systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle Outdoors, the Fuji X-A2 produced good color at default settings, just slightly on the cool side. Detail. That being said, the detail and the vibrant, accurate colors are impressive for this ISO sensitivity. Advanced SR AUTO mode: 1/4 sec. Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. You can of course tweak saturation and/or select a different film simulation mode. The Fuji X-A2 required -0.3 EV exposure compensation here, while most cameras need about +0.3 EV for this scene. As they say, though, there's no free lunch: If you look closely at the full resolution images, you'll see that improved highlight retention comes at a cost of increased noise. to 1/4000 sec. be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes. There are five settings each: "Soft", "Medium Soft", "Standard" (default), "Medium Hard", and "Hard.". Still, noiseperformance in high ISO JPEGs is very good to excellent for its class, among the best we've seen from a 16-megapixel APS-C Bayer-filtered sensor. That being said, we're calling 24 x 36 inches here as well for the maximum print size. . Automatic color balance is just a touch cool particularly at lower light levels, but pretty neutral. Mean saturation varied only slightly as ISO increased, with the range varying from a minimum of 108.2% at ISO 25,600 to a maximum of 111.4% at ISO 1600. ISO 800 prints display little to no noise, even at this mid-range ISO level. As you can see, it produced a better exposed image than the default exposure (left), which is overexposed. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. Again, color was just a touch cool with the Auto white balance setting. Approx. Detail is certainly a bit soft in some areas, but noise and grain is very well controlled despite the high sensitivity. The crop above right shows relatively low levels of luminance noise suppression, as the darker areas of the model's hair still show a pretty good amount of detail. 1920 x 1080 30p, Continuous recording: up to approx. that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Despite the entry-level price point and traditional Bayer-filtered 16MP APS-C sensor, the Fuji X-A2 manages very impressive results in the print department. Keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. Where with explanations, See thumbnails of all test and gallery images, See full set of test images with explanations. The Fuji X-A2's default exposure was too bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, requiring -0.3 EV exposure compensation. too yellow, etc. D-Range designed to preserve hot highlights, by exposing for highlights and then boosting mid-tones and shadows. As you can see the images above, the Fuji X-A2's manual D-Range settings were very effective at retaining clipped highlights in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot. There's some slight pixelation visible upon close inspection at this print size, but at the normal viewing distance for such large prints, detail is excellent. color is. The Fuji X-A2's images are very clean and detailed up to and including ISO 800. ISO 6400 images show a bit more softening, due to in-camera noise reduction, but otherwise look fantastic up to 11 x 14 inches. D-Range is Fuji's name for their dynamic range enhancement technology. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Hue. Good low-light performance, but autofocus struggles in dim light. Sharpness & DetailSlightly soft images, but with visible edge-enhancement artifacts around some high-contrast subjects. Note that Fujifilm claims their Astia film simulation produces "true-to-life" skin tones.) The Fuji X-A2 does a great job at keeping chrominance noise low as well, better than most Bayer-filtered cameras. The Fuji X-A2 also overexposed our Far-field shot, producing quite few clipped highlights at default exposure, while some shadows remained quite deep. Some subjects like the tricky red-leaf fabric in our Still Life target show a drop in detail, however, elsewhere in the print detail and colors are great. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to its larger sensor compact system cameras like the Fuji X-A2 tend to do better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. city street-lighting at night. Using default noise reductionsetting, noise is low at ISO 200 and surprisingly well-controlled at ISO3200, though as you'd expect, noise is quite high at the maximum ISO of 25,600. 350g / 12.3 oz. NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. Default mean saturation at the base ISO of 200 was 110.3% (10.3% oversaturated), which is about average these days. Even at -0.3 EV, quite a few highlights are blown in the mannequin's shirt and flowers. Let's see if we can extract better detail from RAW files with Adobe Camera Raw. (Note that the Fuji X-A2 does not offer a multi-shot in-camera HDR mode.). The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. 30 frames, RAW / RAW+JPEG: max. See the Extremes: Sunlit section below to see how the X-A2's Highlight/Shadow Tone and D-Range settings deal with harsh lighting like this. DR200 is available at ISO 400 and above, while DR400 is available at ISO800 and above, so all four examples above were taken at ISO800. 5.6 fps (JPEG: max. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) The Fuji X-A2 continues to impress with very good high ISO noise control, and colors remain bright and pleasing. Overall, the Fuji X-A2's JPEGs performed below average here in this difficult lighting without any highlight and shadow adjustments, or any dynamic range enhancement (see below). PROVIA (STANDARD) / Velvia (VIVID) / ASTIA (SOFT) / CLASSIC CHROME / MONOCHROME / SEPIA, Toy camera / Miniature / Pop color / High-key / Low-key / Dynamic tone / Soft focus / Partial color (Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Blue / Purple), Auto Red-eye Removal, Setting (Color, Sharpness, D-range, Gradation), Multiple exposure, Depth of Field display, Histogram display, Framing guideline, Frame No. Results were more pleasing with Auto white balance, producing a healthy, slightly more pinkish look. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. We didn't notice any significant issues with hot pixels, heat blooming or pattern noise. Complete extinction of the pattern occurred between 2,600 and 2,800 lines. Average "delta-C" color error after correction for saturation at base ISOwas only 4.07, which is very good, and hue accuracy remained better than average across the ISOrange. cameras you may be considering. At ISO 1600, noise reduction efforts are little stronger as you'd expect, but fine detail is still very good. The one foot-candle light level ISO 25,600 images manage to squeak out a usable 5 x 7 inch print. The Fuji X-A2 produces images with typical saturation levels using the standard film simulation (Provia) at default settings. Image quality drops off more rapidly at ISO12,800, with more visible grain, blurring, noise reduction artifacts, and blotchy chroma noise in the shadows. Skin tones. Reaching the maximum ISO levels, including the two expanded high ISOs, the X-A2 still manages to control noise well enough to produce usable prints up to 8 x 10 inches at ISO 12,800 and 5 x 7 inches at ISO 25,600. Instead, it offers Shadow and Highlight Tone settings, which let you adjust contrast in highlights and shadows independently. Negative exposure compensation required. There are quite a few dark shadows as well and although shadows are quite clean, fine detail suffers from strong noise reduction, and they clip to black rather abruptly. Very deep shadows were quite clean, but sometimes had odd artifacts in the form of bright or dark pixels around high-contrast edges, as well as some strong posterization and discoloration, and they tended to abruptly clip to black. Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S. Outdoors, daylightVery good color though slightly cool outdoors. Print QualityNice, large 24 x 36 prints at ISO 100-400, impressive 16 x 20 at ISO 3200, and a usable 5 x 7 at ISO 25,600. In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. Saturation. Fine detail at ISO25,600 is quite soft with heavy luminance noise accentuated by sharpening artifacts, and chrominance noise in the form of large yellow and purple blotches becomes problematic. Sharpness. individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears. Mouse over the links to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to visit the full resolution image. For a It did so by increasing shutter speed slightly from 1/34 to 1/45 second. At this size, you're pushing the resolution limit of the 16MP APS-C sensor, but nevertheless at normal viewing distances prints look great with lots of detail and vibrant colors. 10 frames), Auto / Custom / Preset (Fine / Shade / Fluorescent light (Daylight) / Fluorescent light (Warm White) / Fluorescent light (Cool White) / Incandescent light), Manual pop-up flash (Super Intelligent Flash), 3.0-inch, Aspect ratio 3:2, Approx. * Red-eye removal is active when Face Detection is set to ON. Prints look very good up to 20 x 30 inches. digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) Shadow and Highlight Tone. However the Fuji X-A2 was able to autofocus in total darkness with the help of its AF assist lamp, as long as the subject is within range and has sufficient contrast. Saturation & Hue Accuracy Typical saturations levels with good hue accuracy. Contact Us, 23.6mm x 15.6mm (APS-C) CMOS with primary color filter, SD memory card / SDHC memory card / SDXC (UHS-I) memory card, L: (3:2) 4896 x 3264 / (16:9) 4896 x 2760 / (1:1) 3264 x 3264, AUTO / Equivalent to ISO200 - 6400 (Standard Output Sensitivity), TTL 256-zone metering, Multi / Spot / Average, Programmed AE / Shutter priority AE / Aperture priority AE / Manual exposure. While not the highest resolution sensor, prints at extended low ISO 100 up to ISO400 all look great up to 24 x 36 inches. ISO 1600 images still manage impressive prints up to 16 x 20 inches. oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very or slower can be set. The most noticeable shift is in cyan toward blue, with more minor shifts in some other colors such as aqua, orange, yellow and blue. Mild noise suppression is visible in the shadows at base ISO. (Here, too, the X-A2's saturation and/or film mode adjustments may come into play for some users, letting them tweak the color on skin tones, if they find the default rendering a bit too saturated for their personal tastes. to compare images from the Fujifilm X-A2 with those from other 100% coverage). We're pixel-peeping to the extreme here though, which isn't always representative of what you see in prints. Indoors, incandescent lightingAuto and Incandescent white balance struggled, but very good results with the Manual setting. The Manual white balance setting was quite accurate, though, just slightly cool. Above, you can see how the various D-Range strengths affect our Far-field shot. ISO 400 images look very similar to the previous ISOs, but with just an extremely subtle drop in very fine detail if you look closely. Click on the links to get to the full resolution images. Above, you can see the effect of the same Highlight and Shadow Tone settings on our Far-field shot. than found in the original subjects. For even crisper images, 16 x 20 inch prints look excellent. Most consumer (H) x 1.6 in. 14 min. As always, see the Print Quality section below for maximum recommended print sizes at each ISO. Note how the Highlight settings mainly affect the brighter portions of the image, while the Shadow settings impact the darker areas. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. The darkest level equates to about 1/16 the brightness of average city street lighting at night, so the Fuji X-A2 should be able to take well-exposed photos in almost any environment in which you can see well enough to walk around in. The Fuji X-A2 offers face detection which optimizes both focus and exposure for faces. Not sure which camera to buy? Bottom line: The X-A2 produces cleaner looking images with a little more pop, at least when comparing default settings at base ISO, but as is usually the case, you can extract additional detail and produce fewer sharpening artifacts by shooting in RAWmode and using a goodconverter. Tended to overexpose in our AE tests. The X-A2 performed well in our low light tests, able to capture bright images down to the lowest light level we test at. Fujifilm X-A2 Photo Gallery This is better than average, though, as most cameras need +0.7 EV for this shot, but it did lead to a lot of blown highlights. Resolution~2,300 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, about the same from ACR converted RAW. Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.). See full set of test images Visit our Comparometer(tm) Adobe Camera Raw does a very good job here and is able to extract more detail than the camera does with fewer sharpening artifacts, especially in our red-leaf fabric. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.). (D), Approx. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone. We're kind of on the fence here, but a 13 x 19 inch print could be usable for less critical applications. Sunlight. ISO 12,800 prints look good up to 8 x 10 inches; a rather impressive feat for an entry-level camera.