There’s only one thing stopping me from buying a Fujifilm X-T5
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The camera industry has turned back the years, blowing out new cameras like confetti in the past two weeks. We were treated to the Sony A7R V, OM System OM-5 and Canon EOS R6 Mark II. But perhaps the most exciting for photographers is the Fujifilm X-T5, a camera that feels like a ‘greatest hits’ tape of sorts to its fans.
I have counted myself among those fans for a number of years, since I bought a Fujifilm X-T20 in 2017. And while I’ve owned and used a range of cameras from different manufacturers since then, the XT series has always had a special charm – which is why the X-T5 is such a tempting prospect.
On paper, it looks like a real winner for avid photographers. It’s small and light enough to take on landscape photography trips or street photography sessions, but big enough to squeeze in a good grip, in-body stabilization and a new 40MP APS-C sensor.
But there’s one thing that makes me hesitant to pre-order: the apparent limitations on burst shooting.
Two steps forward
In most respects, Fujifilm’s decision to pair its new 40MP sensor – the same as the one in the larger Fujifilm X-H2 – with two SD card slots makes a lot of sense. The latter keeps the camera size down, letting you back up footage to the same type of card, while the former gives you the undeniable benefits of that class-leading resolution.
But while our testing has shown that from an image quality standpoint there are few downsides to Fujifilm’s jump from a 26MP sensor to a 40MP sensor, there is a small penalty when it comes to continuous shooting. In short, as the table below shows, the Fujifilm X-T5 is worse than the X-T4 (and even the X-T3) for raw shooting when it comes to maintaining the highest continuous shooting speeds.
At the X-T5’s highest mechanical shutter speed of 15 fps, you can only do this for just over a second (compared to two seconds on the X-T4). And it’s a similar story if you go to 10 fps in uncompressed raw, with the X-T5 managing just under two seconds, only half of what the X-T4 can handle.
| Fujifilm X-T5 | Fujifilm X-T4 | Fujifilm X-H2 | |
| 15 fps (JPEG) | 119 photos | 110 images | 1000+ frames |
| 15 fps (lossless compressed raw) | 22 frames | 38 frames | 1000+ frames |
| 15 fps (uncompressed raw) | 19 frames | 35 images | 400 images |
| 10 fps (JPEG) | 1000+ frames | 164 images | 1000+ frames |
| 10 fps (lossless compressed raw) | 29 frames | 44 frames | 1000+ frames |
| 10 fps (uncompressed raw) | 19 frames | 37 images | 1000+ frames |
None of this is a big surprise or even a big criticism of the X-T5. It may have a new X Processor 5 to help, but it still pushes a lot more data with each frame than its predecessors. And in this scenario, your SD card looks a bit like a Coney Island hot dog-eating contestant — it can only gobble up so much before it raises the white flag.
The table above really shows the considerable power of CFexpress cards, with continuous shooting buffers hardly a consideration at all speeds on the X-H2, although it shares the same sensor and processor as the X-T5.
However, the big question is: does this really matter? That’s a question to ask yourself, depending on the type of footage you’re shooting. The obvious answer is… just buy a Fujifilm X-H2. That’s a fair point, but that camera lacks all the photographic charms that Fujifilm has poured into the X-T5; its small size, triple-tilt screen and beautiful dials.
Snack time
For me, the likely solution when shooting fast-moving subjects would be to shoot at 10 fps in lossless compressed raw. This type of compression does not throw away any image data and produces files that are about half the size of their uncompressed equivalent – a big win on all fronts.
Speeds of 10 fps are also more than enough for most situations. I don’t regularly shoot professional sports (otherwise I would definitely look at the X-H2 or the incredibly fast X-H2S), but I often shoot those between genres when speed is often crucial to capturing a particular moment – live for example music, wildlife and street photography.
In those situations, I prefer a safety net of 2-3 seconds of continuous shooting to make sure I caught the critical moment. And while that’s not possible on the X-T5 when shooting uncompressed raw files, there are solutions that involve few compromises.
So, for most types of shooting, the Fujifilm X-T5 is still definitely a contender for the title of best camera for photography, despite this slight regression from its predecessor. And since it’s just arrived for testing, we’ll be giving you our final verdict very soon.
But if you prefer a fully articulating display (not to mention oversampling 4K video with no cropping), then it’s worth knowing that the Fujifilm X-T4 just got a $150 price drop in the US during the early Black Friday camera deals. Decisions decisions.