Fujifilm X-T5 initial review

The Fujifilm X-T5 is a photography-focused 40MP APS-C mirrorless camera that continues the company’s line of cameras with traditional control dials.

• 40MP BSI CMOS sensor with X-Trans color filter array
• Up to 15fps continuous shooting
• In-body stabilization rated at up to 7.0EV
• 6.2K or ‘HQ’ 4K from capture 6.2K up to 30p (1.23x crop)
• Subsampled full-width 4K at up to 60p
• Choice of 10-bit H.265 or 8-bit H.264 capture
• F-Log2, F-Log or HLG options
• 6.2K Raw video out
• Two-axis tilt rear screen
• Twin UHS-II SD card slots

The Fujifilm X-T5 will be available from November 17th at a recommended cost of $1699. This is the same launch price as the X-T4 and $300 lower than that of the X-H2, which which it shares a sensor.

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What is the X-T5? | How it compares | Body and controls | Initial impressions | Sample gallery | Specifications | Press release

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What is the X-T5?

The X-T5 is a more photography-focused camera than the X-T4, with the return of the excellent two-way tilting rear screen mechanism that works well for composing off-axis shots in both the landscape and portrait orientations.

The X-T5 can also shoot video, but its specifications aren’t as ambitious as those of the expressly hybrid X-H2. So there’s no 8K capture and its 6.2K footage is taken from a 1.22x cropped region of the sensor, not the full-width used by the X-H2. Similarly the X-T5’s ‘HQ’ 4K footage is derived from this 6.2K crop, not an 8K readout. Like the X-H2, the X-T5 can capture 4K at up to 60p from the full width of its sensor, but not using all the available pixels.

The X-T5 uses twin UHS-II SD card slots, which explains some of the reduction in video spec and significantly shorter duration of burst shooting.

The X-H2’s ProRes modes are also absent, along with any of the X-H2’s options that required the use of a CFexpress Type B card. Instead the X-T5 writes everything to a matched pair of UHS-II SD card slots. Fujifilm says the camera can shoot 6.2K/30 video for 90 minutes or 4K/60p for 60 minutes at 25°C (77°F); these numbers drop significantly at higher temperatures, and there’s no option to add a fan to compensate.

On the photography side, the specs are very similar to the X-H2, with the camera able to shoot 40MP images at up to 15fps using the mechanical shutter. A much smaller buffer and the use of SD cards means it can’t shoot such long bursts as the X-H2, but the image quality it delivers should be identical.

The X-T5 offers the 20-shot pixel-shift high-res mode from the X-H2, allowing you to create 160MP composite images. As with the existing camera, you need to combine the images using Fujifilm’s Pixel Shift Combiner desktop software. There’s no motion correction, which limits the types of situation it can be used in.

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How it compares

Fujifilm is one of the few companies still making high-end APS-C models, with most other brands focusing on full-frame for their photography enthusiast offerings. This brings a different cost/size/image-quality balance, especially once you factor in the lenses you might use. In this instance we’ve picked the Panasonic S5 for comparison. There are less expensive full-frame options, but the S5 is one of the lower-priced rivals that seems to match the X-T5’s level of stills and video capability.

Canon’s EOS R7 doesn’t feel quite as high-end as the X-T5 but it’s one of the few enthusiast-targeted APS-C cameras to be launched in the past few years. so we’ve included it for reference, too.

Despite the lower price, Canon’s EOS R7 runs the X-T5 pretty close in spec terms, with a faster burst rate, decent video specs and a sensor only 7MP behind. Its autofocus is also very good in stills mode. The X-T5 offers a very different shooting experience, a larger, higher-res viewfinder and our favorite rear screen arrangement for stills shooting. The Fujifilm also has access to a far more comprehensive system of lenses designed with APS-C in mind, which further enhances its credentials for enthusiast photographers.

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Body and controls

Although it looks a lot like its predecessors, the body is slightly smaller, with a slightly more finger-shaped indentation at the top of the hand grip and a more relaxed slope to the viewfinder hump. It retains the look of a classic SLR, though. It’s also around 50g (.11 lbs) lighter than the X-T4.

As with previous X-T models it features dedicated dials for shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation. There’s also a pair of command dials, front and rear, which can have some of these functions assigned to them. Both command dials can be pressed inward to act as function buttons or to change the dial’s function.

On the front of the body is the dedicated AF mode control that was absent from the recent X-H2 models.

The X-T5 still uses a 3.64M dot OLED viewfinder but it makes use of the higher magnification optics of the X-H2, giving it an impressive 0.8x equiv. magnification. The finder can be operated at up to 100fps in Boost mode, rather than the 120fps offered in the X-H2. Fujifilm says the eye sensor for switching between LCD and EVF should be around twice as fast as on the X-T4, making the camera feel more responsive.

Maintaining the distinction between the X-H and X-T series, the X-T5 has no headphone socket and uses a micro HDMI port for video output. This is the same arrangement as the X-T4 and, like that camera, the X-T5 can output audio using a USB adapter that comes in the box.

Looking at the bottom of the camera, there’s no expansion port to add a vertical grip, so again you’ll need to look at an X-H2 if that’s a feature you need. There will be an optional metal hand grip (MHG-XT5) that gives a little more substance to the front of the camera and provides Arca-Swiss tripod compatibility.

The X-T5 uses the same NP-W235 batteries as its predecessor. It’s a 16Wh unit that powers the camera to a rating of 590 shots per charge using the viewfinder or 580 shots using the rear screen. These numbers drop to 500 and 570 shots, respectively, if you use Boost mode to up the refresh rate of the finder to 100fps or the rear screen to 60fps.

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Initial impressions

Although it looks a lot like its predecessors, the X-T5’s grip has been redesigned. The camera is also 5.1mm narrower than the X-T4 and 1.8mm shorter, bringing it a little closer to the size of the original X-T1 and the film cameras it aped.

The X-T5 looks to us like exactly the camera a lot of Fujifilm users have been asking for: it continues the classic looks/dedicated dials approach that a lot of X-series photographers have come to love.

It includes a lot of the capabilities of the more expensive X-H2, such as the 40MP sensor, with a handful of omissions – primarily on the video side of things – that draw a sensible distinction between the two models. There’ll undoubtedly be some people who would have preferred an X-H2 with dials, or who’ll insist that only video features should have been removed, and that the X-T5 should include the ability to add a battery grip, but to us it looks like enough differences to create a meaningful distinction between models, allowing the X-T5 to have a lower price tag without treading on its big brother’s toes.

There’s a bit of a question mark hanging over the camera’s autofocus. Without the fast sensor from the X-H2S, the X-T5 won’t get anything like as frequent updates about what’s happening in the scene, and even the company acknowledges it won’t be a match for the high-speed flagship in this regard. But we won’t know for sure until we’ve had a chance to spend a bit more time shooting moving subjects.

Its video specs are not just a step down from that of the X-H2, they’re also, in some respects, arguably a slight step back from the X-T4. Its full-width 4K is sub-sampled and, while its oversampled ‘HQ’ 4K video should prove to be a little more detailed, there’s a 1.23x crop, which will have an impact on the noise performance. The new model gains a 10-bit 4:2:2 option, though. Hindsight casts the X-T4 as trying to play stopgap between X-H models, rather than primarily being a photographers’ camera, and if the loss of some video prowess is the price to be paid for the return of the excellent two-way tilt display, we suspect many stills shooters will be perfectly happy with that arrangement.

The X-T5 does more than simply not mess with a winning formula, it represents a reversion to an earlier, more focused version of that vision. The body is new, with a squarer, slightly more hand-friendly shape, a more gently angled slope to the viewfinder hump as well as the return of the photo-friendlier screen. The newly enlarged exposure compensation dial looks a little out of proportion to my eye, but the increased size makes it easier to operate with your thumb, so I can understand the change.

We’re looking forward to seeing how all these tiny changes come together, once we can start properly testing the camera, but from our experiences so far, the X-T5 feels like a worthy addition to a series that’s staking a claim towards becoming a classic, rather than just mimicking them.

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Sample gallery

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it.

All images shot using a pre-production Fujifilm X-T5

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