Dylan Andersen spent 60 days shooting the Fujifilm X-H2S as his main camera, switching from an X-Pro3. The X-H2S shoots 40 fps with subject detection, has better dynamic range than his X-T3, and feels solid in hand. He shows 40 favorite images across sports, landscape, and portrait work with full EXIF data and lens performance notes.
All right.
It's been two months since I picked up the X H2S. I was coming from an X Pro 3 that I sold to get this camera. I still have an X T3, which I love for photography, but X H2S.
Has really been my main machine.
I also have a GFX 50s 2 that I'm kind of spending more time with just for portraits, for everyday stuff, pictures of my daughter, of my family, of the places I go. The X H2S is finding its way with me. Three takeaways before I show you some of the photos that I've taken with this camera. Number one, burst mode. I'm not a burst mode person, never really used it at all in my career of taking photography and doing photos. But with this camera, it's kind of infectious because it's just so fast. The hype is not hype, it is real. This camera is unbelievably fast. I've shot about 6,000 photos so far with this camera. Whereas for keepers and photos that I really enjoy on an X T3, over a few years of owning it, I was just over 10,000 photos. So photos here are fun when they're in burst mode. Number two, the quality coming out of this sensor is very similar to the X T3, but some of the things you're going to notice coming from an X T3 photography wise is definitely going to be the dynamic range. This is anecdotal and I'll show you some examples in just a moment, but I really feel like being able to recover shadows and save some highlights is a real thing. Third, it's an amazing, amazing, amazing body. They really did amazing stuff with this body, I guess is the word that I can think of right now coming from a GFX 50s II and the X T3, this is a perfect medium. Between the two, the GFX still has more of a premium material on the outside of the camera than the X T3 or the XH2s. But this camera is amazing in the hand and it fits really well. It can get heavy with some bigger lenses, but it is by far worth it. So let's take a look at some photos.
Alright, so let's take a look at these photos. I have probably my set of favorites here. We've got 40 to go through, so I'll try to do this as quick as possible. One of the big things I want to show you here is that you can see some of the lens options or at least the focal length and then the settings. I know a lot of People are always interested in settings. But nicely on windows here we actually have some of that exif info. So first photo here with the 55 to 200. Again, we were talking about dynamic range. We're talking about the body, we're talking about burst mode. You get really cool photos very quickly. Focus on this camera is just so confident. I really think that that's a special part of it. You're gonna see a lot of detail. You're gonna see some of the kind of artifacty stuff that comes out of Lightroom, but it's not as bad as other sensors, especially X trans 4 and before. That's again anecdotal, but that's my belief. This photo here, nighttime 55 to 200. We're at F5 with one over 250th of a second. Just really great detail. Again, focus snappy. Even on an older lens like the 55 to 200, that's not a red badge. Just comes out really fantastic. Some of the long exposure stuff that I've done with this camera I've been super happy with. Again, just that dynamic range and able to save a lot of it. As you can probably imagine, this photo was pretty bright when it came straight out of the raw. But the flexibility and latitude within the RAW is pretty special. Get another night shot here. We've got a long exposure. This is actually a 2 second exposure. There's a ride on this side. But again, dynamic range out of the sensor is a little bit off. But the ability to recover in that latitude that you do have is pretty fantastic. You see here on some of the dragons here, some of the highlights are clipped there, but pretty, pretty awesome. I started kind of getting into sports photography when I first got this camera. And I'm still trying to do more of it. But now that summer's ending here in Orange county, it's a little bit more challenging. But going down to Laguna and seeing some folks playing basketball, we're at 1/2,000th of a second on the 55 to 200. At F4 I was using subject detection, basically face detection, if you will. Not I. And so I was able to grab people's bodies really easily. But really nice scene here, right? Not on a particularly amazing lens. 55 to 200. And you're gonna see some of these shots here are pretty detailed. They're pretty fantastic. Again, straight out of camera, gonna be a little bit overblown. But with some of the editing that I do to personal taste, I'm pretty pretty happy with these images. Landscape stuff looks really good too. Again, dynamic range. Really super, super bright day. We had to go to F8 or 1250. Pretty bright image but able to save a lot of the highlights. I mean look at the detail here on the stucco on this old lifeguard tower. Pretty fantastic. Again, APS C sensor. I am a GFX owner. I've done a lot of videos on the GFX and it still comes off really nice. So 55 over 200. It's a soft lens at the long focal length here, so 200mm and you get a little bit softer of an image here. But again really, really cool. And we've got dynamic range. We've got a nice scene here. Same thing here at the middle of the range, so 141 millimeters. So we're a little bit sharper in the middle but still really good. Again, a little bit softer here but with subject detection I'm able to get a 40 frames a second burst. And the best thing about that, a lot of people say you don't need it. 10 to 15 mechanical is fine. I agree. However, it is really nice to have options. So there was several photos. This is one I chose where the young woman here is going up the the break here and just different body movements where the splash off the board was coming. You get to really make a good choice. Again you just get to see incredible detail, incredible dynamic range out of this sensor. You really see the environmental effect here. As a GFX owner, looking at photos like this makes you really happy because it's like if I don't have the room to bring my GFX, I'll still be happy. This is the 3314. The new 1.4 lenses are so crucial on this system. They just perform so well. I mean focus is insane. Really recommend that. This is the 70 to 300. You know, just a typical shot here, but again saving a lot of the highlights here on a really high key scene is really nice. 7300 is a lot sharper than the 55 to 200. There's plenty of great comparisons if you're interested in that. I know Andy Mumford's done a really good one, but take a look at the surfer here. He was almost in complete shadow, but I was able to save quite a bit of detail. Yeah, there's a good amount of noise here, but at 100% you really can't tell. Obviously doing some local adjustments really makes that even better for some of these landscape shots. I'm on the 3314 here again. This lens punches above its weight. I've done a whole video on it about how I believe it's by far the best lens for the system. My favorite lens, but it does a really good job on these landscape scenes. Also on the 3314 here at F8. Lost some of the highlights here in the middle, but overall the image is incredibly well balanced for an insanely bright day down in Dana Point. Same kind of idea here on this image. This is an overcast day. Just looking at some of the dynamic range here. The detail, this is on the 3314. The detail in this shop here and seeing all the bird cages, really getting to see some of the folks down here that are eating. And again, at 100%, we're really focused on this sign here. We can really dive in and say, wow, quite a bit of detail. And again, I've done some post processing, added some tasteful grain, etc. Street photography. 3314 Again, King of the castle. This is through a window, so we're actually dealing with reflections. I don't have a CPL on there, but just an amazing, amazing detail out of these shots in downtown Orange. Here's one of my daughter. She's moving as if you have kids. You know, they're impossible. Even at like 1/1 millionth of a second, they still, still seem to make things bl. But at 320 ISO, I mean, it's fantastic image. Same kind of idea here, right with the sign. A lot of detail. I mean, look at the detail in these bricks here. It's pretty unbelievable. Let me pull back up the exif info. Yeah. On the 33mm Again, as I suspected, really get some nice detail. So really, really happy with that lens. And again on the XH2s, the. The dynamic range is incredible. So done a little bit of wildlife. Tried to have a little bit of fun with it. This is on the third 7300 at the. the long end here. Incredible detail. Again, it kind of makes you say, well, the GFX is a lot better. Yes, but is it that much better for that extra weight? I don't know. Although I would say, you know, the XH2S is definitely in the same realm of weight as the GFX 50s 2 and the 1/ Hundreds. So. But do a lot of wildlife with this. You know, some of the detail is really, really crazy. And one of the things I think that I think Gerald Undone talked about in his video on YouTube is that some of the noise patterns are actually very like Appealing where you. Even at 320 ISO, if you're going to recover a lot of the shadows and highlights, you're going to get some noise. I've added some grain here in Lightroom. It just looks really nice in my opinion and gives it more of a filmic vibe, which as you can tell is something I'm interested in. Some more wildlife here. Again, great detail. This is a image that kind of shot at lunch I think gives you a really good idea of the dynamic range, right? In real life, this was all in shadow here. These kind of plants are really bright, high key day. This is in Venice Beach. And every detail is pretty. I mean even into the corners here, these shadows, it's just incredible. Yes, there are a lot of sensors out there that can perform this way. Modern cameras are very good at this. However, on a Fujifilm camera, this is definitely new. And I want to kind of preface all of this with that idea that this is something that we had before to some extent, but here it's just kind of taken to another level. I mean the amount of detail in here is really mind boggling. You can see some of the softness here, but still really, really incredible. Even for product photography. I'm not really into that, but I've kind of tried my hand at it. This is of my GFX 50s II with my 80 mil on there that I love so much. This was taken with the 23 1.4, the new one. Again, get the new lenses. If you have these new bodies, they're worth it. I mean, just incredible detail, right? Obviously done some post processing here and there's a nice light key light on it, but really great detail. Regular scenes. If you're shooting at f7 1 5,000th of a second, you can see some of the water stopping here. But this is just my daughter hanging out at the mall. Really really cool stuff, fun to see. You know, even the landscape shots, you know, I've definitely added this to my taste. But you can even see in some of these trees here. I believe these are banana trees. Correct me if I'm wrong, at this farm here in town are really nice. Now the downsides of the X Trans sensor can be definitely seen here. I mean you've lost a lot of detail here. And I've even played with the sharpening settings to make them kind of in the realm of what the X Trans sensor is best at resolving. But this is on the 2314, so a new lens but you know, get a lot of good detail up close. But if you're not at F8, F9, you're gonna get some of that kind of wormy stuff going on there. But I still think at 100%, the image is amazing. Even at maybe 150%, you lose detail in the hay, but it's still fantastic. People on this camera are obviously gonna look incredible. This is the 2314. And you might say, oh, you know, you lost focus here. I did have it on subject detection. I think I had eye turned off. And you can see the focus is actually on this plane here where the hair is. So it's a little strange. But I think, again, I prefer filmic kind of vibes. And at F2, this is a very satisfactory shot. But this was also in burst mode. I chose this one a little bit out of focus, kind of artistically, but there were some that were incredibly in focus, obviously. Again, 2314, here's me and my daughter hanging out. And you can just see. I mean, it was a very hot day. I think it was like 96 degrees, so I'm sweating like crazy. But you really get the sense of detail. And then if you zoom into the shirt here, you'll see some of the kind of wormy stuff. But again, being a Fujifilm user for a long time, I've found ways in Lightroom to get rid of that. If you use Capture One or On one Raw or any of these other editors, you won't have that issue. But I'm a fan of Lightroom. So 70 to 300 long exposure. We see a plane coming through here. This is at nighttime. We're at ISO 160, which is the base. A lot has been said about the base ISO for the XH2, which is at 125. I mean, at 160 and 125, yes, there's a marginal difference, but really it's negligible in everyday practice. Again, at 177 millimeters on the 70 to 300. So kind of in the mid range of the tele zoom there. Still a lot of great detail. This is something artistically, really kept the shadows dark. Was kind of going for a different vibe here, but just gives you an example of what's possible on something that's more traditional per se. Again, this is at nighttime 160. You're at middle of the range F8. So we see out into the ocean here. There is an oil rig that's pretty. Pretty well looked at. We've got some buildings here. We can actually almost even read the sign here. Fashion Island Hotel. Pretty Cool scene though with the telephoto making our way through here. Just a random shot with the 3314. I mean, the sharpness on this lens is nuts. Again, I've added quite a bit of grain as a kind of post production. Tasteful thing, but a lot of fun. Almost done here. I want to get through a couple more. Just my daughter, you know, she's not moving for once at f6, 200th of a second. I mean, fantastic, you know, detail and just shot there. So some dynamic range here. She's got some light here. Everything's in good lighting. Definitely played around with highlights and shadows here. I think it came out really well. Here's a couple shots of this giant wheel here in town that I like a lot. Obviously the blue and orange complement each other really well here, so I'm getting a little bit of a favor from the colors of the world. But I mean, it's great, right? And just these new lenses. Again, maybe this is a video about the 3314 and 23, but I mean, they're fantastic on the X H2s. It really does a good job. Now I'm sure they look even better on the 40 megapixel X H2, but on this camera, I mean, the detail is incredible. I've looked at some of the videos. I think Gordon from Camera Labs has done a really good one with the XHOS versus XH2S detail. And I don't know, the stack sensor is amazing. But if you want to save some money, I mean, you cannot go wrong with the XH2. So those are those quick little building shot here in Venice, you know, gosh, a good amount of detail. Again, dynamic range is really well considering that this is very smooth. The falloff and the highlights here is very good. Obviously the highlights on here drop down to 0 or so negative 100 in Lightroom to save all that. But I think it looks really nice. It looks really, really nice. And the last little corner photo here, if you guys know Fuji Hunter, Jason Hunter, he does a lot of this stuff and it's fun. But yeah, even in the shadows, all the stucco detail just looks really nice. Again that nice fall off. Most modern cameras are gonna be good at this, but especially the Fuji. So yeah, you know, this is the Fuji XH2S. After about two months, I've had a lot of fun with this camera. Again, 6,000 shots. These are just some of my favorites. Again, the sports photography is really fun. You know, doing surfing, doing basketball, and then some of the landscapes, even on this camera is pretty fantastic. So if you have any reservations about the camera, I have had nothing but fun with it. I'm really trying to sell my X T3, but that's a story for another video. But love this camera and a big fan. And again, I don't think my GFX is getting as much use as I would hope that it would get. But that's for another time. Thanks for watching guys. Have a great one. Bye. Bye.
