Longdolphin01
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I’ve read some various things online about how the X-H2S performs if you shoot at Continuous High - 40 fps just to the CF Express Card, vs writing to both the CF Express and SD at the same time. Opinions seemed to vary quite widely, so I did a bit of my own testing and found the following:
TL;DR
CFE only is faster.
CFE+SD works fine with a fast SD card.
Use CFE only if you don’t have a fast SD card unless you really need the backup.
My setup
X-H2S + Silicon Power 512 GB CF Express + PNY 256 GB V60 SD
I shot five and ten second bursts with each recording setup to see how many photos the camera took. Presumably, if the “both” setup was slower, the camera would record less images. Shooting was done in AF-C on a stationary target in release priority recording Lossless Compressed RAW.
5s
CFE - 176 (35 fps)
Both - 154 (31 fps)
10s
CFE - 247 (25 fps)
Both - 200 (20 fps)
Conclusions
The CFE setup alone is a little bit faster from an FPS perspective, but not hugely so. The buffer saturates in both setups, which generally aligns with Fuji’s specs, saying 170 shots in lossless compressed RAW at 40 fps recording only to CFE. Impressively, the FPS doesn’t slow that much when also recording to SD. I imagine this would change depending on the card. My PNY card has a sustained write speed of 180 MB/s based on my testing, whereas my old cards were around 30-50 MB/s.
The other thing of note from this setup doesn’t show up in the measurements, which is the buffer clearing time. While the FPS in both situations wasn’t wildly different, the camera was locked up for significantly longer in the CFE+SD configuration than in the CFE configuration. I would estimate only a second or two in CFE to clear the buffer, vs maybe 10-15 seconds in CFE+SD. If you’re in a shooting situation where you want/need to take multiple bursts in rapid succession, CFE only is probably the way to go. However, in most situations, I think writing to both has effectively no impact for me, since I almost never shoot a 5+ second burst at 40 fps and have a fast SD card.
I more or less bought my X-H2S because the buffer on the X-T5 was so absurdly small (<20 shots at 15 fps). It’s clear the X-H2S has a massive buffer, and that makes it a dramatically better wildlife camera. That plus the significantly better and faster AF, lack of retro controls, custom settings banks, and lack of rolling shutter in electronic shutter mode. Oh, and more reliable weather sealing is nice. And the top screen. I quite enjoy my X-T5, but it’s not the tool for the wildlife “job” for me.
TL;DR
CFE only is faster.
CFE+SD works fine with a fast SD card.
Use CFE only if you don’t have a fast SD card unless you really need the backup.
My setup
X-H2S + Silicon Power 512 GB CF Express + PNY 256 GB V60 SD
I shot five and ten second bursts with each recording setup to see how many photos the camera took. Presumably, if the “both” setup was slower, the camera would record less images. Shooting was done in AF-C on a stationary target in release priority recording Lossless Compressed RAW.
5s
CFE - 176 (35 fps)
Both - 154 (31 fps)
10s
CFE - 247 (25 fps)
Both - 200 (20 fps)
Conclusions
The CFE setup alone is a little bit faster from an FPS perspective, but not hugely so. The buffer saturates in both setups, which generally aligns with Fuji’s specs, saying 170 shots in lossless compressed RAW at 40 fps recording only to CFE. Impressively, the FPS doesn’t slow that much when also recording to SD. I imagine this would change depending on the card. My PNY card has a sustained write speed of 180 MB/s based on my testing, whereas my old cards were around 30-50 MB/s.
The other thing of note from this setup doesn’t show up in the measurements, which is the buffer clearing time. While the FPS in both situations wasn’t wildly different, the camera was locked up for significantly longer in the CFE+SD configuration than in the CFE configuration. I would estimate only a second or two in CFE to clear the buffer, vs maybe 10-15 seconds in CFE+SD. If you’re in a shooting situation where you want/need to take multiple bursts in rapid succession, CFE only is probably the way to go. However, in most situations, I think writing to both has effectively no impact for me, since I almost never shoot a 5+ second burst at 40 fps and have a fast SD card.
I more or less bought my X-H2S because the buffer on the X-T5 was so absurdly small (<20 shots at 15 fps). It’s clear the X-H2S has a massive buffer, and that makes it a dramatically better wildlife camera. That plus the significantly better and faster AF, lack of retro controls, custom settings banks, and lack of rolling shutter in electronic shutter mode. Oh, and more reliable weather sealing is nice. And the top screen. I quite enjoy my X-T5, but it’s not the tool for the wildlife “job” for me.
