David Bridges
Fujifilm has launched its first sub-$1,000 digital camera in a protracted whereas and resurrected the 11-year previous “M” branding with the $799 X-M5. With that worth, it is primarily aimed toward photographers on a price range or vloggers seeking to step up from a smartphone. Fujifilm movie lower a number of options like a viewfinder (EVF) to get to that worth level, but it surely does have the corporate’s newest 26-megapixel X-Trans 4 CMOS sensor and first rate video specs.
For a digital camera with no viewfinder, the X-M5 ought to deal with fairly properly. It has back and front management dials, together with a high setting dial that features a new “Vlog” mode. It additionally comes with the identical movie simulation dial discovered on the X-T50, to assist social media customers and creators create cool images straight out of the digital camera.
When in vlog mode, you get a full GUI interface on the touchscreen for simple entry. That features issues like a “portrait enhancer,” background defocus and product precedence, a lot as we have seen on Sony’s vlogging merchandise.
For vloggers, it has a 3-inch, 1.04-million dot totally articulating rear show that is hopefully vivid sufficient to make use of in daylight (as a result of, once more, no EVF). There are each headphone and microphone ports for vloggers, however they don’t seem to be situated on the left as regular. As a substitute, Fujifilm positioned the three.5mm mic enter on the rear (the place the EVF would often go) and the headphone port on the appropriate facet. That is to keep away from having the show hit the mic or headphone cable when it flips out, as can occur on different cameras.
You may by no means mistake it for a sports activities digital camera, however the X-M5 can shoot 8 fps bursts with the mechanical shutter, or an impressive 20 fps in digital mode (each with steady autofocus). It may well seize a good 82/60 compressed RAW frames in these modes earlier than the buffer fills, once more very respectable for such a small digital camera.
Video can be fairly robust, with 6.2K open gate 3:2 seize, 4K 60p and Full HD at as much as 240 fps (these specs match the X-T50 as you could have observed). There is a little bit of crop for 4K 60p (1.18x) and FHD previous 120fps (1.29x) however in any other case all the things is one-to-one.
One other factor lacking is in-body stabilization so the X-M5 is restricted to what the lens supplies or digital stabilization. Within the latter mode, there is a minimal 1.32x crop for 4K 30fps video and a major 1.44x when capturing 4K 60p. The small physique additionally has overheating limitations when utilizing LP (lengthy play) recording, however these could be diminished with a $200 fan attachment.
Different options together with three inner microphones that enable for encompass sound-like seize, a 9:16 quick film mode for TikTok creators, high-speed film switch, as much as 440 frames of battery life and a single UHS-I card slot.
I could not perceive what Fujifilm was considering when it launched the X-T50 for $500 greater than the X-T30 II. Now we all know — it is hoping price range patrons will gravitate towards the X-M5 as a substitute. It goes on pre-sale at present for $799 and Fujifilm additionally unveiled the 16-55mm f/2.8 (24-70mm full-frame equal) lens promoting for $1,199 and XF500mm f/5.6 tremendous telephoto (750mm equal) now on pre-order for $2,999.
Daniel Mercer
