To sum them up: the dial is useless. One can press a button to access all film simulations anyway. It would have been better to keep the drive dial there.
But there is a flaw in this thought.
Because the exact opposite is also true: why do you need a Drive dial?
I mean, I don’t have a Drive dial on my Fujifilm X-E3, but all I need to do is to press a button and I can access all options very quickly.
And for that matter, why do you need an ISO dial? Or a shutter dial? Also there I can press a button, and access all options quickly too and then scroll through them with the command dial.
ISO dial, Drive dial, Shutter dial, Film Simulation dial: one could argue there are all useless, since you can access all options with a simple press of a button anyway.
If a dial makes sense or not solely depends on how you shoot and what kind of experience you are looking for.
I for example change much more often the film simulation than the Drive dial settings. So, for me personally, I prefer to have the Film Simulation dial rather than the Drive dial.
And for all those, who play around with Film Simulations much more than with the Drive options, a dedicated FS dial might make more sense than a dedicated Drive dial.
So, Fujifilm decided that Film Simulations are more important for potential X-T50 customers than the Bracketing options on the Drive mode, hence they decided to offer a dedicated dial for it. Just turn it, and you’ll instantly see the film simulation applied on the screen of your camera right on the field. And, as we have been told, the dial also works in video mode.
Last but not least: lots of FujiRumors readers might be sceptical right now, but there is one guy who seems very convinced that this is a brilliant move: it’s Andrea from SonyAlphaRumors, who even made a video about it and explains why he thinks this is a great move by Fujifilm in this article here.
SonyAlphaRumors acknowledges that Film Simulations are a big deal and in several videos vehemently asked for Film Simulations also on Sony cameras!
Maybe he got convinced by the Film Simulation glory after he saw an image I took with my GFX and he texted me asking how I managed to get those colors. And I told him I did not edit anything… just set the camera on Astia and that’s it. You can read there story here.
So, the Sony guy sees lots of sense in this dial. Honestly, I also prefer it over the Drive dial. Although my top choice would have been an ISO dial. But between Drive and Film Simulation, I pick the Film Simulation dial with joy.
