I hope this is helpful for you, and remember, these are just *_my_* opinions based on *_my_* experience:) not talking about specs, not addressing every topic, but feel free to ask any questions! I’m stoked for my next few videos so stay tuned. Forgotten notes: - Weather sealing has been great for me in wet rainy conditions and dusty hot conditions. - 4k120p and 1080p240: the 120 is great though you lose dynamic range, but I don’t use 120 often. And the 240p is improved over the line-skipped version in the XT4. - The “non-vintage aesthetic” doesn’t bother me because Fuji still offers that look in other cameras.
This might just be the best XH2S video review I've seen yet! I love that you're framing it from real-world experience and telling us your expectations and use cases with the camera.
This is one of the best, if not the best, Fujifilm X-H2s reviews. I’ve watched it multiple times as I confirmed that this camera is right for my needs (without a doubt, it is). I just bought used and am excited to receive it. Thank you so much for taking the time to detail your thoughts. It is huge for many of us.
Jeremy, I'm way late here, but your words have meant a lot to me these last few weeks, not feeling too inspired toward youtube, but this makes me want to do more.
@@johnstamw, please do what inspires you. Your fans will appreciate what you are passionate about sharing and we don’t need anything more. I’ve been watching your videos since and enjoyed your latest in Port Angeles. You inspire me to find ways of capturing life with my family, but it requires balance with participating. Ha! I live in the Pacific Northwest (Portland), so that video had just the right vibes for me.
Hi. I have the XH2s and the autofocus with the new Fuji lenses is actual great. The racking is smooth on those. You may be seeing the face issues due to using the adapted 18-35. I have the new 23, 33 and the 18-120 which might actually be the best lens I have ever used for video.
Hello again Rocky! Like I said, I agree the XH2S autofocus is very good! And the new lenses with the improved LM motors, especially the 18-120 which I have had the joy of using only briefly, is much much improved in the AF category! I think I mentioned in both "autofocus" and "lens choices" section something similar. I can't wait to see all fuji's lenses improved and hopefully the bodies AF get better too with 3rd party lenses (even non-adapted).
Hi John, I love your attitude to the gear even it is not perfect. Because no gear is perfect for everyone and no need to become angry about it. I learned a lot from this video! Thank you. And I love your work.
Honestly, that's reality, right? We have these tools and you learn to work with them and enjoy it or move on and find a different tool. This one does the things that are most important to me! Appreciate your comment.
This is so informative and incredibly detailed! Thank you so much for piecing this video together and helping so many with making an important decision. The video is amazingly put together and has helped me heaps !!
I’m an XH2S user and a thought I’m not a custom dial user think that your custom dials CAN remains static, you have to choose “no” for “auto update changes to custom dial”. Or something like that; I’m remembering, not reading the camera. … Great vid!
Oh man, what a great review. Covers everything that could be off interest in real world use. Unfortunately I find the X-H2S is a bit to big and expensive for me. That's why I looked into the X-S20 but the IBIS for video on that camera looks horrid in anything but a still frame. Also the AF doesn't look great although I'd mostly use manual anyway. Now I'm looking to get the a6700 but the Fuji colors are just so beautiful. Especially for skin tones. Do you have any opinion on the X-S20? I'd value it a lot.
Great, in-depth review! I wonder about the zoom at 16:50 . Since you filmed this in 6k, shouldn't a 50% zoom turn the picture to 4k? How come it is blurry? Shouldn't a 50% zoom of 6k footage be 4k (and so, have enough pixels to prevent blur)? It looks like the blur one gets when one zoom 50% on a 4k footage, because 4k footage will have to enlarge their pixels, but a 6k zoomed to 4k do not enlarge any pixels.
Iris has to change when zooming to maintain the same f-stop. E.g. 16 f/2.8 = 5.7mm. 55 f/2.8 = 19.6mm. The exposure stepping while zooming is likely due to how Fuji isn't electronically controlling the iris in a stepless manner. Other brands are doing it in a stepless manner hence no exposure stepping when zooming. Adapted EF lenses are different because the iris is mechanically linked to the zoom ring. Because of that, there is no exposure stepping. For some reason Fuji still doesn't know how to do it, even with their new 18-120 f/4.
Wow, having seen your content, I have made up my mind. I think the Fujifilm XH2S will be the better hassle free camera for my wife. I want it to be a camera she can enjoy. One thing I don't get on any review video, is does it come with a standard lens? or are all lenses sold separately? Also, does it have a blue tooth functionality to where you could send a photo directly from the camera to your phone for example? That would be Suuuuper useful for what we need it for.
Thanks! Yea you can buy it as a kit with lens! The 16-55 f2.8 is the best available but somewhat big. Or the 18-55mm is good too, not amazing but small! And yes you can use an app with Bluetooth for transfer.
I've been in between buying the X-H2S or a X-T4 and this is probably the straw that'll push me towards the X-H series since I've got aspirations of shooting music videos/short films. I'll miss the silver trim of the X-T series but it's nowhere near a big deal lol. Very informative and mad casual but like, super stylish?? And the footage you got from the wedding was incredible, i'm sure they were very happy with your work. Great job dude!
I definitely think for music videos and short films you will feel the benefits of the XH2S, and it is sad the aesthetic isn't the same haha. Stylish ay? Glad to hear it haha I'm always here for a casual camera chat. Appreciate your words Nicklaus!
This was great. You do the best reviews of cameras because you review it from a "this is why this works for me" point of view. This is where we are with cameras now, choose what works best for your style/needs. With that, I'm going to get an X-H2s! Thanks for the detailed information!
thanks a lot for saying that Rondel! It's hard to review cameras because it's so very subjective to each person's needs and wants with a camera. Truly most every camera released today could well be used for a vast majority of professional uses, so it does come down to _what works for you_. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment, mean a lot.
This video is so helpful. Thanks for your detailed work on this by really going into depth with your real world use. I feel similar with the way I use my xh2s even as we are working on very different projects. The wide 6k frame with you holding the mic is a vibe.
Best “ramble” ever. I appreciate your perspective. Honestly you covered answers to basically all the questions I have regarding the xh2s so I’d say that’s a big feat to do in 35 min!
It seems defaulted to a Kodak 1970's 5247 film stock look. A little ironic for Fuji. But by adding back color saturation with your LUT, you seem to be missing the point of this camera.
I'm not really sure what that means Akiva, do you mean with Eterna? With F-Log? F-Log 2? A different film simulation? If this camera has one specific point maybe I am missing that specific thing but I sure do love it!
Not to forget: When using an FF camera with more than 1-2 persons, you generally have to further stop down to get some depth of sharpness/ DOF which of course pushes up the ISO.
This is one of the key reasons I prefer Fuji for weddings. Gets more people in focus at events F1.4. On the dancefloor I need as much light as possible, and don't want only a hair in focus.
Love the b footage, super inspiring to someone who wants to get more into videography. You have an awesome sense of composition and tell a great story of a location. Wanted to ask though, have you played with the af tracking speed options? Seems that would help with the jittery focus racks. Edit: thanks for mentioning that the 18-35 doesn't have exposure stepping issues
thanks so much, appreciate it!! for adapted lenses the AF settings don't apply, but on native lenses yes you can modify that a bit with the AF settings!
Concerning overheating: I switched system from sony to fuji just because of this. My a1 overheated after 30min 8k recording (Studio, Screen detached, dummy battery). The X-H2 (with fan) records 8k like 3 hours with no problem and I also never had any prob with the 6.2k of the X_H2s either. Game changer for me! Great review by the way. Been testing a few lenses and have to say i like sigma way better than the fuji ones. They seem to be perfect for foto, but for video sigma and tamron are in my opinion better. I have the sigma 16mm for total, the 30mm for my guitar fretboard, the tamrom 17-70 for closeups and also the 18-35 sigma in the drawer ;)
Wow that's really interesting to hear first hand experience!! Thanks for the kind words too. I'm jealous of your lens lineup haha you've got an amazing set there!
in my experience about the AF it depends what "decent enough" means for you. If you want the camera to do the focus racking, or you need extreme lowlight AF, or in general if you want it to be *perfect* then fuji probably won't be the right fit. but if you just want it to be very good in most situations and hold subjects, track faces, etc. it works great for me!
@@johnstamw I am just filming in a controlled studio enviroment which seems to be easy AF-wise for even the X-H2s (And X-H2 which I also have). For anything more demanding like lowlight OR extremely bright backgrounds - I would switch to sony again because AF there is like so much better. Focus racking ist way better there as well, but that is also something I dont need. If the Sony A7 V comes out and has 8k, I'd probably switch back ;) Even in Picture Mode, the X-H2 misses focus on the eyes quite often if the lights are not perfect. And that in AF-S. Yeah, its really bad. I would say if you dont need the 6.2k or 8k like me - go sony 100% (or canon)
The XH2s racks focus super smoothly, your focus speed in that test was maxed out. Slow your focus speed in your AFC settings to the middle or +1 and the racking is perfectly cinematic.
What’s up Anthony! Not sure how many of my videos you’ve watched or if you watched this one thoroughly, but that wasn’t the issue here and I don’t disagree with you about it’s capability of racking smoothly!
@@johnstamw Hey man! At 9:05 you demonstrated that the AF racks can be quick and jumpy. I was just saying mine looked like that until I slowed the focus speed to about 0 to +1 is all. I find with the speed high, the jumpiness is more prevalent, with it slower, it won’t act on the micro-hesitations and will be smoother overall. Just trying to help!
@@ANTHONYFERNANDO completely understand where your coming from! I do think I say it’s very lens dependent tho, or maybe I didn’t hahaha it’s been awhile since I made this! But for example older Fuji focusing motors just aren’t as responsive to the focus mode settings. But LM lenses are much better about it. Adapted lenses(my situation using almost exclusively the 18-35 sigma) don’t acknowledge the speed settings altogether so no matter the change it will always behave the same way. Anyway, I don’t disagree with you and am glad you chimed in here brother! I’ll have to check some of ur vids they look rad!!
@@johnstamw Adapted lenses don’t acknowledge the speed settings?? I did not know that. That’s very interesting and useful insight! And great video altogether man, nice to see you’re enjoying the camera! And thanks man! (The videos on my channel are kinda old and not my best work, mainly just music. I should get around to posting my video reel 😅)
Dammit John, don’t ever apologize for a video where every minute spent was a joy to do so!! I love love LOVED your B-roll! I must have watched this a few times through already… not even contemplating about buying the camera! Ahahaha anyway, I have you to thank for my lovely XT4/Fringer/Sigma18-35 combo. I’m no pro, just a guy with a trusty camera set up for the fun of it all. Love your LUTS by the way, looking to get more! Cheers man, thanks for all the care you put in these videos, I for one always enjoy your style and thought out thoughts! Happy holidays, stay healthy my friend!
Hey Jace, I'm sorry I forgot to respond but this meant a lot to me. Very encouraging to hear all that you said, thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to comment and encourage!
I want to express my gratitude to you John by making this video (and many others great videos) that has helped me to make decision to purchase X-H2s. Great work and your true professional experience is valued so much. For the codec, I also think the multiple selections on video codecs did not bother me that much, once you set it up you won't visit them so often. For the c1 to c7 dial, it's critical to know what setting you want to use for the video/still so you can maximize the benefits of them. I also experienced the change of focal lengths during the shooting will also change the exposure a bit even I set everything (WB/ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed) to manual. I tested it in XF16-55 and XF10-24 and it is quite obvious especially indoor (for my kids skating practice). I have seen this "behavior" happened in X-T3 and now my X-H2s. It seems to be a Fuji lens thing as the new XF18-120 has the same behaviors.
I am so thankful for your thoughtful comment!! I do love the codec options. And the exposure stepping is definitely an odd thing. Thank you again for your kind words!
The focus settings don't applied to adapted lenses sadly, but Fuji's LM lenses, especially the new lenses, are pretty great with racking AF! I do still think canon and sony have smoother racking, but that's not something I want my camera to do, I'd rather manually focus rack.
being completely honest, I haven't upgraded the firmware because i'm perfectly content with the camera exactly as it is, but now that you reminded me and I have some time off... maybe i'll update
FYI the fringer adapter does not work with af speed and sensitivity settings. That’s why you can’t rack focus smoothly. It works brilliantly with actual Fuji lenses
@@johnstamw it's unfortunate that the fringer guy isn't able to resolve that. I love the 18-35 but because of those focus issues I bought the 16-55 and haven't really touched the Sigma since then.
Congrats great video I love the color of your footage i just wanna know do you color grade heavily for these results or the color science of Fuji helps in some way? I mean if you shoot in Flog2 then make the color space transform do the colors look great? I know that we have to always color grade our footage I just want to know if we can see the Fuji film look already after colocar space transform and then work more on the color, and the skin tones are very beautiful on your footage do you have to do a lot of work for that results? I have a blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4K and love the colours but I am thinking on selling it I want a camera that helps me to be more quick on the shooting day like I work Alone and I do music videos by the way I want a camera that give me great color and data that I can color grade easily (like my bmpcc4k)
fuji is made for beautiful colors, so I'll say that much for sure! I think you can leave fuji almost ungraded and love the footage, but if you choose to grade as I do (not heavily) then I think there's lots more potential to unlock
Have you noticed that your vertical footage zoomed in to Fitbit better looks strangely different than anything I ever seen before. Maybe because rolling shutter is now up and down?
@@johnstamw I don't think there is any chance seeing it that way. Just like the horizon doesn't look tilted when you tilt your head. I think we have a mechanism of leveling up and down no matter how you tilt your head. :D
Do you ever notice a lack of image quality when shooting @ 18mm with the sigma 18-35? It's like it looks slightly more digital or something. Idk if I'm crazy but I thought I'd ask because I kind of saw it in your wider talking shots in this video. Great video btw!
Well, like many wider angle/zoom lenses it definitely feels like it suffer some loss of sharpness at the widest as well as losing most of it's D.o.F so it looks a little less crisp in that sense too. You're not crazy haha it's definitely real!
Thanks John, this video is first very well made, images are awesome, color grading is sick and speech is cristal clear. Just a thing, did you tried the differents bitrates ? (sorry I'm French, I may be missed this part if you spoke about it). You have the choice also with 200-360 and 720Mbps. Did you tried and see a difference (like in very high light under the sun and also in low light) or even in the blue of the sky ? when would you suggest the 720mbps ?
thank you greatly Simon! I do have another video on this topic of fujfilm bitrates, back with their older cameras and I find the data rate value maxes out near 200mbps with anything higher being unnecessary for the vast majority of situations. So for that reason I tend to stay at 200mbps
Really love this very in-depth in-depth review of the XH2S. I am just wondering, and if you haven't or I haven't got to hear your thoughts on it - why is that that you pick X-H2S over the X-H2 with the 8k30p recording, pixel shift, etc? I, myself are currently in a dilemma in choosing which body should I get myself, as having the XT20 is quite limited for my video needs now. Can you kindly enlighten me more haha, thanks beforehand!
Super delayed here, but I personally chose the XH2S because I wanted the open gate 6k more than 8k and I preferred the small differences that make the S model feel more video oriented. Not a huge difference and truly either one is an awesome camera!
I love the Viltrox primes 13, 23,33 and 56 all f 1.4 and they work w the autofocus and they are cheap. The original cineeye sends a video Signsl yo up to 4 tablets or phones. It also gives you a lut overlay and false color tools and cropping options which I think really move a Fujifilm camera into cinema camera territory. Fujifilm camera
Bruh! Thank you a lot for this review which is more than review but thorough feedback story with attention to detail. Although not being a native English speaker, I am glad to be able to watch this this with a hundred percent understanding. I am thinking of upgrading from my current XT-3 that I have been happy to work with for the past three years so I consider a Xh2S? instead of changing the whole system - lenses and other gear, say, to sony one due to the higher prices for the optics and auxiliary things. I do agree with you - handheld +ibis is not the question, the question is to have a gimbal to get a proper result. Still watching your review. Subscribed. All the best and greetings from Russia!
Greetings to you in Russia, sorry for my delay here. I am thankful that my video communicates clearly even thru the language barrier. I think the XT3 is an amazing camera still to this day, so with that camera or the XH2S you can make beautiful videos!
I'm going off topic, but every time I see your video, I'm amazed by the beautiful places captured by your camera. They are perfect for your personal luts, or the other way around.
It's the first time I've heard someone accurately describe the IBIS as photo centric. Couldn't agree more. My X-T4 does that too, you can't expect to get good hand held slow pan gimble-like shots since the camera will try to keep the image as still as possible like if it were on a tripod. Once you realize this, you can get really great shots stable as long as you keep the body as fixed as possible and work with the IBIS instead of against it. I do wish though that the engineers at fuji would develop a software release with an IBIS mode that was move fluent for movement like panning
Yeah I think the "photo-centric" explains fuji in general right? they're not a video first company so I feel like we see that with IBIS and AF, etc. but like you said, we just adapt and you can still get great shots! Someday I'm sure fuji will address this!
Does anyone else notice any FRAMESKIPPING with this camera? Every video I see on youtube that is filmed with this camera looks like it's frame skipping.
Could potentially be my lack of concern for using ND filters regularly 😂 or also it could be lots of folks prefer Long GOP which could potentially maayybbee cause a visual effect? Comparatively to All Intra.
is good to use AFL during using af-c mode to prevent focus loss? if you know what I mean. and second question what is diffrence between switching or pressing button? I write about ae lock option
It totally depends on your situation which focus mode you might need. switch/press for any "lock" means you can either toggle on/off with one click OR you have to press & hold to lock.
Thanks mate! I needed that info as a experience and so in detail and honest overall look on how you feel after months of using it as it’s not cheap camera and for people like me still using the xt3 is still a hard decision to make . Definitely Fuji have move forward on some points as the competition is not waiting for chill but on many things stays behind and I think I’ll try to make it run still on the old now xt3.Wish the autofocus would allow me to be confident on more video jobs and the image stabilisation would give me easier run and gun video but after all the 10 bit image on xt3 with the sigma 18-35 rigged up is not bad at all and will skip those jobs .
I'm glad to hear it was helpful!! Fuji is gonna keep on improving but yeah there's lots of competition! The XT3 is an amazing camera so I would keep rocking it.
@@johnstamw I already have the XT4 so if I need to upgrade this one is the go to guy :p and the no limit of record time, improved autofocus seems to be very interesting on this one. Also I love the grip of the XH more and maybe will love the custom button C1 to C7 for switching quickly beetween 120fps slomow to 25fps 6k etc
@@fabpicture_com ahhhh yes then you already know where you're headed haha! It's been a great upgrade for me so far, but everytime I use my XT4 I still love it.
