Fujifilm X-H2 Camera Review

The Fujifilm X-H2 isn't especially portable. It's heavy and bulkier than the Fujifilm X-T4, but overall, it'll feel well-balanced with moderately large lenses.

Build quality is superb. The camera feels very durable and well-built. Fujifilm advertises it to have 79 weather-sealed points to keep out dust and moisture and says it can withstand temperatures as low as 14°F (-10°C). All of the inputs are covered with secure plastic doors, while the memory card compartment and battery compartment both have locking hinged doors. You can even remove the memory card door if needed.

Compared to the Fujifilm X-H1, the X-H2 has a few key design differences. The joystick on the back has been redesigned and repositioned, as you can see here. Just like the Fujifilm X-S10, the X-H2 has a PSAM dial instead of the typical Fuji exposure dials that you get with the X-H1. You can see how the tops of the X-H1 and X-H2 differ here.

• Fujifilm X-H2 mirrorless camera body
• Sensor cap
• Removable eye cup
• Hot shoe cover
• Shoulder strap
• 1x NP-W235 battery
• AC adapter with international plug adapters
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• Cable management accessory
• User manual and documentation

The X-H2 has fantastic ergonomics. Though the camera is on the larger side, it feels well-balanced when shooting with a lens like the Fuji XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR and doesn't get tiresome to use for longer periods. The grip is very deep and comfortable, with a sufficiently grippy texture. That said, without dedicated exposure dials, like you get with the older X-H1 or the Fujifilm X-T4, it's not as easy to adjust exposure settings on the fly. Unlike the X-T4, the command dials don't have click functionality, giving you less customizability. The rubber eyecup is also on the harder side. The joystick can be hard to reach if you have smaller hands, but otherwise, the buttons and dials are well-placed.

At 5.76 million dots, the viewfinder has a very high resolution that gives you an incredibly detailed view. The manufacturer advertises it to have a 120fps refresh rate, so blur and lag are minimal.

The Fujifilm X-H2 has a fully articulated screen, which is great for video work and makes it easy to monitor your footage if you're recording yourself. The screen has a fairly high resolution, so the image on the monitor looks quite sharp. Touch capability is limited to selecting autofocus points and shutter control. You can only use the touchscreen to change settings in video mode.

There's a secondary display on top of the camera that shows info about battery life, storage space, and settings at a glance. You can toggle it between light and dark mode.

The user interface is great. It's easy to navigate using the joystick or the directional pad on the back of the camera. It has a fairly intuitive layout, although some of Fujifilm's terminology differs from other brands, e.g., metering settings are called 'Photometry' settings. While the menu may take some to get used to, it's easy to navigate once you get a handle on it. There's also an info function to explain certain settings, but it's somewhat limited, especially compared to cameras like the Canon EOS R6 Mark II, which has a more comprehensive guide function.

There's also a quick menu for commonly used settings, which you can customize to your preference. Another nice touch is that the quick menu doesn't fully obstruct your view on the screen, so you can see any adjustments as you make them. You also have customizable 'My Menu' pages for both photo and video, allowing you to create a custom menu limited to the specific settings you wish to access. Overall, these extensive customization options, including swipe motions for the screen and almost all of the camera's buttons, allow you to tailor the shooting experience to your preferences.

Battery life is excellent. It's CIPA-rated for 540 photos on a full charge, which is a little higher than the Fujifilm X-T4. While that number is just a ballpark figure that can vary with real-world usage, it's great relative to other mirrorless models, though it falls far short of DSLR numbers.

For video, the camera lasts for almost two hours of continuous video recording in 4k at 30 fps. In 8k, that drops to about an hour, which is still good considering the higher processing power required for 8k recording.

The Fujifilm X-H2 can shoot at a very quick max burst rate with both its mechanical shutter and its electronic shutter. E-shutter burst shooting is a little faster but has more risk of artifacts from rolling shutter. The buffer is very deep, too. When shooting in JPEG, the buffer clears photos quickly enough that you'll never have to worry about filling it up. When shooting in RAW, it fills up after about 115 shots, which is still excellent. However, it takes about 14 seconds to clear afterward, which can interrupt if you fill it at a critical moment.

The Fujifilm X-H2 has a very good hybrid autofocus system with impressive tracking capabilities. It has an automatic subject detection feature that can track human eyes and faces, as well as animals like cats and dogs, birds, cars, bikes, airplanes, and trains. With human faces, it does a great job of keeping moving subjects in focus. Though you won't get a perfect hit rate with more erratic subjects or in busier settings, it's a highly effective and intuitive auto-tracking feature.

When using a single focus point, the autofocus works very well, especially when using a lens that has a quick focusing motor. You'll have no trouble keeping subjects behind the focus point in focus, whether they're static or moving predictably.

The Fujifilm X-H2 has a five-axis in-body image stabilization system that's advertised to offer up to 7 stops of compensation. We tested image stabilization using a lens without optical stabilization and still managed to capture clear handheld shots at very slow shutter speeds, so the IBIS works well to minimize the effects of camera shake.

RAW dynamic range is fantastic. The camera can capture a very wide range of highlight and shadow detail. It also maintains a solid amount of dynamic range in low light.

The X-H2 uses a 40.2-megapixel sensor, so it can capture an impressive level of fine detail. You have plenty of room to crop in your photos without losing too much resolution.

Thanks to the sensor's high resolution, the X-H2 can also take advantage of Fujifilm's 'Pixel Shift Multi Shot' feature, which was previously only available on some of their medium format GFX cameras. The Pixel Shift mode takes a series of 20 RAW photos, using the camera's in-body image stabilization to move the sensor in tiny increments for each frame. Then, using the Fujifilm 'Pixel Shift Combiner' software, you can combine the images into an ultra-high-resolution composite photo of up to 160 megapixels. Here's a sample Pixel Shift photo taken of our test scene, which you can compare with the standard test scene photo. It's worth noting that you should only use this mode for static scenes, and it's best used with a tripod. If there's any kind of movement with the camera or in the scene, like trees blowing in the wind or birds flying through the sky, you can get artifacts. You can see an example of some of these artifacts here when you zoom in on the trees or rooftops.

The Fujifilm X-H2 has decent noise handling. The high-resolution sensor manages noise fairly well in low light, but noise is more apparent at very high ISO values than the lower-resolution Fujifilm X-T4.

The Fujifilm X-H2 can record 8k, 6.2k, and oversampled 4k video (called '4k HQ') at up to 30 fps. You can also record normal, sub-sampled 4k at up to 60 fps and 1080p at up to 240 fps. The camera includes DCI 4k options and a 17:9 FHD option for a slightly wider, more cinematic aspect ratio.

The camera supports 12-bit RAW video output via HDMI with a compatible external recorder, with support for both Apple ProRes RAW and Blackmagic RAW.

In addition to most common recording formats and codecs, the Fujifilm X-H2 can also record in Apple ProRes 422 HQ, Apple ProRes 422, and Apple ProRes LT formats. However, you need to use a CFexpress card to use these ProRes formats.

In its normal 4k mode, the camera can capture video at up to 60 fps, although shooting in 4k / 60 fps incurs a slight crop. That gives you room to slow down your footage slightly or capture smooth action video. In the oversampled 4k HQ mode, it's limited to a max of 30 fps.

4k internal recording is superb. The camera supports F-Log and F-Log 2 to get a wider dynamic range. Internal 10-bit 4:2:2 recording also gives you more to work with in post-production. There's no time limit on recording, which is great for long-form content, although it can occasionally overheat and shut down during long recording sessions at higher resolutions.

The exceptionally high bit rates noted above were achieved when shooting in ProRes 422 HQ. When using H.265 All-Intra, the max bit rate we got was 699 Mbps, and the minimum was 108 Mbps. The bit rates you get will vary depending on the file format, codec, and other settings.

In 8k, using the ProRes 422 HQ codec, you'll get even higher bit rates, with a max of 3263 Mbps and a minimum of 2749 Mbps. With H.265, we got a max of 684 Mbps and a min of 93 Mbps. When shooting in 8k, the camera is also quicker to overheat, but Fujifilm sells a cooling fan that screws onto the back of the camera for extended 8k recording. However, we haven't tested the camera with the cooling fan, so we can't say how effective it is at reducing overheating.

The camera has very good video autofocus. In video mode, it has various subject detection modes on top of face/eye detection. With continuous autofocus, you can choose between two area modes: 'Multi', which automatically detects and tracks a subject in the frame, and 'Area', which gives you a moveable focus area. There's no general selectable subject tracking outside the camera's automatic subject detection modes. For that reason, it didn't perform amazingly in our object-tracking test. When using the 'Area' AF mode, it can stay with an object that's within or behind the focus area somewhat well, but it's slower to react whenever that object moves, so you get somewhat choppy transitions. Thankfully, there are settings to fine-tune the sensitivity and speed, which can help reduce the jerkiness of the autofocus but results in a trade-off in transition speed.

The face and eye tracking feature, on the other hand, performs incredibly well. It's super sticky and reliable and doesn't have any trouble keeping up with faster-moving subjects. That stays true in 8k as well. In 8k, the camera scores a 9.1 for face tracking, and you can see the sample video for that here. It scores a 7.7 for object tracking, which you can see here.

Video quality is excellent on the Fujifilm X-H2. The high-resolution sensor shines, with incredibly detailed footage in more controlled lighting conditions. It does a great job in low light, though some noise is inevitable.

For comparison, you can see the 8k video test scene extract here, the 6.2k test scene extract here, and the 4k HQ test scene extract here. You can also see how 8k video looks in low light here.

The Fujifilm X-H2 has a slow sensor readout speed, resulting in fairly noticeable rolling shutter distortion. It's most noticeable with quicker camera movements or panning.

In 8k, rolling shutter effect is even worse, with a rolling shutter degree of 8.3° (resulting in a score of 4.9). You can see the 8k rolling shutter video here.

Like other Fujifilm cameras, the X-H2 includes an FHD high-speed recording mode that lets you capture 1080p footage in slow motion at up to 240 fps, with settings for 2x, 4x, or 8x slow motion. This mode incurs a noticeable crop. Otherwise, you can record standard 1080p videos at up to 60 fps.

Internal recording capability is superb in 1080p. There's no recording time limit, and the camera can capture 10-bit 4:2:2 footage internally, giving you more leeway to edit and process your videos.

We recorded the above bit rates using the ProRes 422 HQ codec, which requires a CFexpress card. When recording in H.265 All-I, we got a max bit rate of 395 Mbps and a minimum of 51 Mbps. Bit rates will vary depending on your settings.

Just as in 4k, the camera does well when there's an identifiable subject. It picks up different subjects well and does an impressive job of keeping moving human subjects in focus, even with faster movements or when they pop in and out of the frame. That said, it's more limited if you want to manually select a target. When using the 'Area' AF mode, you can choose the AF area, and it does an okay job keeping whatever is in the selected area in focus. However, it's less reliable, and you can't select a target for it to track—you can only move the AF area to the particular spot the object or subject may be in.

Video quality is remarkable in 1080p as well. The camera captures incredibly detailed footage in well-lit conditions, with sharply rendered details and colors that pop. It's good in low light too. While there's some noise and loss of detail, it looks good overall.

Rolling shutter effect is similar in 1080p. It can be quite noticeable, especially when moving the camera more quickly.

There are two memory card slots, including one SD card slot and one CFexpress card slot. They're located on the side of the camera, making it easy to switch out cards, even when using a tripod.

The Fujifilm X-H2 includes a full-sized HDMI port, which is a nice touch for videographers who don't want to use an adapter to connect an external recorder. You also have all the other ports you might need, including a microphone input and a headphone jack. On the other side of the camera, you also have a remote input. On the bottom, there's also the battery grip connection.