The Fujifilm X-T200 updates the X-T100, and is Fujifilm's entry-level SLR styled mirrorless camera, featuring a built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF), a 24mp APS-C CMOS sensor, and 4K video recording, as well as a new 3.5inch vari-angle screen ideal for selfies and video.
Fujifilm X-T200 Features
The Fujifilm X-T200 is designed to be a great camera for both photographers, and videographers, with "mini-DSLR" styling, an electronic viewfinder (EVF), and a large 3.5inch vari-angle touch-screen.
The Fujifilm X-T200 features the X-Mount, and is compatible with all X-Mount lenses. The camera comes with the compact XC 15-45mm OIS Power Zoom lens which gives an equivalent to 23 - 68mm in 35mm equivalent terms, which is wider than many kit lenses, but doesn't offer much telephoto zoom. Ultra Sonic Vibration sensor cleaning is included, designed to remove dust from the sensor, if any gets on there when changing lenses.
There is a 24.2mp APS-C CMOS sensor (with copper wiring), which has a Bayer filter, and not the X-Trans filter array found on other X-Mount cameras. The camera doesn't feature in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) but does include electronic image stabilisation for video recording. For stills photography, you'll benefit from using a lens with optical image stabilisation (OIS).
The camera has P, S, A, M shooting modes, giving you manual controls, and there's a bulb mode option letting you take shots lasting up to 60 minutes.
There are 11 Fujifilm film simulations available, including Classic Chrome, and the camera lets you preview the difference before you take the photo. There are additional film simulations available on other Fujifilm cameras (such as Classic Negative, and ACROS), so it's a shame that they aren't all available on the X-T200.
Scene modes include Sport, night, landscape, SP (letting you choose from additional scene modes) and panoramic. The Adv. option is where you'll find the advanced (digital) filters, which include all the usual suspects including "HDR Art", Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Colour, and more. SR+ is the Advanced Scene Recognition "Auto" mode that uses Scene Recognition to set the best mode for the photo.
Wi-Fi and low-power Bluetooth are built-in, as expected, and this lets you easily transfer images to a smartphone or tablet, with the ability to remotely control the camera, as well as add location data to images from your smartphones GPS.
Video features and options
The camera has a big emphasis on video features on offer, and with a large 3.5inch vari-angle screen, it would make a great camera for vloggers. In fact, Fujifilm offer the X-T200 as a "Vloggers Kit" with all the things you might need to produce high-quality video content, with a RODE VideoGo Mic, Joby Tripod and a memory card.
On the video front, the camera offers: 4K video at 30,25,24,23.98fps, with the image downsampled from 6K for high levels of detail, and this uses the full-width of the sensor, without crop. The camera has a microphone socket on the side, and you can add a headphone socket with the provided USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter.
There's a digital "gimbal" feature, that stabilises the footage by cropping into the frame, using a built-in gyroscopic sensor. However, this is only available for FullHD resolution video recording, and isn't available for 4K video recording. There's high-speed video recording, as well as HDR video recording, both in FullHD resolution.
Key Features
- 24mp APS-C CMOS sensor with copper wiring, Bayer filter
- Hybrid Phase and contrast-detection AF system, 117 / 425 focus points
- Face and eye-detection AF
- 3.5inch vari-angle touch-screen, 2760K dot resolution
- 2360K dot OLED viewfinder, with 0.62x magnification, and built-in eye sensor
- 8fps continuous shooting speed
- Built-in pop-up flash (GN5, ISO100)
- 4K video at 30/25/24fps, from full-width of the sensor (6K downsampled)
- Digital gimbal, HDR video (FullHD)
- 3.5mm microphone socket
- ISO200 to ISO12800, extends to ISO100 and ISO25600,51200 (when RAW disabled)
- Wi-Fi / Bluetooth connectivity
- 270 shot battery life, extends to 450 in Economy mode
Fujifilm X-T200 Handling
There are a number of dials on the top of the camera, with two on the right, easily accessible when holding the camera, with your right hand. These are used to change settings depending on the mode you're in. There's also a function dial on the left of the camera, which is more difficult to reach and seems somewhat superfluous, however, it's function can be customised. There are two unlabelled buttons on the back of the camera, which means you'll need to read the manual (or on-line reviews) to find out what these are for. These buttons are in fact customisable and are known as the Fn1 and Fn2 buttons. On default settings, the left button toggles the display, and the right button is set to AF-lock.
The focus position joystick control is quite small, and whilst it's probably no smaller than the joystick found on the X100V, X-Pro3, and X-T4, it's position can make it feel a little awkward to use at times.
The X-T200 weighs 370g including the battery and memory card, and when combined with the 15-45mm lens, which weighs around 131g, the camera makes for a lightweight system.
The tripod socket is positioned right next to the battery/memory card compartment, meaning that you can't leave the camera mounted on a tripod and change the battery or memory card. This won't be an issue for many, but if you're using the camera to record video then you'll find this can be frustrating if you regularly fill the memory card and need to change it.
What is the AF-EV range? The camera can focus in dimly lit conditions, down to -2.0 EV. Face and eye-detection focus can help with photos of people, however, it wasn't as foolproof as we would have liked to see, with the occasional out of focus shot of people.
There's a microphone socket on the left of the camera. You can use the USB-C connection with the provided adapter to convert this into a 3.5mm headphone socket for audio monitoring.
The 3.5inch vari-angle touch-screen has a high resolution, and a 16:9 aspect ratio, making it ideal for video. You can tilt it out for "selfies" even with a microphone cable connected to the microphone socket. However, when shooting 4:3 stills photos, the screen size if effectively smaller as there are bars on the left and right of the view. The screen looks great, and can be easily adjusted for the best view.
The electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a high resolution, and gives a good view of the scene, with good colour reproduction. There is an eye-detection sensor so that the camera will automatically switch between the screen and EVF, and you'll also find dioptre correction available.
Fujifilm X-T200 Touch-screen controls
There are a number of on-screen touch controls, letting you easily adjust brightness, background blur, film simulation, and image aspect ratios, depending on the mode you're shooting in. For beginners or those not too concerned about how the changes are made, then this will be easy to use. For those that are used to changing aperture and shutter speeds manually, you may want to skip these controls and stick to the usual photographic controls, which are also available (as long as you're not in SR+ or other auto modes).
Menus – The menu system is clearly laid out, with colour-coded sections making it easier to find what you're looking for. In the menu system, you can use the MyMenu section at the bottom to add your favourite options to give you quicker access.
Continuous shooting lets you shoot at 8fps, however, you can only take 16 shots before the camera slows down. Switching to a slower shooting speed will let you take more shots.
Battery life - Battery life is rated at 270 shots according to Fujifilm / CIPA test results, on normal settings. Using the economy setting, battery life is extended to 450 shots. The battery is charged in the camera, using the provided USB Type-C cable.
Fujifilm X-T200 Performance
The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.
Fujifilm X-T200 Sample Photos
Sample Photos - Colour reproduction is very pleasing, with strong colour saturation in images, even on default settings. Exposure is reliable, although shadows can appear dark at times, so you may want to adjust your settings depending on your personal preferences. DR100, DR200, and DR400 improve the dynamic range captured and recorded in the JPEG image. The camera features built-in raw conversion, which can be extremely useful if you want to make a quick correction or change to an image.
Lens performance: The XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lens gives an equivalent range of 23mm to 68mm in 35mm equivalent terms. The PZ stands for Power Zoom, with the lens automatically extending when you switch the camera on. The zoom is also controlled with a motor, and turning the lens ring lets you control the zoom. As a power zoom lens, it can take a while to get used to the sensation, if you're used to non-power zoom lenses.
The lens performs reasonably well, with good sharpness in the centre, particularly at the wide-angle end of the lens. When using the lens at the wide-angle end of the lens it's very easy to see how soft the corners are (and to a lesser extent the edges), however, when you use the full optical zoom sharpness in the corners is improved (with a slight reduction in centre sharpness).
There is minimal barrel distortion, with this being automatically corrected in-camera (<1% wide, and even less at the telephoto end). Chromatic aberrations are well controlled, although we did spot some when using the wide-angle end of the lens. There is minimal vignetting, as this is automatically corrected in-camera.
Bokeh is possible, but not a particularly strong point of the lens and, it goes without saying, any prime lens will give better results. Close-up performance is reasonable and good for a kit lens. The lens is relatively resistant to flare, and this is only really noticeable when you deliberately set out to create flare by placing a bright light source in the frame. Overall, this the 15-45mm is a relatively good kit lens and will suit many users needs.
Fujifilm X-T200 ISO test images
ISO Noise Performance - You can set the ISO speed from ISO200 up to ISO12800 when shooting RAW (or RAW+JPEG), however, to access ISO100 (low), or ISO25600 and ISO51200, you need to switch to JPEG only. As the ISO Speed increases fine detail drops off, although this is most noticeable at ISO6400 and above, and results below this speed are good, with noise being well controlled. There is a reduced dynamic range at ISO100.
Fujifilm X-T200 Digital filters
Digital Filters - Scene modes / Digital Filters / Effects / plus HDR / Dynamic range mode examples. There is a built-in panoramic mode, with a resolution of 1440pixels high, which is a little on the low side compared to many cameras (and smartphones).
Video - Is this camera good for vlogging? The short answer is yes, the camera's large screen is a standout feature, and when using the 15-45mm lens you get a wide-angle view, which will be useful for many. However, true in-camera image stabilisation is still something that we'd like to see, as the digital gimbal is only available for FullHD video recording.
4K video can be recorded at 30,25,24,23.98fps, and the limit for one clip is 15minutes. Once 15 minutes is up, you can, of course, start recording again. 4K video quality is good, with good levels of detail captured. FullHD video quality is softer than expected.
Audio quality is acceptable when using the internal microphones, but is noticeably clearer when using the RODE Video Mic Go which is part of the vloggers kit. It's a shame that you need the additional microphone, and can't just rely on the internal mics.
In the video mode, the Quick (Q) menu is disappointingly filled with photo/stills options, rather than being optimised for video use.
You can view additional X-T200 videos on the ePHOTOzine YouTube Channel.
Value For Money
The Fujifilm X-T200 is available for £749 with kit lens, or £799 as the vlogger kit (with RODE mic, and JOBY tripod). An alternative is the Fujifilm X-A7, which is very similar, but without the electronic viewfinder (EVF). Other alternatives include the following cameras:
Canon EOS M50, 24mp, 10fps, 4K video, £599 with lens
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III, 16mp with IBIS, 4K video, £529 with kit lens
Panasonic Lumix G90, 20mp with IBIS, 4K video, £820 with 12-60mm lens
Sony Alpha A6100, 24mp, 11fps continuous shooting, 4K video, Mic socket, £749 with lens
Fujifilm X-T30, 26mp, 8fps mech, 30fps elec (cropped), 4K video, £699 with kit lens
Nikon Z50, 20mp, 11fps continuous shooting, 4K video, £795 body only
Have a look at more mirrorless cameras in the Top 15 Best Entry-Level Mirrorless Cameras list. You'll also need to buy a memory card and a case or bag to keep your camera safe and protected - have a look at our complete guide to camera bags.
Fujifilm X-T200 Verdict
The X-T200 updates the X-T100 in a number of useful ways. 4K video recording has been greatly improved, offering 30,25,24fps video recording and a microphone socket has been added to the side. A larger, improved grip has been added to the camera, and there's a new, larger, high-resolution 3.5inch vari-angle touch-screen. Face and eye detection is included and gives good focus performance in most situations.
In terms of value for money, the X-T200 offers a lot, however, alternatives from other companies, such as Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, offer a wider range of lens choices, particularly if you're looking for budget options, and this is something to factor in when looking at the overall cost if you do go for this camera. The majority of lenses available from Fujifilm are not budget options, however, the new XC 35mm f/2.0 is one lens to look at. You could also look at the X-T30, a higher spec camera in many ways, currently available for less than the X-T200.
For wildlife or high-speed sports photography, you will be better served by other Fujifilm X series cameras, such as the X-T30, or X-T3/X-T4 with much faster continuous shooting speeds. But for everything else, the Fujifilm X-T200 makes a compelling all-round camera for general photography. For video the X-T200 delivers good-looking 4K video footage, and the screen is definitely impressive. The vlogger kit is great value for money, for an extra £50, you get a RODE Mic, a JOBY tripod, and a memory card, with the microphone giving a noticeable improvement in audio quality.
| The Fujifilm X-T200 is a great little camera, with great image quality and very good video quality. |
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