Fujifilm X-T4
£1,549/$1,699 Everything we wanted in a successor to the X-T3, with IBIS, a vari‑angle screen and better battery life
A mirrorless marvel with impressive tech
Specifications
Sensor: 26.1MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor Image processor: X Processor 4 AF points: 117/425/91 point hybrid contrast/phase AF ISO range: 160 to 12,800 (exp 80-51,200) Max image size: 6,240 x 4,160 Metering modes: 256-zone multi-pattern, centre-weighted, spot Video: C4K & UHD at 60/50/30/25/24p Viewfinder: EVF, 3.69m dots Memory card: Two SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) LCD: 3-inch vari-angle touchscreen, 1.62m dots Max burst: 30fps (electronic shutter, 1.25x crop mode) 15fps (mechanical shutter) Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size: 135 x 93 x 64mm Weight: 607g (body only)
The Fujifilm X-T4 is the new flagship camera in the Fujifilm APS-C X-mount mirrorless camera range. It takes over from the X-T3, adding a series of key features that make the X-T4 perhaps the most advanced, most desirable and most powerful APS-C camera on the market right now.
Full-frame mirrorless cameras may be the ones that grab all the headlines, but APS-C cameras offer almost the same image quality, and pretty well all the features and performance, at a much lower price. And right now, the brand-new Fujifilm X-T4 looks to have everything that any amateur, enthusiast and expert could want.
The Fujifilm X-T4 looks set to be one of the best mirrorless cameras on the market, undoubtedly one of the best Fujifilm cameras, and almost certainly on our list of the best cameras for enthusiasts. It could also prove to be one of the best 4K cameras for filmmaking as well as the best cameras for vlogging. As you’ll have gathered, the Fujifilm X-T4 really is an important camera!
Key features
The X-T3 had so many advanced features that it was hard to know where to start… and the X-T4 makes this harder still. We’ll begin with the things that are the same. The X-T4 uses the same 26.1-megapixel X-Trans sensor as the X-T3, with the same X Processor 4 image processing and the same hybrid phase detection/ contrast AF system. The video specifications are largely unchanged too, but the X-T3’s 60p 4K video and 10-bit internal recording was so far ahead of its time – and still is –
that the X-T4’s video capture is still very advanced for this market.
The things that are new are mainly physical, but at least as important as megapixels and autofocus points.
First, the X-T4 has in-body image stabilisation. Fujifilm first used this on its bigger and heavier X-H1 model, but the IBIS unit in the X-T4 is smaller, lighter and more efficient – and Fujifilm claims up to 6.5 stops of shake compensation, even with unstabilised Fujinon prime lenses.
Second, a new shutter unit offers a much quieter action and a higher continuous shooting speed of 15fps, compared to 11fps on the X-T3. You can use the electronic shutter at up to 30fps in the camera’s 1.25x crop mode, but the mechanical shutter is better suited to fast-moving subjects. The new shutter also has a much longer life – 300,000 actuations compared to 150,000 on the X-T3.
Third, there’s a new NP-W235 battery that offers up to 500 shots on a charge in normal mode and 600 in ‘economy’ mode. It’s not quite up to DSLR standards, but it’s a big improvement over the 390-shot battery life of the X-T3.
Fujifilm has added another new feature to the X-T4 – a vari-angle screen. It’s not the 3.5-inch 16:9 screen seen on the Fujifilm X-A7 and the X-T200, but Fujifilm says it needed to use a regular 3-inch screen to allow enough room for the D-pad controller on the back of the camera.
Other improvements include a new Eterna Bleach Bypass cinematic Film Simulation mode; a new autofocus algorithm, for better face and eye detection; and some revised external controls, notably a new Still/Video lever on the top of the camera.
Build and handling
The Fujifilm X-T4 has the same classic rectangular design and external exposure controls as previous Fujifilm X-series cameras. It’s a paradox of modern camera design that it takes a mirrorless camera like this one to truly replicate the handling of a classic 35mm film SLR – digital SLRs are just too bulky.
Where other cameras use mode dials, Fujifilm’s exposure controls are strictly old-school. There’s a shutter speed dial on the top and a physical ISO dial, and most (though not quite all) Fujifilm lenses have manual aperture rings. Each of these controls has an ‘A’ setting, so you can quickly swap between full manual control,
Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program AE and Auto ISO.
This design means the camera settings are always visible and can be changed, even without switching the camera on. You don’t need a mode dial, and this leaves the twin control dials available for other functions.
Best of all, this control layout really encourages you to think properly about exposure control and
the camera settings. It’s not old-fashioned for the sake of it: it’s a more expensive but better way to design a camera’s controls.
The X-T4 is a little bigger than the X-T3, but not by much. It’s a couple of millimetres wider and a few millimetres thicker, but this doesn’t hamper the handling at all – if anything, the extra size makes the X-T4 that little bit ‘grippier’ and gives the controls a little more room to breathe.
The shutter action is very quiet. Mirrorless cameras use focal plane shutters which normally make a bit of noise, but this one is unobtrusive.
For horizontal shooting and video, the new vari-angle screen won’t offer much advantage over a tilting screen, as used by the X-T3, but it comes into its own for vertical shots and generally when you’re shooting in tight corners at awkward angles.
There is a new VG-XT4 battery grip accessory for the X-T4, which adds duplicate vertical controls and two extra batteries to effectively triple the battery life to 1,450 shots. It feels a very snug fit on the X-T4 body, and although the grip is available only in black, it suits both the black and the silver bodies equally well.
The dual card slots sit behind a separate door to the battery compartment, which we like. The battery itself is physically larger than the NP-W126S cell used in the X-T3 and other X-series cameras, so they are not interchangeable, but the longer life of the new NP-W235 battery is important, so it was definitely a change worth making.
Performance
The image quality from the X-T4 is everything we’ve come to expect from Fujifilm – and we have seen the results from this sensor before, in the X-T3, X-Pro3 and X-T30. Fujifilm’s film simulations offer an excellent choice of in-camera ‘looks’, and its dynamic range expansion and shadow/highlight tone settings increase its ability to cope with high brightness ranges to the point where you may not need to shoot raw files at all.
If you do shoot raw, you’ll find that Camera Raw and Lightroom give their own excellent renditions of Velvia, Astia, Acros and Fujifilm’s other film simulations; but our advice would be to get Phase One’s free Capture One Express for Fujifilm software to see just what this camera is capable of.
We’re told the X-T4’s autofocus system is faster than in the X-T3, with improved face and eye tracking, although the X-T3 did get a firmware update that boosted AF performance too, so there may not be too much difference in practice.
The autofocus is certainly fast with Fujifilm’s latest and best lenses, although some older primes may be a little slower and noisier through not having the same high-performance AF actuators. The X-T4 proved very good at tracking eyes and faces in our tests, though it could lose contact with sudden and erratic movements.
As with any autofocus system, you need to learn the camera’s responses to get the best from it and anticipate which AF mode is going to work best in any given situation.
The 15fps burst mode is very impressive, although you’re better off swapping to JPEG-only capture for longer bursts – otherwise, the camera will start to slow after just three seconds or so.
The 6.5-stop in-body stabilisation sounds great, though we didn’t get very close to that figure in our tests. Its level of success is very dependent on the lens and body combination being used and the conditions in which you’re shooting. We tried it with the Fujinon 16-55mm f/2.8 red badge lens set to 55mm at a range of shutter
speeds. 1/30 sec was about as slow as we could go with reliably sharp results, though there were some successful shots at much slower shutter speeds, down to 1/8 sec in some instances.
Our experiments with video suggest the X-T4’s in-body image stabilisation system is better suited to stills than video. It’s fine if you’re not moving the camera, but any run-and-gun shooting seems to produce a jumping effect. You might get away with handheld video with a smartphone, but you’d be much better off using a stabilising gimbal for larger cameras like the X-T4, and for any camera movements. One drawback while shooting video on the X-T4, though, is the lack of a headphone socket. Rod Lawton