FUJIFILM X-H2S & XF150-600 - 3 WEEKS FIELD TEST (STILLS ONLY)
End of June 2022, Fujifilm Middle East was able to lend me a pre-production Fujifilm X-H2s and XF150-600 lens, for a three week field test, on a variety of different shoots.
As usual, let's first start with a few disclaimers.
1/ As an official X-Photographer, Fujifilm Middle East, lend me a "sample" in order to test it and shoot some sample images. I do not get to keep it! So no, I'm not paid to write the review. All is my personal opinion.
2/ This is not a pixel peeper review. If that is what you are looking for, you might have to look somewhere else. Sorry. Images go through my normal image editing routine; most are in camera jpegs with a few being edited RAW files.
3/ Sample gear is not the same as a production copy when it comes to hardware and firmware. There might be small differences between them.
Before going any further, what is below is an illustration on how I used the new gear in the field. I did not use the X-H2S for video, something the camera is apparently really good at, but which I prefer to leave to the video experts!
I used the X-H2S at two airshows in Belgium, a few wild life shoots (mainly larger birds) and some Travel photography including a series of aerial photos shot in Belgium and France.
AIRSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY
As a pilot/photographer my interest for this genre is of course a given. The last few years, I've been pointing the X-T3 and XF100-400 lens to the sky at airshows all over the world. Check out the "Aviation Events" section for more.
Although I've had OK results, it's often been with a relatively low keeper rate, due to the Autofocus tracking system still having quite a bit of room for improvement. Seeing how the X-H2s and the new lens would perform during an actual airshow, was one the main objectives of the test.
The new 26MP APC-C Stacked CMOS sensor, (3.6 times faster than the BSI single layer design found in the X-T3 and X-T4), is one of the three reasons the AF tracking is significantly better and faster. One other reason is the new X-Processor 5, which is about 65% more powerful. Lastly the X-H2S has an entirely new AF algorithm which uses things like AF Subject tracking for Cars, Birds, Animals, Bikes, Motorbikes, Trains and yes, "Airplanes". Needless to say I was very curious to use the last category in action!
Launched together with the X-H2s was the new XF150-600 lens. Since I regularly found myself a little short on the long end with the XF100-400 lens, the additional 200mm is very much welcome and saves one having to put on the 1.4TC (Teleconverter). While the lens is not really fast (f5.6 to f8.0), it does keep the size and weight down quite a bit. Even after using the lens for 3 weeks, I was still surprised how light it felt every time I picked it up. The camera/lens combo works perfect for handholding an entire day. While walking around the grounds, I found myself often holding it at the lens foot, which makes for a great handle. By the way the lens foot has a built in Arca Swiss tripod mount, which is what all lens foots should look like!
For those not familiar with Airshow photography, one typically uses very different shutter speeds for aircraft with and without propellers (jets, gliders). Propellor aircraft (called "props" here), require a relatively slow shutter speed of maximum 1/320s (preferably 1/200-1/250s), in order to show a nice propellor arc and not freeze the prop in-flight. Using a shutter speed as low as 1/250s on a 600mm lens (900mm equivalent), makes for some very challenging photography, especially since some of these aircraft are moving along at speeds exceeding 300mph (450km/h). Since both airshows only had prop aircraft displaying, I knew this would be the ultimate test for the autofocus system of the new camera and lens.
While I'm not a fan of the PSAM dial, using the Custom settings (C1 to C7) for different scenes made it very fast to change between modes. The advantage of not having all the actual dials for ISO, Shutter speeds, etc... is that it allows one to save all settings into a Custom setting. For example, I had set up C7 as my "Prop Airshow" setting with Shutter speed priority 1/250s, AF-C, Mechanical shutter, CH 15 frames per second, Provia, Shadows -1, Highlights -1, ISO 160.
Overall I came back with a much better keeper rate; approaching what I see with other high end camera systems from brands like Canon and Sony. Notice that I say, approaching as there is still some room for improvement! The subject tracking for airplanes works well, but I did find that using standard (Subject tracking) AF tracking in AF-C mode, produced slightly more keepers. Knowing Fujifilm, there will likely be further improvements in future firmware updates.
Beside the long glass, I also used one of Fujifilm sharpest zoom lenses for some aviation photography on the ground; the XF16-55 f2.8. When this lens came out, photographers were complaining that it didn't have OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). Having a camera like the X-H2S with a great 5-axis IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), makes for a completely new use case for this amazing piece of glass.
Especially some of the images shot around sunset, were some of my favorites!
For me the overall image quality of the X-H2S is on par with previous X-Trans 4 models (X-Pro3, X-T3, X-T4). It does always surprise me, how much dynamic range can be opened up by post-processing a RAW file (I only use Compressed RAW files) and this with a very limited amount of noise. The image below is a good example of this!
So, overall I was really happy with the results of the images shot in Belgium both at the Moorsele 2022 Fly-in and Ursel Avia 2022.
I would love to see a higher minimum shutter speed for the Auto ISO settings, especially for faster moving birds. Right now the maximum is 1/500s, which seems strange...
Needless to say that the smaller aperture lens (max f8 at 600mm) makes it more challenging to shoot at dusk, but one should also not forget that the depth of field is quite limited at these very long focal lengths. I typically used f11 to f14 to have a reasonable depth of field. Even stopped down, the out of focus area (bokeh) is quite pronounced. Depending on what is behind, the bokeh can be busy and not that pleasing.
I used the XF16-55 lens for this, which together with the IBIS, made for some portfolio worthy abstract aerials shot over the Bay of Somme in Northwestern France. 
A dedicated gallery to the Normandy trip can be found here.
Interesting Fujifilm times ahead!
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