Fujifilm XF1 review

We’re a bunch of cynical pessimists, always trying to reveal the worst in the products we test, but it’s hard to maintain an air of cynicism when holding the XF1. Decked out in brushed aluminium and synthetic leather, the retro design is incredibly handsome. There’s a choice of red and black if the tan finish doesn’t appeal.

The lens barely extrudes from the body when switched off, giving a 33mm overall depth that slips easily into a pocket. A small twist unlocks the lens, whereupon it’s pulled outwards and then twisted again to power up and adjust the zoom. This three-part action quickly becomes second nature – we measured just 1.8 seconds to release the lens, switch on and take a photo – and the manual mechanism reinforces the retro appeal.

The XF1 is much slimmer than most other premium compacts, and the manual lens mechanism is extremely satisfying

Around the back it looks more modern, with a 3in screen and the usual array of buttons. Having both a command dial and a rear wheel helps to make quick adjustments, although most of the time they duplicate each other’s functions. One exception is in manual exposure mode, where they’re assigned to shutter speed and aperture. Pressing the command dial swaps their functions, which we found a little disorienting. The two controls work well together when adjusting the autofocus point, with the wheel moving the point and the dial adjusting its size.

There’s one small but significant change compared to previous Fujifilm cameras. The old two-tier menu system that we never much liked is gone. Instead, pressing the E-Fn button reveals alternative roles for six other buttons on the back of the camera. These can be customised, and an on-screen prompt makes it easy to see what’s assigned to each button. It’s a vast improvement on the old list-based quick menu. With another customisable button on the top of the camera, accessing settings is generally very quick.

The buttons have labelled functions as we’d expect, but pressing E-Fn swaps their roles for a customisable set, as shown on the screen

However, there’s a caveat we’ve seen many times before on Fujifilm cameras, whereby most buttons are unresponsive while the camera is saving photos to memory card. It’s not much of an issue in normal use, where we had to wait two seconds after taking a photo before we could adjust a setting. It doesn’t affect the ability to take another photo either, with just 1.1 seconds between shots. It’s more frustrating in continuous mode or when shooting raw, where it took up to six seconds to regain full control of the camera. Continuous mode performed reasonably well, shooting at 6.7fps for six frames before slowing to 1.8fps. There’s no option to update the autofocus between shots, though.

The 2/3in sensor set to 8 megapixels gives incredibly low noise, as this ISO 1600 shot taken under a grey sky demonstrates

The best performance comes when the resolution is set to 6 megapixels, giving 9.7fps shooting for 14 frames, slowing to 3.3fps. The XF1 uses Fujifilm’s excellent EXR technology, so switching to 6 megapixels also reaps big benefits for noise and dynamic range. It helps that this 2/3in sensor is almost twice the size (by surface area) as the 1/2.3in sensors used in most compact cameras. It’s a little bigger than the 1/1.7in sensors used in other brands of premium compact camera too. It appears to be the same sensor as in the Fujifilm X10, which means that noise levels are among the lowest of any compact camera.

When there’s plenty of light and not too much contrast in a scene, the camera will switch to 12-megapixels. This revealed crisp focus from the lens, but details weren’t quite as sharp as we’d hope for from a 12-megapixel camera – the EXR sensor’s unusual pixel array seems likely to be to blame. Still, the 6-megapixel mode gives more than enough detail for most purposes, and the 12-megapixel photos capture a little more detail for when enlargements or heavy cropping is on the cards.

Brightly lit shots are pleasantly exposed but fine details are a little vague in 12-megapixel shots

Another big boost to low-light photography comes from the wide-aperture lens. At f/1.8 for wide-angle shots, it gathers four times as much light as a typical f/3.5 lens. This helps to keep the ISO speed down, reducing noise still further, and allowed us to capture some incredibly clean photos at night.

The combination of the big sensor, modest 6-megapixel resolution, f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilisation to avoid blur at 1/8s produced some stunning night photos

The lens closes down to f/4.9 at the other end of the zoom, so low-light photography suffers when you zoom in. The X10 maintains a wide aperture throughout its zoom range, giving it a slight advantage for low-light shooting.

Noise reduction is generally well judged but it inevitably takes its tolls on fine details, and can look a little syrupy on skin textures. The EXR Auto mode gave reliable results, but in program and priority modes it’s worth disabling dynamic range optimisation or managing it carefully to avoid smeared skin textures even in brightly lit conditions.

Skin, hair and fur textures are handled well in this brightly lit shot…

…but with the resolution set to 12-megapixels and dynamic range optimisation set to Auto, the camera has boosted the dynamic range by under-exposing the shot and then brightening shadows and mid-tones. This then requires heavier noise reduction

Video capture isn’t the XF1’s strong point. Its 1080p clips look great at first glance, but sharp diagonal lines look blocky – a tell-tale sign of poor anti-aliasing that also diminishes detail levels and can make motion look a little odd. The lens ring allows for slow manual zoom adjustments, but autofocus is a little skittish and optical stabilisation appears to be disabled while recording. It’s OK for casual clips, at a push.

The XF1 doesn’t appear to apply anti-aliasing when resizing its 12-megapixel sensor output to the 1080p video resolution, resulting in blocky details, most visible on diagonal lines

The Fujifilm X10 is an excellent alternative, and currently available for around £310. It has better controls, an optical viewfinder and a brighter aperture at the long end of the zoom. Then there’s the forthcoming Fujifilm X20 with the promise of sharper detail, and the Panasonic LX7 with its superior videos, faster performance and even brighter lens. However, we’d be tempted to trade all of this for the XF1’s slimmer design and integrated lens cap, which makes it much easier to slip in and out of a pocket. With its lower price and gorgeous design, the XF1 is at least as good as the LX7, and fully deserves our Best Buy award.