Ok, I know I said a few posts back “no camera reviews” , however – a few thoughts….
At the time of writing (a week or so ago), I had completed 4 “proper” jobs with the new flagship camera. Below are some images and thoughts from 3 of these jobs:
- Kermode 3D at the BFI
- Mabel at Somerset House
- Bullet Train Gala
The above image is Nick, running the clips on the Kermode show at the BFI. He’s only lit by his laptop, no house lights. He is laughing (hence movement blur on the face). The camera had absolutely no problem locking onto his eyes. The technical details are below.
I’m closer this time – the eye tracking locked onto Nick’s eye despite so much of the face being covered.
The next job was Mabel performing at Somerset House. Shooting with the 90mm fully open on AF-C, face tracking. No issues with the flashing lights, dancers, fast movement or profile shots.
I’m still trying to get used to the button layout but as my camera’s are in Manual mode 90% of the time, the P-A-S-M dial is not an issue. That said I find it really annoying that in Manual mode I cannot re-assign the front command dial to roll the ISO as then it would match my X-T3’s and be far faster to adjust. When most of my lenses have aperture rings it really makes no sense to dedicate this dial to aperture!
The last of the 3 jobs was the Bullet Train UK gala screening. For this I used the X-H2s with the 100-400 for headshots. The eye tracking always found its target – tracking accurately as they walked and moved, even finding Brad Pitt’s eye on a 3/4 rear view (i.e. the dip in the profile where the eye was as he turned – i am wondering if it was the reflection on the sunglasses!)
Overall this camera is a HUGE step up from any of the other Fujifilm cameras with subject tracking that can be relied on at speed. Additionally although the CFExpress cards are expensive – seeing the RAW files download in a fraction of the time that it takes to download JPG images from the SD, the switch is positive.
Happy shooting and back to the Workflow with the next post.
Julie Edwards-X 
Thank you Julie for your review. I’ve never been happy with the AF of the X-T series of Fuji’s. I almost changed to Sony a few months ago as my tests with them were amazing. However, a couple of weeks ago I tried the new X-H2s and was very impressed. A huge improvement on my X-T3 but up to the Sony standards? Not sure, maybe 80% of the way there.
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Im told by those that have tried both is that it is really close … I’m told (I’ve not tried the latest Sony ) that there is not a lot in it.. those that have compared the eye tracking (and animal tracking) are saying that it picks up subjects are a far greater range and track’s comparable
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