Fujifilm X half Review

The X half is a digital camera built to behave like a half frame film camera, and it commits to that further than anyone expected. The sensor sits in portrait orientation and crops to 8.8 by 11.7 millimetres, about eighteen megapixels off a one inch chip, and there is no raw file at all: jpeg only, coloured by thirteen film simulations and twenty six filters chosen on the second of its two small screens.

Film camera mode is the centrepiece. Pick 36, 54 or 72 exposures, lose the live view, compose through the tunnel finder, wind the lever between frames, and see nothing until the roll is developed in the phone app. The 2 in 1 mode pairs two frames into a diptych using the same lever. It is genuinely fun, the battery is rated at 880 shots, and the body weighs 240 grams.

It is also 850 dollars for a fixed lens whose effective aperture works out near f/8, autofocus that misses people indoors and in low light, a touchscreen that lags behind your finger, and video capped at 1080 at 24 frames. Bought as a toy it delights. Bought as a camera it will let you down.