Fujifilm X-T30 II Camera Review

The Fujifilm X-T30 II is quite portable with nearly identical dimensions as the Fujifilm X-T30. Its body is narrow, if a little tall, but it has a slim profile that makes it easy to slip into a camera bag. It also doesn't weigh too much, so it won't cause as much fatigue to carry it around your neck or shoulder on long shooting days.

The camera feels very well-built. Like the Fujifilm X-T30, it's made of metal and plastic and feels sturdy and high quality. Inputs are covered by a rubber flap, while the battery and SD card slots are covered by a hinged door.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II has three command dials, which also have press functionality to control different settings. There's a front command dial, a rear command dial, and a dedicated shutter speed dial on top.

On top of that, the camera also has an exposure compensation dial and a dedicated drive mode dial, so you can easily switch from single to continuous shooting to movie mode and more. On the front of the camera, you also have a focus mode toggle to quickly switch between single autofocus, continuous autofocus, and manual focus. Many of the buttons and dials are customizable as well.

• Fujifilm X-T30 II camera body
• Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R OIS lens
• Front lens cap
• Rear lens cap
• Sensor cap
• Owner's Manual
• Shoulder strap
• 1x NP-W126S battery
• USB-A to USB-C cable

The Fujifilm X-T30 II isn't bad when it comes to comfort. The small size of its hand grip and body make it feel a bit cramped to hold for those with larger hands. Because of its size, it's also easy to press buttons accidentally, particularly the 'Q' button because of its placement near the back thumb rest. That said, the camera feels well-balanced with the Fujinon XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 kit lens attached, and having a dedicated shutter speed dial along with two command dials makes it easy to adjust any aspect of the exposure triangle on the fly. The thumbstick is also intuitive to use for menu navigation.

The EVF has a fairly high resolution, giving you a sharp image through the viewfinder. However, it isn't especially big, and the plastic eyecup isn't very comfortable.

The screen is bright enough to overcome glare in sunnier conditions, and its tilting design is ideal for waist-level shooting. The screen also has a notably higher resolution than the original Fujifilm X-T30, giving you a sharper image and making it easier to review your photos more clearly. However, the touch capabilities are limited to selecting focus points, use as a touch shutter, and enabling AF tracking.

The menu system remains unchanged from the Fujifilm X-T30, and it's easy to navigate using the thumbstick. There's a bit of a learning curve, but all submenus and settings are clearly labeled and logically organized. There's also a guide function to explain certain settings.

Battery performance is okay. It has a 390-shot CIPA rating, which is slightly better than the original Fujifilm X-T30, rated at 380 shots. That's a fairly average CIPA rating for a mirrorless camera, and it should last a solid amount if you shoot conservatively, but more extensive shooting will drain the battery quicker. You also get about an hour of battery life when shooting video continuously in 4k with the highest quality settings, which isn't great. Thankfully, you can keep using it while it charges over USB, which is handy if you have a portable battery pack.

You can set the camera's shutter speed as slow as 15 minutes (900s) in its regular shooting mode, which is fantastic for taking long-exposure photos. If you need even longer shutter speeds, it also has a bulb mode that can go up to 60 minutes.

The camera has both an electronic shutter and a mechanical shutter, and you can get shutter speeds of up to 1/32000s with the electronic shutter, which is useful when shooting with a wide-open aperture in very bright conditions.

The camera has an okay continuous shooting speed. It maxes out at 8 fps when using the mechanical shutter, which is decently fast for capturing burst shots of moving subjects and action. In silent mode, with the electronic shutter, it shoots at up to 10 fps, so that's great for capturing bursts when you need to be discreet or when taking photos of skittish wildlife, though the e-shutter can also cause distortion. The RAW photo buffer is quite small, but it's much harder to fill out the buffer when shooting in JPEG. If you do fill it up, it takes a little while to empty, which can interrupt your shooting at a critical moment.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II uses a hybrid autofocus system. Unlike the Fujifilm X-T30, the Mark II uses Fuji's updated tracking system, the same one found on the Fujifilm X-T4. It's a little more intuitive, with a single tracking box that locks onto your target rather than the busier interface of the older model.

The camera supports face and eye detection, but it isn't especially reliable. It's somewhat easily confused with multiple faces in the frame, often switching the focus away from the intended target. While it isn't bad with slower subjects, it can quickly lose track of subjects that are moving more quickly or erratically.

If you prefer not to rely on tracking, the autofocus is a lot more effective. With the center point, focusing is very accurate and quick, especially when using a lens with a decent focusing motor.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II doesn't have in-body sensor-shift stabilization. However, you can use optically stabilized lenses if you need to shoot at slower shutter speeds without a tripod, like when there's less light. With the XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 kit lens, which has optical image stabilization (OIS), it does an excellent job of stabilizing handheld shots.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II has good usable dynamic range. It can capture a solid range of detail in high-contrast scenes. If you shoot to preserve shadow detail, however, highlights still tend to get blown out quite a bit. Still, it performs well for an APS-C sensor, and if you underexpose your images to preserve those highlights, RAW files do have good exposure latitude, allowing you to brighten shadows a few stops without introducing too much noise.

The camera does a great job of resolving fine detail. While this is most apparent when punching in, it means you have a bit of leeway to crop your photos without losing too much detail.

RAW noise handling is good. It doesn't compare to cameras with full-frame sensors, but you can get relatively clean files at moderately high ISO settings, allowing you to shoot in dimmer lighting conditions without worrying too much about sacrificing quality.

JPEGs have very little visible noise straight out of the camera. Noise is more visible at higher ISO levels, but unless you're pixel-peeping, noise is hardly noticeable even up to ISO 6400.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II can record FHD, UHD 4k and DCI 4k video. It also supports F-Log recording if you want to color-grade your footage. If you shoot with an external recorder, it can also output 10-bit 4:2:2 video over HDMI, capturing more color information and giving you more leeway when processing your videos.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II can record 4k video at up to 30 fps, which is good for a range of video styles, but the camera lacks any high frame rate options for smooth action video or slow-motion recording.

4k internal recording capability is adequate. The camera can capture video at high bit rates, resulting in higher-quality video files. However, it suffers from severe overheating issues when recording continuous video for long periods in MOV format at the highest quality settings. That said, it has a solid 30-minute recording time limit, which is a significant improvement over the ten-minute cap on the Fujifilm X-T30.

Autofocus performance is excellent overall when shooting 4k video. The general subject tracking does an amazing job of keeping subjects in focus, and the camera supports face and eye detection. The face tracking works quite consistently, doing a great job of maintaining focus on moving faces, though it can lose track if subjects turn around or move very quickly, and it sometimes has to hunt to find its target. Overall, it's good for most situations but isn't as consistent as other AF systems like Sony's.

4k video quality is impressive, especially in more controlled lighting conditions. Footage looks sharp and detailed, and the camera does a good job in low light. Shadows are preserved pretty well, and there isn't an overwhelming amount of noise or grain.

Unfortunately, the Fujifilm X-T30 II has a slow sensor readout speed, resulting in very noticeable rolling shutter. Vertical lines look heavily skewed with faster camera movements.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II has a ton of frame rate options in 1080p. In normal recording, it can shoot at up to 60 fps, so you can capture smooth action or incorporate slow-motion. It also has a high-speed recording mode, like other Fujifilm cameras, that records at up to 240 fps in 1080p in slow-motion with no audio. That's an improvement over the 120 fps max of the Fujifilm X-T30. This mode incurs a noticeable crop, however.

Internal recording is good in 1080p. It captures high video bit rates, resulting in videos with more information and quality. As with 4k, the recording time limit is 30 minutes, improving upon the Fujifilm X-T30's 15 minutes.

Autofocus is still excellent in 1080p, though like with 4k, it can sometimes lose its target or hunt a little before finding it. It still does a great job tracking moving subjects overall and supports both face and eye detection.

1080p video quality is great in more controlled lighting conditions. It looks relatively sharp, and colors are pleasing straight out of the camera. In low light, video looks decent, though it's more grainy and lacks detail in the shadows.

There's less rolling shutter in 1080p, but vertical lines still look a bit skewed with faster camera movements.

There's just a single UHS-I SD card slot, so you can't take advantage of the faster read and write speeds of UHS-II cards. It's located inside the battery compartment on the bottom of the camera, making it tricky to switch out cards when using a tripod.

The Fujifilm X-T30 II has a wide array of inputs and outputs, but it doesn't have a headphone jack to monitor your audio while you record. Unlike the Fujifilm X-T4, there isn't a USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box.