The Fujifilm X-M5 is incredible!

Fujifilm X-M5 with the Fujinon XF 16mm f/2.8

I'll go ahead and say it right now, from the very get-go - I adore this camera! I wasn't even in the market for a new camera, but somehow, at one point it caught my interest. In the beginning I was only fantasizing about the X-M5, merely as a hedonistic whim, but after having owned it for a couple of weeks now, I now realise I always needed it, despite not even knowing.

Let me explain.

I think the Fujifilm X-M5 is incredible! It has far exceeded my expectations in ways I hardly imagined it would, so much so that it very quickly became my favourite camera ever. It's the funnest, sexiest, easiest to love, most versatile, most endearing camera for everything that's not "work" and even for a lot of things that are. When I say work, I mean my "serious" photography - street and portraiture. Because for everything else, the X-M5 is by far a clear favourite.

If you prefer to take this all in more casually, in video form, rather than reading what will probably turn out to be an unnecessarily long blog post, click here to watch my first impressions video on the Fujifilm X-M5.

Form and function

While by the time I got the package from the courier I must have watched at least two dozen videos on the X-M5 - all manner of reviews, unboxings, first impressions and what not - taking it out of the box was an experience I wasn't prepared for. Spec sheets, images and videos online only tell half the story and they don't do it justice.

Firstly, I was struck by just how small it is. Sure, everyone said it was small, I think even FUJIFILM themselves marketed it as their lightest X Series camera ever, but in reality it's tiny! A fair bit smaller than it looks online.

Secondly, despite being made entirely out of plastic and despite it's diminutive size, I was happy to find it feels really well-made and rather robust. It's dense and it has a reassuring heft. The buttons are smaller and fewer than I would have otherwise liked, but I get it, it's a small camera and there simply isn't enough room for more buttons. I was thrilled Fujifilm decided to equip the camera with a joystick, even if this means the four way directional pad had to go. I find a joystick much more useful anyway. The joystick works great for moving around the focus point/aread, for navigating the menus, browsing the images etc.

However, regarding ergonomics, the good news stops here and there are a few niggles I've had with the X-M5 and I want to address them now. As small as the camera is, while perhaps a slight annoyance, I didn't feel like it hindered my use of it. The X-M5 has the tiniest of grips, but it is there and it works just fine to offer something to hold the camera by. What is, however, frankly a stupid decision and a frustrating one at that is the placement of the tripod mount. It's situated in such a way that it completely blocks the battery door, so if you have the camera on a tripod, there is no way to change batteries and/or cards without taking it off the tripod, which is a royal pain in the behind.

In order to alleviate matters I got a SmallRig L-Plate, with a silicone grip and, sure enough, it made a definite improvement to handling (but there's a caveat... isn't there always one?!) It completely solved the poor placement of the tripod mount and frankly, I think it even added a bit more pizzazz to the camera. I think it looks a bit sexier still, like it was always meant to be like that. Sadly, solving two problems, meant creating another. While not the case when using the X-M5 by itself, once I mounted the L-Plate I noticed when I firmly grip the camera in hand, my pointer finger often bumps against and mistakenly moves the front dial, which means I am often surprised to see I've just shot the last few pictures at ISO H 51200. Or ISO L 80, or any other stupid ISO value, because that dial is set to control ISO. This is so frustrating I am even considering disabling the front dial altogether, but that would be a shame since the Fujifilm X-M5 already has too few physical controls.

Another unfortunate side-effect of the camera being so small is the fact that I had to completely turn off the touch-screen. It's so sensitive that either when I had the camera across my back, on a sling, merely brushing against my clothes, or with the palm of my hand while gripping it, I often inadvertently activated all sorts of touch functions and that proved to be so frustrating, that I quickly decided I don't want to deal with it at all. However, due to a quirky, but frankly genius design decision by FUJIFILM, disabling the touchscreen for all shooting purposes, still leaves it working for image previewing and that is absolutely marvellous, because that's where I do make plenty and good use of touch. Since we're on the subject, I do have to say I've never seen a better touch screen on any other camera. It's so quick and responsive, almost like that on a current-gen smartphone, so I can swipe between images, pinch, or double-tap to zoom in. It's just great!

Generally, save for a few quirks, mostly due to the petite nature of the body design, the Fujifilm X-M5 is a joy to use and as small as it is, it feels great in the hand. It's a perfect every day carry, the ultimate dad-camera and I am thrilled about it.

I will not get into the weeds of talking about why seemingly all recently launched Fujifilm cameras go out of stock basically as soon as they're announced, because I tend to favour a conspiracy theory according to which this is intentional scarcity, meant to keep prices up and demand as high as possible. I do however want to talk about the three cameras the X-M5 replaced, because this is factual and accurate, no exaggeration.

Camera #1 - A video camera for my Youtube channel

Fujifilm X-M5 with the Fujifon XF 16mm f/2.8, K&F Concept Variable ND Filter, DJI Mic Mini

I had been using the Sony Z-V1 mk I for almost a year and quite happily at that. I think for what it costs - as low as €350 used if you're patient and lucky - it's incredible. It does perfectly good 4k25 with, frankly, flawless auto-focus, especially considering the type of content I record. I don't do slow motion, I don't do fast-paced dynamic shots, I don't do hand-held walk-around vlogging, I usually just sit my ass on a chair, grab a brewski, put the camera on a tripod in front of me and proceed to talk out of my pie-hole for what seems like entirely too long and that is all, the entire extent of my video requirements. And for that, the Z-V1 proved to be entirely sufficient. With one exception. On occasion, I shoot my videos in pubs and bars, often outside, sat underneath shaded umbrellas, in the middle of the day, with the sun high up in the sky and that translates to a contrasty, high dynamic-range scene which pushes the limits of the otherwise very capable 1-inch sensor of the Z-V1. The tiny Sony also suffers in low light and for these two reasons I often found myself wanting to upgrade my video camera.

But seeing how that meant spending quite a lot of hundreds of euros to deal with what are frankly very niche problems, I couldn't justify the expense, because for most intents and purposed, the Z-V1 did just fine.

So I shrugged this away, blamed it on Gear Acquisition Syndrome and went on with my life.

Camera #2 - An everyday carry, a dad-cam

I photograph a lot, I take a lot of photos at home, while visiting my mum at the country, or my in-laws at their house, going out to the park to push my two year old on the swing, going out for beer, or just to the store to grab bread and milk. I enjoy creating memories and documenting the every-day mundanity of my life.

And while I don't have the same expectations of quality from these every-day family shots, as I do from my street photography, nor do I stress about them as much, I find that using my phone doesn't quite cut it. At least in regards to the very experience of taking pictures - tapping a screen isn't photography, as far as I'm concerned. Or if it is, it's dead and soulless. Even quality wise, these phone shots mostly "just do", they look harsh and digital, flat and lifeless. Sure, if there's a moment to be photographed and my phone is all I have on me, it will do, I'm not a purist, but ideally I would prefer these photos to look nicer than they end up looking from my phone.

And while the Sony Z-V1 could and did work as a dad-cam, and work great it did with it's fantastic auto-focus, I often found it lacking in dimly-lit scenarios and seeing how I shoot a lot around the house, these scenarios are aplenty.

For these reasons and more (also because I like to buy new photo toys) I wanted a better every-day carry, but yet again, financially it didn't make sense. I had a good main camera, a good Youtube camera, I couldn't justify a third, dad-camera. So I shrugged this away to, thought of it merely as a whim and that was that.

Camera #3 - A backup body

If you've following my Youtube channel you will probably know I have a bit of history with Fujifilm. Not the pleasant kind, though. On my first time around with Fuji, I had three bodies break on my within the span of just a couple of months. Two X-T2s had shutter button issues, and an X-T3 had an ON/OFF switch malfunction which meant it often took many, several tries to even get the camera to turn on. While nothing fatal, that stopped them from working altogether, it was enough to frustrate me to no end, so much so that eventually I gave in to anger and in a bit of a rage-quit moment I decided to sell it all to MPB and go back to Sony. There's a video on this very story, if you want more context, but that's the gist of it.

With that in mind, while I am obviously back with Fujifilm - see here why - it is not without some concern. If we're being honest, the quality control in Fujiland is somewhat lacking and I am rather anxious about my camera deciding to crap out on me on a whim. But this time around, if this does end up happening, I intend to act like a grown-up and instead of throwing a fit and selling everything to MPB, I plan to just send it in for repairs. Like a normal person would. But that often means weeks where I'm left without a camera and that is not something I find acceptable.

Let's also take another situation, a worse-still scenario. Let's say I'm hired to do a job, or I'm away for a five-day workshop at a monastery, like last year, or on holiday, travelling. Those are the worst times and places where my camera could break on me. And it's for these kinds of scenarios that a back-up body is an absolute godsend.

But then, I further proceeded to rationalise this decision in my head, what if my camera never breaks? What if it breaks after five years? Would I then be stuck with with many hundreds of euros' worth of camera sitting in a drawer, collecting dust? Sure enough! Wouldn’t this mean I would be buying a camera whose main job would be to wait for a malfunction so as to fill in the shoes of a main actor? This sounds quite silly, if you put it like that... money locked and stuck, doing me no good. Sure, If I was a rich boi, I'd have fifteen backups, I’d have backups to backups, I'd have a collection of all Fujifilm cameras ever released, just for the fun of it, but I'm not, so I don’t.

Yet again, I could not justify spending money on something that has the main job to sit around waiting on disaster. That also made me feel e little like throwing a dare out in the world, like I would be anticipating things and that also felt wrong.

So I shrugged this away as well, thinking God-forbid anything bad happens and hoping for the best.

Then it all made sense

However, the Fujifilm X-M5 fits the bill just nice as a replacement for all of these. It's fantastic video camera, a charming, yet extremely capable dad-cam and a great back-up body in case anything happens to my X-T3. It’s better than my Z-V1, both for videos and stills, and it’s excellent as a backup body, seeing how there’s practically a baby X-T3 inside the X-M5. It's a camera that's worth three.

Some concerns

With that in mind, I want to address some more shortcomings and personal gripes I have with the X-M5.

Firstly, the elephant in the room, the lack of a viewfinder - it's something that usually, it alone would suffice to disqualify a camera purchase in my book. For a main body, a stills camera, a viewfinder and a good one at that, is essential to me, for many obvious reasons. Seeing how the X-M5 is only a third a stills camera, I am much more inclined to let this slide.

Then there's the flippy screen, which while great for video work, usually it too would also suffice, by itself, to disqualify a camera purchase. It's one of the main reasons I never considered the X-T4. I much prefer a tilting screen for stills photography. However, considering the fact that the X-M5 is mainly a video camera, and only then, less importantly, a stills camera, I am inclined to show leniency and let this slide as well.

Finally, there's the matter of build quality. While far from being cheaply built (actually the opposite is true) the X-M5 is plastic, it is lacking any sort of weather sealing and these qualities are important to me if we're talking a main body. However it's easy to show indulgence in this regard as well, because this camera is actually three cameras.

Value proposition

To most people it may seem I'm dis-proportionally excited about this tiny little camera that could, but taking all my aforementioned points into consideration, I think by now it's plain as day why I'm so thrilled with the Fujifilm X-M5.

I paid a little over €800 for the Fujifilm X-M5, brand new, off-the shelf, body only and while this is a far from an insignificant amount of money, especially seeing how the average monthly net wage in Romania is only a few hundred more, I feel like I've hit the jack-pot buying the X-M5. On the one hand because it's already rather hard to find, with a lot of stores listing it either as back-ordered or simply out of stock, and on the other hand because the X-M5 replaced three different cameras for me.

As far as alternatives, I did consider a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 for video, but that also has a 1-inch sensor, so it's not much of an upgrade from the Z-V1 and the gimbal gives me anxiety as I feel it's too fragile. Regarding alternative cameras for video, like an OM-5, or a Nikon Z30/Z50, while capable, sure, that meant two completely different camera mounts and that's a financial investment I'm not comfortable with.

Finally, as far as alternative dad-cams, there was the Fujifilm X100V which piqued my interest, but I find it somewhat too expensive, even now, when it can only be had on the second hand market. With the X-M5, I get 95% of the X100V for 60% of the cost, while having auto-focus and overall computing powe that is much superior to the X100V.

With all that in mind, I can safely say I've not been this excited about a camera since 2018 when I got the Sony a6000. I am thrilled with and charmed by the Fujifilm X-M5, which for all it's flaws, for my specific use-case it's incredible.

Footnote:

You will have undoubtedly noticed a distinct lack of any images shot with the X-M5. This is intentional and it’s for two reasons. Firstly because this has the very same X-TRANS 4 sensor from the Fujifilm X-T3 so images would be no different. Secondly, this is not meant as a review of the Fujifilm X-M5, but rather a first-impressions kind of blog post where I wanted to address things other than images.