Overview
The Fujifilm X-T3 was launched in September 2018. I pre-ordered mine in silver from a local camera shop and picked it up on release day September 20, 2018. In their marketing material, Fujifim says “The X-T3 is a high performance premium camera that will become an inseparable partner in your artistic journey. Everything about this camera has been designed to completely satisfy your photography and videography needs in a robust magnesium alloy body that is ready for the toughest of conditions.”
As a global traveler and adventure photographer, it was my intention to put this to the test. Therefore I brought it as my primary camera body on our most recent Around the World Expedition. I put the X-T3 through hard use in the Australian Outback, India, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia photographing in jungle, river, ocean, desert and urban environments. Real world field use.
The Fujifilm X-T3 is an APS-C format X-mount interchangeable lens mirrorless camera. The body of the camera is weather sealed magnesium alloy. It features a 26.1 megapixel back side illuminated CMOS sensor that is capable of producing high resolution 21×14 inch fine art prints. It features a new fourth generation “X-Processor” and improved phase detect autofocus with points that cover the entire area of the sensor. The autofocus points on the sensor are now processed independent of image processing making autofocus faster. Fujifilm claims the X-T3 focuses better in low light than previous generation cameras. It has a flippy touch screen. Fujifilm has listened to it’s customers and added a locking feature to the diopter adjustment, something that was very frustrating on the otherwise outstanding X-Pro2. The base ISO has been improved from the previous generation of cameras from 200 to 160 which allows you to take photographs with less sensor noise.
The Gear
I brought five X-mount lenses on this trip, three primes and two zooms. They were the XF16mm f/1.4 R WR, XF23mm f/2 R WR and XF50mm f/2 R WR as well as the XF 10-24mm f/4 OIS and red badge XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 LM OIS WR. I brought the 10-24mm to keep lens changes to a minimum in dusty desert environments while shooting landscapes and the 100-400mm was my go to wildlife lens.
There are some people who preach that certain focal lengths are specific for certain types of photography. These people say that if you are doing “street photography” for instance, you need to be using a lens with a 35mm full frame angle of view and so forth for each type of subject, be it landscape, portraiture or wildlife. The truth of the matter is that you use the lens that tells the story that you want told, pre-visualize in your head and compose accordingly.
As far as accessories, I brought the Fujifilm MHG-XT3 metal hand grip. I chose the metal grip instead of the the battery grip because I dislike the bulky size and weight of battery grips. I traveled with 5 camera batteries so I wasn’t worried about running out of power. The metal grip blends nicely with the X-T3 body and I kept it on for better balance with the long lens and because it has an Arca Swiss type tripod dovetail.
I brought my Gitzo carbon fiber Travel Tripod, Kirk BH-3 ball head and a standard threaded cable release. All lenses were covered with B+W clear XS-Pro UV filters and I brought two B+W XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizing filters with adapter rings to fit all my lenses. I brought several SanDisk Extreme PRO SD cards, a LaCie 4tb rugged RAID hard drive for daily image back up and a 13” MacBook Pro. Camera bag used was my trusty Think Tank Streetwalker HardDrive.
Set Up
I was hopeful that the increased autofocus performance of the X-T3 would allow me to capture images I would have missed with the X-Pro2. One of the first things I did was experiment with the various auto focus modes. I found that face and eye detection worked really well as long as there was not a another subject in the same plane of focus that would act as an alternative viable target. On a few occasions I focused on a subjects eyes and the focus would jump to something near by. After a bit more fiddling I was able to get it to reliably hold focus using zone autofocus combined with the face and eye detection. This worked well on people as well as wildlife. Yes, face and eye detection works on large mammals and predators. In an underwater housing it would most likely function on sea mammals and fish. Most of the time I had the camera drive set on continuous low. When wildlife was moving quickly I flipped the dial to continuous high.
I kept the Fuji metal hand grip attached to the camera throughout the entire five week expedition. There were a few occasions when I used the X-T3 in low light and darkness on a tripod. Since the metal hand grip has an Arca Swiss compatible dovetail, it was a simple task to put the camera on a tripod. There are a lot of people that discourage traveler’s from packing a tripod, using the excuse that it will just be extra weight that will sit unused in your bag or luggage and it’s better to save the space and weight by foregoing a tripod. I strongly disagree. In body image stabilization (IBIS) and lens based Optical image stabilization (OIS) are not a substitute for a stable physical platform like tripod. I pack a lightweight professional tripod and tripod head in my suitcase. You can’t even tell it’s there, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold.
On this trip we crisscrossed vast swaths of Southern African bush, often traveling by general aviation in small single engine aircraft. We got some good natured grief from our bush pilot regarding the size of our cases but he was used to working with photographers and was absolutely thrilled when I shared with him some of the photographs I made in the twilight with my tripod mounted camera and cable release.
I am a big believer in using the proper tools for the job. I’ll put it this way, if you know how to use a tripod and understand it’s benefits, absolutely travel with a tripod. If you don’t normally use one, don’t.
The Fuji X-T3 In The Field
Autofocus worked well and I missed very few shots. The camera felt snappy and responsive. I enjoyed using the mechanical dials on top of the camera to adjust ISO and exposure compensation. The electronic viewfinder came in handy since my habit is to adjust exposure compensation with my eyeball glued to the viewfinder. I knew that I dialed it toward me to increase the EV value in bright scene and to dial it away from me with darker subjects to get the tonal range right. This combined with an aperture ring made me feel like I was using a real camera. The camera disappeared and became intuitive to operate. To me this is the gold standard. When the camera is an extension of my ability to see and express myself without having to stop and think about fidgety controls and menus, it is a successful design.
The superb little 23mm f/2 worked well for most general photography, street photography and indoor photography. I switched to the equally superb 16mm f/1.4 prime when I needed that extra low light performance or wider angle of view. I really enjoy the clutch focus of the 16mm f/1.4 and I mostly used it in manual focus with focus peaking. I tried the new micro prism setting on the X-T3 and honestly didn’t like it. I used manual Nikon cameras for years, I understand the intent to recreate classic pentaprism focusing screens but peaking is so much better and somehow the micro prism doesn’t translate well to an EVF.
I was glad I packed my tripod. It came in handy on a several occasions, allowing me to take nightscapes and perform some twilight photography when the light was beautiful and sublime. On these occasions I needed to switch to manual focus and focus peaking to get everything nice and crisp. The clutch focus of the 16mm f/1.4 made this a breeze and the digital depth of field scale in the viewfinder was handy and a nice reminder, dovetailing with my experience and understanding of composition. Manual focus with lenses that did not have the clutch mechanism required me to switch to manual focus with the focus selector on the front of the camera.
For tripod mounted landscape photography I used the dovetail on the Fuji metal hand grip and a traditional threaded mechanical cable release. I composed the image, set the aperture and let the camera set the time. There were only a couple occasions where I found it necessary to tweak the exposure. Even at night I used auto white balance since I shoot raw and find that guessing the correct white balance setting in camera is an arcane art I’m usually unhappy with and have to correct in Lightroom regardless.
The Fuji X-T3 is small and unobtrusive. Even with the metal hand grip the camera drew little to no attention whether it was hanging by it’s strap or brought up to my eye. People kind of ignored me and that’s what I want as a photographer. I don’t want people watching me or changing their behavior and I definitely don’t want anyone posing.
Something I found particularly entertaining was the reaction I often received when I shared some of the days images with our guide or pilot. Some of the things actually said to me were “I can’t believe you took that photograph with that little camera. I thought it was just a cheap little camera” and “How on earth were you able to take a proper photograph with that little camera?” Also “Professionals I guide always have big huge cameras and that little camera has better color and clarity, what is it?” The Fuji X-T3 is truly a chameleon.
Of course as I photographer I know that it’s not about the gear, yet you can’t deny that the gear helps. For me and I think many other photographers, we need to have dependable gear that is easy and intuitive to use, that has transparency and disappears in our hands so we can focus on creativity and seeing. The last thing you want is to fight with your equipment. This is what Fujifilm has done beautifully and I would argue, better than any other current manufacturer.
The long lens I brought for wildlife was the Fujinon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 Red Badge zoom. It’s Fuji’s longest lens and it’s a beast with a lot of reach. This lens is the primary reason I brought along the Fuji metal hand grip. The hand grip helped quite a bit while holding and shooting with the camera in the horizontal or landscape orientation but not in portrait orientation.
About the X-T3 battery grip, I really dislike the chunkiness and bulk of battery grips and chose not to buy a battery grip for the X-T3. In hindsight, it was the wrong decision. I should have brought the battery grip, it would have made the long hours of hand holding much more comfortable. Please note as well that about half the time I was resting the lens on sandbags while shooting.
While carrying my wildlife lens, I held it by it’s tripod foot so as not to put undue stress on the camera mount. This is standard procedure for big lenses and is true with any camera manufacturer.
Africa is full of wide open savannah and bush that stretches out to the horizon and as I anticipated, I had the lens zoomed all the way out to 400mm most of the time. There were only a few instances where I wished for more reach but I was still able to get in pretty darn close and with a crop, the images look just fine and very printable.
Conclusion
Is the Fujifilm X-T3 any good and is it worth your purchase? For me the answer was yes. To begin with, the X-T3 is small light and unobtrusive, particularly while using prime lenses. It can be decked out as big and fancy or small and lean as you want it to be. The Fuji X system is stocked with quality professional lenses as good or better than any other manufacturer from 8mm (12mm) on the wide end to 400mm (600mm) on the long end so glass in a non issue. You can buy a battery grip and a metal accessory handgrip with built in Arca Swiss dove tail. The camera can be charged in camera via a USB C port. There is wifi connectivity and direct connectivty to the Fujifilm Instax printer. It has a touch screen with shutter actuation via live view.
The body is weather sealed and when used with weather sealed lenses becomes a robust durable adventure camera that survives in desert dust, ocean spray, rain and snow. It is not water proof so don’t take it scuba diving without an underwater housing. In my experience the vibration, temperature and pressure changes of tens of thousands of general and commercial aviation miles did not effect the camera function in any way.
Auto focus was responsive in urban and wildlife settings. I experimented with face and eye recognition on large mammals and it worked well. For the most part I used spot focus and spot metering because that is my personal preference and works well for me.
The X-T3 has remarkable video capabilities and it is well regarded by hybrid stills and video photographers. I don’t shoot video so I’ll leave those functions for others to comments on. I’ve printed a number of images taken with my X-T3 on 13″ x 19″ Epson Hot Press Natural fine art paper and Epson P800 and the images look fantastic. The 26.1 megapixels are more than enough for framed gallery prints.
When I traveled with and reviewed the Fujifilm X-Pro2 I had a few criticisms such as the non locking diopter adjustment, electronic lag when changing aperture settings, the exposure compensation dial and battery life.
These gripes and the funky balance with long lenses caused me to trade in my beloved X-Pro2 for the X-T3. The Fujifilm X-T3 solved all these problems and I’m happy with my decision.
Really beautiful!