Look What Came (Fuji X-H1 Part I)

I had a lunch meeting today, and as I was speeding South toward home I passed the FedEx truck speeding North. Thinking he might have my eagerly-awaited Fuji on board, and not wanting to lose a precious day, I screeched to a halt, pulled a yooey, and gave chase.

Back in town I ran into the UPS man twice but failed to find the FedEx truck.

...Which brings up an interesting point. With Lensrentals, your rental period starts whenever the equipment is delivered, so if you miss FedEx or they miss you, you still get the full however many days, whatever your rental period is. However, if by chance FedEx gets it there early, you still don't have to ship it back it until your rental period is scheduled to end. So if delivery is late, you still get all your days, but if delivery is early, you get that extra. Possible bonus, but no penalty. Thought I would clarify that.

First impressions of the X-H1
The size/weight brouhaha is a tempest in a teapot, turns out. Not as significant as I had feared. The camera came in a soft case inside a hard case inside a corrugated boxl as soon as I peeled the layers and got the camera in my hand, I immediately thought: this is fine.

It's a camera. It's camera-sized. Not too big. No big deal.

It's larger than the X-T1/2/3, but if you use the large handgrip with the latter like I do, then the size and weight of the two aren't very far apart. And the X-H1 feels relatively light for its bulk, which helps the impression of a comfortable heft.

I wish I had that scale I used to use to weigh equipment, but it's in the barn somewhere. Oh well.

Other points:

• Fits my hand really well. But then it's not like the X-T1 doesn't.

• The shutter sound is suh-weet. I don't think this matters all that much, but it's really, really nice. And you can customize the volume! It's delicate-sounding and quiet on the middle volume setting.

• The flip-up screen is magic. It can't work the way it does, but it does. Sorcery, is my guess.

• AF seems a little slow.

• I really like the way the eyepiece overhangs the back of the body.

• I love the whatchamacallit top plate info readout thingy (I'll look up the names for these things when I have more time; I'm kinda rushing right now). [UPDATE: It's the "secondary LCD monitor."]

And it lights up in the dark! (You can see the eyepiece overhang in this view, too. Please excuse moiré—iPhone snap.)

• Touch screen also seems pretty laggy. I like moving the focus point around with the toggle—joystick—whoops, that's officially the "focus stick (focus lever)."

• Curiously, the shutter button is extremely sensitive. I don't know if you can adjust that, but it's very light (Fuji calls it "featherweight"). A curious choice; shutter-button feel varies, of course, but I'm not aware of having had this impression of a hair-trigger release quite like this on any camera before. I don't mind it so far, but it's different for sure.

And of course I had to run a quick test on what really interests me—the IBIS...

...But now I'm out of time. More about this tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, whenever I get back to this.

Gonna have me some fun this weekend! Of course it will rain, because it always rains when I rent cameras—it's a law of the Universe, for some reason—but I'll manage somehow.

Mike

Oh, did I forget the unboxing video? Oh no.  :-)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Armond Perretta: "When will Fuji provide a sync cover that stays put?"

Mike replies: Fuji is a high-tech company of considerable capability, but naturally it can't do that. It would be like curing the common cold. Photographers have been losing the little rubber or plastic covers to PC (Prontor-Compur) terminals on cameras since they became the worldwide standard for flash sync in the 1960s. The purpose of this is so the terminals can become bent and get dirt in them, at which point the question of whether the flash will fire becomes a delightful adventure.

The best solutions that I know of are a.) to use the tiny little hotshoe flash that comes with the camera...

...to trigger the slave on the monolight or other studio strobe, or b.) Nikon's 1980s invention of using a hot shoe adapter, although these naturally only work with standard hot shoes. They do not solve the problem of lost covers, of course, but when the sync socket gets bent and dirty you can just get a new adapter and throw the old one away, paying only $14.95, as opposed to having to send your whole camera to the authorized repair station and waiting eight weeks while they let your camera sit around for seven weeks before finally installing a new PC sync socket in your camera and then reluctantly send it back.

I suppose another alternative would be to buy a handful of PC sync socket caps and keep a dish of them handy. (It may come as a shock, given their retail price, but these do not actually cost a reasonable fraction of $2.95 each to manufacture.) This solution is a manful stopgap, but it requires an appropriately fatalistic attitude on your part, like that of a magnificent salmon struggling mightily to swim upstream to spawn and then taste grim death; you must realize that, fight as you will—meaning it does not matter how many spare caps you buy—you are contending against fate and the natural order and are doomed in the end to fail.

El Inglés: "I bought the X-H1 several months ago with a view to it becoming my main Fuji camera. After a few days, I was smitten; after a few weeks, less so. Now it comes into play only when I know I'm going to need its IBIS. Yes, it's neither too big nor too small, and it has that gorgeous EVF (and the IBIS, of course). But I hate the shutter release with its lack of feel; the exposure compensation button which is nowhere as good as a dial, no matter how it is set up; and, for my money, the raw conversions to black-and-white are far less rewarding than those from the 16MP X-Trans II sensor (something I'd already suspected from the X-T20 which preceded the X-H1 in my menagerie). Bottom line is that I'm back to using the X-T1 and X-T10 which are fast enough, and have enough megapixels, for my photography. Of course, YMMV (and I'd be pleased for it to do so)."

Peter Baglole: "X-H1 is not quite as eye catching as the silver X-T3. However, the more you use the H1 the more you appreciate its attention to the process of making photos. I think it is quite a nice looking body too. I dated the X-T3 but married the X-H1."

David Wilson: "The light touch shutter button is one of this camera's many plus points. Couple this feature with IBIS and a decent mass, and I'm extracting more from my XF lenses than any other Fujifilm body."

Comments

[Stanleyk]

"Oh, did I forget the unboxing video? Oh no."

I knew I liked this site for some reason!!

[Peter Gilbert]

Falling in Love Again
Never Wanted to..
What am I to Do?
I Can't Help It

[Jeff]

According to B&H, 23.74 oz / 673 g with battery and memory card. Did you put your scale for weighing coffee grounds in the barn?

[David Burbach]

Hi Mike
Re: Shutter button
When the X-H1 first came out several reviewers commented that the "touch" on the shutter button could be adjusted at the factory. Probably means some time in New Jersey. A call to Fuji's service department would answer the question.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I'm not aware of having had this impression of a hair-trigger release quite like this on any camera before...

Didn't you try or own a Mamiya 7? :-)

[Joe Holmes]

Last month, waiting for UPS delivery of my first phone upgrade in four years, I got a note one morning that the package was out for delivery. I logged into my UPS account and discovered that UPS now tracks their trucks' exact GPS location, so I can now pinpoint where my package is right down to the block.

So instead of being stuck at home all afternoon waiting through that 2- or 3-hour window for delivery, I walked a few blocks and picked up my new phone mid-morning.

What a world, what a world.

[Dave in NM]

“Of course it will rain...”

Why not just include one of these with each rental?
https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/lenscoat-raincoat-rs-medium

And while you’re at it, you might as well pick up one of these for yourself...
https://www.hellyhansen.com/en_us/aegir-ocean-jacket-30335

;-)

[Stephen Gilbert]

Isn't it "Uie?"

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pull+a+uie

[Bob Johnston]

Sounds like you have found your next camera.
When I briefly tried one the thing that stood out for me was the viewfinder. Clearly there is no point in having a mirror and pentaprism any more.

[David]

My first camera was a LX3. I weighed up all the options which ILC system to go with, and decided on m43 when the E-M5 was announced. Which was about the same time Fujifilm started with the X series and the X-Pro 1.
I went with M43 because one system had a range of lenses and the other... none.
But if I started now, from scratch, the Fujifilm system seems much better organized, and the H1 is gorgeous.
The Olympus 12-100 will stop me from jumping ships for quite some time I imagine.
Be sure to tell us all the bad points of the H1...

[Paulo Bizarro]

Hi Mike,
I am currently testing the XH-1 as well, and liking it very much. I also noticed the feather trigger.

[Bill Mitchell]

I've never seen one in person, but it's just possible that the Kodak 35 has finally been replaced as the World's Ugliest Camera.

[Well, de gustibus non disputandum est, so it's up to you, but I don't think it's ugly in the slightest...maybe not the handsomest camera ever, but very far from the worst. I like it, personally. --Mike]

[Chuck Albertson]

A piece of gaffer tape over the un-capped PC terminal usually does the trick.

[Kalli]

How does the X-H1 shutter release button compare with the infamous Olympus XA shutter release?

I'm not gonna lie, I've shot a few accidental frames with an XA, but I still kinda liked the shutter release button.

Also, seeing the picture of the top of the X-H1 with the secondary display makes me want… a Panasonic G9 even more.

[Richard Tugwell]

Mike said ..I'm not aware of having had this impression of a hair-trigger release quite like this on any camera before...

@sal santamaura commented

Yeah - or the Voigtlander Bessa III (Fuji GF 670 in some latitudes). Shutter release so sensitive and silent that the only way to find out if you’d taken a shot was by trying the film advance.....

Beautiful camera though - still have mine

[Bryan Geyer]

The P-C caps for all of my (many!) Nikon bodies have always been threaded, and tend to stay in place quite nicely. Ditto for the multi-pin remote release port covers. I still have most of my pool of backup spares that trace to the early ’60s. Aren't the P-C caps for Fuji same?

Bryan Geyer

[Dave Van de Mark]

If you end up really liking this camera, which has your "required" IBIS, I'm curious if you'd accept it as is and buy it, or would you want to wait till Fuji updates the X-H1 to a "2" with probably the same sensor the X-T3 has?

[Adam Richardson]

I rented an X-H1 from Lens Rentals to photograph Fallingwater, and mostly liked it. Like you, I thought it was going to feel bigger than it does. I found it very comfortable with a 10-24 on the front, which is a bit front-heavy on my X-T1 without the add-on grip. IBIS seemed good for 3-4 stops in my limited experience.

The hair trigger shutter takes some getting used to, but I ended up quite liking it (and the shutter sound itself is fantastic). I didn't miss the exp comp dial as I always turn that the wrong way (clockwise / "volume up" reduces the exposure...always get it wrong!). But the Q menu button on the thumb grip I was constantly hitting by accident, so would raise the camera to my eye only to be greeted by the Quick menu in the viewfinder...

[Alan_A]

Been using the X-H1 since June. Really liking it. Don't mind the weight, need the IBIS (I'm a street shooter, so lots of adverse conditions) and the top-deck display is really useful - all the important settings at a glance. I'd rather have that than the sentimental value of the X-T series' dials. Another plus for me - the deep grip. I've always had to add an accessory grip to small cameras since I do so much one-handed, off-the-eye shooting. Not this time. Tiltscreen is essential equipment for me, too, which is why I never went the X-Pro route. Likely to stay in the X-H family.

[SteveW]

The grip and shape of the X-H1 remind me somewhat of my Nikon D750, which only weighs about 75 more grams.

I'm used to changing exposure compensation with a button/command dial so that would work fine for me. The top display is a real convenience.

Enjoy your test drive! Looking forward to hearing all about it.

[Stephen Scharf]

Per David Burbach's comment, the X-H1's leaf spring shutter button's spring force can be adjusted to, IIRC, four different settings of "preload" by Fujifilm's service center in Edison, NY.

The top display is called a "submonitor" and is an e-ink display, not an LCD display. This allows it to display information even when the camera is off, particularly handy for me when checking battery capacity before rushing out to a corner at the race track. Prevents the old, once your all the way out at Turn 7, "Oh, sh*t, I forgot to change out batteries" failure mode. Its also very useful for studio/product/landscape photography and videography. I find after 6 months of use, that I really like it...a lot.

Regarding setting exposure comp: you can set up the camera so that the +/- exp. comp. button near the shutter button is set to "switch", not "press" to actuate. I have mine set up to switched on all the time. I also programmed the rear command dial to then change the exp comp setting by depressing the rear command dial once to turn it on and make comp setting changes by turning the dial. Its fast and easy to do, and it prevents the comp dial from from getting changed inadvertantly from the camera being bumped, which was happening to me frequently for a commercial shoot at Sonoma Raceway in March, when I was rushing all over the facility. While I love the traditional knobs, rings and dials of the X-series, having the comp dial getting bumped & inadvertantly changed was a real pain in the *ss. I note that Fuji made the comp dial smaller on the X-T3 so that this is less likely to happen. Good on Fuji for this small but useful change to the control.

"The AF seem a little slow" Huh? What lens are you using with it? That has not been my experience at all. AF speed is lens dependent, and with the 50-140 f/2.8, 100-400 f/4.5-5.6, the AF is easily fast enough for shooting racing vehicles at speeds well over 100 mph. Same applies with the 14mm and 18-55. With the fabulous new XF200mm f/2.0 LM OIS WR, AF is blazing fast...

Be interested to hear of your thoughts about the absolute image quality from this camera, Mike, because I find it surpasses the X-T2. Haven't had a chance yet to compare it side-by-side it to the X-T3 , but I expect the X-H2 will fully hold its own to the slightly higher-res X-T3.

Bottom line: I really LOVE this camera; its a superb professional workhorse, IMHO.

[Re "The top display is called a 'submonitor' and is an e-ink display, not an LCD display."

Okay, but on page 2 of the Owner's Manual in the section called "Parts of the Camera" it's labeled "Secondary LCD monitor." --Mike]

[Stephen Scharf]

Regarding Armando's comment about the flash sync terminal cap:

Fujifilm sells a nice little "cover kit" that includes the flash sync terminal cap, the hotshoe cap, and the silicone rubber cover for the battery grip terminals for a whopping $8.99.

Available here through MIke's affiliate link at B&H:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1263618-REG/fujifilm_16519522_x_t2_cover_kit.html/BI/2144/KBID/2882

BTW, in the six years I've been shooting with Fujifilm X-cams, I've never had one of these fall off; that's over the 6 different bodies that have them. YMMV.

[Stephen Scharf]

Thanks for the clarification, Mike! I stand corrected on "submonitor and "e-ink". My bad! ;-) Doing some digging, this particular type of LCD display is actually called a "matrix LCD", and allows the camera's secondary monitor to display info when the camera is OFF requires only a miniscule amount of power.

Okay, one last post regarding the X-H1, and I'll stop – I promise! ;-)

In my first post, when I mentioned the exp comp dial always getting bumped inadvertantly, that was on my X-T2; it was pretty annoying.

The LCD on the top deck of the G9 is nice, too. As is the G9; I shot with one for two hours in May and I really liked it quite a lot. Its a great camera.

@Adam Richardson: If you find you are actuating the Q menu button by accident, you can go into the menus and turn it off by invokding LOCK so you are not bringing it up by accidentally hitting the Q button. In fact, almost every control on the camera can be set to "OFF" if desired.

You can find how to do this in the X-H1 menus under Setup Menu>Button/Dial Setting>LOCK. This will bring up a panel on the where can you determine whether to LOCK all functions, or move to another menu screen to place a check mark on a subset of Functions you wish to LOCK. Cheers!

[YS]

Sorry Mike, but Nikon has already solved the common cold, I mean, PC sync cover issue with the D3/D300 generation of DSLRs. The solution is simple: Integrated rubber covers! I think it was one of the nicest things on the D300 I used. Never used the PC sync much, but the 10-pin socket next to it appreciated it a lot (as did I).