I really wish I enjoyed shooting with the Fujifilm system.
This is a disappointing post for me to write. At the beginning of the summer, I dipped my toes into the Fujifilm eco-system. At the end of the summer, I had many memories converted to nice photographs. But, I also had way more frustrations around capturing these memories than I know are necessary. So we parted ways. Let me explain.
The photo above is one of my favorites of the summer. It was taken at one of the lakes around Munich on one of those glorious Bavarian evenings. The sun was setting, the sky turned into a blue-ish pink and the water was calm. Photographically, everything worked as I wanted. I could point my spot light meter to a place that represented what I wanted in terms of tones, autofocus worked and I am truly happy with this photo. When everything works, the Fujifilm system has so much going for it. Its cameras are fun to use and they offer different style bodies for different people or different circumstances. You can use all the retro inspired bodies like the X-E5 or X-T5 or X-T50 and more, or you can opt for a completely different shooting experience with the X-H2, or X-S20 cameras. All with the same lenses. I think that is amazing. I think OM System is the only other company out there that does the same.
And the lens options are pretty terrific. One of my absolute favorites that I used over the summer has been the Zeiss Touit 32mm F1.8. The color rendering is just stunning. I know this is an old lens and the AF struggles, and I did not have so much of an issue with that because this is simply the age of the lens showing itself. So I was a lot more tolerant of what to expect. But when you got it right, this lens delivered.
Soooo, if I liked the camera bodies, the lens options, and the output.... what's the problem here? Well, I can be pretty short about it. Auto-focus. That's it. That is the problem. In it's current state, as of summer 2026, it is just not reliable enough. Even for me as a simple amateur. Let me give you some examples.
What you see below is one of a few photos where I used several ways to try to focus on the boat and it just ended up missing it completely, every single time. Single-AF, or Continous-AF both kept missing the focus point which was the boat. If this was under terrible light with hardly any contrast to work off, I would be a bit more understanding. But this was in broad daylight with a modern lens (the Viltrox 90mm F2.2).
Or, from the same trip, another example. Here, I shot using the Zeiss 32mm lens at F5.6. Nothing exotic. In this case, the focus was nowhere. This was not a case of drifting focus, there was no focus at all. Disappointing.
This kept happening time and time again. So much so, that I could not just rely on taking one photo and move on with my life, I had to take multiple photos and check to make sure one of them was in focus. Such a shame. Because when it does work, life is great. See below the capture of the lake with the Alps in the background.
Two more examples to underline this problem, I don't want to overstress the point, but it simply is not a system that works for me, at this point. I often don't take a lot of time taking photos which is why I need a system that can reliably focus. I don't need to the latest amazing AI-powered pre-capture and all that. But when I am on my bike and I see a lady with a plastic inflatable flamingo on the back of her bike, I want to capture it. And in this case, after giving me clear focus lock info on the screen that everything was good to go with a green focus point on the flamingo, the focus ended up being on the roof in the background.
You might say that I need to shoot with the latest Fujifilm lenses for optimal autofocus performance instead of older lenses or 3rd party options. Well, I did. I used the Fujifilm 16-55mm F2.8 mk2 and I had similar issues. Less than with the Zeiss, I admit that, but far too many nevertheless. Look at the photo below. This was taken on a bike ride and we had a moment of beautiful light. This was THE photo from that day for me, that I could not wait to see on a proper screen. Unfortunately, even though I was focusing on the middle of that hill at f8 or so, all the trees in the middle are a blurry mess. Somehow the house at the bottom ended up in focus-ish.
I will root for Fujifilm. I want them to recover. Maybe the processor or chip in the upcoming X-T6 will solve it all and provide a platform to build on. But I am not going to wait for that.
I will leave you with some more photos taken over the summer. These all worked and I loved capturing them with Fujifilm gear.
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