Review: Fujifilm X-T10

The Fujifilm X-T10 follows the tremendous success Fuji had with the first camera in the X-T series, the X-T1.  The X-T1 has been the X-Series flagship for a bit more than a year, and the X-T10 provides a lot of what made the X-T1 great in a smaller and much more affordable package. The X-T10 retails for only $799, body only: a full $500 less than the X-T1.  While the X-T10 doesn’t have quite the feature set of the X-T1, I’ve found it shares more in common with its big brother than one might expect given the large price disparity.  Let’s dive into the review and take a deep look at this camera.

The new Fujifilm X-T10
The new Fujifilm X-T10

If you’re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won’t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool.  I am not a videographer, so my reviews concentrate on the still imaging capabilities of a camera.

Construction and Handling

The Fuji X-T10 is the smaller sibling to the X-T1, and it shares some design cues from the X-T1, but uses some different materials in construction.  If you’re familiar with the current X-Series cameras, it’s best to explain that the X-T10 feels like a mix between the X-E series of cameras and the X-T1 when it comes to construction.  It uses a combination of composites and lightweight metals.  The camera is tightly assembled and has no creaks  or flex anywhere in the body.  While not quite as robust as the magnesium alloy shell of the X-T1, the X-T10 feels very solid, especially considering the small size.  The X-T10 comes in both black and silver finishes, and both look fairly nice. I reviewed the black version, and in person, it really does look very similar to the X-T1.  I wasn’t a fan of the styling when I saw the first pictures, but the camera looks better in person than I expected.

Fujifilm X-T10
Fujifilm X-T10

Due to the small size of the camera, handling is more of a mixed bag.  The camera is narrower, shorter and thinner than the X-T1, and as such the grip suffers.  I find the X-T1’s grip to be very comfortable and sure with most any lens, but the X-T10 is different.  The front grip is small and thin, allowing for a nice grip when using smaller lenses like the 27mm f/2.8, 35mm f/1.4 or 60mm f/2.4 Macro.  However, when using larger lenses like the bigger zoom lenses or the 23mm f/1.4 or 56mm f/1.2, the grip is somewhat inadequate.  One hand use with these lenses is uncomfortable and feels a bit unbalanced.  The biggest issue with larger lenses is the placement of the rear thumb grip.  This grip is placed just slightly too far to the right, in my opinion, and as such the camera has a tendency to shift down and left when shooting with heavier glass.  Of course, supporting the lens with the left hand will aid significantly in handling the camera.

The top dials on the X-T10 have nice haptic feedback and provide direct controls
The top dials on the X-T10 have nice haptic feedback and provide direct controls

Overall, the button placement is nice and most of the buttons have nice positive clicking action.  The exceptions here are the movie record button, the AEL and AFL buttons, all of which are somewhat spongy.  The camera has both front and rear control dials for changing settings, and both are clickable for extra actions.  The clicking action feels nice on both dials, but I think the dials themselves spin far too easily, with very shallow detents for each setting change. The top dials controlling shutter speed, exposure compensation and drive mode all feel great to use, with nice firm clicks that are easy to move but difficult to accidentally knock out of place.  As a whole, the X-T10 handles fairly well for a small body, but if you regularly use the heavier Fuji X glass, you may be uncomfortable shooting the X-T10.

Operation and Controls

The control layout on the X-T10 will be familiar to any current Fuji X series shooter, though there are some unique controls that aren’t featured on any other Fuji.  The X-T10 shares the majority of its control layout with its big brother, the X-T1. There’s a shutter speed dial and exposure compensation dial on top, along with the movie record button that sits next to the power switch and shutter button.  Like all the Fuji X bodies with shutter speed dials, the mode of the camera is controlled by how the aperture and shutter speed are positioned.  Putting the shutter speed dial into A makes that function automatic.  Thus A on shutter speed while selecting an aperture puts the camera in aperture priority mode.  Want a specific shutter speed?  Simply select it and you’re in manual mode.  Move the aperture ring on a lens to A and the camera is now in shutter priority.  With both dials set to A the camera moves to Program mode.

The top controls of the X-T10 are similar to other X-Series bodies
The top controls of the X-T10 are similar to other X-Series bodies

It’s a fluid scheme and one of the things I love about Fuji controls.  However, the X-T10 adds a new feature: a full Auto mode. While the X-series cameras with mode dials have had an Auto mode, this is the first time Fuji’s implemented it along with their standard control scheme.  This is enabled by simply flicking the switch under the shutter speed dial to Auto.  When Auto is engaged, none of the dials serve any purpose and the camera will simply attempt to use all the best settings.  It’s worth noting that RAW is not available in the Auto mode.

Finally, in a first for a Fuji camera (though also now available on the X-T1 with firmware 4.0), the X-T10 can utilize Auto ISO in manual mode with exposure compensation.  As such, you can select your shutter speed and aperture, adjust exposure via the exposure compensation dial, and let the ISO float to make up those exposure changes.  This is really useful if you find yourself in dark environments and want to adjust the minimum shutter speed on the fly, but don’t want to change it via the ISO menu.  Now just a quick flick of the shutter speed dial and you’ve got it.  It’s also extremely useful for video shooting, where you want shutter speed to stay constant.

Staying with the top plate, the left side of the camera shows some changes from the X-T1.  Gone is the locking ISO dial, and in its place sits a dedicated Drive dial.  While I’d prefer ISO be in this position, the Drive Mode dial is convenient and makes it very easy to switch between continuous shooting, single shot, advanced filters, panorama modes and two different bracketing setups, which the user can specify in the menus.  Next to the Drive Mode dial is the release for the integral pop-up flash, which deploys with almost alarming speed and sureness.

X-T10 Back
X-T10 Back

The rear of the X-T10 is again very similar to that of the X-T1.  The X-T1’s Focus Assist button is gone as the dials on the X-T10 are pressable, and pressing the rear dial activates the focus assist function, like it does on all other Fuji X bodies.  The X-T10’s smaller top plate doesn’t quite have room for the Fn button, so that’s been moved to the rear of the camera.  The AEL and AFL buttons flank the rear dial.  On the top left of the rear, the play and trash buttons can be found, and the View Mode control for the EVF and rear screen is prominently featured beside the viewfinder.

The X-T10’s controls are well laid out and allow for a huge amount of customizability.  All four of the four-way directional buttons can be assigned a custom function, as can the Fn button, the movie record button and the pressing function of the front dial.  In all, that’s seven programmable buttons, which allow you to really set the camera up to your liking.  These buttons, in addition to the Q menu, which allows access to many other commonly used functions make trips to the menu for settings changes a rare occurrence.  The last physical control on the camera is the focus mode selector dial, which sits on the front left of the camera for easy access with your left hand.

The X-T10's Q Menu
The X-T10’s Q Menu

Going back to the menus, the Q menu is laid out similar to all the other X-Series cameras, but can be customized to your needs. The Q menu allows you to quickly change ISO, JPEG parameters, self timer settings, AF mode, flash mode and quick sets.  The rest of the menu system will also be familiar to Fuji veterans.  I’ve generally been pleased with Fuji’s menu layout, which consists of 8 pages in two groups.  It’s simple and basic, but it’s also easy to follow and use.

The X-T10 also features the same manual focus aids that the X-T1 and X-E2 have: namely very nice focus peaking and the unique digital split-prism focusing, where a box of four lines show a split-prism effect similar to that used in some manual focus SLR viewfinders, which align when the subject is in focus.  The focus aids can be switched easily be holding in the rear dial button for a second, which is another nice usability touch.

Continue: Viewfinder, Rear Screen, Autofocus and Performance

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Comments

33 responses to “Review: Fujifilm X-T10”

  1. Red Slater Avatar
    Red Slater

    Excellent review. For us jpeger street shooters, this is the best camera out there. One thing, though. The Q-menu is customizable – you said it isn’t. And for for larger lenses, just attach the handgrip.

  2. Brian Caslis Avatar
    Brian Caslis

    I think the section about the Q menu is wrong. I can customize the Q menu on my X-T10 just like the X-T1 by holding down the Q button for a few seconds. Also the EVF can be set to auto brightness making darker indoors and brighter outdoors. I find it works very well.

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      Thanks. I looked all over and couldn’t find it like I could on the X-T1. I’ve updated the review.

  3. […] Admiringlight simply revealed its Fujifilm X-T10 evaluation. Here an excerpt from the conclusions: […]

  4. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    I guess I’m in the minority but I don’t get the appeal of Fuji images. It’s a beautiful looking camera and I love the lenses, but image quality lacks something to my eye.

    1. Chris Avatar
      Chris

      Daniel, I think what you’re noticing is that there’s sometimes a little less microcontrast in Fuji images. It’s a subtle thing, but I think it’s a reasonably fair generalization for some types of images. It depends on what style you’re going for. I think it works well for fashion in particular.

      1. Mk82 Avatar
        Mk82

        You do know that “Microcontrast” means exactly same thing as Contrast + Sharpness?

        If either one is lacking, you don’t get the results people mumble as “Microcontrast”.

        1. Rantanplan Avatar
          Rantanplan

          I’m not so sure, if it really is the same, or maybe it is not microontrast that’s missing.

          What I would say is:

          Sharpness, color, bokeh, of Fuji Lenses is really great (in the extreme corners not always, though).

          I think it all boils down to the X-Trans subpixel color pattern on the sensor (look at comparisons of X-A1 vs X-M1, etc.)

          The pros are: smooth gradiation of colors (lacking in high-freq. color, though. Good on low ISO, probably coz of the bigger rendering kernel of, smoothing out things. Still good (perhaps to good to be true) sharpness on “detected” high frequency stuff.

          And what some refer to the more “film-look” it does not accentuate edges to that level other digital cameras still do. That for me is the main thing to like about the images it produces.

          But one of the cons is that micro-contrast is missing in details that are not on full contrast, this is not much of a problem if you use VSCO and other filters that produce that trendy “matte look” anyways, coz for this type of images it really works perfectly.

          But as test have shown, even smaller MFT sensors, with good glass (Pana/Leica Nocticron) are able to outresolve all the Fufi-X cams when it’s purely about image detail (not pixel quality, per se).

          I have had an X-E1, still have a X100 and X-Pro1, but most probably will be selling the X-Pro1 again.

  5. Jano Avatar
    Jano

    Nice review and it really looks like a great camera for the price. Really hope they update the X-E2 to receive the major ones of these new features (better AF sensitivity, electronic shutter, EC in manual mode, direct AF point selection mainly). If not they really need to reduce the price of the X-E2…

    As far as I know the X100T was the first Fuji camera to be able to use EC in manual mode though. Pretty sad it took them so long

    Oh, and I think there shouldn’t be any Fuji review without a rant about waxy JPEG skin at high ISO and them not letting us turn it off.

  6. DJ Avatar
    DJ

    If you haven’t tried it already, you can change the EXIF data on the X-T10 files to “X-T1″ and open them in Photo Ninja perfectly. I use EXIFTools. The code to do it is -exif:Model=”X-T1”. My workflow is:

    1.) Import photos to Lightroom CC. Sort images, ratings, create collections etc. Basic adjustments, crops.
    2.) If I need the extra detail Photo Ninja provides, I will change the exif as described above.
    3.) PN is set up as plug-in to Lightroom. “Edit in” in PN, develop raw file save down to TIF.
    4.) Apply adjustments to TIF in Lightroom (local adjustments, crops, presets, etc.)
    5.) If the TIF doesn’t look quite right, go back to PN and repeat step 3.
    6.) When I’m happy with the TIF file as seen in Lightroom, go back into EXIFTools and reset the model to X-T10.

    Sounds complicated, but really not. Works great for now, until PictureCode updates PN to support X-T10 officially.

    X-T10 has been a great camera for the few weeks I’ve owned it. Took it to Ireland the day after I took delivery from Amazon…great for street, long exposure and landscapes in such a compact form factor. Lovin’ it so far.

    1. Roger Whitehead Avatar
      Roger Whitehead

      This trick also works for Lightroom and Capture One, probably other Raw processors too.

      Not being a fan of hand-to-hand combat with command-line interfaces, I use ExifToolGUI to manage Exiftool. It’s free.

      Roger

      1. DJ Avatar
        DJ

        Good tip on the GUI Roger. Thanks.

  7. ajurjans Avatar

    “Fuji is still the only camera company where I will sometimes prefer a JPEG I’ve made in camera to a processed RAW image, and that’s a nice thing to fall back on. While I still prefer the flexibility and added benefits of shooting RAW, if you are a JPEG shooter, the X-T10, as well as any other Fuji camera, should be on your short list.”

    Oh, yes! I am shooting with an X-E1 and I have NEVER ever previosuly been able to… set the camera to jpeg and not worry about the outcome. And that is after some notable experience with Canons, Nikons and latest Sony cameras. This is the FIRST system where the jpegs are as good as you can get.

    1. Mk82 Avatar
      Mk82

      Olympus even beats Fuji in that but is just amazing how there really are only two manufacturers, Fuji and Olympus that manages to make great usable JPEG out of the camera without requiring to go through image editing with RAW.

      Looking Canon, Nikon, Sony etc. It is just amazing how users of those branded cameras bash JPEG only because their cameras are incapable to compress RAW in camera with high quality and great colors.

      And when the JPEG from these cameras is like 99% of the time correctly what you need and want, you don’t need RAW in a same manner as those others.

  8. […] Sourced through Scoop.it from: admiringlight.com […]

  9. tobias Avatar
    tobias

    Great review. I’ll hopefully pick one of these up in the next couple of months. What leather strap is that? It looks great on the X-t10

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      It’s from Gordy’s Camera Straps. http://gordyscamerastraps.com

      I’ve had this one for two years now and it still looks brand new. They take about a month to really break in, and then the leather becomes very supple. I have another one with orange wrap cord for my A7II. I use the black/gray on my Fuji bodies. You’ll see the orange one if you come back either tomorrow or Thursday: my review of the Sony 90 Macro will hit then, and I have a shot showing that wrist strap. They make neck straps too, but I’ve always preferred wrist straps for my mirrorless cameras.

      1. tobias Avatar
        tobias

        Awesome thanks Jordan! I’ll look into your other review now. What size strap did you go for? Regular? Thanks again

        1. Jordan Steele Avatar

          I have the regular on my Fuji and the long on my Sony. The regular fits, but is just a bit tight if I sweat at all. Makes it hard to get off (it’s fine during shooting). The long fits me better. However, I’m a big guy.

  10. Andrius Avatar
    Andrius

    What camera system or camera itself is your favorite, what do you use most from equipment that you have ?

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      Now, that’s a loaded question! I have at least a small kit from all the systems that I regularly review: Micro 4/3, Fuji X, Sony E mount (both APS-C and full-frame). Most of my gear right now is in the Fuji system, and I use that for most of my family shooting as well as general all-around stuff. In that situation, it’s the X-T1 about 90% of the time, though I have an X-E2 as well that gets some use.

      The Sony A7 II also gets quite a lot of use. This year, the A7 II has gotten a real workout because of the amount of stuff that’s come out for FF Sony in the past year, while Micro 4/3 and Fuji are nearing complete systems and have slower release cycles at the moment. However, I grab my A7 II the most when I’m going out specifically for landscape work.

      My Micro 4/3 kit (OM-D E-M5) generally only gets used personally for macro work (I LOVE the Olympus 60mm macro) and for times I want a long lens with minimal bulk: so the Olympus 75-300 does a great job there.

      So, to sum up: the Fuji X-T1 and Sony A7 II get about 95% of my personal shots. Probably leaned a bit more towards the Fuji, but pretty close.

  11. Jeff Avatar

    Jordan,

    I have been getting this and a couple of your other posts over and over for days now. Any chance you can stop it please?

    Cheers,

    Jeff

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      I’m not quite sure what you mean. Can you describe what’s going on for you? I’m not sure I understand, and I’m not actively promoting anything at the moment through any outlet.

      1. Jeff Avatar

        I subscribe to your blog with NetNewsWire. This post keeps on showing up every time that a refresh happens. I mark it as read and it should not show up again, but it does.

        I have over a hundred subscriptions and yours are the only ones that this is haoppening to. It has only jsut started happening.

        Cheers,

        Jeff

        1. Jordan Steele Avatar

          Thanks. I’ll look into it.

  12. Dave Thornton Avatar
    Dave Thornton

    I know this is probably a bit late but what an excellent review of this camera! having had Nikon gear for years but finding it too heavy for my increasingly arthritic joints, I sold it all and bought into the Panasonic m4/3 system but never really gelled with it. I looked at the XT10 when it first came out, handled one in a shop, read your review and was sold! It (to me, anyway) is a brilliant piece of kit and I’m trying to avoid having a “GAS” attack until I am fully conversant with the camera. Excellent website by the way. Keep up the good work!

    Dave Thornton

  13. […] a minor update to the low-end X-A series, with the X-A2.  The second was the outstanding mid-range X-T10, a camera that has the majority of the features of the flagship X-T1 at a much more modest price. […]

  14. […] X-T10 (review here) is the X-T1’s little brother.  When it debuted, it supplanted the X-E2 as the second fiddle […]

  15. TOM BELL Avatar

    I was interested in your use of Olympus only with long lenses. I must say I have an XA1 with 18-55/18/27 lenses and am missing a camera with a viewfinder ….
    But the other thing about m43 is the GM5 with the little 12-32 / 15 prime …. It is so tiny a genuine tiny street camera jewel.

    But I am happy with 16mp and impressed that the 16 mp holds up SO well against the new 24mp cameras. Waiting for price fall but I am still weighing up the compactness of this little beauty with the water protection of the XT1 given that I live on rainy Dartmoor in England !!

    Thanks for such a thorough photographers review. Brilliant

  16. Cedric Avatar

    Hello Jordan
    I have a little question about this XT10 with the XF 60mm f2.4
    I know this lens is well known for it’s laggy AF, but I was wondering if using this lens with the XT10 would make things better (as it does with the 35mm f1.4) ?
    Any information about this ?

    Thank you in advance !

  17. […] dem Markt gehört. Und nun hat Fotograf Jordan Steele in seinem ausführlichen Test der X-T10 auf admiringlight.com auch einige Aspekte der X-T10 mit denen der A6000 […]

  18. […] late) X-T2 review comes the review of its little brother, the X-T20. The X-T20 is the successor to Fuji’s X-T10, which was released almost two years ago.  The X-T10 proved to be a very capable body with nearly […]

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