Fujifilm X-H2 Review

Fujifilm gave the X-H series a modern design with straight-forward controls rather than the hybrid mechanical design of the X-T series. The Fujifilm X-H2 is substantial for an APS-C camera. It has a deep body with a sizable grip and protruding viewfinder housing. At 660g, it is heavier than average and feels dense. Although various X-mount camera series use different designs, the angles and sharp edges of the X-H2 are distinctively Fujifilm.

The largely rectangular core of the camera body is 4.5cm thick with an additional 1.5cm depth for the viewfinder at the back and 2.5cm more for the grip. The grip itself is deep and narrow with a pronounced indentation for the index finger. It is fairly easy to maintain a secure hold on the camera but there is a sharp protrusion at the back which makes it uncomfortable after a while.

Grabbing onto the X-H2 lands the index finder on the shutter-release that is completely on top of the hand-grip. The shutter-release itself is very soft with a difficult to distinguish halfway point. Unfortunately this easily causes accidental shots which was a problem with the original X-H1. Around the release is an extremely stiff rotating power switch. It has a sharp detent which makes it impossible to turn on without shaking the entire camera. Just below, within easy reach, a standard control-dial is found. The front control-dial has nice positive detents which provide tactile feedback.

Around the X-mount, there are three circular elements. On the top right, a small cover protects a standard PC Sync socket. The lower right circle is a customizable button that defaults to controlling the focus mode. Lastly, the lens release is located at the lower left of the mount. This makes it very convenient to change lenses since one can press the release while still gripping the camera. There is one more button on the front, a customizable one, hidden by the grip in the above photo.

The top plate of this camera is completely packed. The major item that pushed controls towards the outer edge is 1.28" Monochrome LCD with 128x128 pixels. This status screen remains active even when the camera is off where is shows the battery-level, the memory card in use and how many videos or videos can be recorded before the memory-card becomes full. A small button on the side of the viewfinder housing inverses the status screen when the camera is powered on.

A row of buttons lines the right edge of the top-plate. Closest to the shutter-release, there is a small protruding Video Record button. Pressing it starts recording in any mode which is mostly pointless since only Video mode previews video framing correctly. Plus, there, the shutter-release starts recording anyway. This Video Record button is easy to reach using the index finger. Luckily, all 10 customizable buttons, including this one, can be set to one of a whopping 75 functions!

Right behind the Video Record button, there is another button labeled ISO which is its default function. The button has a good amount of resistance and protrudes enough to be found by feel. Changing ISO is easy yet backwards, regardless of the dial direction configuration. After pressing the button, turning the dial right selects lower ISO. This can be done while the dial is pressed or after releasing it. In either case, the ISO setting stays on-screen until the button is pressed again which is slightly inefficient.

Further back, the is a slightly smaller button which operates White-Balance by default. It has a firm spring and requires a stretch to reach without shifting your grip. As with ISO, it can control one of 75 functions. Right behind, there is an every smaller unmarked button which is definitely awkward to reach. It can be customized in the same way as other top-plate buttons. Most likely, these buttons are inconveniently located to accommodate the monochrome status screen.

A viewfinder housing covers the EVF and allows it to comfortably extend beyond the back of the camera body. The front of the housing lines up closely with the mount. It does not need to be larger since there is no flash built into the X-H2. A standard hot-shoe on top of the house is available to connect an on-camera flash, remote trigger or hold a shotgun microphone. Tiny holes on each side of the housing near the front make up a builtin stereo microphone. Finally, the sides of the EVF housing hold a View Mode button, a Status LCD Backlight button and a diopter dial. The View Mode button cycles over options for the Eye-Start Sensor.

The last item on the top plate is a huge Mode Dial. In addition to the traditional PASM modes, there is one dedicated position for Digital Filtering, one for Video mode and 7 Custom modes, the most of any camera to date. The Digital Filter mode provides auto exposure with one of thirteen filters applied. Video mode provides the only way to preview framing while filming. It shuffles the menu system make video settings more accessible and unlocks an extra menu to handle Time-Code. Extra settings appear to configure HDMI and the tone-curve which can be Standard, F-Log, F-Log-2 or HLG. A different curve can be applied in-camera and to HDMI output.

A button at the center of the Mode Dial locks it in place. When in the unlocked position, the Mode Dial still has firm detents to prevent accidental changes. Pushing the lock button in prevents the dial from moving at all. It must be pressed again to release it. When the dial is set to Video mode, an additional menu item appears to select the Exposure Mode.

A 3" Touchscreen LCD with sharp 1.6 megapixels dominates the back of this camera. The display is mounted on a rotating hinge which allows a front-facing position yet is inconvenient for all other uses. Shooting at a low or high angle requires the screen to be jutting out from the camera body and puts it in a precarious position. With both HDMI and USB-C on the left side of the camera, the display can extend but not tilt while these connectors are attached. One can close the LCD completely to protect it. Although it shows some wiggle, the hinge appears to be relatively sturdy.

Above the rear LCD, there is 0.5" EVF with an extremely sharp 5.8 megapixels and a huge 0.8X magnification. This EVF has excellent visibility and great contrast. Its 100% coverage view can be compacted slightly to allow for a further eye-point. Fujifilm provides control over color saturation and balance to fine-tune the EVF output. The same adjustments can also be made to the rear LCD. An essential Eye-Start Sensor automatically switches between the EVF and LCD or toggles the EVF on and off. The EVF protrudes from the back of this mirrorless for comfort.

Directly to the left of the EVF, one finds the Delete and Playback buttons. When the camera is in Capture mode, the Delete button allows the photographer to select a Drive Mode. This implies that Playback, Delete and Drive mode changes require two-handed operation. The Playback button works exactly as expected.

Jumping over the 0.5" EVF, the first item is a clickable 8-way focus joystick. The joystick selects an area while the rear control-dial resizes it. It is possible to select among all 425-Points or a 117-Point subset to speed up focus-point selection at the expense of precision. When the joystick is pressed, one of three actions are possible: Edit Focus Area, Electronic Zoom or Recenter. Near the 8-way Focus Joystick, there are two customizable buttons. These default to AF-On and AE-L.

Below the AE-L button, along the right edge of the display there is the Q button and a 4-way controller made of 4 separate directional buttons plus the central Menu/OK button. All these can be configured to one of 75 functions. By default, the Q button invokes the Q menu which provides user-defined shorts for up to 16 items, selectable separately for Image and Video modes.

Right below the 4-way controller, a DISP/BACK button cycles over display modes or backs out of menu items. When the menu is open, this button backs out to the previous menu level. In Capture mode, DISP switches the view of the LCD or EVF, whichever is active. The selected view is chosen independently for each. There are 4 view available, with the last one below only applicable to the LCD:

• Full Screen: Uses the entire width of the display. Shows critical exposure info above and below the preview with a number of icons and settings overlaid.
• Compact: The view is shrunk to leave about 10% along each edge for settings and status indicators, thus showing a smaller previous with fewer obstructions.
• Dual Display: This View mode, which is only available in Manual Focus mode, shows a 70% preview of the whole frame and a secondary 20% view which is magnified around the focus area.
• Info Display:In this mode, framing must be done using the EVF, while the rear LCD shows detailed information about camera settings plus a Live Histogram.

Fujifilm did an excellent job keeping the preview less cluttered than usual. There are 32 items that can be toggled over the display. This flexibility allows photographers to only show essential settings. The are options to reduce the accuracy of the preview but there is no reason use them. Up to now, Fujifilm cameras only showed Tilt. Now it is possible to select a Dual-Axis Digital Level which is very useful, although the implementation here is quite obstructive.

The rear control-dial of the X-H2 is found at the upper-right corner of the camera. This dial is mechanically identical to the front control-dial. Despite having an extreme amount of customization options, neither control-dial is customizable except for its direction of rotation. The rear control-dial handles Exposure-Compensation in 1/3-stops. There is no way to deactivate this nor assign EC to any other control on the camera. This is ashame as it tends to make the camera prone to accidental exposure changes.

The left side of the camera is completely covered by ports hidden under rigid plastic flaps. There is a full-size HDMI Type A connector which supports up to 8K 10-bit output. Next to the HDMI port, there are two standard 3.5mm mini-jacks. The top one is a stereo input, the lower is a stereo output. Further down, there is a USB 3.2 Type-C port which is used for charging the camera or transferring files. Generally, it is preferable to use a memory card-reader but, given that CF Express Type B readers are rare, this feature can be useful. Having the charger builtin is inconvenient since the camera must be kept plugging in and is tied up while a battery charges.

Opening both covers on the right side of the X-H2 reveals a 2.5mm connector for a wired remote plus dual asymmetric memory-card slots. The primary slot which delivers the best performance and supports all recording modes takes CF Express Type B cards. The second slot supports SDXC UHS-II memory. There are cheaper and available in larger capacity. The downside is that even UHS II cards cannot handle high bit-rates.

There are quite a few configurations to work with dual memory cards. Photo and Video modes separately select which slot to use. They can each use a single slot, automatically switch slots when full or record simultaneously to both cards. The latter option is to continuously create backups and is the X-H2 is probably the first camera that allows this for Video. The asymmetry of cards though means that when both cards are used, limitations are imposed by the slower slot.

Finally, the bottom of the Fujifilm X-H2 is quite standard. There is a metal tripod mount that is centered with the optical axis of the lens which is ideal for panorama photography. and is good for balance. A study plastic cover with release latch covers the battery compartment, while a small plastic cover detaches completely to attach a vertical grip

Often, when one thing is given, another is taken away. The Fujifilm X-H2 comes with a nicely padded camera strap. It is wide and made of soft neoprene with a non-slip rubber coating on one side. On the other hand, the X-H2 comes without a charger. For a camera that retails for $2000 USD or $2500 CAD, this is really disappointing.

Ergonomics are reasonable yet nowhere near the level of other Fujifilm mirrorless digital cameras. Holding the camera places the shutter-release, front control-dial, focusing joystick and several buttons within easy reach. Although the rear control-dial is also easy to reach, a relatively sharp rear thumb-hook just under it quickly feels uncomfortable which reaching for the dial. The most common issue encountered in use is that buttons are too soft. It is very easy to accidentally press certain controls, particularly the one at the front lower-left corner of the camera. Depending on the chosen function, this can either inadvertently change a setting or popup a menu.

This camera offers one of the highest levels of customization. With 75 functions assignable to 10 buttons and the flexible Q menu which offers up to 16 settings, it is possible to quick reach preferred settings. Oddly, among so many options, customizing Exposure-Compensation, ISO steps and exposure increments is not possible on the Fujifilm X-H2. Feature interactions are plentiful which makes some settings rather difficult to access. Sometimes, a setting is greyed out, other times it is missing entirely until other compatible settings are changed.