Fujifilm X-Half Not for me
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It looks cute, but it is very plastic
Today I did something that I don’t do very often. I got rid of a camera. I’d read a few breathless reviews of the Fujifilm X-Half and these had convinced me that a less serious photographic device would make for a great picture taking experience. Well, yes and no. But mainly no.
When it arrived I was a bit taken aback at how plastic the experience was. I’ve used cameras with plastic bodies but most of these have metal controls. Not so with this one. Everything you touch is plastic. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this, but for the price I’d expected something a bit better.
The thinking behind the camera is that less is more. By removing distractions and providing the controls of a film camera the idea is that you focus on the pictures, rather than the mechanics of photography. It works up to a point. Outside in good light the camera takes nice enough pictures and the range of film simulations and special picture effects is quite fun. However, inside in poor light the image quality falls apart quicker than a cheap suit, and the flash is a puny LED which doesn’t really do much. I quite liked the simplicity, but I was irked by the thought that if I’d had a different camera with a few more controls with me I could have done things to make the pictures better.
There’s a special “film roll” mode where you can’t look at the pictures you’ve taken until you’ve finished a “roll”. This is quite fun and even includes the experience of having to wind-on after each shot. However, it also restricts you to the rather poor optical viewfinder and the winding-on business gets tiresome quickly.
To view your “camera roll” pictures you’ve taken you have to “develop” them on your phone. You get to watch each image appear as it is copied from camera to phone, and the camera makes a nifty “contact print” of all shots on the roll, but it isn’t really worth the hassle. Other observations:
Battery life is great (it uses a proper sized battery) and the camera takes full-sized SD cards which is nice - although there isn’t a memory card in the box. You charge the battery in the camera via the camera’s usb port. No charger is supplied.
You can manually set the aperture and have the camera set the shutter speed. You can also manually focus the lens, but good luck with that on the tiny oled screen (which is hard to see in bright sunlight).
The camera has a rubber lens cap which is a pain to take on and off. The lens underneath is nice and sharp in good light though.
There is a little inset “film window” on the back next to the display which pretends to show the back of the film cassette in use. This seems quite nifty until you realise that the rear screens are crops of a larger panel that they could have made completely visible for a much larger view.
There are hardly any buttons on the back. Everything is controlled by touching and swiping which doesn’t work very well (at least for me).
The camera only produces compressed JPEG images (and quite ropey ones too when you look close). You have no chance of fiddling with RAW sensor images.
You can’t combine film simulations and special camera modes, unlike on the far superior Instax wide Evo (which also takes instant pictures)
If you need to be on the cutting edge of Fuji-fashion the camera is nice enough, and if it was half the price it would be a lot more compelling. Me, I’m swapping my tiny ex X-Half for a great big Hasselblad lens which I think I’ll have much more fun with.
If you want a fun little camera to carry about which takes amazing pictures, provides support for RAW images, is made of metal, has a proper viewfinder and costs a lot less you should get yourself a second hand Lumix LX100 It doesn’t have a built-in flash, which is sad, but it does come with a tiny electronic flash you can fit on the top which works really well.
