With that said, those who got their hands on the Fujifilm X-M5 mostly seem very happy with it. That’s looking at the customer reviews on the various stores:
Sure, there are always those, who complain. But sometimes I don’t get those complains.
Like when on Amazon one customer complaint heavily that it has no viewfinder. I mean, that’s something people should be aware of before they buy the camera. So why give it a bad review because of that? If a viewfinder is a must have for you, then the X-M5 is a no-go.
I mean… if I choose to buy a car with a manual transmission, does it make sense to criticize it for not having an automatic transmission?
Fujifilm Managers About X-M5
At Fujifilm X summit in Prague, Yuji Igarashi, Manager of Fujifilm’s Professional Imaging Group, had a talk with PetaPixel about the Fujifilm X-M5, as you can read here.
The manager said:
producing the X-M5 is less complex than the X100VI
Fujifilm will try to catch up with demand
the X-M5 is very popular
situation won’t be as bad as with X100VI
months after release it is still hard to purchase
Fujifilm isn’t intentionally limiting camera production
The sales of Fujifilm X-M5 cameras has been suspended in Japan, as reported by asobinet.
This is now a recurrent theme in the Fujifilm world: new gear gets announced and it sells just way better than Fujifilm can keep up with in terms of production.
The X-M5 stock situation isn’t much better elsewhere as you can see in the stores listed below.
I don’t think this has anything to do with a general revival of entry level cameras, but more with the exploding popularity of the Fujifilm system.
As of today, Fujifilm might well be the one system that keeps its value best over time. So it’s also easier to buy into a system that you know won’t lose value quickly (and if, then only by a small margin). Just recently I chatted with a FR-reader, who told me he recently sold the X100V for the same price he bought it many years ago. That’s not a bad deal.
Petapixel reviewed the Fujifilm X-M5. Regarding Autofocus they say:
comparing to Canon EOS R10, because that’s one of their favorite cameras as far as autofocus on APS-C goes at the same price
not quite the same hit rate of the Canon, but actually surprisingly close
in this price range there is nothing out there that gives you 10 bit, Log recording with 6.2K open gate
pre-production X-M5 had issue with focusing on the background. Production sample is much better but it can still be an issue
overheating: impressing performance for such a small camera body. And you can even use the Fan accessory for even better performance. Extremely impressive
probably the most capable video camera at that price
More reviews below.
AF Better than What YouTube is Talking About?
The first of Pav SZ looks actually very good in terms of Autofocus.
You can see the X-M5 keeps tracking the subject even when other people enter the frame. It had a few occasions in which the person turned around and it focused on the shoulder instead of the back of the head.
Godwin Isaac (video below), was a bit worried about the X-M5 autofocus, given all the autofocus sh*tstorm YouTube is throwing on Fujifilm autofocus. But he says “autofocus is way better than what YouTube is talking about“.
So why is that? Why are so many people happy with the autofocus?
Pav SZ says that if you use it in real life shooting conditions, it will work just fine. But if you set it up for failure in rather tricky and unrealistic test conditions, it might struggle more than in real life use. So that’s his theory.
I Remain Utterly Disappointed ;)
My position remains unchanged: even in the most ridiculous never to happen absurd and unrealistic test conditions, I want Fujifilm cameras to never fail once. I will always be utterly disappointed if in a nonsense test Fujifilm cameras hunt for a fraction of a second. ;)
Of course I am exaggerating. But the truth is I believe there is still room for improvement, and Fujifilm has to work on it. And I am not kidding here: it’s paramount that they keep working on it. Clean up your code, get the algorithm right. And we have actually shared an article which shows in which areas Fujifilm needs to improve (and can improve, since they got it right with other cameras already):
