It's hard not to feel jealous when, one by one, all my colleagues traded in their old cameras for Fujifilm bodies. The gorgeous retro style, compact size, and analog film simulations are reasons to fall deeply in love with their models. Not to mention, when you take a decade-old Olympus to events, the ability to charge a camera via USB-C makes me rave.
So I think it's time to join the gang and hope someone brings me an x-T50 for the holidays. It's the latest entrant into Fujifilm's mid-range, with the high-end features I'm looking for in a slightly more affordable package. It has the same 40.2 megapixel sensor, 6K 30p video and integrated stabilization that you will find in the high-end x-T5.
Fujifilm knows that the x-T50's target market wants to make the most of those film simulations and has added them to one of the top dials. If you're out and about and want to change the look of an image, you can spin the wheel to see what looks best before you start taking photos. I'm also a big fan of physical controls, rather than burying everything in tedious digital submenus.
So I borrowed an x-T50 for two weeks to see if the reality matched all the hype both online and with my colleagues. The learning curve is quite steep and you'll need to quickly put together all the different controls to get everything working. There are still some key things buried in the digital menus, like ensuring body OIS is always enabled.
But that's where the bad ends, because the photos this thing produces are beautiful. I've taken some pretty spectacular portraits, landscapes and architecture and feel like this is the camera I should have started my photography journey with. There is so much to control and so much to do, that you feel enormously empowered by what it has to offer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Santa, or an itinerant billionaire, leaves one on my doorstep this holiday season. — Daniel Cooper, senior reporter
