Fujifilm X-T1 Image Quality

Review Date: February 24, 2014

Category: Serious to Advanced Amateur

Fujifilm X-T1 with XF56mmF1.2 R lens

Photoxels Editor's Choice 2014 - Interchangeable Lens Camera
Photoxels Editor’s Choice 2014 – Interchangeable Lens Camera

IMAGE QUALITY

The Fujifilm X-T1 is targeted to serious and advanced amateur photographers and features 16.3MP resolution (on an APS-C 23.6mm x 15.6mm X-Trans CMOS II image sensor), Fujifilm X mount, interchangeable lenses and a DSLR-style design.

We find the overall image quality of the Fujifilm X-T1 to be excellent at ISO 200 with low noise and excellent image detail. Image quality is very good up to ISO 1600. Noise starts to be visible at ISO 1600 and is very usable up to ISO 6400. At higher ISOs, images suffer from noise and loss of detail.

XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS
FUJINON XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS at 18mm [27mm equiv.] FUJINON XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS at 55mm [84mm equiv.]
18mm [27mm equiv.] 55mm [84mm equiv.]

The Fujifilm X-T1 features its X mount that currently accepts 12 XF and XC interchangeable lenses with 3 weather-resistant zoom lenses (the XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R OIS WR, the XF16-55mm F2.8 R OIS WR and the XF50-140mm F2.8 R OIS WR) in the pipeline. The focal length multiplier is 1.5x. In the above picture, we show the coverage for the FUJINON XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS [27-84mm equiv.]. The XF18-55mmF2.8-4 has a maximum aperture of F2.8 and a minimum aperture of F22. It has 7 blades with rounded diaphragm opening, 19 1/3EV stops and accepts 58mm diameter filters. The lens is optically image stabilized.

Macro

Macro

Closest focusing distance for the XF35mmF1.4 R is 30cm at wide-angle and 40 cm at tele (you’ll get closer coverage using the tele macro). To access this close-up feature, you’ll need to set one of the 6 customizable function keys to macro [MENU – SET-UP 2 – FUNCTION (Fn) SETTING – Fn1..Fn6 – MACRO]. To keep things consistent with my X-PRO1, I chose Fn3 (UP) as MACRO. As you can see, this is not much of a macro. For real close-up photography, you would want to choose the XF60mmF2.4 R Macro lens.

Now, I am not sure if the specified macro focus distance is from the front of the lens element or the “film” plane. It seems more like the latter since I was able to get as close as 25cm from the front of the lens element at tele 84mm for the picture above.

AF is fast and works very well in good lighting. In low-light, the camera will lock focus in about 1 sec. , which is very good.

Auto White Balance Indoors
AWB Custom WB
AWB Custom WB

As the above two pictures show, the Auto White Balance (AWB) is not quite accurate indoors under artificial lighting [I have two energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs on the ceiling]. The Fujifilm X-T1 allows WB to be easily set manually [MENU – SHOOTING MENU 2 – WHITE BALANCE – CUSTOM – SHUTTER] and this brings out the real colors. AWB works very well in natural light.

ISO Comparisons
ISO 200
ISO 200
ISO 400 ISO 800
ISO 400 ISO 800
ISO 1600 ISO 3200
ISO 1600 ISO 3200
ISO 6400
ISO 6400
Extended ISOs
ISO 100
ISO 100
ISO 12800 ISO 25600
ISO 12800 ISO 25600

You can set the ISO on the Fujifilm X-T1 from 200 to 6400, plus the ability to have extended output sensitivity equivalent ISO 100 (L), 12800 (H1) and 25600 (H2).You can even “push process” the ISO to a high 51200 (MENU – SET-UP 2 – ISO DIAL SETTING – set H1 and/or H2 to 12800, 25600 or 51200).  When the ISO Dial is set to A, the range is from ISO 400 to ISO 6400.

You can set AUTO ISO mode [MENU – SHOOTING MENU 1 – ISO AUTO SETTING – DEFAULT SENSITIVITY (200 to 6400), MAX. SENSITIVITY (400 to 6400), MIN. SHUTTER SPEED (1/4 to 1/500 sec.)] to specify default sensitivity, maximum sensitivity and at what shutter speed to start increasing the ISO. The 100% crops above (area delimited by the white square) demonstrate that noise at ISO 200 is under control. Noise starts to be visible at ISO 1600 but is still very usable up to ISO 6400. At higher ISOs, the presence of noise is visible at full image size and with visible loss of detail.

CA (Purple Fringing)

CA (Purple Fringing)

CA is well controlled and we couldn’t find much of it in our high contrast shots. In the above photo, the top left area delimited by the red square, and reproduced at 100% crop at bottom right, shows negligible purple fringing.

Long Exposure

Long Exposure – 55mm, A, 27 sec., F4, ISO 400, Spot, Self-timer (10 sec.), Macro mode, Tripod used

Our Long Shutter Speed test is a torture test for digital cameras. Here we test whether (and how well) a camera can lock focus, provide accurate WB and obtain a correct exposure in extreme low light situations. The Fujifilm X-T1 passes this test very well.

The Fujifilm X-T1 allows the use of a long shutter speed of 30 sec. in ASM mode. This allows us to take some nice Night Shots. For this shot, I set the camera to Aperture-Priority mode (aperture at F4), ISO to AUTO (camera chose ISO 400) and let the camera select a shutter speed (27 sec.). It’s too bad the full range of shutter speeds is not available in Program AUTO mode (slowest shutter speed is 4 sec.). There is a convenient countdown of the shutter speed in S and M mode but not in A mode.

Overall, the Fujifilm X-T1 has superb image quality (with low noise and excellent sharpness) that rivals and even bests some enthusiast DSLRs.

Next: Fujifilm X-T1 Photo Gallery

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