Fuji Alpha 7 User Manual

[Tina Larzelere]

Those of you who read my Sony A7II vs. Sony A6500 comparison know that I have been curious about the Fujifilm X-T2 for quite some time, I am still looking for a reliable, handy and fast camera to take pictures of people, especially children. Neither of the cameras that I have used so far could satisfy me completely, therefore I decided to take a look over the fence.

The Fujifilm X system is to me the most obvious alternatives to the Sony FE system. The approach to offer as many manual controls as possible as well as the broad but reasonable lens lineup and fast AF are very appealing to me. So when I got the chance to give the system a try I jumped on it. I will use a Fujifilm X-T2 with four lenses for a month. Will it suit my needs?

I have been a Sony user since I bought my first camera (Sony Alpha 200) in 2009 . Apart from an intensive but short affair with the Fujifilm X100 in 2012, I have been entirely brand loyal to Sony because they offered the products that met my needs. In that long time, Sony has grown as a camera manufacturer but I have also grown as a photographer.

Normally, a new generation Sony A7 should be the the obvious choice but the real A7-successor (the A7ii is just an update that made the original A7 work properly and added IBIS) is still a rumor and I start to loose my patience. The sensor is four years old and the autofocus has still the performance of mirrorless cameras in 2013.

A German retailer was kind enough to offer me a free rental for some time and I thought that it might be a good opportunity for me and maybe also for our readers to take a look over the fence. This is also great because I will be able to make a sound decision which way to go when the A7iii materializes (unless the Fuji will really blows my socks off).

If you come from Sony, some things about the camera are confusing as well. I was just not able to get the camera in AF-C mode. In the next morning, I discovered the small switch at the front of the camera. It was not even possible to adjust it in the menu, because there is the physical switch. This is not a real criticism, I just needed some time to find it out.

The Fuji menu system looks very different compared the Sony menu system. I quickly got used to it though. The menu of the Fuji X-T2 has two layouts- a full menu and a quick menu (like the FN menu of the Sony) that can be set up individually. So far, I needed the menu far less than with the Sony A7II because I can adjust almost every important setting with the physical dials.

I have to admit that my shooting style is a very simple one, that profits from the Fuji layout. I shoot RAWs and only care about exposure, shutter speed and focus. White balance is almost always set to AWB and everything else happens in the postprocessing. That also means that I have to edit every image but I can live with that because I spend rarely more than three minutes with an image.

The battery life of the Fuji X-T2 seems to be a bit better than the battery life of my Sony A7II, but actually not by much. The new Sony NP-FZ100 that is used in the A9 is much better than either and we can just hope that the battery will make its way into the Sony A7III.

Everything about the camera feels well made and solid. The body has nice metal top and bottom plates. The battery door as well as the memory card door are made of plastic. Most of the camera body is covered by a rubbery fake-leather surface that adds a nice grip to the body. The camera also has a little heft to it (507g with battery and memory card) that emphasises the impression of good build quality.

The build quality of the lenses that I use is also consistently high with a nice metal finish. The painting seems to be quite scratch resistant. I would rate the build quality above the Sony FE and ZA lenses but below the (for my taste unmatched) build quality of the Sony GM or Zeiss Loxia lenses.

The plastic Fuji lens hoods are comparable to the cheaper Sony lens hoods (FE 2/28, 1.8/85) but less well build than the hoods of the Sony premium lenses. There are also some metal lens hoods available for a large premium.

So far, I use mostly AF-S. The general speed of the AF was very convincing so far. The modern Fuji lenses, especially the XF 4.5-5.6/100-400 and the XF 2/23 are blazingly fast and focus almost instantly when the shutter is half pressed. Maybe this gets even faster with top end DSLRs but this is definitely a focusing speed that I can use for my work.

The face detection of the Fuji seems to work reliably although it is not a dedicated eye AF. I had the impression that the camera chooses not always the closer eye. Most of my portraits were focused perfectly, but in some pictures (10% maybe) the focus was slightly at the wrong spot. Still good enough for most applications but critical for larger prints.

One thing that I really like and that I find very important for my cameras in the future is the AF joystick. It is possible to react much faster to situations than messing around with a touchscreen (A6500) or than pushing the central button of the command wheel twice and moving it around by pushing the wheel (A7ii). The A9 also features a joystick and I hope that Sony will introduce that in other cameras as weIl. All in all I absolutely like the handling of the XT-2.

I use a lot of fast glass with my Sony A7II and my biggest worry about the APS-C sensor is that the maximum amount of subject isolation will not be sufficient. Actually this can be answered if the numbers of the available lenses are converted to full frame lenses. Luckily, Fujifilm has a few very fast lenses, that also make good full frame equivalents:

Even if the equivalents are taken into account, the Fuji lenses offer a good amount of subject isolation. I am pretty sure that it could be enough for me, but keep in mind that the Fujifilm images will not match the look of the images of f/1.4 lenses on full frame cameras. If this is the defining element of your images, the Fuji is just not the tool for you. My impression has always been that the big two and also Sony degrade APS-C cameras artificially by offering the best lenses only for the full frame cameras. Of course, the FF lenses can also be used with the APS-C cameras but you will carry unnecessarily much bulk with you and you will have to play the game of equivalence. Fuji is a nice exception here, they offer capable and well matched lenses for their cameras.

I shot it for 2 days just with the Acros preset (RAF+JPEG) because I was so afraid to open these X-Trans RAWs and to get disappointed before I even started to get to know the camera. There are many articles that state that the X-Trans files are unusuable and that really caused some headache in advance.

If you need a huge amount of sharpening, artifacts that look like worms can appear. This is usually not a problem when the base material is sharp enough. Luckily, most if not all Fuji lenses are decent performers when it comes to sharpness.

A big difference to the Sony files can be found in the lens profiles, at least in combination with Lightroom. Sony offers to turn off the profiles and Fuji works with integrated profiles. I prefer to turn them on manually, especially when it comes to distortion (costs corner sharpness) and vignetting correction (increases noise in the corners).

The Sony A7II has in body image stabilization which helps to stabilize all 5 axes with lenses that feature OSS and which adds a rudimental image stabilization to every lens attached. In my experience it compensates no more than 1.5-2 stops but that is at least ISO800 instead of ISO3200.

Half of my time with the X-T2 is over and we got to know each other quite well. I enjoyed to use a different camera and to take a look over the fence. That alone was a great experience and I am happy that I got the opportunity to do this experiment.

I see no contest regarding the design, the fun of use and the controls in comparison with the Sony cameras that I have used so far. The Fuji X-T2 is a real pleasure to use and a well thought through camera. I never had a stronger feeling that everything is in my hands and happens exactly how I want it to. The amazing viewfinder is reinforcing my impression and I can finally use it perfectly with my glasses.

Regarding autofocus, it runs circles around the Sony A7II like we have seen with the Sony A6500 before. The Sony A7II is just dated in that regard and needs an update as soon as possible. One thing that surprised me is that the Fujifilm X-T2 performed even better than the Sony A6500 in AF-S mode. The fastest lenses (100-400, 2/23) were focusing almost instantly. On the other hand, AF-C is still a little disappointing, I will continue to try it out. The eye AF of the Sony cameras is still superior. I really like to use the AF joystick, this is a must have for me in the future, especially after the disappointing touchscreen experiences that I made with the Sony A6500.

I am not sure about the reliability yet. The camera froze a few times which could become a real dealbraker to me. Apart from that, WR is working and opens exciting new possibilities. The two SD slots are also a useful feature for me.

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The X-Trans files are really not the horror that I have feared ? Only tried the 4 lenses mentioned above but I would recommend all except of the 1.4/35 that has some trouble against the light, is louder and slower.

But those colors from the fuji! Would really like that on the Sony as well. Sure the Sony gets better with huelight profiles and some white balance fixes but would be nice to have better straight from camera.

i am currently also using a a7ii.. but i am seriously thinking to switch to fuji with all may adapted lenses! i heared from many that on the aps c sensor the quality drops quite a bit? Did you noticed something like that?

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