Auto focus capability X-T5 X-H2 X-H2S

[Garry Y]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

 

[Morris0]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

All 3 will bring a significant upgrade in AF speed and tracking for birds in flight yet before you go out and purchase one, try out my setup for birds in flight and action. It's been tested back to the X-T3 yet will probably work fine for the X-T2. On those older cameras you probably want to set AF-C focus lock to lock.

Morris\'s Fuji Birds In Flight and Action Setup â Updated 9/15/2025 - FM Forums

Join the Photography photography discussion: My settings are developed using the X-H2s and previously on the X-T3. Firmware 7.1 has returned the X-H2s wonderful performance and reliable focus for still

www.fredmiranda.com

As far as the 3 listed cameras go, they all had hardware differences with the X-H2s able to produce the highest frame rates giving you more choices good images. When there is a lot going on the deep buffers of the X-H2 and X-H2s will be an advantage and if you use a compact express type B card in them they will clear the buffer quickly allowing you to continue to shoot.

Very important is having enough reach and you 55-200mm is too short for all but the largest birds. Also, the more light on the sensor the better the camera will focus and track so the XF 100-400mm f5.6, XF 70-300mm f5.6 and XF 500mm f5.6 are the most popular lenses for photographers using Fuji gear. If you are enjoying birding, upgrade your lens first. Get good at portraits and see how you do with flight. You can upgrade your body later.

Morris

 

[jhorse]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

Well, all I can offer is what a Fuji technician informed me in Fuji's House of Photography when I was considering the XT5 vs the XH2/XH2s. and since my experience.

They have the same AF system, so for acquiring and locking onto a moving subject using AF-C there should be no difference.

The XH2/XH2s has a faster card and a bigger buffer, which can be written to and cleared quicker for bust shooting, with the XH2s having a speed advantage due to smaller files.

I shoot quite a lot of sports: high goal polo (fast moving subjects, although horses are far easier to track than small birds), running dogs, son's kite surfing and daughter's cycle racing. I chose the XT5 and, subject to my points below, find it just fine for sports. My points include:

• Set the AF-C setting Custom 6 to suit (Morris's settings optimised for birds in flight are capable of tracking other fast moving subjects too), although I use 3/1/Front.
• Use CL to allow AF between shots. I use 7fps.
• Performance boost on.
• Avoid subject detection, which removes an AF process; with practice the human is just as good at tracking a subject.
• Use fast cards, I use two SanDisk 64GB Extreme PRO SDXC card, V90, 300 MB/s, UHS-II cards (not cheap but worth it for sports).

I have not found the smaller buffer of the XT5 an inhibiting issue when shooting a run of play lasting 10+ seconds.

Hope that helps with your decision.

 

[Greybeard2023]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

X-H2S - the stacked sensor gives much faster data readout

 

[Morris0]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

Well, all I can offer is what a Fuji technician informed me in Fuji's House of Photography when I was considering the XT5 vs the XH2/XH2s. and since my experience.

They have the same AF system, so for acquiring and locking onto a moving subject using AF-C there should be no difference.

This fails to take into account the frame rate and particularly with the mechanical shutter though also true for the electronic shutter. The camera can only focus when there is light on the sensor (or being read off the sensor when using the electronic shutter). There for, when there is fast action and even more important when there are changes in velocity or direction, the prediction part of the AF algorithm will get it wrong and the camera can't start to detect the change till the next frame. The slow the frame rate, the slower the AF system will react.

Morris

The XH2/XH2s has a faster card and a bigger buffer, which can be written to and cleared quicker for bust shooting, with the XH2s having a speed advantage due to smaller files.

I shoot quite a lot of sports: high goal polo (fast moving subjects, although horses are far easier to track than small birds), running dogs, son's kite surfing and daughter's cycle racing. I chose the XT5 and, subject to my points below, find it just fine for sports. My points include:

• Set the AF-C setting Custom 6 to suit (Morris's settings optimised for birds in flight are capable of tracking other fast moving subjects too), although I use 3/1/Front.
• Use CL to allow AF between shots. I use 7fps.
• Performance boost on.
• Avoid subject detection, which removes an AF process; with practice the human is just as good at tracking a subject.
• Use fast cards, I use two SanDisk 64GB Extreme PRO SDXC card, V90, 300 MB/s, UHS-II cards (not cheap but worth it for sports).

I have not found the smaller buffer of the XT5 an inhibiting issue when shooting a run of play lasting 10+ seconds.

Hope that helps with your decision.

 

[Morris0]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

X-H2S - the stacked sensor gives much faster data readout

The smaller amount of data coming off the sensor and needing to be processed is a very important factor in the speed of the X-H2s. It saves both CPU cycles and card IO.

Morris

 

[Garry Y]

Thanks for the advice.

I thought the focusing system in the body is the main part to lock the target while the lenses only provide a motor to move glasses on given command from the body. How does a better lens focus better if there’s no major difference to the focusing motor?

 

[Morris0]

Thanks for the advice.

I thought the focusing system in the body is the main part to lock the target while the lenses only provide a motor to move glasses on given command from the body. How does a better lens focus better if there’s no major difference to the focusing motor?

Lenses are complicated devices and in fact have a processor in them as well as firmware that controls how they respond to the camera and how they return feedback to the camera. Even with the same AF motor in two different lenses gearing matters as well as the weight of he focus elements as heavier focus elements have more inertia.

A brighter lens provides more light for the camera's focus system to work with and a lens with more contrast will provide better AF as focus is based on contrast. Want to experience it yourself. At night, dim the lights in the room you are in and put on sunglasses. That's what you are doing to your camera's focus system when you don't use a bright lens with good contrast.

Morris

 

[FujiJon]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

Honestly I don't have problems focussing with AF-C using the 55-200 on my X-H1, same sensor as the X-T2, unless very fast subjects (cocker spaniels). It just works. But, if you want to upgrade then see comments above. I bought the XH2S for birds etc, works great. I didn't want big files from the 40 meg sensor and I do like the X-H bodies for work with larger lenses.

If it matters, there is no battery grip for the X-T5.

You might want to upgrade the lens at the same time.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Also, a longer lens does a better job of filling the frame with the subject. The more the subject fills the frame, the better subject and eye detect AF work. The smaller the subject is in the frame, the more likely the camera will be to focus on something else.

 

[Morris0]

Also, a longer lens does a better job of filling the frame with the subject. The more the subject fills the frame, the better subject and eye detect AF work. The smaller the subject is in the frame, the more likely the camera will be to focus on something else.

If it can't find the eye, it next tries for the head. When the frame is not well filed by the subject and the background has lots of contrast, this can be a problem and cause the camera to jump to the background.

Morris

 

[orlovsn]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

H2s gets focus faster in all modes and tracks subject better if tracker is engaged in normal release modes.
When pre-shot is engaged (and you will like it for birds) t5 and h2 drops at speed very significantly, while h2s is ok at 20fps, drops speed and 30fps and is still usable at 40fps

But! T5/h2 give you more ability to crop and to my taste provide better IQ in 1:1 scale when pared with sharp lenses

I switched from h2s to t5 and while I have less keepers rate I prefer their IQ and “extra reach”.
First days I was upset with T5 small buffer (H2 has much much better) but I quickly realized that I also prefer to spend less than an hour picking frames after shootout with <1k frames instead of spending a lot of time re-watching >10k frames

 

[MyReality]

" The slow the frame rate, the slower the AF system will react." -That goes against logic unless you are referring to just Fuji.

On my Canon 90D for birding, as soon as AF is locked and the shot is taken, it is sent to the buffer. A slower frame rate simply gives the camera more time to send the shot to the buffer. The problem comes if the frame rate is too fast and the lens cannot acquire focus fast enough or the camera cannot write the frame to the buffer fast enough. if you are in AF-C or AF-S Servo(like I am for action) a slower frame rate causes the prediction algorithm timing not to be crunched up against the next frame.

Think of it as two trains that have to use the same track with a track split ahead for one train so that the other can pass.

 

[Garry Y]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

H2s gets focus faster in all modes and tracks subject better if tracker is engaged in normal release modes.
When pre-shot is engaged (and you will like it for birds) t5 and h2 drops at speed very significantly, while h2s is ok at 20fps, drops speed and 30fps and is still usable at 40fps

But! T5/h2 give you more ability to crop and to my taste provide better IQ in 1:1 scale when pared with sharp lenses

I switched from h2s to t5 and while I have less keepers rate I prefer their IQ and “extra reach”.
First days I was upset with T5 small buffer (H2 has much much better) but I quickly realized that I also prefer to spend less than an hour picking frames after shootout with <1k frames instead of spending a lot of time re-watching >10k frames

Thanks for sharing, how do you rate x-s20 which is released after x-h2s which have "same" AF system and processor?

 

[Garry Y]

Also, a longer lens does a better job of filling the frame with the subject. The more the subject fills the frame, the better subject and eye detect AF work. The smaller the subject is in the frame, the more likely the camera will be to focus on something else.

Thanks, that make sense

 

[Morris0]

" The slow the frame rate, the slower the AF system will react." -That goes against logic unless you are referring to just Fuji.

On my Canon 90D for birding, as soon as AF is locked and the shot is taken, it is sent to the buffer. A slower frame rate simply gives the camera more time to send the shot to the buffer. The problem comes if the frame rate is too fast and the lens cannot acquire focus fast enough or the camera cannot write the frame to the buffer fast enough. if you are in AF-C or AF-S Servo(like I am for action) a slower frame rate causes the prediction algorithm timing not to be crunched up against the next frame.

Think of it as two trains that have to use the same track with a track split ahead for one train so that the other can pass.

The 90D is an SLR and has a seperate AF device from sensor. On mirrorless cameras the focus points are on the sensor and thus the camera can only focus when the shutter is open.

Morris

 

[Morris0]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

H2s gets focus faster in all modes and tracks subject better if tracker is engaged in normal release modes.
When pre-shot is engaged (and you will like it for birds) t5 and h2 drops at speed very significantly, while h2s is ok at 20fps, drops speed and 30fps and is still usable at 40fps

But! T5/h2 give you more ability to crop and to my taste provide better IQ in 1:1 scale when pared with sharp lenses

I switched from h2s to t5 and while I have less keepers rate I prefer their IQ and “extra reach”.
First days I was upset with T5 small buffer (H2 has much much better) but I quickly realized that I also prefer to spend less than an hour picking frames after shootout with <1k frames instead of spending a lot of time re-watching >10k frames

Thanks for sharing, how do you rate x-s20 which is released after x-h2s which have "same" AF system and processor?

I can't say how well it focuses. I tried to use one the other day and was amazed at how difficult it was for me to operate the tiny controls and shutter release. Definitely hold on in your hands before ordering. I'm confident that some people like this camera yet I'm not one of them.

Morris

 

[orlovsn]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

H2s gets focus faster in all modes and tracks subject better if tracker is engaged in normal release modes.
When pre-shot is engaged (and you will like it for birds) t5 and h2 drops at speed very significantly, while h2s is ok at 20fps, drops speed and 30fps and is still usable at 40fps

But! T5/h2 give you more ability to crop and to my taste provide better IQ in 1:1 scale when pared with sharp lenses

I switched from h2s to t5 and while I have less keepers rate I prefer their IQ and “extra reach”.
First days I was upset with T5 small buffer (H2 has much much better) but I quickly realized that I also prefer to spend less than an hour picking frames after shootout with <1k frames instead of spending a lot of time re-watching >10k frames

Thanks for sharing, how do you rate x-s20 which is released after x-h2s which have "same" AF system and processor?

All cameras on latest processor have “same” af system from marketing point of view, but only h2s has super fast sensor to feed that processor with data very fast, so h2s will be af-top at least until next gen cpu will arrive (in t6?) and probably even longer - until h3s with fast stacked sensor will be released

I haven’t used s20, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a single bit faster in af (26mp sensor is faster) and less demanding in af precision (due to lower resolution) but I don’t see myself buying it - t5 is really very nice (while limited in buffer and no 8k video) and costs not much more, giving 40mp real estate and beautiful sensor that replaces me gfx 99% of the time. H2 has all the whistles Fuji can offer right now except fastest af, also with wonderful 40mp sensor. H2s is perfect weapon and is future proof for long time if you are ok with 26mp

Fuji was my second system for ages (since first x100) and while previous sensors were nice but behind Nikon’s 36/45mp sensors, 40mp with it’s low base iso, wonderful color rendition, nice dynamic range and clean high iso just made me move to Fuji as main leaving a lot of shelf space to film system instead of second digital. So you should really give it a try and rent t5/h2 for several days to check if you will like as much also or not. If you will not like it - h2s is waiting for you

 

[Towncaptain]

If we just talk about the auto focus capability using the same lens, which camera body is the best?

I am curious about the answer of this question as I recently went into bird shooting, but I found my old x-t2 seems to be struggling to focus with my 55-200mm in AFC mode. If I buy a new fujifilm body, which one do you recommend and why?

Thanks

Honestly I don't have problems focussing with AF-C using the 55-200 on my X-H1, same sensor as the X-T2, unless very fast subjects (cocker spaniels). It just works. But, if you want to upgrade then see comments above. I bought the XH2S for birds etc, works great. I didn't want big files from the 40 meg sensor and I do like the X-H bodies for work with larger lenses.

If it matters, there is no battery grip for the X-T5.

You might want to upgrade the lens at the same time.

 

[DanielBme]

I used an xh2 and 100-400 last year for a safari in Botswana and it did perfectly well. I won’t say it hit 100% but probably 90%. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again.