Fujifilm X20 - Retro Good Looks

Introduction

Not everything retro-styled has fallen out of favour, as rangefinder-inspired cameras seem to be all the rage these days. Olympus has been pushing such designs since the release of the PEN EP-1 while Fujifilm has gone on to produce the X100S, X10 and X-Pro1.

It appears that camera manufacturers might have a winning combination when they merge a rangefinder-inspired design with good optics and performance. So does the Fujifilm X20, the successor to the X10, possess this winning combination? Join us as we find out.

Design and Handling

The X20 takes its design cues from the retro rangefinders of the past, making it stand out from among the rest of the conventional compacts. Possessing a very robust and sturdy build, the camera not only looks good, but feels good in our hands, though it might be heavier and larger than your run-of the-mill compact.

The Fujifilm X20 doesn’t only look retro-inspired, but has also included some retro design and handling elements. One of these elements is the manual zoom lens; there’s no zoom rocker so you will have to twist and turn the zoom ring to get closer to or further from your subject. There’s also no Power button - users will have to remove the lens cap and twist the zoom ring to get the camera powered on. Luckily, unlike the Fujifilm XF1, users do not need twisting, pulling and twisting the lens to power it on. Just a quick single turn of the lens will power up the camera.

The Fujifilm X20 allows users to manual focus, and the focus mode switch can be found on the front of the camera, beside the lens. The thumb wheel on the back of the camera lets users set the distance while the rear display automatically zooms in on the subject to help users with adjusting the sharpness. There will be a distance scale at the bottom of the display that is colored blue, with a red vertical line on the scale that informs users of the focusing distance. The white bar surrounding the red line represents the depth of field, and will change in width as you adjust the aperture to reflect the present depth of field. If you find it hard to wrap your head around this, here’s an image below to give you an idea of what we mean. The Fujifilm also has the Focus Peak Highlight function, where a white line will surround a subject that is in focus to make manual focusing easier.

There’s a host of external controls to be found on the X20; in fact you will be hard-pressed to find an empty spot of space on the rear of the camera even though the X20 is slightly larger than some of the other advanced compacts available.

On the rear, nothing much has changed between the X10 and the X20 except for the RAW button (which was originally found at the bottom right corner of the X10). The X20 sees the RAW button replaced with the "Q" button, which brings up a quick menu of settings when pressed; certainly much more useful than the former RAW button. The rear display remains at 2.8 inches with a resolution of 460k-dots.

Above the display is the optical viewfinder, which is useful if you happen to be shooting on a sunny day and the display washes out under the bright sunlight. Do take note that the viewfinder only provides 85% coverage of the lens’ field of view, so you will have to frame your shot accordingly as the final shot will cover a slightly wider view. The optical viewfinder, like old rangefinders, is offset from the lens, so you'll also need to compensate for the parallax.

While the viewfinder is useful in some scenarios, we also found two issues with it. Similar to the X10, when shooting at a wider angle, the lens barrel is actually visible at the bottom right corner of the frame when you look through the viewfinder. While the lens barrel is not captured in the shot, this does make framing a shot awkward at times. The other issue is that even though shooting information such aperture and shutter speed are overlaid onto the image in the viewfinder, the composition grid and the AF point selection will only appear on the rear display and not as an overlay on the viewfinder image.

At the top of the camera you have mode dial, exposure compensation dial, shutter release button, hot shoe mount, a customizable Fn button and the built-in flash. Since there’s no dedicated ISO button, the Fn button here is set to adjust ISO settings by default. Having a dedicated exposure compensation dial is useful though there were quite a few instances where we forgot that we had changed the setting and started shooting without resetting it.

Image Quality and Performance 

Autofocus speed isn't Fujifilm's strongest attribute and it was painfully obvious on the older X10. For an advanced digital compact camera, the X10's slow and inaccurate AF didn't exactly impress. The company has promised improved AF speeds with the X20's Hybrid AF system and we can honestly say that it has delivered on that promise. The Fujifilm X20 had a faster AF speed when compared to its predecessor, the X10, but AF tracking is still an area that needs a bit more work, as the X20 still faltered in  this aspect during our testing. 

Below are sample photographs shot with the Fujifilm X20. The photos have not been post-processed and are copyright to SPH Magazines. They are provided for your reference only and we ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere. Click for the full-resolution images.

As with the best of Fujifilm's cameras, the X20's photographs come with excellent color. The Fujifilm X20 scored 2000LPH (horizontal and vertical) in our resolution tests. As with most modern digital compacts, noise is pretty well controlled until ISO800. However the noise reduction of the X20 is quite aggressive and you start to see it as early as ISO200. In terms of battery life the X20 promises 270 shots according to the CIPA standard, which isn't high when compared to its peers. So if you intend to spend an entire day shooting, we advise bringing an additional battery. 

Conclusion 

The Fujifilm X20 is a definite improvement over its predecessor, the X10. We liked the improved AF speed and there are a few features that its competitors lack, such as the optical viewfinder, which proved useful on sunny days with the rear display washing out under bright sunlight. There's also the focus peaking feature, which is helpful for those that like to shoot with manual focus. 

It's apparent that Fujifilm takes pride in its cameras' design and construction as the X20's build quality is robust and it doesn't feel cheap or fragile. But that also comes with a trade-off; the X20 is also slightly larger than an average compact camera, so it won't really fit into the back pocket of your jeans. Also, its low light performance still needs a bit of work  as the noise reduction software tends to be quite aggressive and smudges out details.

Thus the Fujifilm X20 is a niche camera that will appeal to a certain crowd. It's an attractive camera that has good image quality (aggressive noise reduction aside) but may not appeal to the mainstream shutterbug considering the many alternatives available. And it doesn't help when you stop to consider its asking price, which at S$899 we feel is a tad too much considering powerful competitors like the Panasonic LX7 (S$799) or the Sony RX100 (S$999). With that being said, if you lust after the X20's retro style, manual zoom and optical viewfinder, it's definitely  a competent advanced compact that you can consider.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.