Ever since I posted my Sony a6400 review,
you guys have been asking me to compare it to the Fuji X-T30.
Well...
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and not one in a hundred monkeys sneezed
bees knees trapezed in the monthly breeze.
We freeze, if you please, Hiawatha.
So, before we get into comparing this camera to the a6400,
let's give it a little review of its own. The X-T30
is interesting. If you think of it as an upgraded X-T20,
I think you'll be quite pleased with the results,
but if you look at it as a mini X-T3,
which I did, it doesn't quite impress as much.
I don't really use the smaller Fujis
but I do love the X-T3.
At first I was pretty excited because it has so much
in common with the X-T3.
In fact, it's probably easier to tell you
about the things it doesn't have in common
because there aren't that many. The main ones
are with video and the more limited recording options.
There's no All-I or the 400Mbps codec.
There's no H.265 compression, and there's no 60fps in 4K,
and there's no HLG, and it also
splits up the files into 4GB chunks,
even though that was recently fixed with firmware
on the X-T3, it's back on the X-T30.
It also limits the recording duration
to just ten minutes in 4K and just 15 minutes in 1080P
because this little guy overheats much, much faster
than the X-T3 does but we'll get more
into that when we compare it to the Sony.
It doesn't have an ISO dial or that three-way tilt screen,
it only tilts up and down but not side to side
and it also doesn't have a front function button or the d-pad
you have to do everything with the single little joystick.
The burst fire is down to 8fps on mechanical shutter
from the 11fps on the X-T3
and the shutter speed is maxed out at 1 over 4000 instead of
1 over 8000. And it only has a single UHS-I SD
card slot instead of the two UHS-IIs on the X-T3.
The LCD screen is the same resolution as the X-T3,
but the viewfinder is a little bit lower resolution,
but both cameras allow for diopter adjustments,
and it does offer clean 4K out over HDMI,
maintaining the X-T3's 10-bit 4:2:2,
but again, at 30fps instead of 60fps,
but that's still pretty impressive
for a camera this size. Anyway, so those are all the things
that you would lose if you chose to save the $500
and opted for the X-T30 instead of the X-T3.
And the X-T30 is also smaller, which could be a benefit
if travelling small and light is important to you.
But it also does introduce small camera problems like
not being able to switch out the battery and the memory card
when you're on a tripod because the tripod plate
will likely block the door and not be able to allow it to open.
But that wasn't a problem on the Sony a6400.
It was spaced far enough away that with any
of the tripod plates that I tried
I was still able to open the door and get at the battery.
But you'll probably find the X-T30 to be a bit more compact
as a whole system depending on the lenses that you use
on your a6400 because I find that Sony lenses tend to be
a little bit larger on average than Fuji lenses.
But if you're coming from the X-T20, then You should look
at this as a serious upgrade by packing the sensor,
processor, and most of the features of the X-T3
into your favourite little body. And the autofocus is actually
the best that Fuji has right now, even better than the X-T3.
So, for those customers, this is an impressive upgrade,
but there are some serious limitations that might
make you want to spend the extra money on the X-T3
if video is important to you.
First off, the input panel on the X-T30 is not great.
It has a mic jack but it's only a 2.5mm mic jack, not a 3.5mm
and this is the same on the X-T20, but if you're coming
from another system, this means you're going
to have to get an adapter, and using an adapter
on the weakest port in audio, the 2.5mm jack
is just asking for trouble, in my opinion.
Secondly, the ports are too close together.
So, if you do end up putting something in the mic port,
you likely won't be able to use the USB-C port at the same time.
And since there's no headphone jack,
the only way to actually get a headphone port is by using
the USB-C and using a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle.
You actually probably won't be able to use
the microphone and the headphone at the same time.
And that kind of defeats the purpose of headphones
if you don't have a microphone connected to your camera.
And while there is an HDMI port, it too blocks the USB port.
So, don't even think about using power delivery and HDMI
at the same time, because it just won't fit.
And this was disappointing to me because I just made a video
on the X-T3 talking about how awesome it is that you can use
a power delivery USB power bank to provide continuous power
to your camera while shooting, but you can't really do that
on the X-T30 if you want to use HDMI
or a microphone at the same time. But it turns out
these annoyances didn't matter that much
anyway when I started testing the battery life
and overheating. When it comes to shooting 4K
a fully charged battery will last you about
65 minutes on average, and those are the same
batteries that the X-T3 uses, by the way.
you do get a bit more life if you shoot 1080p though,
up to about 90 minutes.
Now, the recordings are capped at 10 minutes
anyway in 4k, so heat isn't really an issue
unless you plan on doing quick back-to-back recordings,
but I tested the heat using an external recorder
so that I could bypass the record limits
and while hand holding the camera
I hit the thermal shutdown at only 31 minutes,
and just like when I reviewed the a6400,
I then went on to do a whole batch of tests
regarding the overheating to see what the best case scenario was
for how long you could get the camera to last
and in those tests I discovered that the Boost Mode
probably has the biggest effect on the camera's heating,
and so you're probably best for turning that off
in video anyway, because from what I could tell,
all the Boost Mode really affected was the brightness
and the refresh rate of the EVF.
And just like with the Sony, pulling the screen away
from the body and not holding it in your hands,
but putting it on a tripod extends the life as well.
So, all those things considered, the best thermal runtime
I could get at 4K was using 24fps,
on a tripod, with the screen pulled out,
I had Boost Mode turned off, and I wasn't using that much
continuous autofocus and it was just room temperature in here.
I did have LED lights on but it didn't get much warmer
than 23 or 24 degrees and with all those things
I was able to get it to run 69 minutes
and it wasn't the thermal that made it shut down,
it was the battery, but the heat warning was up on the screen
so if the battery did last a few minutes longer,
it's likely that it would have shut down due to heat then.
And that was without recording internally as well.
That was only external recording, so it didn't even
have to write to the cards inside.
So, that's likely the longest life
you're going to get on this thing when you record 4K
and it's only going to get lower from there
if you hand hold it, or use a lot of functions
in the camera, or if you use it in a warmer environment.
So, that means it's not that reliable of a video camera
and the X-T3 is definitely worth the extra money in my opinion
if video is your game. But that doesn't mean the X-T30
wouldn't be great for recording smaller clips
while travelling or maybe shooting a little bit of B-roll,
and it performs impressively well as a photo camera
if the ergonomics aren't an issue for you.
Image quality-wise, it's the same as the X-T3.
Although it does have better autofocus,
like I was saying, but luckily that autofocus
will be coming to the X-T3 in a future firmware upgrade.
So, if you opt to spend a little bit more for the X-T3
you don't have to give anything up,
except for maybe the compact size of the X-T30.
But the larger size of the X-T3 means that
you're going to get a full-size headphone jack
and all the ports are spaced out enough to not interfere
with each other, and it has better heat dissipation.
But you don't necessarily have to spend more money
if you consider the a6400 from Sony, which costs
the same amount as the X-T30. Now the a6400 is no X-T3 either
and does share a lot of the same shortcomings as the X-T30
when compared to the bigger Fuji, but when you compare
the a6400 to the X-T30, it does have some advantages.
First off, the screen on the Sony is great.
I covered this a lot in the previous video.
But this is my favourite screen design and it definitely
beats the Fujis. The a6400 also lasts a lot longer when it comes
to overheating compared to the X-T30 and if you enable
the high temperature setting, it can last for hours.
There's no recording time limits on the Sony either.
So, it doesn't require an external recorder
like the Fuji does, and when recording internally,
they both use 8-bit 4:2:0. The Fuji does have a higher bitrate
at 200Mbps versus the Sony's 100 but having a higher bitrate
doesn't necessarily mean better image quality.
The Sony also has a true 120fps in 1080P
and a proper mic jack.
So, when it comes to overall usability for video recording
the Sony wins. Battery life is pretty similar
between the two but the Sony's is a little bit better.
I consistently got about 10 to 15 minutes
longer recording time out of the Sony,
and about 50 more stills. And speaking of stills
the Sony's buffer is larger as well.
The jpegs are pretty similar at 100 versus 90,
but the Sony's raw buffer is over twice as large
as the 19 frames that you get on the Fuji.
Both of these cameras have had updates to their autofocus
and each excel in a different category.
For video, the Sony wins by a little bit.
While the Fuji offers eye detection in video
it's just a tad slower to catch up to a subject
when moving in and out from the camera.
Where the Sony managed to maintain the focus better.
Both performed competently, but when put side by side
during fast movement, you can see the Fuji drift
a little when slowed down to 50% speed.
You can improve this on the Fuji
by increasing its autofocus speed,
but it comes with the drawback of making
focus transitions a bit too jumpy.
The Sony, however, achieves a nice balance
of smooth transitions while still locking onto the face
when you want it to. However, in burst photo shooting
with continuous focus, the Fuji beat the Sony in my tests.
Just like I said in my a6400 review,
most of the crop lenses will get you about an 80% keeper rate.
And whenever I would do a run of ten shots at the camera
usually one to two were soft.
And I even tried it on some better full frame lenses
and it still missed one to two shots.
However, the Fuji pulled a 100% hit rate in my tests.
I even tried a few different batches
and it consistently nailed focus.
So, for me the most exciting thing that came
out of these tests was seeing how much the focus has improved
on the Fuji and being pumped to see these improvements
make their way to the X-T3.
But this is going to be a noticeable improvement
for the owners of the X-T20 as well as any older Fujis as well.
Lastly, let's look at noise and image quality.
Now the X-T30 is slightly higher resolution,
but mostly produces the same images
in terms of quality as the Sony.
However, there are some differences.
in these shots here the Sony is sharper.
And this is likely due to the lens.
I was using a Sigma f/1.4 contemporary crop lens
on the Sony, which is noticeably sharper than the 23mm f/2
on the Fuji. if I would have used the f/1.4 Fuji lens
it probably would have been a closer match
but that lens costs $500 more than the Sigma.
So, it's worth noting that it might cost you more
to get equal sharpness on the Fuji.
The other thing that's different is the impact
of the ISO on the images. When the ISO is the same,
the noise levels are pretty much equal.
But, and this is a huge but,
the Fuji is almost a full stop darker.
So, the Fuji is effectively one stop noisier
Once you equalize the images.
Here, let me show you what I mean in Lightroom.
So, if you check these images here
the top row are all taken from the Fuji X-T30
and this bottom row is all taken from the Sony.
They look pretty similar if you compare them top to bottom
but every shot on the bottom from the Sony
had to be taken down one stop in post using Lightroom.
If I go in here and go to develop you can see
-1 over here on exposure for this one, for this one,
and for this one. And yet, the Fuji shots
are all still at zero despite them having
the exact same exposure settings.
And so, if we take two of the images
once they've been corrected and compare them
and zoom in on one of the darker areas here,
we can see that the Fuji looks more faded
and noisy now that the Sony has been brought down a stop.
But if you were to achieve this in camera,
it would be more like comparing a 6400 to a 3200,
and if we look at the noise levels there
we can see that the Fuji is definitely a lot noisier
once you get into those higher ISOs.
This is going to be a problem if you wanted
to shoot at 3200 on both cameras.
The Sony is going to be a lot brighter at that 3200
and if you had to bump up to 6400 on the Fuji
it's going to look like this.
There's so much more noise here.
Overall, I think the X-T30 is a nice little camera
and a noticeable step up from the X-T20.
It holds its own as a photo camera against the X-T3,
and actually beats it in some ways,
like we said with the autofocus,
at least until we see the firmware update on the X-T3.
It is however also a noticeable step down
from the X-T3 when it comes
to video and rigging capabilities,
and the X-T3 is definitely worth the extra money if video
is your thing. Compared to the Sony a6400,
I think the Fuji X-T30 was beat fair and square
in this price category.
The Sony offers more flexibility in its screen design,
battery life, video capabilities,
and compact ergonomics without adding much more in its size.
And in fact, you'll get the benefits
of being able to put it on a tripod and still access
the battery door and have a deeper grip, which I prefer.
It produces less noisy images when brought to an even exposure
and tracks better in video with the added advantage of being
able to see yourself. The X-T30 did seem to pull a higher keeper
rate than the a6400, and that's impressive, and when you account
for lenses, while possibly more expensive,
the Fuji does remain a more compact, complete system.
So, the X-T30 might be the better travel camera
and it's definitely a considerable upgrade
for an X-T20 owner. But overall, I enjoyed my experience
on the a6400 a little bit more.
But that's going to be it for me. I hope you found
this video helpful, or at least entertaining, and if you did
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Alright... I'm done.