The inevitable will happen: the Fujifilm X-T4 will ship within March, and this means that the time of dedicated Fujifilm X-T3 roundups will soon be over, and the X-T3 content will be moved to the general camera roundups.
Reggie Ballesteros picked the Fujifilm X-T3 for his wedding photography business, and not the Fujifilm X-H1. Why?
You can see it in the video above. Down below a summary for those, who are in a hurry and can’t watch it right now.
Why X-T3 is better for weddings:
Low Light AF: X-T3 has -3EV autofocus, whereas the X-H1 is at about -1EV
AF speed: X-T3 has fastest AF in AF-S and AF-C
X-T3 has 100% phase detection coverage (X-H1 only center part)
Good enough image quality in low light, dynamic range and ISO performance to deliver high quality images to his clients
X-T3 is smaller and lighter
X-T3 has better video specs and features
X-H1 has IBIS, but it stabilizes only camera shake. It does not freeze the motion of people in your picture. That you can only do by raising shutter speeds or flash
at weddings he captures lively images of people in motion
he usually shoots at 1/250s and in low light he drops down at a minimum of 1/160s. He never goes slower than that, unless he uses flash
one of his workhorses is the 56mmf/1.2, and with that lens, IBIS would only be effective at slower speeds than he uses
Raggie then asked other X shooters, why they think the X-H1 is better for wedding photography, and they said:
Why X-H1 is better for weddings:
some drop down to 1/10s to do exterior shots. But Raggie takes maybe 2% of exterior shots on a wedding
some say they don’t trust that their hands are steady enough
a good reason is if you use the 90mm f/2, where IBIS becomes effective at 1/270, which is faster than what he shoots (1/160). But the XF90mm F2 is the least use lens in his lineup
X-H1 ergonomics are way better than X-T3
X-H1 shutter is very quite and discrete
X-H1 has better high ISO performance over X-T3, because X-T3 has more megapixel. It’s not a huge difference, but a little bit there is difference
X-H1 smooths out any handheld video. It does not replace a gimbal, but gives you stable handheld look
Conclusion:
he could find IBIS useful in less than 5% or 10% of his shots
he uses autofocus 95% to 100% of his shots
if he must buy a camera based on better autofocus or IBIS, he goes for the one with better AF
there is no best camera for everybody, just cameras that suite your style better
Fujifilm officially says in their X-H1 and GFX100 owner’s manual, you should turn off IBIS when using a tripod
So the conclusions would be:
you don’t have to turn OIS off, on the contrary, in some cases it is beneficial to keep it on [NOTE: Here on FujiRumors we still recommend to turn off OIS when you work on a tripod]
turn always off IBIS
Well, fellow FR-reader David partially investigated this over at his blog, and here are his findings:
The fifth episode of the Fujilove podcast with Fuji Guy Billy and Jonas Rask just went online. For your convenience, here are the previous 4 episodes:
episode 1 – XF33mm development challenges and X-H1 market misunderstanding
episode 2 – autofocus motors of lenses compared and no more Kaizen love for Fujifilm X-T20
episode 3 – digital image stabilization via firmware update and GFX100 talk
episode 4 – APS-C crop factor cheating and fast GF lenses potentially coming
It’s a 1 hour podcast, and in case you are in a hurry and don’t have time yet, I cover the whole podcast below. You can listed to it all at sticher and Fujilove.
If you click the video above (which will start at 4:55), you will see it compared side by side to the IBIS on the Sony a7iii. The difference is hugely in favor of the Fujifilm X-H1. Actually it’s that bad on the Sony a7III, that one might think IBIS was disabled.
On the Sony IBIS side, things do not really get better with the smaller Sony A6600.
“in some cases tuning on IBIS on Sony A6600 almost gives as shaky results as with IBIS turned OFF“.
Don’t get me wrong, Sony is great and we are all lucky to have such a wonderful camera manufacturer on the market. They deserve all the success they have, and in some areas they lead the pack (eye-aufofocus).
But sometimes, like IBIS and weather sealing (as reported here), one could get the impression Sony wants to put those specs on paper as a selling point, but they don’t really put all the R&D necessary to make them work at their best.
Not sure if Fujifilm should do the same, meaning don’t care much about how well the IBIS on their smaller X-T prototypes currently works, and just release an X-T4 or X-T40 with IBIS as soon as possible.
At the end of the day it will show up on the specs sheets, and hence become a selling point, no matter how well or not it works.
Or maybe Fujifilm should remain obsessed by how well their stuff actually works, and just wait until their smaller IBIS unit works properly.
Fujifilm X-H1, Still Worth Buying?
So, is the Fujifilm X-H1 still worth buying?
Well, now that you can get it with vertical grip and 2 additional batteries for $999 only, there can be only 1 possible answer: I don’t know, it’s up to you! :)
But if your answer is “yes”, then you have on big problem: the Fujifilm X-H1 is back-ordered on many stores, so good luck finding one.
A couple of influencers have recently published videos and blog posts, saying that the photography community is toxic.
Well, I don’t notice such a toxicty here on FujiRumors. Maybe, as also Hugh Brownstone said here, most Fujifilm shooters are just more on the cooler side of life. So I am lucky to have you guys on board ;).
I just allow myself to notice, that sometimes it’s the influencer, who provokes and clickbaits people. So don’t just blame people, who comment, for toxicity. Always first ask yourself, if the way you share your content is maybe good for clicks, but leads inevitabily to strong reactions.
With all that said, FujiRumors is on a mission: bring lightness and fun back into the photography community.
And how do we do that?
Well, in the good old Fuji X shooter style: using the power of the images!
So, if you have just been irritated by somebody, who does not get it how to convert focal lengths from FF and MF, or who claims that APS-C is dead and only full frame is for Pros, I hope that these images can put a little smile back on your face.
Turth is: sometimes we might hit hard on each other in the comments, but if we would sit together on a beer, we would discover that there is so much more that unites us than what divides us, no matter if you shoot APS-C, Fuji, Sony, CaNikon, Full Frame, Pentax, GFX or whatever: we are united by the passion for photography.
The third episode of the Fujilove podcast with Fuji Guy Billy just went online (episode 1, episode 2). You can listed to it all at sticher and Fujilove.
Back in March 2018, I have used Fujifilm technical X-H1 IBIS scetches and put them into the Fujfiilm X-T2. See the article here.
The result was the image you see above.
It’s my pleasure to see that over one year later, the topic is coming up again (better late than never), so I am glad to share it again with you.
The Fujfilm X-T4, if it keeps the size of the X-T3 and X-T2, will have a hard time to fit IBIS into its body. But Fujifilm has repeated many times, that they are working to make IBIS smaller.
And since we talk IBIS…
I had a personal curiosity to see how the Fujifilm GFX100 IBIS unit fits in the Fujifilm GFX 50S and Fujifilm GFX 50R.
So I took the IBIS unit displayed at the Fujifilm GFX100 live stream event, and mounted it on the Fujifilm GFX50R/S.
As you can see below, the IBIS unit is too big for both cameras, but not by a large margin. So there is hope that, with further development, the next generation IBIS will be small enough to make it fit also in the GFX R and GFX S line of cameras.
We have already posted a first Fujifilm manager interview earlier today here. It’s a good one, with lots of information, including the future of the Fujifilm X-H line. Make sure to read it!
Also B&H Photo, Adorama, Samys and Henrys are at Fujikina 2019, and they had the opportunity to go hands on with the Fujifilm GFX100 as well as have talks with Fujifilm managers.
I have put together the main points of the various interviews down below:
Fujifilm manager Justin explains why calling the Fujifilm GFX100 “large format” makes sense
Fujifilm has a medium format sensor roadmap, and GF lenses are future proof since they can resolve more than 100 megapixel
1/4 of a second at 200mm gave tack sharp images
shutter shock absorbers in the GFX100
going at 5fps continuous shooting with a medium format 102 MP camera is unheard of
Adorama says it feels like shooting a flagship DSLR as opposed to medium format
Adorama says they can’t believe it, and that Fujifilm is changing a lot
Fuji manager Justin says Fujifilm is trying to re-invent photography
Fujifilm needed 3 years to develop IBIS for the Fujiiflm GFX100. 1.5 years of development were shared with the Fujifilm X-H1 IBIS development, and another 1.5 years for the IBIS on the GFX100 only
One of the advantages of medium format, is that it is easier to design high-resolution lenses for it.
So if resolution, sharpness, cropping flexibility, big prints and having future proof files for upcoming high res screens is important to you, investing in GFX large format is the way to go.
