X-Trans excellence? Fujifilm X30 First Impressions Review

it's ugly, comparing with the old versions

This is the best camera I have ever used by far. I keep discovering new features like "pro focus" which gives lots of bokeh from the tiny sensor and "pro low light" which takes multiple shots of a night scene in order to give a non-mottled image even with the tiny sensor. There are dozens more. It makes me smile.

Also, the Chrome film option is delightful. The zoom covers the range I like the most: 28 to 112. And it's a fast lens.

When I'm using manual focus I really like the button that autofocuses it for me on one part of a scene and then I leave it there for several more fast shots.

I score this camera just about perfect on everything. And I have made 16x20 inch prints from this 2/3rd inch sensor that look lovely so I don't even see the need for a APS-C sensor or full frame. This camera is so lightweight that I take with me at all times thus yielding a cornucopia of fine art shots.

I love the digital viewfinder! Way better than optical.

Hi! I am looking for a compact camera for my travel for some time now. Is this X30 good for my usage as a beginner? I'm not very particular with the other specifications as long as it can create good images without the hassle since I'm still learning the basics. I hope you can help me. Thanks.

Hello, I have been looking at all the comments. Got to point out 'cost' the difference between a x30 & a Sony Rx100M3 & many other models mentioned, is the price, when do you stop? That's a what I'm asking myself. I had a Fuji X20 & gave it as a gift to son, so that's gone.
I'm looking for a second camera to my X-E2 for skiing, x-skiing, biking etc. But the shutter button on the Sony is tiny, I prefer extreme cold to big crowds so taking my mitts off, ouch! that's a consideration too. It has to fit inside my side pocket inside ski jacket.
Looking at both x30 & RX100M3:
** Sony for size, quality of image, EVF, articulated screen.
** x30 for price, knowledge of it, less clicking at menus, zoom, battery-life & quality EVF (smaller then my X-E2 wth lens, even 18mm pancake), but still "big".
Comments refer to models BUT without viewfinders. Lots of us need reading glasses for LCD screens, not ideal at all :)
Research & forums like this is key to make a decision.
Decision, decision....

I have owned the X30 since launch, and spent a lot of time trying to get the best from it. I think it is a very well designed camera for serious photographers. Being a smaller sensor I have found you need to get close to your subject at short focal distances, the magnification of the smaller sensor will give poor distant details. Despite Fuji's reputation for great jpeg I have found sharpness and noise reduction far better using Aperture raw with nr off, detail and sharpness at 15 and 40 respectively. Using the Histogram always ETTR which matches the Standard Provia preview quite well.

I remember reading this 'review' sometime ago before buying my x30. I have also had the Sony's RXs and currently also own an LX100 as my other compact. I'm almost certain that if you ask anyone who's owned this camera, or any of the x10/20/30 they'll tell you that although at times the sensor size does make a difference these cameras are a joy to use and shoot and the experience just makes you want to shoot more and more which is not something you hear often about any other cameras. My LX does noticeably better in low light but comes second in the 'fun' category to the Fuji. Handling is fairly close (for me) with the Fuji just edging the Pana out. If the Fuji had better low light performance I'd probably sell the LX so I think a larger-sensor X40 with similar lens specs and body size would take the crown in this category.

Perhaps the image quality produced by the Fuji sensor is competitive with the larger 1 inch except for those who need the very large prints or other large reproductions formats. A small minority of photograpers by most statistics. Of course large sensor is very important to the pixel peepers. If you have these requirments just go full frame sensor and be done.

For those tempted (or already using) X-Trans sensors, forget about Lightroom support. They took 5 years to get an average/acceptable Olympus/Panasonic rendering.And Capture One still eat LR for breakfast in this domain.

You want the best picture from your Fuji X-Trans (and Pana/Oly too) ?
Get Photo Ninja.
And integrate Photo Ninja as export/plugin inside LR if you want to use LR management and plugins support.
Adobe are like Canon : they move only when they are forced to. And Fuji market share is not going to force them, even Pana/Oly didn't succeeded ;)

Take some hours on Photo Ninja and you will never use anything else for meticulous raw rendering. Especially on X-Trans.

What always amuses me is that in the days of film, no one really seemed to mind the popular 35mm format with its limitation of, no matter what lenses used (including those of Leica), classic hallmark grain and tonal crudifying tendencies branded the format. I don't know what today's equivalent in megapixcels would be but you can be sure that it would not be very high! Imagine my surprise then when a friend, many years ago, showed me a portrait he'd taken with a new Olympus 3.3 mp digital camera he'd just bought. Professionally printed out, it was of a clarity, detail and cleanliness the would have easily fooled me into believing it was shot on either 120 or maybe even 5x4 film! And this from a tiny three megapixcel sensor! So how then, ten years on, can a sensor size of 12 MP have any adverse bearing on picture quality today? None, I suggest!
But to the new X30 - does anyone know if the X20's blotchiness in gradients in low light levels (such as in grass under a bush) has been cured?

Not the size of the X30 is my problem, but the weight. In my opinion a pocketable camera should not weigh more than approximately 300 grams.

It is still weird that the chart above showing the equivalent aperture for the X30, and the XZ-2 are almost totally identical, including the focal length range.

To me that says we're very closely related, as no other camera (of those shown) have anything even barely looking a bit similar.

As we know the MX-1 and the XZ-1 and the ZX-2 have the same optics, why then does Fuji show exactly the same graph (there is a tiny deviation, but that is so small that I bet the XZ-1 compared to a XZ-2 has at least that variation, too — clearly within manufacturing variation limits!

First thing I notice is that its a camera for right handed people, like most camera's. This is pretty awkward for left handed people wanting to shoot holding it with one hand.

I think the move to EVF is significant. Who wants an optical viewfinder that doesn't show at least 95% of the image - not to mention parallax issues.
The sensor being the same size may look poor against the new offerings from Panasonic and Sony but in the end the results are what matter. Improved af is welcome. An increase in size is a bit puzzling. Personally I would rather they had put the 25-100mm zoom from the Xf1 in.

The X30 is the only camera of this type that provides certain capabilities that are important to me, notably accommodation of an external microphone for video, and interval shooting. I might wish that it had a Bulb setting for long exposures but can live without that.
I have not owned a Fuji camera before--this will be the first--and will give it a shot. It's not shipping until November, and I am pre-ordering completely on spec since I have not seen one in person and probably will not until this shows up at my door.

I've been using a Canon S110 and love it to death, but I want a second high-end P&S with more capabilities and the X30 comes closest to fulfilling my requirements.

I love the new design and I have always loved the way the Fuji X10 and X20 handled, particularly the manual zoom. In fact, the haptics alone have me tempted to get the Fuji X30 despite the small sensor size since it solves my main gripe by far with the previous two models, which was the crappy viewfinder. All that said, it is a shame that Fuji did not go with a 1" sensor. I am sure there are all kinds of reasons but, in the current environment with 1" compact options multiplying plus the announcement of the LX100, a 2/3" sensor on a camera larger than a NEX 6 is hard to make sense of.

Although everyone has the experience of buying something with appeal only to find later they wish they had spent a little bit more, I have yet to regret buying a 1:1.6 / f1.8 compact camera because I still get good use of it. Though not my main camera now, I don't always need or require the best camera I own. Bottom line: the pitch on these fast glass compacts is valid. If you don't have a camera and wish to enter the game, you should NOT buy a 1:2, 1:2.3 or 1:2.5 pocket camera. I have one of those too, that I use outdoors at Scout Camp once a year. General photography requires a bit more and these advanced compacts are a great place to start. If you are only ever going to buy one camera, you SHOULD fork out that little extra for one-inch because the slightly larger sensor gives you two stops, 4x shutter. Another $100 will get you THREE stops if the LX100 that comes out tomorrow lives up to the rumors. 8x shutter speed will save some shots! All our picky opinions are about keepers.

uh, guys, don't really know a lot about technology, but i do use an X10, have an EM-5, had a Nikon DSLR a few years ago, and have had a bunch of cameras that took really good pictures....and I have to tell you, the quality of the pictures on the X10 are sensational, and the X20 is even better. I spend a half hour a day looking at pics on Flicker's X10/X20 group and Sony RX100 group, and i'll be damned on my Ipad if I can tell that one has a 1" sensor (which BTW is a geometric joke....it's not like it is a full frame or something....) or not. The FUji pix are sensational, so are the Sony. There is more to a camera and IQ than sensor size, i mean, arne't we just looking at pixel envy again? What about image stabilization, color rendition, focus time, etc.? Sorry, i've taken great pictures with my old G10, which now has a sensor in it that my photo shop tells me is for a point and shoot (even though I bought it from them...). Come on. Look at the pictures, not the sensors.

Why is a camera with such a small (2/3) sensor so large? If I want a camera that big I'll get a mirrorless 4/3 or APS-C. "Just Sayin" ;-)

Why do I want this camera so badly?

About to be shamed by the the smaller Lumix LX100 with M43 sensor and faster zoom ...

HUGE camera for such tiny sensor. Fuji should take lesons from Sony how to put 1" sensor and fast lens into body. Porobably Panasonic LX-8 will be also much smaller than X30. Some APS-C are just a little bigger than X30.

"The built-in OIS (optical image stabilization) mechanism delivers an image stabilizing effect equivalent to 3.0-stop*4 and is extremely effective in preventing blurring caused by camera shake or subject movement". Snipped from the fujifim dot com site. Huh?

I would think Fuji might jump on the 1" bandwagon. This camera is considerably larger than the R100, yet has less than half the sensor area. I know that is one thing that allows the faster lens, but I would jump on 16-20mp 1" version of this camera, even if if the lens dropped to say 2.8-4.0.

I own the X20. It is true that it uses a lot of battery and forces me (for saving battery) to use a lot the view finder that covers seulement 85%. So a better battery and a real viewfinder is a plus.

The ergonomy of the X20 was good but the X30 control ring, one more programmable button and a better placed Q button is a plus too.

Anyway as I have been disappointed by the Fuji warranty support I won't buy it neither could recommend the brand.

(for instance in my case I discovered that a tiny scratch on the body voids the warranty for any internal trouble that it would have later.)

For me the spec is ok, provided the camera itself remains small in size. But I find the design of the X30 lacks the elegance of the X10/X20. It looks bigger and altogether a bit run-of-the-mill. Bigger batteries with longer life are always useful, but that advantage is tempered by the fact that the batteries used on the X10/X20 are small and easy to carry. Fuji may have positioned this camera in no-mans-land where people are short of reasons to buy it.

... or maybe that button should not be there until about a month after the camera has been released. That way, immature children would not be able to play with things that should not be there in the first place.

I think people should stop talking about cameras they haven't used and use the cameras they own...

The other thing is reading through all these posts paints a really weird picture of the authors of a lot of the posts: people with very small hands with psychic powers, they can see the future but yet still look for what they want in the wrong place or rather thing.... :D its entertaining...i'm gonna go take some photos with my small sensor camera, I think it's a better thing to do than looking at it with ruler and metric tape at hand, it's not what it was made for. I see things don't ever change in these forums, I think i'll go back into photos and avoiding forums like this :D I'll leave you wit the work of Alex Majoli and his small sensor camera (which since the advent of the 1" sensor has been deemed worthless) http://www.robgalbraith.com/multi_page8c1c.html?cid=7-6468-7844

It looks like many are not familiar with the concept of cognitive friction and complain about the cameras looking the same and offer the same features, but If I was to enter the Fujifilm market at the low end with intention to reach the higher end, I wouldn't like my camera controls or interface to change much as I upgrade. It is in fact made that way so people would not have to go through a steep learning curve. Think about that next time you use a camera different from yours.

No OVF, no like... no purchase!

-- owner of XPro1, X100, XT1