Fujifilm X30 advanced compact gains an EVF, tilting display

Fujifilm’s X30 incorporates the same sensor, autofocus system and imaging engine as its predecessor, the X20, so don’t expect any image quality or performance improvements. But the company has updated the design in some meaningful ways that still offer the promise of a better photography experience. It launches at the same $600 price (that’s roughly equivalent to £362/AU$645, but I’ll update when I have official prices) as initially borne by the X20, and looks like it offers some nice feature additions for the money in the increasingly crowded field of pricier enthusiast compacts.

What’s new

• Electronic viewfinder. Following the lead of the the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III, the X30 replaces the small optical viewfinder of the X20 with an electronic viewfinder (EVF) — it’s the same size as Sony’s, but higher resolution.
• Better LCD. Upping the size to 3 inches (7.5 cm), increasing the resolution, and adding tiltability brings it into parity with the rest of this year’s competitors.
• Two control rings on the lens. The X30 retains the rotate-the-zoom-ring-to-power-on design which I find grows annoying quickly. But it adds a second control ring that, like the Sony and Canon’s options, can be programmed for quick access to and adjustment of frequently used settings.
• Improved battery life. Cameras in this class have notoriously poor battery life. While Fujifilm has likely tweaked some of the power-draw characteristics of the camera, the company really just replaces the old 1,000mAh NP-50 with the 1,800mAh model. It claims 470-shot life, which in theory should be better than the rest of the crew, but it’s not clear if that applies to shooting with the EVF on; OLED displays are quite draining.
• New color preset. Fujifilm adds a Classic Chrome preset to its stable of Fujifilm film-profile emulating settings. (“Chrome” as in color-reversal film, like slides). According to the company, it renders “muted tones and deep color reproduction,” whatever that means.

My take

The X30 seems priced right — more feature-rich than cheaper cameras, but less so than more expensive competitors. However, since it has many of the same basic components of the X20, I don’t think it will improve on some of that camera’s weaker areas. At the time it came out, the X20 was on the relatively fast end of the competitive spectrum, but now it’s middling. And the photo quality has been eclipsed by cameras with larger sensors. Ultimately, I think it will be better than the X20 — and that’s not stating the obvious, since new models aren’t always better than the model they replace — but its competitive edge will rely on the ways the design tweaks change the experience of using it.

Comparative specs