a camera with you know classic styling and a titanium rather than aluminum top and bottom and and a viewfinder that makes you less lazy and less reliant on an LCD screen then you might be happy with the expert 3 but if you want the smallest and you want a camera that will most likely be with you for all the activities you go on it's gonna be this the x100 movie so now that we've covered

kind of a high end let's start whittling our way down to the budget cameras and see what sort of Fuji cameras we can get as we move into lower price brackets and this is where I want to take a second to thank our fantastic friends at keh again for helping us out I really wanted to have examples of these lines of cameras at least one of each and so I asked keh if they would send us these bodies that I could show you all of them with because I don't own all of these so I do want to thank keh by p

ointing you guys their way k-th is the company that we use to purchase all our pre-owned gear if you're new to photography or Fuji X I wholeheartedly recommend you check them out as a way to save some money and get more bang for your buck on lenses and camera bodies their gear comes with a reliable quality score and all purchases come with one eighty day satisfaction guarantee so check them out and shave off a few bucks by using the discount code Danae and Andrew at checkout so now as we get int

o more budget options I will be adding used gear to the list and the reason for that is that if it was me and I was just getting into Fuji and I was on a budget I would no question save some money to get a better device even if it was a little bit used rather than a lower quality and lower spec device that's brand new but I'll give you both those options so that you can make your own decision in this next category we'll look at Fuji X cameras between $1,200 and $1,000 and I have three cameras in

this range as of filming this video there are three cameras that can still be purchased new though I don't know how much longer that will be the case the XT three is probably as far as all purpose cameras go probably the favorite that I've ever had up until the XT 4 this is the little brother of the xt 4 that I just showed you it's a little bit smaller and as a result it doesn't have that in body image stabilization so you won't get the benefit of smoother video footage or sharper photos at low

er shutter speeds like you can with the XT 4 and it also utilizes a smaller battery like I said so with this one you'll have and really most of the Fuji X bodies you'll need to have a lot of those smaller batteries for a full day's shoot but the X D 3 also has a simplified articulating screen which was similar that to the x100 v's one that I already showed you or won't articulate to the front like the XT 4 but it works really really well for if you're about high in the screen it also articulates

to the right unlike most of the other back articulating screens that's nice depending on who you are though you might actually prefer this screen to the flippy screen of the xt 4 especially if you never plan on being on the front side of the camera I know a lot of photographers who were very disappointed to hear that the xt 4 would be shipped shipping with that fully articulating flippy screen and who will probably just skip or just skip that generation stick with the xt 3 for now and see what

fuji does in the future but that may be an advance for many of you of this camera not only that but also that it's just a little bit smaller aside from those considerations the xt3 really is a phenomenal and award-winning hybrid device which has been my primary camera for both professional photo and video for over the past two years or for almost past two years and since it's been out for some time now it can also be purchased lightly used for around a thousand US dollars saving you a couple hun

dred dollars and that's a really great deal next we have the X 100 F which can be purchased at a really great price right now this is not the F I don't have the F here this is the V but they do look very similar and as a prior generation the F will give you slightly lower quality of 23 millimeter f/2 lens when you're shooting is particularly when you're shooting at the f/2 aperture and you're up close to objects you'll get a little bit less softness out of that lens a little less autofocus perfo

rmance and accuracy and speed but aside from that I know plenty of X 100 F shooters who love that device and who have had no problems with that lens and so for if you're on a budget and you like the idea of a fixed very small very beautiful device I don't I won't hesitate to recommend that to you the X 100 F also doesn't have the articulating screen that the V has it's just fixed which some people are frustrated not having that especially if you're like me you photograph kids or pets at the wais

t level quite a bit or on the street you like to shoot from the hip the F and the prior generations of the X 100 weren't there for us but for many people I know a lot of people don't they're not bothered by that at all finally we have a different sort of camera very unique one in the Fuji X lineup this is the Fuji XH one other than the XT 4 this is the only Fuji body that will benefit from an in body image stabilisation stabilized sensor this is a lot more chunky of a camera than all of the othe

r X bodies having a lot more grip to it and just more it's just bigger in general the styling here is much more akin to the Canon or Nikon DSLR type or I guess it's it's a nod to those types of styles of bodies more than the other Fuji X bodies and you'll see that with the LCD the top LCD secondary monitor which will show you your settings up there so I know a lot of people who really love shooting with this style of body they prefer it to more of the traditional kind of filmic style of the othe

r bodies that we've been exploring but for me the major downside of this camera is something we're going to start seeing in the older Fuji X bodies and that is the capability of the sensor something I haven't mentioned so far with all the other cameras we've been talking about so far as the technology called phase detect Auto phase detector oh is a feature you'll probably want to remember particularly if you're going to rely on autofocus and fast action settings like sports or wildlife or active

kids or pets having a camera that can lock focus in those really hard to photograph moments will make a huge difference for the number of keepers that you walk away with if your primary plan is to shoot landscape architecture still life or subjects that don't move much then this will matter less to you sensors with phase detect Auto provide dedicated pixels on the sensor which compared depth to against each other and this helps provide extremely accurate focus this compared to contrast detect a

utofocus which is where the processor determines if something is in focus or not by how much contrast there is on the edges of things so they'll you know they'll notice where contrast is and focus in front and behind it until it gets the sharpest image it can this technology is less reliable it's less quick and the video settings make for ugly autofocus experience where things tend to warble in and out of focus and you will see this on my lumix sh one that I'm filming with there's not a lot of d

etails back here but it uses contrast detect and so you'll see a little bit of warble that drives some people bonkers not the greatest technology for for video autofocus especially but the reason I bring it up is because the XH 1 and some of the other cameras will start seeing use phase the tech dotto in the middle of the sensor only not out towards the edges and for many people this is a big disadvantage of these older Texas older tech in Fuji devices but though this can still be bought new rig

ht now for $1200 on the used market these are going for eight or nine hundred dollars because there most people don't tend to appreciate this device who shoot Fuji so you can get a super good deal on a lightly used XH one but that is definitely the way that I would go if I was interested in this camera and I was on a budget next let's go a little lower on the wrong and we'll look at cameras you can get for between 800 and 1000 dollars as I just mentioned you can get a really great deal on the XH

1 for this price range if you're willing to go lightly used but if you're looking at this price range for a brand new camera I want to introduce you to the Fuji XT 30 this is not the xt 30 this is the xt 20 but they look very similar on the outside as far as capability goes the xt 30 is very similar to the xt three though we really praised just moments ago it utilizes the same sensor and processor has that really great face detect auto all across the sensor so basically you're getting the same

image quality the same performance the same auto focus the same excellent video features for the most part all of that in just a smaller form factor what you lose is weather sealing and the Fuji XT 3 has more grip has a dedicated ISO dial which the xt 30 doesn't have and you'll notice that the xt 30 and a lot of the other bodies we'll be talking about now they're a little thinner on the magnesium alloy i think that this has an aluminum chassis and top and bottom i could be wrong but either way i

t's thicker it's a little more beefy you start to feel a little bit more just feels a little bit cheaper quality on these other devices we're gonna start talking about however that does make for a lighter body so that is something to consider but the worst and most common complaint about the XD 30 again this is not the xt 30 but if it were I would show you the placement of the Q button which most every fuji xt 30 user has felt the pain of at some point they talked about constantly accidentally h

itting that q button and bringing up that q menu which interferes with your shooting now fuji has attempted to resolve that blunder by bringing out a firmware additional firmware that will allow a long press or a double press or something to activate that and some people have reported that that has helped but for a lot of people they've felt the pain of that usability concern and it's something to be aware of as a pretty big blunder on Fugees part if you ask me but really for the price savings i

t's a pretty impressive device it's just it's amazing how similar it is to the the powerful xt xt 3 for such a low price the last camera in this price range is a used version of the x100 f again this is the V not the F but they do look similar you should be able to find a lightly used F for around $800 which is a phenomenal value in the price range of $700 Fuji has three cameras again that you'll generally be able to find used in this price range I've already talked about the XT 30 you could sav

e a couple hundred dollars off that camera if you're willing to get it lightly used but you could also get a previous generation of the XT or X Pro line for the XT you have the XT 2 again which I don't have here but the XT 2 is sort of the same body basically as the XT 3 at least in appearance with the same articulating screen and everything but with the same sensor and processor out of the XH one that I already talked about so you'll you'll be limited in the phase detect Auto points the auto po

ints in general it means not quite as fast autofocus not as good low-light performance though that's debatable and the other disadvantage to me is that the XT 2 just does not have the durability that the XT 3 has I've had many problems with the XT 2 when it comes to durability and it's why I don't necessarily recommend going to all their - used on Fuji X bodies big proponent of lightly used too much used that's a problem because they're not known especially the older generation Fuji they're not

known for their durability and Fuji has a lot to leaves a lot to be desired on the support end of things where they just sort of drop support eventually for their older devices so those are all things to consider and finally the last thing that you will lose on the X d2 is a touch screen the other used device that I want to talk about though is for this price range is the X Pro - I've never owned this personally this is not the X Pro - this is the X pro 3 they do look similar I haven't owned the

X Pro to have I've played with it a little bit but I've heard that it does a lot better in the durability Department then the X t2 but unlike the X Pro 3 which we have here it does not have a moveable LCD on the back at all it'll be fixed again depending on who you are that might not be an issue at all but to others it was a deal-breaker going a little lower on the price wrong let's look at three cameras that can be had for between 500 and 600 US dollars here's where we introduce the xe3 which

is like the little brother of the X Pro - it has a rangefinder styling to it with the EVF on the left side of the camera it utilizes the same sensor and processor technology the X t2 and the X Pro 2 generation of cameras do but it's smaller and it's not weather sealing there is no articulating screen at all and it has that thinner cheaper feeling magnesium alloy body that we see in the XT 30x t20 those sorts of cameras but it can still be had at currently new brand new for 600 u.s. dollars and y

ou cannot argue with that price for such a great little performer but there is one other camera that I want to introduce to you in this I guess this wrong this price wrong that is the Fuji XT 200 this is the XT 100 not the 200 they are very similar from the front from the back they're completely different the XT 200 has a similar fully articulating screen as the XT for that I showed you I'm recording with the XT for now so I can't show it to you again but it has that fully kind of front articula

ting screen very similar to the XT 4 and for that reason alone a lot of people are really drawn to this new camera especially those that are vloggers or introduced interested in doing kind of entry-level videography photography hybrid it does shoot in 4k however it does have a limit on the time you can shoot with it looks nice it's a good performer but aside from that it does have that cheap feeling material and I can't speak to the durability of that device really I can't speak to it all becaus

e I haven't tried that one yet there is another consideration for those more budget fuji X cameras though they utilize a different sensor technology then the other Fuji devices the we've been speaking about so far the XT 201 hundred and one other we'll see in a minute utilise a bear style filter over the sensor whereas all the other devices we've been talking about so far use extra now I'm not gonna get into the difference of bear and X trends in this video I only bring it up as as its effects t

he price quite a bit the bear technology is what virtually every other camera manufacturer uses whereas x-trans is kind of Fugees own proprietary thing and there's a lot of controversy around whether it's even better for your purposes and for the purposes of most beginner newer photographers it matters not at all or hardly at all and I wouldn't worry about it too too too much at this point it'll be far more important for you to get a camera that you're comfortable with that you'll use a lot and

begin getting into it before you ever have to worry at that about that level of intricacy in my opinion for the $500 price range it is still possible to get yourself a brand new XT 100 and if you don't need some of those incredible video specs of the you GXT 200 this can this can work pretty well for you it does have an experimental articulating screen fully articulating screen where it articulates all the way to the front it's not hinged but then on the back you still have that same up-and-down

articulation this is really cool I think a very cool flip screen technology but I think Fuji didn't go with it for the any of the other cameras because it's just hefty it comes with a big weight and size footprint and it seems to me that they've abandoned this which i think is too bad I would have loved to have continued to see this in the XT 200-person aliy but c'est la vie it is what it is this is a great camera for photography though it is a miss with video it has a lot of promise being Fuge

es first fully articulating screen on any of their devices but with horrible video specs it meant that it couldn't deliver on the promise that it was gonna be a good vlogging camera so that was a big letdown for a lot of people and in many ways if you have $500 to spend on an entry-level Fuji device and you want something brand new I might recommend to you something entirely different the the Fuji X a 7 again this is the X a5 not the X a7 just this is the previous generation but they look very s

imilar and are only one generation apart the XA seven beats the X 100 on photo specs for instance you can get more focus points out of the XA 7 and the LCD has a higher rhetta's higher resolution though one a disadvantage and depending on how you shoot there is no electric viewfinder on this camera you are forced to use the LCD only to compose your shots but one camera I can highly recommend if you have $500 and you don't mind a slightly used camera is the really great Fuji XT 25 jun but I still

have nothing but good to say about this camera unlike the XT 30 like I said which is the newer version of this it doesn't have that awful cue menu button placement that's gonna mess you up and it does have the first touch screen that Fuji offered which the XT 2 did not have so in that in that regard it's also got at least one thing that the XT 2 didn't have now it doesn't have the 26 megapixels of the xt 30 so you miss out on 2 megapixels of image quality it also doesn't have the phase detector

sensor it doesn't support UHS 2 cards so it doesn't shoot continuous bursts as high but aside from these things you can't go wrong with this camera slightly used and if it's not apparent this is one of my top recommended entry points into the fuji system at least right now now there are two other odd ducks at the 500 price range for fuji both of these have fixed lens bodies similar to the x 100 series i don't have either of these cameras with me and I baited whether even to talk about them to c

onfuse you further but I think people would get mad a lot of people who love those devices if I didn't bring them up the first one can be purchased brand new for 500 US dollars and that is the Fuji XF 10 this has a 24 megapixel sensor it's extremely small pocketable even and has a tilting screen and it has an 18 point five millimeter 2.8 aperture lens that's supposed to be pretty decent there is no EVF on that device and it's not particularly impressive when it comes to autofocus continuous shoo

ting feels cheap and flimsy and the surprising thing about that camera is that it's the replacement quote-unquote for the 2016 release of the X 70 camera which has the same lens better quality of body but half the megapixels at 16 megapixels so right now you can buy a used X 70 at the same price as a new XF 10 though if I'm honest with you I would prefer the X 70 I really love that device I really wish Fuji would put out an updated version utilizing a newer sensor and some of the great features

that we find on the X 100 V for those of us who like a little bit wider a focal length it's it's awesome but there are a lot of much much older versions of these cameras that can be purchased for even less than $500 but I won't go through everything again I want to emphasize that the older you go the less dependable the less reliable and the need to remember that Fuji stopped supporting older devices so you have to be careful so for under $500 I'll only mention a few candidates for between 400 a

nd 500 dollars you can pick up a lightly used version of the X III here which we already talked about which is a really phenomenal value but if you aren't bothered at all by a lack of an articulating screen I'd highly recommend jumping on this as a great entry point on a budget another really great value used is the X a5 which you can get for only $250 used for $250 you can come away with the 24 megapixel camera that gets you most of what the X a7 does you just miss out on 334 focus points the L

CD is not as high-resolution and when you can only use the LCD to compose that can affect the photography experience I've found and the autofocus is not all that impressive on this device but if you plan on shooting mostly still subjects maybe this one could work well for you if you're on a really tight budget this will certainly get you access to all of those really great fuji x lenses and I would start with those lenses first anyway so you might consider it so there you have it guys hopefully

somewhere in this huge list of cameras stretching from $1,800 all the way to $250 you've seen a camera somewhere that will meet your needs and that you found it helpful in some way I would really love to hear in the comments which you decide on and I wish you all the best in your photography journey and guys if you need some help mastering this camera that you've chosen whatever camera you've chosen or photography in general please check out my workshops like I said I have workshops designed spe

cifically for new Fuji X with ographers that take you from zero to hero you can access that workshop by becoming a member of the channel or by buying the workshops from and Danae and Andrew comm slash workshops but that's it for now remember to do some good with your fuji cameras and we will talk to you again real soon