Fuji X-Half – Trying to prove Hamish wrong… and failing

A Month with a silly little Half Frame. Why?There’s so many reasons why I really didn’t need this camera.

Ridicule and embarrassment is two of them. Its a silly little thing. A digital half-frame? I mainly shoot 35mm film and have never had the desire for a Pen D as I don’t see the point. Sometimes I struggle to shoot 36 images, why the hell would I want 72? And the price?? £699 in the UK when it was first released in the middle of 2025. You must be joking.

On the other hand, I love Fujifilm digital cameras. The sad truth is that I can’t afford one now. I’m too tight (and sensible) to pay £500 for a 15 year old camera. The original x100 is a beauty, but I paid £350 ten years ago and I don’t think they’ve started spewing gold out of the SD card slot since then. I sold all of my fuji cameras along time ago for a lot less than it would cost me to replace them. The hipsters have turned them into expensive Instagram treasures.

So, I resisted the temptation. I went on holiday carrying my Nikon D610 and had a lovely time, ignoring the pain in my shoulders and back. The Greek sunsets spoke to me and said “I bet you’re glad you have a full frame”, but the hot sweaty nights whispered “It would have been easier carrying that little X-Half”. I would wake, and as the dream faded like a morning fog, I would wonder if I’d brought the right camera? Was there a tiny travel camera to relieve my aching bones? Read on to find out.

Unfortunately, I came back from holiday quite ill. I was eventually diagnosed with COPD. My days of carrying multiple cameras around London, film testing for my etsy store, were consigned to the past. I found that I struggled carrying a film & digital camera around. If only there was a solution? I had a lovely little 35mm Rollei 35se that weighed nothing. What could be the answer to my digital conundrum?

I’d read Hamish’s article where he said he basically appreciated the X-Half, but didn’t see the need to have one. I had replied that I would be happy to get one. Now was my opportunity. Now I had a medical excuse that no one could argue with. This was a matter of life and death (not really), and even though I would struggle to get a prescription for one, I could happily tell the doctor I was making lifestyle changes to combat this thing. The prices had slowly come down to £599 in my local retailer, but I found a deal online (sorry) for a returned item for £449. I couldn’t say no… and I didn’t.

It arrived in perfect condition. In gorgeous black (obviously). It appealed straight away. Of course, it was small, but that’s the whole point. I had already got a hood for it and case to keep it looking good. This wasn’t for if I decided it was rubbish and needed to sell it on, fast. Purely for aesthetic reasons. Eager to get out with my pocket rocket, I charged the battery (usb charging)  and turned it on. Oh no! Thought I. Its broken. It took an eternity (a second or two) to start up. Like I say, i shoot film and love how it makes you slow down the imaging process, but come on, I can take a photo straight away with most film cameras. This is a (potentially) £699 camera, and its making me wait before I can take a photo? (I know, I know, I’m such a snowflake) Never mind, I thought, I’m sure a firmware upgrade will take care of that (It hasn’t, still waiting Fujifilm?)

After a quick fiddling, I got to grips with this tiny marvel. It takes an age to focus, then an equal amount of time to write to the memory card (not sure what I’m using but it worked fine on the humungous D610). Oh yes, and did I mention that the touchscreen is pretty useless? It works when it wants to, which is a problem as that’s the only way to navigate the menus. I disregarded these hiccups as I was sure that out in the field (streets, I don’t shoot in fields), this little camera would shine.

Took a few snapshots. Meh! They were ok. They didn’t blow me away but maybe that was down to me. Had a few days around my hometown of Nottingham. It was still slow, but this camera is advertised as giving the film “look” with its simulations. It does strike me that the tech guys at Fuji took that to the extreme and thought they would design it to replicate a 50 year old camera that needs a service. Or maybe they just had a bad day. Considering they got it so right with the x100 and the series it spawned, it worries me that this will be the one and only iteration of the half series. Its almost as if they got bored while building this camera. Like I say, its slow. The wind on lever is an interesting concept. You lock the camera into film mode so you have to shoot a “roll” from beginning to end. You wind on for each shot. There’s no feedback from the lever and half the time you don’t know if you can take the next shot. I missed a few photos by the camera not “winding on”. Annoying but something I’m sure I’d get used to (still miss shots with my film cameras because I’ve not wound on). One thing I do like is that you then “develop” the images in app and are given a contact sheet of you images. Now that is something that redeems this little camera slightly. Its a gimmick but its something that no other camera offers you.

London

So it came to the big test. A couple of days in London after Xmas with its film partner, the Rollei 35se. One thing I had noticed was that this camera needs good light, especially for the colour film simulations. Luckily the forecast was good. I found myself shooting in Chrome in good light and Acros (and Red filter) in less than optimal lighting conditions (most of the time in the UK). Not a problem as I mainly shoot B&W film, but I would normally use a digital camera for colour work, so I suppose it did defeat the object of using this camera, but at this point I could still fool myself that the camera ticked at least a few of the boxes.

Monday in London was wonderful. A beautiful, crisp winters day with brilliant blue skies and a cold freshness to the air that did wonders for my lungs. I was a bit worried that i would struggle as I get out of breath very easily now but that was the whole point of this exercise. Travelling light and stopping in a pub or cafe when i got too tired. So that was what we did. First port of call was the very photogenic George on Borough High Street. An old coaching Inn that me and the wife had wanted to try for a long time. Roaring log fires and a scotch egg later, the Rollei 35se was loaded with HP5 and off we went for a leisurely stroll around Southwark & Bermondsey. The X-Half was very well behaved and only struggled when the sun started to go down. Once the light dims the shutter speed drops on this automatic camera and unless you have a tripod, the shake will appear on your photos and the images become very muddy. With it being such a small sensor, grain and lack of dynamic range is a problem.

Tuesday brought cloud. Therefore, that brought a change to the Acros film simulation. This is quite nice as you can add Red, Yellow and Green filters. I went for Red for no more reason than its my favourite colour. As luck would have it, I noticed on Faceache that there was an exhibition at the Tate in Millbank of Lee Miller’s photographs and life. Well worth a visit and pushed the Fuji as the light was challenging, but it shined. The rest of the day went well. Black & white is more forgiving but can be a challenge that I enjoy when shooting film. Looking for interesting shapes and situations is the joy of pure photography.

Conclusion (Sort of)

I do think that this is the point of this camera. It is so far from perfect. You have to find out just what you want to use it for. When shooting black & white, it gives a definite film look. I added some grain in the settings and I think some of these photos are quite pleasing. The focus did hunt at times, but I found myself persevering with it. Of course, if I had my Sony a7ii it probably wouldn’t have hunted at all. But then I would have been looking for perfection which is not what this camera is about. With film, we very rarely get perfection but are pleasantly surprised when we do and I think this is where this camera is aimed. At the pure pleasure of taking photos and looking at them as the images they are, and not what lightroom can make them. I have not edited any of these images as I would the RAW files from my Sony (the Fuji only shoots Jpeg). So maybe I have gained something there. Simplicity? A kind of digital Zen? Now I am being far to generous to this camera. When its all said and done, its slow and expensive which is a pretty poor tagline. I recently paid £70 for a Nikon F with a Nikkor 55mm 3.5 lens. I pay maybe £15 to buy a roll of film and have it developed (I scan myself). So after 40 rolls of film (1440 images) I would have paid as much as buying the Fuji at original price. Maybe by then the firmware will have got rid of all the negatives, but I very much doubt it.

Final Opinion

I was quite excited to get the Fuji X-Half. It disappointed to begin straight away, and unfortunately it has barely redeemed itself. If you live in a country with 365 days of sunshine, it will be with you every day. Its one of those cameras that you want to pick up and take photos with. Then when you turn it on and wait an age to take a photo, you remember just how frustrating it is as a camera. I can’t live with that when I have paid that much money for it. I’m sure that Fuji started out with good intentions that should have materialised into a monumental event like its great grandfather, the x100.

It isn’t, which is pretty unforgiveable from Fuji. Its a camera that people will still buy and a lot will like, despite its foibles. But I think a month is pretty much as long as I need to realise I need to recoup some of the money I’ve spent and move on to the next one

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