AFS-S issue - Returning my XT5

FujiJon wrote:

The only good thing about the distance indicator is that you can turn it off, leave it off, and forget about it.

I had the same grief as you a while ago with my H1. I wrote to Fuji UK about it. I can't recall the details but their reply was something like it's only really there to give an idea of depth of field, not absolute distance. If only they told us that in the manual.

Turn it off. It only confuses the issue.

Quite the contrary, I`m afraid - while distance indicator is not something to rely on (nor consider of much value in general), it does seem to be able to warn the user when a shot will be completely out of focus (even if slightly, but for no obvious reason, usually with wider angle lenses and closed down a bit), making it quite valuable in that regard.

In repeated testing, trying to focus at some 10m, for example, distance indicator will "dance" around that value for a few times (as expected), then once show something completely different, like 2m, even though there might not be anything at that distance in the whole frame. And yes, if photo is taken at that moment, nothing will be in focus (worse, it may not be that noticeable on the spot, on the small camera screen, but only once you leave the location and check the photo on your monitor, or get a chance to zoom-in in-camera).

p.s. That said, it`s possible that X-H1 and previous generations weren`t exhibiting this behavior, where I`ve mostly seen it reported with X-T3 and later bodies.