Fujifilm released its first sub-$1,000 camera in a long time and resurrected the 11-year-old “M” brand with the $799 X-M5. At that price, it’s aimed mostly at photographers on a budget or vloggers looking to step up from a smartphone. Fujifilm has cut a few features like the viewfinder (EVF) to reach that price point, but it has the company’s latest 26-megapixel X-Trans 4 CMOS sensor and decent video specs.
For a camera without a viewfinder, the X-M5 should handle very well. It has front and rear dials, as well as an advanced dial setting that includes a new “Vlog” mode. It also comes with the same simulated film dial found on the X-T50, helping social media users and creators create cool images straight out of the camera.
When in vlog mode, you get a full GUI interface on the touch screen for easy access. That includes things like “portrait enhancement,” background defocus and product priority, as we’ve seen in Sony’s blog posts.
For vloggers, it has a 3-inch, 1.04-million dot full-screen rear display that’s bright enough to be used in sunlight (because, again, there’s no EVF). There are both headphone and microphone ports for vloggers, but they’re not on the left as usual. Instead, Fujifilm put the 3.5mm mic input on the back (where the EVF used to go) and the headphone port on the right side. That’s to avoid the display hitting the microphone or headphone cable when it comes out, as can happen with some cameras.
You can’t go wrong with a sports camera, but the X-M5 can shoot a burst of 8 fps in manual shutter mode, or an outstanding 20 fps in electronic mode (both with continuous autofocus). It can capture 82/60 compressed RAW frames in those modes before the hard drive fills up, which is pretty respectable for such a small camera.
Video is also very strong, with an open gate of 6.2K for 3:2 capture, 4K 60p and Full HD up to 240 fps (these figures are the same as the X-T50 as you may notice). There is a small crop of 4K 60p (1.18x) and FHD past 120fps (1.29x) but otherwise everything is one-to-one.
Another thing missing is in-body stabilization so the X-M5 is limited to what is offered by the lens or electronic stabilization. In the latter mode, there is a minimum yield of 1.32x for 4K 30fps video and a significant 1.44x when shooting 4K 60p. The small body also has overheating limitations when using LP recording (long playback), but that can be mitigated with a $200 fan attachment.
Other features include three internal microphones that allow for surround sound-like capture, a 9:16 short movie mode for TikTok creators, high-speed movie transfer, up to 440 frames of battery life and a slot for one UHS-I card.
I didn’t understand what Fujifilm was thinking when they released the X-T50 for $500 more than the X-T30 II. Now we know – we’re hoping budget buyers will flock to the X-M5 instead. It goes on sale today for $799 and Fujifilm also revealed the 16-55mm f/2.8 (24-70mm full-frame equivalent) lens for $1,199 and the XF500mm f/5.6 super telephoto (750mm equivalent) now available for order in advance. $2,999.
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