Straight out of X HALF

Wind. Click. Wait?

Fujifilm’s latest camera is very experimental, very film-informed, and very fun. Heavily inspired by half-frame film cameras like the Olympus PEN series, the X Half puts the experience of photographing above all else, even the photographs themselves—which is not to say that this little guy won’t take wonderful pictures, but that certain features actually prevent you from pixel-peeping so that you can’t distract yourself from the process: JPG only, a tiny screen, and a film camera mode are all examples.

It’s meditative: a pseudo-analog way to re-introduce anticipation, chance, surprise, and patience into a tool that has become increasingly immediate and overwhelming.

The Fujifilm X Half is anticipated to land at a Mike’s Camera near you in mid-June. The only tough choice is that between equally-handsome black, silver, and charcoal silver models. Guarantee your ticket to fun by pre-ordering ahead of time!

The Fujifilm X Half utilizes a 1″ 17.74 MP sensor (vertically oriented) and a fixed 10.8mm f/2.8 lens (full frame equivalent field of view: 32mm). Video can be recorded at up to FHD 24p, and the camera uses a standard SDXC slot for storage. At only 4×2.5×1.5 and weighing about half a pound, the X Half definitely passes the totability check.

Monitoring can be accomplished using the 2.4″ touch screen, but you really should use the optical rangefinder for the proper mood (also vertically oriented). Physical controls are slim, though not inordinately so in light of the concept:

-3 to +3 exposure compensation dial
Still/Movie switch
Playback button
Aperture ring
Focus dial
Flash on/off switch
Frame Advance Lever (more on this below)

…and, of course, a shutter button. All other adjustments are made using swipe-access menus on the touchscreen. Or, rather, touch screens. In an exceedingly clever design move, there is a secondary LCD on the back of the camera which appears very similar to a film window found in many film cameras. This is used for an additional point of control when changing settings, but the really impressive move is displaying the film simulation mode as if it were an actual film window!

I’ll be honest: I’m not much of a film enthusiast, personally, but I find the little details like this unbelievably delightful. Another one is the “thumb winder”—how cool is that? In the default mode, this control is used to trigger a side-by-side image… kind of a half-frame double exposure, which mimics the way that half-frame film cameras are able to project two images into the same space as a full frame camera would be able to project one. It doesn’t have a native digital logic, but it’s very true to the darkroom!

This next feature, however, is where the winder really shines. It’s so neat that it makes me rethink my position on the digital-analog spectrum.

Film camera mode

Fujifilm has long been known for film manufacturing, and has also been known for loving simulations thereof for as long as they have been in the digital market—and these film simulations are present, of course, but the X Half does something totally new. For the first time, the whole camera can simulate a film camera. Not only the look of the output but the process of gathering the input can be altered to evoke the process as used for real film (without sacrificing the convenience of digital).

When you engage this mode, you are required to “select a roll,” which locks in certain settings (ISO, color effects, etc.) for a selectable number of images. It also disables the live preview of images, turning the screen into a thoughtfully-crafted simulacrum of a film camera’s back and requiring you to use the optical rangefinder for composition. You can choose to “end the roll” early and watch the numbers scroll by as it “rewinds,” but the ideal way to use this mode is to embrace the creative limitations and wait until you’ve gone through the whole series of images to find out how good (or bad) they are.

The color effects built into the X Half aren’t limited to standard film types, either. Want your film to look expired? Check. (Take that, perfectionists!) Some effects, e.g. a simulated light leak, can not be previewed or anticipated: you just have to see what happens!

A savvy citizen

Before I get too carried away with the intentional agedness of this camera, I should note that it is, in fact, still a digital camera. If Fuji was making this camera for people who want to shoot film, then it would have been a film camera… this is a “best of both worlds” sort of option. All the analog-inspired features and settings are meant to capture the philosophical sensibility that has become less accessible in the age of cell phone photography, but there are significant benefits to digital imaging. The X Half offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB-C interfacing, and the companion app makes social sharing a snap. 2-in-1 compositions can be customized to some degree—like the the color and thickness of the separating bar—or even constructed after the fact, using either still or moving images. You can add color bars to single images to output squares, too (though the utility of that feature has been dampened by Meta’s inexplicable decision to change Instagram’s defining feature). Plus, you can connect to an Instax printer to simulate an instant camera!