Fujifilm has a brand new pint-size addition to its X-series cameras coming in late June: the X Half. It’s an 18-megapixel “half-frame” digital camera with a portrait-oriented sensor and viewfinder and a hard and fast 32mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens.
Regardless of being digital, the X Half is all in regards to the classic movie aesthetic. The $849.99 digital camera is so devoted to an analog-like life-style that it’s bought a complete secondary display screen only for choosing considered one of its 13 movie simulations, and it doesn’t shoot RAW photographs in any respect — simply JPGs, for a extra what-you-see-is-what-you-get expertise.
Fujifilm’s definition of a half-frame is a bit completely different from the standard one. Normally, a half-frame movie digital camera just like the Pentax 17 captures photographs measuring 18mm x 24mm (round half the scale of full-frame / 35mm format). However the X Half makes use of a 1-inch-type sensor measuring 8.8mm x 13.3mm, which is about half the size of the APS-C sensors in different Fujifilm cameras just like the X100VI and X-T5. So I assume it counts on a technicality.
However just like the Pentax 17 and different precise half-frame cameras, the X Half is all about taking informal, enjoyable snapshots and bringing it with you all over the place. It weighs simply 8.5 ounces / 240 grams and is sufficiently small to slot in most small baggage and even some outsized pockets. The X Half is shut in measurement to a conventional disposable digital camera, however in contrast to a one-time-use movie digital camera it has a correct glass autofocusing lens with aspherical corrections, and it even shoots some fundamental 1080 x 1440 video. (Although, in my briefing on the digital camera, Justin Stailey of Fujifilm North America described the lens as having “some character.” Which is commonly a colourful approach of claiming the lens isn’t the sharpest.)
As soon as you are taking some photographs through the X Half’s conventional optical viewfinder (that’s proper, there’s no EVF or hybrid finder right here) or its portrait-orientation 2.4-inch touchscreen, you may hook up with a devoted smartphone app (launching barely after the digital camera) for further capabilities. You possibly can create your individual two-up diptychs like a conventional half-frame digital camera, although right here you may select the 2 side-by-side footage, or you may go for two movies or one image and one video.
Fujifilm has baked different analog-inspired options into the X Half app, like a Movie Digicam Mode that collects your subsequent 36, 54, or 72 photographs and arranges them right into a contact sheet. However the movie nerdiness goes deeper than that, because the digital movie strip will likely be branded with the movie simulation you used. There’s even a pretend movie advance lever for making diptychs, and in Movie Digicam Mode it forces you to make use of it between taking every shot.
You possibly can lean additional into the movie kitsch by including filters, like a light-weight leak impact, expired movie look, or a ’90s-era time and date stamp to the nook. After all, because the digital camera doesn’t shoot RAW, your chosen filter and movie simulation are totally baked into the JPG file. You possibly can’t undo any of them or change it later in post-processing such as you’d usually have the ability to with a RAW.
Fujifilm is definitely taking a novel strategy with the X Half, attempting to seize the curiosity of youthful photograph fanatics who lately have been drawn to the imperfections and vibes of classic movie and getting older point-and-shoot digital cameras. I don’t know what number of of them will likely be leaping on the alternative to scratch that artistic itch with an $850 digital camera in comparison with alternate options costing a fraction of that — like a $70 Camp Snap for digital or any 35mm disposable movie digital camera for $10 to $20 — however even when it’s half the enjoyable I had with the Pentax 17 it ought to show time.
