Fujifilm X70 Mirrorless Camera

Serious photography needs serious solutions and therefore, DSLR cameras have remained a popular choice for years. However, the last few years have seen the advent of smaller, more compact cameras for people who are not really professionals but want quality pictures through a handy device. It’s keeping this very audience in mind that some of the popular camera vendors have come up with compact variants of professional cameras that are based on a mirrorless design. For the uninitiated, a DSLR camera works on a mirror reflex mechanism where the image first falls on a mirror and from thereon it is reflected to the optical viewfinder and once the photographer presses the click button, the same mirror moves up for the image to be finally captured by the sensor. However, this mirror mechanism is space consuming and this is precisely what mirrorless cameras seek to eliminate. In a mirrorless camera, the light passes through the lens and falls straight onto the sensor. And even though small size is a big selling point for mirrorless cameras, for serious photography you still have to take into account the size of the camera body and the lens that you are going to use along with it.

Nice compact design and decent looks

The Fujifilm X70 is a sturdy camera that comes in a mostly metallic and actually feels quite compact for a professional camera. You’d actually do better with either a neck or a wrist strap wound to the camera before you even attempt taking pictures. There’s a nice, soft rubber grip at the front for the fingers and the thumb grip at the back. However, if you’ve got big hands like me then you are bound to feel a little cramped for space. The dedicated shutter speed (upto 1/4000 sec in manual mode) and aperture dials (F 2.8 to 16) give the photographer a quick option to change settings while shooting and switch between auto and manual controls with the dedicated auto override switch.

The focus mode ring surround the lens and you can digitally zoom amongst the default 28 mm, 35 and 50 mm focal lengths. The Q button on the right side of the back of the camera provides you easy access to the grid of picture settings such as changing flashlight, LCD brightness, exposure compensation, ISO,  amongst others. We did find a bit of strain in changing aperture size, however the two notches on each side help ease the pain a bit. Likewise, again due to the compact design, you might feel the need to reach out to the shutter speed dial while clicking images.

The  tilting and flip-enabled LCD screen

A nifty feature of the X70 is the tilting LCD display that helps in taking selfies and images at awkward angles. The flip mechanism allows the screen to tilt downwards at 45-degrees for shooting flying objects such as birds. The kickstand lets you do away with the tripod and allows the camera to lean back at any angle for long exposures that are required especially when shooting video clips.

The fixed, 28mm equivalent F2.8 Fujinon lens is the always exposed but can be covered with a metal lens cap to protect it from damage. The four-way controller combined with the Fn button on the bottom right do let you setup the camera to your liking. Also, there’s a WiFi button on the right side that allow you to wirelessly transmit photos to a paired storage device.

Touchscreen-enabled control

The touchscreen LCD lets you control the autofocus while shooting and there is also a small touch button that toggles the touchscreen mode to either 'focus,' 'shot' or 'off.' In the 'focus' mode, you can set the focus point on the screen, while the shot mode lets you shoot images, however, we did notice a lag in performance here. The other benefit is pretty standard, ie when you review images as it lets you swipe pictures in both directions and for zooming in details just as you would on a smartphone.

We did feel that it was a little difficult reaching out to the video record button, tucked in the top right corner. Also the haptic feedback was not that smooth and one needs to press it for a little long to start and stop video recordings.

The battery in the X70 is rated at 330 shots per charge but we found it good enough for a day’s long shoot session. The camera does need its dedicated charger as charging with just about any smartphone charger doesn’t work. In high-speed continuous drive mode, the X70 manages 7 frames per second in JPEG mode while in Raw mode the camera hits its buffer after about seven shots after which the speed drops considerably.