One Year with my Fujifilm X-T5

I love my Fujifilm X-T5.

My camera arrived on September 10, 2024. The month before, I had a 10-day rental, and I could not wait for my own camera to arrive. I still feel that the X-T5 is a great camera, perfectly suited for me.

WHY MIRRORLESS

You may prefer a DSLR over a mirrorless camera for various reasons. I like mirrorless cameras. They tend to be smaller and have a short flange focal distance (FFD) (also known as the flange-to-film distance, flange focal depth, flange back distance (FBD), flange focal length (FFL), back focus or register). The Fujifilm X system has a short 17.7mm FFD, which means you can adapt almost every lens to a Fujifilm X camera with the correct adapter. This is a big plus for me because I like to use vintage lenses. Of course, you can also use vintage lenses with cameras from other brands.

Saucer Magnolia
Fujifilm X-T5 | Jupiter-11 (LTM) | 135mm (203mm) | 1/220sec | ISO 125

The Viewfinder

The X-T5 has a very nice viewfinder. It is comfortable to look through. While there are likely better ones, it is more than capable. Focusing with manual lenses is fantastic.

EVF Specs: 0.5-inch OLED with ~ 3.69 million dots. The magnification is 0.80x with a 50-mm lens (35-mm equivalent) at infinity. The diopter adjustment is -5 to +3. You can find the rest of the specs at the Fujifilm X Site.

The eye relief is nice as well—better than X-E series cameras. I own an X-E1 and X-E3, and the new X-E5 seems to be in the same ballpark. The viewfinder was the main reason for me not to buy the X-E5. At that price point, I want better. The rest of the X-E5 seems to be great, though.

Handling of the camera

Yes, it looks like a vintage SLR, and I generally prefer the look of a Rangefinder. Having said that, the X-T5 feels great in my hands. It is so easy to handle. Thanks to the dials, I don’t need to dig through the menu—one exception: when I first set up the camera. Almost everything I need is right there. The rest goes into my custom menu.

I love that Fujifilm gives me cameras with dials and lenses with aperture rings. It is hard to explain in a way that makes sense, but my X-T5’s more hands-on approach makes me want to go out and take photos.

The Fly on the Leaf
Fujifilm X-T5 | Fujinon 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS | 200mm (300mm) | 1/300 sec | f/4.8 | ISO 640

Battery

The larger battery is great—much better than the smaller battery. I feel that the original battery lasts longer than the third-party ones. However, I also use third-party batteries since they cost less.

Sensor

While the 40MP sensor was not the reason I wanted this camera, it is a very nice perk. I think it is quite awesome. It provides me with so much room to crop images. Since I don’t have a long lens to take pictures of birds and other critters, having the possibility to crop and still have a large enough image is excellent.

The image quality is excellent, and when I feel that there is too much noise, I can use software to remove it.

IBIS

This nifty feature was the reason I wanted to buy this camera. While some Fujifilm lenses have OIS, my vintage lenses do not, and many prime lenses don’t either. For me, this is a very useful feature.

The thing about autofocus

I know there are reports of autofocus issues when the continuous shooting mode is used. I have not seen significant problems when I use autofocus, but I mostly use single-shot focus—face and object detection work mostly well (single-shot focus mode).

I was curious and tested with the old Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 lens in continuous focusing mode and object detection (cats). I did not use any custom focus settings. My dogs were my models. This is a setup I rarely use. I have to admit that the results have not been great. The 35mm lens was probably not the best for this, but I expected better—half the images in focus, but not something like 1 in 10. I should have used the 16-50mm kit lens.

If my type of photography required fast, accurate continuous autofocus (sports, events, etc.), I would look for a different camera—maybe the X-H2, X-H2s, or a different brand. Having a camera, no matter which one, missing the focus over and over is beyond frustrating. There is no reason to complain about it, other than to Fujifilm that is. Vote with your wallet and get the camera you need.

Image Quality

The image quality is very good to excellent. Would a full-frame camera be better? Very likely yes. Will it make a real difference? It depends, but it wouldn’t be enough to switch to a full-frame system. If I wanted to upgrade, I would get one of Fujifilm’s medium format GFX System cameras. Now we are cooking with gas.

Back to the X-T5. The camera can produce excellent images with plenty of detail, microcontrast, and lovely colors. I let the camera use the entire ISO range. Sure, there might be noise, but you can fix that with the modern denoising features of your favorite editor.

Lenses in Day-to-Day use

The X-T5 has a high-resolution 40MP sensor. There is some online discussion about older lenses and whether they can be used with this new sensor. I even saw some comments suggesting avoiding the older lenses at all cost. This is nonsense, and it is easier said than done, especially when one has a limited budget. Selling older lenses will likely mean you lose money. We are not talking about rare vintage gear.

Yes, modern lenses designed to utilize every pixel will, or should, show more detail and be sharper. But that doesn’t mean the older lenses cannot produce great photos. From my experience, not shooting test charts and graphs, I can say that the older Fuji lenses are fine. They are sharp enough and maybe even benefit from the new sensor. Your opinion will likely be different if you tend to pixel-peep. I played around with the old and new kit lenses. The newer lens was a bit sharper, but otherwise they were similar.

Vintage lenses, which have much lower resolution, work well too.

Some Last Words

The year with my X-T5 has been great. The camera has become my trusted companion, the one I can rely on. The size is just right, and the ergonomics are excellent – I don’t even need the Lensmate thumbgrip anymore. I want to take it with me wherever I go. 

The camera well for my style of taking photos. I love the dials, the lenses with aperture rings, and the viewfinder. Ergonomically, it works better for me than the smaller, slimmer X-E3.

Lexi
Fujifilm X-T5 | Fujinon XF 18-55mm f2.8-4 | 55mm (83mm) | 1/80sec | f/5.6 | ISO 640