The Fujifilm X-T1 ($1,299.95, body only) is one heck of a camera. The 16-megapixel mirrorless shooter features Fuji’s unique X-Trans image sensor system, loads of physical controls, and a sturdy body that’s sealed against the elements. It’s also got the best EVF we’ve yet seen in a mirrorless camera, integrated Wi-Fi, and a lens system that’s built on a foundation of high-quality prime lenses. If the mirrorless market wasn’t so competitive it would be an easy Editors’ Choice, but despite some impressive features and excellent performance, the X-T1 doesn’t quite oust our favorite mirrorless camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M1($1,099.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), from its Editors’ Choice perch. The OM-D has a slightly smaller Micro Four Thirds image sensor, but stays in our good graces thanks to its 10.5fps shooting rate, deep handgrip, touch-screen display, and in-body image stabilization system.

The X-T1($1,299.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) has earned a lot of early praise, but some early adopters have noted that, under very certain conditions, light can leak into the body when shooting, adding a crazy purple flare to images. This only happens when the flap on the left side of the X-T1, which covers the combination mic input and wired remote port, is open, and it only happens during long exposures or when placed next to a strong light source. I was able to reproduce the effect with the test body that Fujifilm furnished for this review, but the company has promised that cameras produced more recently won’t suffer from this; X-T1 owners that are experiencing the issue can have their cameras fixed for free(Opens in a new window). The company was quick to address the issue, responding within days of its gaining traction on blogs and Web forums. For most shooters it’s much ado about nothing, as the protective flap does its job blocking light, and because of the quick response from Fujifilm it’s not something that is negatively affecting this review.

Design and Controls
When you consider its image sensor is the same size that’s found in most consumer SLRs, the X-T1 is very compact. It measures in at just 3.5 by 5.1 by 1.8 inches (HWD), but is heavy for its size at 15.5 ounces. The front handgrip is fairly shallow, but there is an add-on grip ($129.95) available for folks who prefer one that’s more substantial. Most mirrorless cameras are fairly flat or have only a slight grip like the X-T1. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3($1,099.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), which is styled like a scaled-down D-SLR, is an exception; the 1.2-pound camera measures 3.7 by 5.2 by 3.2 inches, with its grip accounting for much of its added depth.

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The body is rife with physical controls. The face houses a toggle switch to change between single focus, continuous focus, or manual focus, as well as the programmable Fn1 button. The top plate is all about dials—to the left of the EVF there’s an ISO dial with third-stop settings from the native ISO 200 through to the top ISO 6400 setting, as well as full-stop Low (ISO 100), Hi1 (ISO 12800), Hi2 (ISO 25600), and an Automatic position. It’s a locking dial that requires you to hold down a button while turning it.

Below it is a free-turning dial that adjusts the drive mode; settings are there for Bracketing, Continuous High, Continuous Low, Single, Double Exposure, Advanced Filters, and Panorama. The bracketing system gives you some options in addition to the standard exposure and ISO bracketing; you can also shoot successive images with different film emulation settings, dynamic range settings, or white balance. The Double Exposure mode is just what you’d expect—you take one image, and then see that on the rear display or in the EVF as you take a second shot, and the two are merged in-camera into one image. The Advanced Filters menu houses a series of Instagram-like filters, including Toy Camera, numerous selective color options, a Miniature mode, and some color output tweaks. In-camera panorama stitching takes a series of exposures as you move the body; you can choose just how wide the panorama is, and the direction which you want to move to capture it.

On the left side of the EVF there’s a diopter; it’s on an angle and perhaps turns a little too freely, as I found myself inadvertently adjusting it when handling the XT-1. On the right side is a button to toggle the EVF and the rear LCD; you can force the EVF or LCD on, utilize the eye sensor to automatically toggle between the two, or disable the rear display entirely and set the eye sensor to activate the EVF when you bring the camera to your eye, which should conserve some power.

The shutter speed dial is the first you’ll find on the right side of the top plate; it abuts the EVF and offers full-stop settings from 1 second through 1/4,000 second, as well as a Bulb mode, a T setting that allows for longer exposures (2 seconds through 30 seconds), and an A setting for automatic operation. The quickest flash sync speed (1/180-second) is marked with an X. It turns freely when set at any setting save A; you have to hold down the locking button to change from A to a manual setting. Below it is a free-turning dial that adjusts the metering pattern, the standard matrix, center-weighted, and spot options are there. Other top controls include another programmable button, Fn2, which activates Wi-Fi by default, a dedicated button to start videos, the power switch and shutter release, and an EV compensation dial that ranges from -3 to +3 in third-stop increments.

Rear controls include standard playback and delete buttons, separate controls for Autoexposure Lock and Autofocus Lock, a Focus Assist button, the Q button, and four additional programmable Fn controls arranged as up/down/left/right buttons surrounding the Menu/OK control, plus a Disp/Back control that toggles the information displayed on the rear LCD. The Q button brings up an on-screen display that gives you quick access to a number of shooting controls and options, including the focus mode, color output, self-timer, and LCD brightness, among others. You can save up to seven custom presets from this menu, helpful if you have a few different groups of settings that you employ when shooting.

Focus Assist, EVF and, and Additional Features

Focus Assist, EVF and LCD, and Additional Features
The Focus Assist button is useful if you’re in a situation where you want to use manual focus, or if you’re using a third-party lens via an adapter. There are three different focus aids available—Magnification, Focus Peak Highlight, and Digital Split Image. Magnification does just what you would expect, magnifying a portion of the frame so it’s easier to judge focus; you can move the box around the frame to choose which part will be magnified. Focus Peak Highlight uses a shimmering highlight color to indicate what’s in focus; you can set the peaking sensitivity (high or low) and the highlight color (white, red, or blue). Digital Split Image acts a bit like a rangefinder patch; the center of the frame switches into four black and white rows that are offset from each other. When the image is brought into focus the rows line up perfectly; unlike peaking and standard magnification, you cannot move this box around—it’s active only in the center of the frame. But you can still magnify it, as you can with peaking, with a quick press of the Focus Assist button. Holding that button down toggles between the three assist modes. Digital Split Image is unique to Fujifilm cameras; it works by activating the on-sensor phase detect autofocus pixels, and will work with both native X-mount lenses and third-party lenses mounted via an adapter.

When you factor in its APS-C sensor, these features make the X-T1 a winner for manual lens enthusiasts. The crop factor when mounting older glass designed for 35mm SLRs and rangefinders is not as extreme as it is with a smaller Micro Four Thirds camera like the OM-D E-M1. But if you want to use older lenses without a crop factor, consider the full-frame Sony Alpha 7 or 7R($1,654.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). Both offer peaking and magnification as manual focus aids.

The rear display is 3 inches diagonally with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a 1,040k-dot resolution. It’s mounted on a hinge for waist-level shooting or firing off shots with the camera above your head. It’s extremely sharp, but it lacks the touch input that’s offered by the tilting display on the OM-D E-M1 and the vari-angle display on the Panasonic GH3. I missed the tap to focus functionality offered by those cameras, but was happy to see that the X-T1 is quite bright, even when viewing it from an off-angle.

The EVF is an OLED, rather than the more common LCD type. Like most OLED EVFs, it’s a bit punchier in terms of contrast and saturated in terms of color than an LCD. Its most striking feature is its size; its 0.77x magnification makes it just a bit larger than the previous best we’ve seen, the 0.74x LCD EVF housed in the OM-D E-M1. The difference is fairly negligible, and both EVFs feature 2,360k-dot resolution. The X-T1 does have an edge in lag time; it lags behind by reality by a mere 5ms, versus the 29ms recorded by the E-M1. Neither seems slow to me, but both get a bit choppy in very dim light.

There’s built-in Wi-Fi, a feature that has become expected in modern cameras. Image transfer and remote control are supported via the Fujifilm Camera Remote app for iOS and Android, and if you want to just transfer photos you can use the Fujifilm Photo Receiver. There’s a third Fuji app in the iTunes and Google Play app stores, the Fujifilm Camera Application, but it doesn’t work with the X-T1. We usually talk about fragmentation being an issue with Android phones that don’t receive proper software updates—here Fujifilm has created its own fragmented app landscape. It’s unclear as to why Fujifilm has created a new app rather than adding support for the new camera to older ones, and it can be a pain if you have multiple X bodies, as the older ones use the older app but aren’t supported by the new one. You’ll have to remember that the Camera Remote is the app for the X-T1.

Once you’ve got that straightened out, Wi-Fi is straightforward. There are four main options in the app menu—Remote Control, Receive, Browse Camera, and Geotagging. The Remote Control functions gives you full control over shooting settings—including aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, and the autofocus point. You’ll need to make sure that camera dials are set to non-automatic settings for full control over exposure.

Receive lets you transfer images from the camera to your phone—you’ll select and send photos from the X-T1. Browse Camera does the same thing, but lets you choose images using your smartphone or tablet. Only JPG images can be transferred, but in-camera Raw developing is available if you want to transfer an image captured in the Raw file format. Geotagging seems like it’s a hit or miss proposition—I was able to add coordinates to a photo right after I captured it, but the app doesn’t seem to keep a log of movements, so unless you remember to tag photos soon after you’ve shot them, you’re out of luck. If you’re a serious geotagger there are better ways to add location data to your photos—one is to get a location logger app for your phone that can export a GPX file which can be imported into Lightroom along with photos to add location data based on timestamps.

Like the OM-D E-M1, the X-T1 features a built-in time lapse mode. It can fire off up to 999 shots at set intervals, anywhere from 1 second apart to 24 hours apart. For longer time lapses you’ll want to invest in the VG-XT1 vertical battery grip ($249.95), along with an AC-9V power adapter and the CP-W126 DC coupler ($59.95)—using those accessories together allow you to power the X-T1 via a standard wall outlet. Like most Fujifilm digital cameras, it has emulation modes for some of the company’s classic film stocks—including the neutral look of Provia, the oversaturated Velvia, and the muted Astia slide films. There are also a couple of color negative film modes added, mimicking Pro 400H and Pro 160S films, which Fuji is billing as good matches for portraits.

Performance and Conclusions

Performance and Conclusions
The X-T1 can power on and grab an in-focus shot in about 1.4 seconds. In good light it locks focus and fires in about 0.1-second when paired with the Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS($699.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) lens, a figure that slips to 1.5 seconds in very dim light. I measured its burst shooting rate at 8.3fps, a pace which it can keep for 21 Raw+JPG, 22 Raw, or 35 JPG shots before slowing. It can focus continuously, and our tests showed that it accurately focused on a target moving away from the lens without its pace slowing. I tested using a SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-II memory card that’s rated for 280MBps; the X-T1 is the first camera to support the speeds offered by this card format. Clearing the buffer to the card depends on the format in which you’re shooting; for Raw+JPG it took 23.9 seconds, but that dropped to 15 seconds for Raw and 8.4 seconds for JPG.

Despite the advancements that Fujifilm has made in focus speed—early X models like the inaugural X-Pro1( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) were on the slow side—the X-T1 doesn’t quite match one of the fastest Micro Four Thirds cameras we’ve seen, the Olympus E-M1. That one starts and shoots in 0.8-second, focuses almost instantly in good light, and does the same in 1.2 seconds in very dim light. It also shoots at a faster 10.5fps pace, and keeps that speed going for 35 Raw+JPG, 38 Raw, or 56 JPG shots. The time required to clear its buffer is in line with the Fuji—22.5 seconds for Raw+JPG, 17 seconds for Raw, and 11.7 seconds for JPG.

We’re reviewing the X-T1 as a body only, but it is available in a kit with the aforementioned 18-55mm lens for around $1,700. That’s a bit of a premium to pay for a kit lens, but the Fujinon 18-55mm is one of the best examples you’ll find.

I used Imatest(Opens in a new window) to check how the X-T1 handles image noise throughout its wide ISO 100 through 25600 sensitivity range. When shooting JPGs at default settings, the X-T1 keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 3200, and shows just 1.6 percent at ISO 6400. Cameras that control noise this well often use noise reduction to clean up images, but at the cost of fine detail. Close examination of images from our ISO test sequence on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W($999.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) shows that’s not the case here. Even when viewing the JPG output at ISO 6400 the fine lines in the foreign banknote in our test scene are distinct. At ISO 12800 noise increases to about 2.2 percent, and the first real evidence of smudging of detail sets in. At ISO 25600 the noise jumps to 2.8 percent; the image quality does drop off, but it’s still much better than other cameras at such a high setting, including the Samsung Galaxy NX($1,299.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), which produces mushy output at ISO 25600. Normally I recommend that you shoot in Raw mode when pushing a camera past its JPG limit to eke a bit more detail out of shots, but the X-T1 can only capture Raw images at its native ISO range, 200 through 6400.

Raw images through ISO 6400 are rife with detail. Like most of Fujifilm’s X series, the X-T1 uses an X-Trans CMOS image sensor. This design sets itself apart from more common Bayer image sensors by using a more complex 6-by-6 color filter array; Bayer sensors use a 4-by-4 array. The more complex filter array eliminates the possibility of color moiré effects, eliminating the need for a detail-sapping optical low pass filter. Earlier versions of Lightroom had some issues processing the more complex X-Trans issues, but updates have improved its output quality. Some X-Trans shooters use Iridient Developer(Opens in a new window) as an alternative, as its output quality is well regarded.

Video is recorded in QuickTime format at up to 1080p60 quality. The high frame rate results in smooth video, and the X-T1 captures sharp footage with crisp colors and is quick to adjust focus. The internal mic is fine for casual video recording, and there’s a mic input port if you want to get more serious with production values. There’s also a mini HDMI output and a micro USB port for device connectivity, and a single SD slot with support for SDHC and the latest UHS-II SDXC card formats. An external battery charger is included.

In a less competitive landscape, the Fujifilm X-T1 would be an easy pick for our Editors’ Choice award thanks to its excellent image quality, speedy autofocus, rapid burst shooting, top-notch EVF, and well-designed control layout. While the Olympus OM-D E-M1 doesn’t quite match its high ISO image quality, and takes a different approach to its control layout, its deeper grip, touch-screen display, and in-body stabilization make it the best in our book. That’s not saying that the X-T1 is a huge step back; it has its own advantages, including a larger image sensor that allows for a shallower depth of field when framing identical shots at comparable apertures and focal lengths. And, even though the X lens system hasn’t been around as long as the Micro Four Thirds system employed by Olympus, there are a wealth of high-quality lenses available for Fujifilm cameras, including a handful of Touit primes from Carl Zeiss. There are other solid mirrorless cameras vying for your dollar; Panasonic’s GH3 is a favorite of videographers, and a new GH4 model with 4K recording is set to go on sale later this month. And, while its full-frame lens lineup is in its infancy, the Sony Alpha 7 and 7R are both stellar performers. Photographers should be happy to have such a wealth of options available to them, even if it makes deciding on which model is the perfect fit a more daunting decision.