[Music] Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my definitive video review Of the new Fujifilm Xs20 camera Fujifilm xs20 is the second Generation of Fuji's merging of some of The more advanced features of the XT Series into a smaller lighter and Cheaper camera the xs20 has become a Little bit more focused in this Generation and it is clear that Fuji is Marketing this camera towards content Creators people like myself particularly Those who Vlog who or who are one person Operations these improvements include a Bigger capacity battery better autofocus And video specs and other core Improvements so the question is is are There enough improvements to justify the 300 price increase over the xs10 we'll Find out today after a word from our Sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22 Percent smaller and 35 percent lighter While still making it easy to access Your cards and money when you need them Thanks to their unique Fanning mechanism You could even customize your wallet due To its modular design with accessories
Like a money clip cash holder ID display And even chipolo and air tag tracking Integration visit Store.phantomwallet.com to check out Their unique sizes Styles and finishes That span from aluminum to Wood to Carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15 off when you're ready to check out So as you can see even though I've got a Larger lens on it here at the moment This is a very compact camera it is only 127.7 millimeters or five inches wide Its height is 85.1 millimeters or 3 Inches or 3.4 inches and its depth is 65.4 millimeters or 2 2.6 inches a Couple of things on that first of all I Will note that when I'm using more squat Lenses I would still prefer it to be Just even a hair wider because I do find That my Knuckles are sometimes rubbing Against the barrel of the lens the other Thing is is that the problem for me at Least with a very kind of not very tall Camera like this is that as per usual my Pinky finger has nowhere to go on the Grip itself I personally prefer a Slightly larger camera but if you're Looking for compact that's kind of the Point here at this at this stage and so It is a very compact camera and it does Have a decent grip on it for such a Compact camera and in fact one one of The things that I criticized about the XS Tim is that it did have a deep enough
Grip there was enough room in there for The larger capacity battery but it Didn't have it that has changed with the Xs20 and now we have the larger NP W126s battery pack that's found in the XT series or the Xh2 or 2s series and so that is a 2200 MAh battery pack that is rated in this Camera for 750 shots versus the only 325 Shots that we had before so obviously That's a huge upgrade and it's a huge Upgrade to make this a more attractive Camera for Content creators and that now You can get about two hours of video Recording at a decent bit rate out of That battery capacity before it runs out Obviously that's going to be more useful To where you're not having to change Batteries all the time or having to stop Mid-stream in the middle of a video Because the battery has become exhausted So a good upgrade on that front The XS series here has simplified Controls particularly relative to the XT Series which has a lot and kind of a More retro analog type design with a lot Of different dials and wheels on it more Buttons in this case it's a simplified Control scheme you have pretty much the Typical you know front and rear wheels For controlling things and then there is A third wheel here on the left side that You can also use program to different Functions other than its base function
Which is to just kind of go through the Different film simulations Button scheme is fine here you know Things work relatively well though I Will note that they're kind of having You rely a bit on the use of touch but Fuji's touch has really not progressed At all since I started reviewing camera Years or Fuji cameras years ago Meanwhile everybody has improved so much Ken was already pretty good Nikon has Improved some and Sony has gotten a lot A lot better so Fuji needs to catch up In that regard basically you still have Only the ability to navigate the Q menu And Um you know by touch and there are some New features that are on a new Vlog Setting here on the command dial but and So there are a few more touch screen Options that are available there which Tells me that they can do it they just Need to engineer a new menu system that Is compatible with touch and make their Touch screens a little bit more Responsive in that process also using For navigation there's a mini joystick There at the back the back has a lot of Empty real estate and so even though It's a compact camera there's obviously Room for more buttons so what we don't Have have here is a lot of customizable Buttons something that you get as kind Of an upgrade on the more upscale
Cameras like the XT series Now a few of the things that are kind of Bad about the ergonomics there are some Good things that I'll point out in a Moment Um but some of the bad is that we Continue to have the SD slot on the Bottom now the upgrade there is that Instead of it being just uhs1 rated it's Now UHS 2 rated which comes in very Handy in another factor in just a moment We also continue to have a micro HDMI Output which I think that that is a Misstep in that they're kind of Marketing this not only for Content Creators in camera but also the ability To Output some pretty serious video Specs via HDMI but you know that flimsy Micro HDMI means that you know someone That's serious about video creation is Probably not going to prefer that I also Note that the both the shutter button And then also the video record button They're quite flush on the chassis it Was the same on the xs10 and I did the Xs10 video during the winter and so as a Byproduct I really noticed when I was Using gloves it was really hard to Operate and I don't think that things Have improved here on that front We have a nice magnesium alloy chassis For this camera but like the ss10 there Is no weather sealing so that's another Negative there that you'll have to
Upgrade to the XT series if you want Some weather Sealing Now there are a few upgrades here Physically one of those is that the Three inch LCD touchscreen has now been Upgraded to a higher resolution we now Have a 1.84 million dot resolution there And so a little bit of improvement to The overall look of the touchscreen Which is welcome and obviously for Content creation also welcome the Viewfinder is still a little bit under Specked for this class and probably Becoming more so you know the further Out you get the more that the Competition improves and so the Viewfinder opening is quite small just 0.39 inches and the magnification is Really low 0.62 times the resolution is Just 2.36 million dots I happen to be Out at the same time shooting with the Xs20 and then my own personal Fuji xh2 And there is a huge difference in the Viewfinder between those two cameras it Was like the world is opened up when I Looked into the viewfinder on the xh2 Compared to the s20 so I'm not a huge Fan of that another area that has been Improved however is that the in-body Image stabilization which the xs-10 was The first of their smaller cameras to Have that they actually had to Miniaturize their Ibis unit to make it Fit here but they've managed to further
Improve on that it was rated at six Stops in the X xs10 and I was impressed By it then even more so here where it's Now rated at seven stops so they've Improved that even more and while as you Can see from this footage it's not Completely a replacement for using a Gimbal for shooting video on the move it Is improved in that regard and of course For Stills and video creation that's Great kind of image stabilization and When moving along for vlogging I'll show You just a bit of a clip here you can See that it's really not too bad in that Type of setting now there are a couple Of new accessories here that um are kind Of launching at the same time one of Those is not necessarily new to this but It's new to this series of being able to Use it on a camera like this and that is That if you have the LCD flipped out There is a port here that can be removed And you can attach their fan 001 unit And what this is is that it plugs in There and it becomes an active cooling System when doing video capture that's Another thing that kind of helps if You're doing long format recording maybe At a higher bit rate and you're Concerned about overheating the use of That fan will help to make sure that the Chassis stays cool and enables you to Get even longer video recording also now We have this new Bluetooth grip Sony has
Had something similar for a while but It's the first time the Fuji's had Something like this and so it connects Via Bluetooth you don't have to actually Even have the camera mounted on it it Makes for a nice little tabletop tripod Um if you do have it mounted on there But the actual control is via Bluetooth But I do find it handy also as just a Better way to grip the camera and also You can swing the camera around if you Use this button here and obviously if I Rotate it out it becomes a better Accessory for doing vlogging to where It's a much more natural way to hold the Camera than obviously what it is to try To hang on to the camera itself and it Also allows you to have that LCD screen Flipped around and so you can see what You're doing and so it is a nice little Addition and it's particularly useful I've there's a reason why I've got this Big 18 to 120 millimeter power zoom lens On here at the moment and that is Because it's really useful with a power Zoom lens because one of the controls You have on there is the ability to to Control actually the zoom function and So with the power Zoom that's really Really useful because you can obviously Have much smoother Focus racks or I Should say Focus pulls as I Demonstrating here so overall we have a Nicely made compact camera not as
Feature-rich as what the XT series is There's some missing dials and buttons There but at the same time it is Functional and you know if I go back and Compare it to the ergonomics of say a Sony a6600 similar in price I would say That the xs20 holds up just fine by Comparison Now autofocus on paper is really not all That improved we've got the same 425 uh Phase detect Point slash contrast hybrid AF system that we've seen for a while But what is improved and makes a huge Difference is two things we have now Upgraded from the X processor 4 to the X Processor 5 which is much faster about Twice as fast as the X processor for and There is a new Focus algorithm that's Been developed with cameras like the Xh2s and so what we have is much Improved autofocus including having now Ai deep learning subject recognition Subject tracking through Ai and so it Makes a huge difference in the Reliability of autofocus the ability to Track both in video and in Stills and What I find is that while I still Slightly prefer what I get from Canon And from Sony the Gap is closing and so I think that Fuji is is just kind of Slowly and steadily improving this System there's not any kind of like Revolution your breakthrough but a Ongoing evolution of what they have it's
Getting better and better so obviously Subject recognition and tracking is much Improved and autofocus in general is Much in fruit with better focus accuracy Than what I've seen and obviously much Better subject recognition and you can Recognize more subjects now and one of Those things that's been added is insect Tracking I've recently become a Beekeeper and so Um the ability for it to track my bees As they move around is obviously Something that's interesting to me as Well Video autofocus is improved though it's Still again it's not quite to Sony or to Canon level and I notice a little bit More stepping for example when doing Focus pools like you can see also found That that touch screen can be a limiting Principle when I'm trying to switch Between subject it's just not as Responsive as the screen on these other Cameras and so there's some areas just Some room for improvement yet there but One area that has been vastly improved And I mentioned that the improvement From the uhs-1 to the OHS 2 compatible Slot is a definite plus and while we're Having just as much resolution as we did On the xs10 what we now have is much Deeper buffers and I complained about That in my xs10 review it's improved Here now and so if you're shooting with
The mechanical shutter which as you can See moves along at eight frames per Second which is no record breaker at This point if you're shooting in either Compressed raw or jpeg you can get over A thousand shots before the buffer fills But even if you're using like lost Lossless compressed Raw all you can get 90 frames or as little as 35 if you're Shooting uncompressed raw but if you're Probably shooting burst you may not be Shooting in that way that is much better Than what we saw on the xs10 which even With jpegs could only get 105 and even With compressed raw it was only 23 so You go from 23 to a thousand that's a Huge difference now if you move to the Electronic shutter you can get up to 20 Frames per second using the full sensor Readout you can get as many as 256 jpegs Or as many as 79 compressed raw images Now that's obviously a big drop but it Is significantly improved where before You could only get 32 jpegs and only 17 Compressed raws and so there is and We're talking four or five times better There and far as that Improvement when It comes to the compressed raw and even More with jpeg that's a huge upgrade There you do have a final option of Going up to 30 frames per second and That is in their crop or sports mode Which has a minor crop there and you're Dropping a resolution to 20 point 9
Megapixels and you can get a little bit More there you can get as many as 407 Jpegs or as many as 88 compressed raw 62 Lossless compressed raw so still very Useful though obviously that buffer will Fill faster for shooting at 30 frames Per second but but a huge upgrade here That makes this very competitive with Other models that it might come up Against On the video front there are significant Improvements and that includes a variety Of more bit rates higher resolution Points you can get up to 6.2 k at 30 Frames per second or other options there You can get up to 60 frames per second In 4k mode with either a DCI or a UHD Crop you can also now before you could Only collect video at 8-bit internally You can now get up to 10 bit internally And you can export as much as 12-bit raw Externally though you're going to need a Natomos or Blackmagic external video Recorder to make that happen we also Have an improvement here to F log 2 Which gives you up to 14 stops of Dynamic range all 19 of those film Simulations that Fuji is famous for can Also be used in video capture as well as Mentioned there's that new Vlog mode That is there on the mode dial and in Vlog mode it opens up some extra options On screen it gives you the ability to Select for example product priority
Focus mode which means that if you're Reviewing a product as I am in front of The camera if you held it out it would Focus on the product rather than on the Subject and so rather than saying locked On your eye it will take a look at the Product that you're holding out in front So that's an option there there's also An option for a background defocus now That's not some kind of magic basically All that's going to happen is it's going To open up to the largest maximum Maps You're available so that might be quite Big that might make a big difference and It might not you know for example if I'm Shooting with this new eight millimeter F 3.5 that maximum aperture of f 3.5 the Background's never going to disappear With that so you know your mileage is Going to May Vary but obviously that's Going to be useful there's other options Like a video timer that can get on Screen there various things to make it Easier to be both in front of the camera And also needing to operate it at the Same time another area of huge Improvement is that there is now no Record limit at 29.59 but now you can Basically record until either you fill Up your storage media or the camera Overheats and if you use something like The uh the fan there that means that You're more likely to run out of storage Media you can record for a whole lot
Longer now that's also useful I also Found that using the tripod grip is just Very useful for doing that if you are Going to do content creation it's worth Taking a look at that it's about 200 Bucks I believe however it gives you Just a lot of different options for Starting and stopping but then also to Either take pictures to start or stop Your video to zoom in and out and of Course just having that extra bit of Handle is quite useful in a variety of Different settings So finally let's talk Sensor this is the familiar 26 megapixel X-trans sensor that I'm very familiar With at this point I've reviewed five or Six different cameras that have used That same sensor however maybe this is New to you and you're considering Fuji For the first time so we're going to Dive in I'm going to give you a Breakdown of how that sensor performs in This particular camera let's dive in Let's take a look We'll start by taking a look at the iso Performance here so here we have our Base ISO which in this case is only 160. They're newer sensors will go as low as 125 but this is at 160 which in itself Is better than the iso 200 that was the Base for their older 24 megapixel Bayer Type sensor so as we can see here Looking at the base ISO really quickly
Colors look good and very little noise In the shadow I mean basically none to See everything looks really really clean That establishes a benchmark for us to Compare as we climb the iso ranks so We'll jump up to 800 as modern cameras Have no problem with anything lower than That and we can see here that really There is nothing more to to see Shadows Are just about as clean as what they are Contrast looks very much the same color Looks the same all of our various color Swatches look the same saturation levels Are very close maybe not 100 is as good As that base ISO but very very similar Take a quick look at 1600 we can see That yes our color fastness continues to Be good here looking towards the shadow Area here we can see that really there Isn't a lot of additional noise to see There as of yet looking inside the Interior here so here's our base but if We look in on the right side you can see That there's just the tiniest bit of Noise pattern that is there nothing Significant here and if we look at these Color swatches you can see that there's Just a little bit more noise there but In general color saturation levels look Pretty similar contrast looks fairly Similar as well jumping up to 3200 we Can see that again looking at the General image The Impressions look very Similar taking a look back here into our
Color swatches we can see that the noise Is just a little bit more obvious but Again still not looking bad but take a Quick look here out in this black area We can see that there is maybe one or Two hot pixels starting to emerge but Overall still looks pretty black back There and we can see looking down here That noise doesn't look too bad and the Shadow area on the table looking over on This side again still looking pretty Clear no color banding nothing really Ugly yet at 6400 same pattern continues Where overall things are still looking Pretty good but if we look inside here At the mirror here on the right side you Can definitely see some noise pattern That is there also up here in the color Swatches it's more obvious now just kind Of the general Trend continuing and now We're starting to see a little bit of Roughness for the first time in that Shadow information still not terrible But we can also see that you're not Going to have as good a contrast you can See that we're starting to see a little Bit of that kind of snowflake pattern in There where there's just some lighter Color pixels so they're not evenly dark Any longer now here at the end of the Native ISO range 12800 looking at it as A whole it still looks quite good However if we zoom in there to the pixel Level we can see that just the general
Noise pattern is looking rougher now What I will point out is that in here What I'm not seeing is any kind of block Inches of color color banding and Looking off into the shadow area it is You can definitely see that there's some Noise in there and so it's not as dark But what I'm not seeing is discoloration And so we'll call it color fastness Seems to be pretty good so even though You've got some noise here that's Certainly a factor what we don't have is Loss of color or a discoloration that Really kind of spoils images so as a Byproduct looking at that at a global Level that's a perfectly usable image Here's one in lower light conditions and So you know obviously there is some Noise inside there but we can see Looking at the guitar itself that you Know there's there's nothing that's Unusable about the image and taking a Look at this one which I've given a the Across I believe plus r here we can see That you know you can definitely see That noise there in the in the kind of Out of focus area but it really kind of Works with the image and it gives it Really more of a film-like feel and so You know if you want to shoot Monochromes and shoot some of those Great film simulations that Fuji has Particularly the monochrome ones Shooting at high ISO is really not that
Big of a deal now you do have an Extended range that takes you all the Way up to 51 200 with a stop at 25 600. So looking at them globally you can see That the definitely the 25 600 looks Cleaner than what the fifty one thousand Two hundred does but I will point out That once again color fastness is quite Good and I don't see any kind of huge Color shift taking place or any kind of Color banding what you can see is There's definitely going to be more of Those we'll call them hot pixels the Light colored pixels in the shadow area And so you can see here that that Becomes rough enough at fifty one Thousand two hundred you're not really Going to have any kind of true Shadow And you can see here you know the reason Why Fuji has capped things is that the Noise pattern gets really kind of rough And definitely at 51 200 it's it's Pretty close to unusable in a pinch Depending on the situation you might be Able to get away with this but obviously Not for all applications So now we're going to take a look at Dynamic range so the ability to recover Shadows and highlights now even at the Base ISO I feel like this image shows That there's certainly potential in the Sensor to where I've got a lot of Information here in the shadows when it Comes to this fallen tree but then
There's also a little bit of a sky that Has been recovered there you know it's Somewhat blown out in this area but Overall not too bad All Things Considered So we'll start by taking a look at Recovering highlights and so recovering Highlights is the more difficult part For modern sensors and so here we can See that with a you know significantly Overexposed image I'm able to pull those Highlights back and so just to give you A quick look at what we'll kind of be Looking for as we examine things is that If we zoom in here you can see that very Quickly in these kind of hot spots areas Where they're highly reflective texture Information starts to blow out and be Lost and so a good dynamic range will Allow you to pull back that texture Information and restore it as we see Here to basically the way that it should Be same with various color swatches and So take a quick look at all of the Various colors that should be here we Want to be able to recover those also Textures that are blown out in the front Of this or the timer face so so far at Just the one stop overexposure obviously We're able to pull all of that back and Look entirely normal at two stops things Get a little bit more difficult though We've got a good job of recovering the Various color swatches and if we take a
Look here we can still see on the right Hand that I don't think that there's Anything that's been lost in terms of Hot spots yet all that information is Still there on the timer face we've Restored the color there and everything Looks fairly good overall the only thing That is possible is that there might be A little bit of information that's lost Here in the the book face that's really Bright down here but overall that's a Pretty good recovery at two stops at Three stops however you can see that we Have now crossed the threshold and we Are not recovering everything Successfully so in the timer face Obviously there are blown out areas Where we haven't covered the color you Can see that there's a kind of a limit To how far the color has come back in we Can also see that there's a little bit Of texture information that's been lost On the face of the SLR and the the dial There and then looking at some of our Color swatches they haven't all quite Come back and so we've lost a little bit Of color information there and at four Stops it is a lost cause the image is Not recovered in the sense that it it Just it doesn't look natural at all and So as a byproduct you're just not going To be happy with that end result So what's interesting is that Fuji does Have their dr-200 and Dr 400 options
That open up as you go up the iso range And so when you're one full stop above The base ISO of 160 at 320 it opens up The Dr 200 option so what I've got here Is an image that has been Overexposed by Three stops we saw before that we just Lost all kinds of of information but What happens with dr-200 is that it Samples the Shadow and mid-tone Information from the current ISO but it Samples the Highlight information from The base ISO in this case 160 so you get An extra stop there and so whereas we Could not successfully recover the Highlights at just the uh the Dr 100 or The kind of the natural not software Assisted Um ISO what we can see here now is that Now we've recovered all of that Information and we have a completely Successful three-stop recovery and What's interesting is that if we move on Up to 640 we're now up to that ISO or we Excuse me where we can open up the dr400 And so now it has two stops to be able To sample highlight information from and So as a byproduct you can see just how Blown out the original is but we can see That we have fully recovered uh using That Technique we have fully recovered Highlights because again they're being Drawn off the base ISO and so as a Byproduct everything really looks nice And clean in that recovery so it's a
Good thing to enable in camera just Because if you happen to be up there in The place where as you climb ISO your Natural dynamic range starts to diminish It helps to augment that and I use that As a technique for being able to get Really nice looking highlight Information in skies for example even if I want to shoot to where I'm really Exposing for the Shadows Case in point is this shot there really Was the sky was almost completely blown Out here and I exposed to get all of the Interesting texture information in the Shadows here as I shot underneath or Kind of standing up against this old Barn and this is shot with the new eight Millimeter F 3.5 which is a really cool Lens by the way but you can see that Because of shooting using that Dr Technique I was able to recover at least Some information in the sky that as I Looked at it seemed to be completely Blown out and so a byproduct of that is That it just made for a slightly more You know interesting image Now on the other side of things it does Really well at recovering Shadow Information and so here this is Underexposed by three stops we'll just Look at three and four here you can see As we look at the the front texture of The SLR here that it's recovered all of that
Texture information there if we look Towards the Shadows here you can see That we've recovered that shadow Information but without any kind of Noise creeping in so it looks nice and Clean same is true here in these color Swatches along here that there's very Little visible noise Here is a four stop and you can see at Four stops we are severely crushed in All of our shadow information very Little information that's left there to See but the recovery is nice and clean Even inside here looking at the mirror Of the SLR you can see that it's it's Back and there's very little additional Noise there and looking towards the Shadow information you can see here that Once again we've recovered that and Without a lot of any kind of roughness That is there and so it's a quite a Successful Shadow recovery so if you Utilize the kind of tricks that Fuji has You really can get quite impressive Dynamic range and I will point out for Those of you looking at it from a video Perspective that if you shoot the f-log 2 profile you're able to get over 14 Stops of dynamic range according to Fuji Which is quite impressive We'll finish off by just looking at a Few images for color science which of Course is quite a Fuji strength and so You can see that you're able to get
Really beautiful colors out of the xs20 I just find the colors to be rich with Nice saturation levels I think this is Astia which is one of my favorite Fuji Profiles Rich colors but you know just It just looks really really great and so That's one area where I am really quite Happy with Fuji is when it comes to the Overall color science which produces Really nice colors this image for Example the greens are really rich but Without looking over saturated or kind Of garish and so that's one of the areas Where I think the Fuji sensor really Shines and definitely does in the new Xs20 So in conclusion I would say that the Biggest challenge for the new xs20 is The price point it now is retailing at 1299 US Dollars the reason why that's a Challenge is not just the price itself But back when the xs10 launched there Was a 700 difference it was 999 for the Xs10 the xt4 was 700 more that's a big Bit of Market separation so it made for A clear distinction between those models Now we see that there's only a 400 Difference between the Thirteen hundred Dollar xs20 and the Seventeen hundred Dollar xt5 and so it becomes a question Of is there enough extra in the xt5 that Appeals to you to move to that rather Than choosing the xs20 I would say that that is in part why
They are forging an identity for this Camera as being a compact vlogging Camera it's appealing to a specific Audience it is a compact jack of all Trades but in some ways the XT T5 is an Even better jack of all trades so you Really want to Value the compact itself So if you want smaller and maybe you Actually prefer the 26 megapixel Resolution point the 40 megapixels of The xt5 is too much for you and you're More comfortable with this resolution Point well then if that is you as a Particular person in the market then the Xs20 is a matured camera that does a lot Of things well and it's certainly worthy Of your consideration particularly since We haven't had a lot new from Sony Recently this would be the kind of Primary competition on that front and so If you're looking for a great little Vlogging camera that is Compact and yet Really fully featured particularly on The video front then take a look at the Fujifilm X s20 I'm Dustin Abbott if you Look in the description down below the There is a link there to my full text Review there's also an image gallery There are some buying links if you like To purchase one for yourself beyond that There's linkage to follow myself or Craig on social media to become a patron To get channel merchandise if you Haven't already please like And
Subscribe thanks for watching have a Great day and let the light in [Music] Foreign
