Ten More Things I've Discovered About The Fujifilm X-H2S

A songbird patiently posing for me. (click to enlarge)
The X-H2S's Bird Subject Detection found the bird and then its eye and provided precise focus.
But that wasn't the case fully half of the time.

I’ve taken the X-H2S out a few more times in my quest to better know it and I’ve continued to learn some interesting things about this camera.  I thought I would pass on what I have discovered so far in case it may prove useful to you.  This will be a continuing conversation as time passes and I learn more.

1.  As a general observation, I don’t think this camera is the kind that you open the box, turn it on, point it at your subject, press the shutter and get 100% of your images in focus.  I state this in relation to the subject identification algorithms (with the exception of face/eye detect).  I’m finding there is a lot to learn about the system to optimize it and maximize the results.  I’ve yet to discover those optimum settings and achieve a success rate that meets my expectations from all the initial hype about its AF capabilities.  But it’s still relatively new and I have a ways to go to fully understand the camera.

2.  If you like to create, modify and then save film simulations like you can in the X-T3 and X-T4, well, you'll be disappointed.  Unlike those cameras, the X-H2S has no methodology for modifying more than one film simulation at a time.  If you don’t shoot JPEGs and don’t care about the film simulations, then no worries.  

For example, if you want to change the default settings for Classic Chrome.  You might want to add more color, add sharpening, reduce highlight contrast, etc.  Indeed you can in the I.Q. menu and save it.  But you can't do that for multiple film simulations as you can in the X-T3 and X-T4 (page 3/3 of the I.Q. menu section entitled, "Edit/Save Custom Settings."  In the X-H2S you can only save the one film simulation at a time.  You only can use what you can set in the general menu.  So, if you would ALSO like to use Acros with a red filter, then tweak the shadows, highlights, add some clarity, etc., there is nowhere to save it.  You change to that in the menus but lose the Classic Chrome settings above.

Additionally, you cannot rename your modified film simulations.  In my X-T4, I have several I've renamed such as Kodachrome II, Tri-X, etc.  I can't do that with the X-H2S

The C1-C7 Custom Settings in the T3 and T4 (page 3/3 as stated above) are now dedicated to saving 7 different "Photographic Use Cases" on the top dial of the X-H2S.  I was totally taken by surprise by this.  I wish I could do both as sometimes I like to experiment with and write about the film simulations.

(Thinking about this, I think I’ve figured out a work around.  You could use some or all of the top dial based C1-C7 settings not for different photographic use cases but, if you choose, only for film simulations changes.  For example, if you normally photograph in Aperture Priority, F/5.6, Auto ISO, Auto WB, Single Advance, RAW + JPEG, AF-S, Classic Chrome film simulation, you could program dial setting C1 for all of the exact same settings except change the film simulation to Nostalgic Negative or any other one you desire.  C2 & C3 could be Acros+R and Provia.  Each of these simulations could be either at their default settings or with your modifications. Then, if you desire, you can also program C4-C7 for specific photographic use cases such as birds-in-flight, events, wildlife, etc.  You even have the ability to name each one as you see fit.  That said, there is one other setting you would want to change in the menu and that is to “Disable” Auto Update Custom Settings otherwise each time you make a change in aperture or any other setting, that change will ‘stick’ as part of your saved settings.  See page 142 of the User’s manual.)

3.  Without empirical measurements, my eyes tell me I’m seeing a bit more noise at moderate ISOs than I did with the X-T4.  ISOs that are above 640-800.  It is not ugly noise, in fact, it looks a bit like a fine grained film but more noise, none the less.  The noise is quite attractive to this old film shooter.  I'll keep evaluating this in the future to see if it is just a misperception since I haven't yet used the camera for many months.

4.  Fujifilm seems to have nailed the Face/Eye Subject Detect.  It just works really well.

5.  This other newly developed subject detect AF system (birds, automobiles, motorcycles/bicycles, trains and airplanes) is not a “take it out of the box and achieve 100% in-focus images kind of system, in my opinion.  I would say "Face/Eye" detect is the best.  "Bird Detect" subject recognition needs some work, I believe.  I say I believe because I’m still experimenting with the AF-C Custom settings to ascertain which works best.  I’ve now tried three or four and I haven’t hit on one that gives me a high percentage of hits.  For example, recently I went out and a songbird obligingly sat in a bare twig of a bush about 25 ft. from me (see image above).  Very kind of him to be so cooperative.  The bird was 90° side lit in bright sunshine.  It was about 10:40 in the morning so it was bright outdoors.  Not a low light situation at all.

The bird, a little smaller than a robin but larger than sparrows and wrens, had brown back, white belly and black eyes.  I was shooting at 1/2000th sec. @ f/5.6 at 400mm handheld.  In-body-image-stabilization (IBIS) was engaged.  Camera movement shouldn't have been any factor using such a high shutter speed and using IBIS.  Depth of field was calculated at about 3 inches so that should have ben sufficient.  Easy target you would think.  You might be wrong.

I ended up making 222 exposures of the solitary bird just to test the recognition abilities and AF performance.  Nothing was obscuring the bird.  I made several rapid bursts at 15fps.  Overall 48% were in sharp focus.  I was hoping for better than that.  

My observations were, a) when the bird’s head, 'face' and eye were in a shadow, the AF struggled.  It failed to lock on more than it succeeded.  (This also was a similar result when photographing Canada geese with black eyes 30 minutes later.)  The AF system doesn’t seem to do well with bird's eyes in shadow.  When the 'face'/eye was in sunlight with a catchlight, the AF system performed much better.  b) In a single burst of 15-20 images and with neither the bird nor I moving, some images were in focus and some were not.  Remember, this is a single push of the shutter recording images at 15 fps.  I would think they would all be identical.  But no.  I would get two or three in focus then the AF would shift and get a couple out of focus, then back in.  This happened repeatedly during a single burst with nothing changing.  I can’t figure that one out.  Also c), I would notice the 'green eye tracking box' basically bouncing around a lot like it couldn’t decide what to lock onto or where to settle.  Sometimes it was on the eye and sometimes it just jumped around a bit.  That also happened even when the eye was in direct sunlight with a visible highlight.  The Bird AF Subject recognition seems unstable.  I hope Fujifilm is working on this as this feature is one of the primary reasons I bought this camera.

This is an identical image as the one above but a few shots later in the burst sequence.  I cropped it in closer so you can see that the bird is soft.  Nothing had changed.  The bird was still, I was stationary and this was part of continuous 15fps bursts.  Yet, the bird in this image is slightly out of focus.  I think that the subject is clear and distinct enough as well as the light bright enough that the Bird Subject Detect should have locked on kept all of the images in sharp focus.  I don't have an explanation as for why some were in sharp focus and some were not. (click to enlarge)

6.  If you don’t have the fastest memory cards in the camera and you are using high speed burst mode, the camera will stop and freeze until the buffer clears.  I had a fast CFExpress card in slot 1 but a Lexar 1667X UHSII card in slot 2 with the camera set for the second card (Lexar) to back up the first simultaneously.  After a couple of rapid bursts, the camera would just freeze up.  At first I thought the camera froze (as digital cameras do sometimes) and I would have to remove and reinsert the battery, but it was the buffer.  Nothing seemed to work until the buffer clears.  I’ve now replaced the Lexar with a Sony Tough card with read and write speeds just at 300mb/sec.  If that doesn’t eliminate the freezing issue, I will change the setting for the second card to “overflow” status and not capture backups.

7.  I was also photographing a gaggle of Canada geese in a lake.  They were about 30-40 ft. from me.  I was standing on a pier so I had a good downward angle.  While watching them  they split into two groups.  About 10-15 geese each.  They lined up across from each other like two street gangs.  They were making a lot of racket honking wildly.  Then the geese on each side lowered their heads, stretched their necks straight out and headed for each other.  Two of the geese engaged in a fierce fight.  Lots of noise, splashing, biting, wings all over the place.  I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.  My intention was to keep focus on the two that were going at it but the Bird Subject Detect AF kept wanting to jump to one of the other geese sitting and watching nearby.  I kept having to reinstitute focus with the AF point initially on the two fighting geese, but it still wanted to shift to an easier target.  The answer, of course, was to quickly turn off Bird Subject Detect but in the heat of the moment, I didn’t think of that.  It's like not thinking to grab your camera when you see a Sasquatch!  Too much excitement, I guess!

I’ve run into this issue previously.  I’m not sure how to get the AF to stay on the subject I desire when multiple subjects are present.  The Custom AF-C menu allows you to designate "Auto, Front or Center" when using zone focusing.  I had mine set for Center but it still tended to want to move to an easy target rather than the difficult one.  I believe my Nikon Z7II allows me to use the 4-way pad to shift to adjacent eyes and subjects.

This is an example of the Bird Subject Detect changing subjects.  This and the image directly below,
are two images taken in sequence as part of a 15fps continuous burst.  In this image, the subject
detection properly had the two fighting geese in focus.  In the next image in the sequence below, it
almost instantaneously changed focus to the two geese directly in front of the fighting geese. 
When I noticed that, I immediately stopped the burst,  placed the AF point on the fighting geese, then 
re-initiated AF using the Bird Subject Detect.  It would stay on the two fighting geese, but at
some random time, it would again shift.  Using the Custom AF-C settings, I had the third parameter
set for "Center," which should keep the focus in the center of the frame. (click to enlarge)

This image was the next in a 15fps sequence behind the frame above showing that the focus shifted
to the two geese directly in front of the fighting geese. (click to enlarge)

8.  The Bird Subject Detect will readily lock in on a turtle’s head and eye.  Surprise!

9.  I think Fuji did a admirable job with their initial foray into Subject Detect AF but it definitely needs refinement and additional options.  Face/Eye Detect seems to be the best (about a 100% hit rate in my experiments so far), but Bird Subject Detect is, in my opinion, workable but somewhat marginal in the circumstances in which I’ve tried it so far.  A firmware update is definitely needed.  I'll give them a pass for now as this is their first attempt.  But I hope they are still working on improving it.  Train Subject Detect did well but I thought it would lock on to a huge train at a farther distance than it seems to in my testing.  The train, it seems has to be fairly large in the frame. I have not tried airplane, automobile nor motorcycle/bicycle Subject Detect as of yet.

10. I find Fujifilm's explanation (and graphics) of how the three adjustable parameters for Custom AF-C mode are engineered lacking.  Dan Bailey (up in Alaska) so far, has the best explanation and video (YouTube) on the AF-C Custom settings that I’ve found.  I’m struggling to find one that works best with birds.  At least better than the ones I’ve tried.  I even designed one based on Bailey’s explanations but it didn’t work well either.  I would like Fujifilm or someone else to give us the definitive setting for birds and bird-in-flight.

This turtle was about 3 inches (7.6cm) long and sitting on this branch in a pond.  Interestingly enough,
the X-H2S's Bird Subject Detection AF locked on to its head and neck!
This crop represents 20% of the original file.  (click to enlarge)

Here’s a bonus 11th thing I’ve discovered bout the X-H2s.  As of now, I don’t seem to get the same level of satisfaction picking up and using this camera as I do with the X-T4.  The only thing I can think of is the difference in overall feel, controls, dials and knobs.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like using the X-H2S and I'm thoroughly impressed with its capabilities, but I miss the feel and operation of the X-T4.  The X-H2S is an excellent camera but I bet the upcoming X-T5 would be my preference to use if I were to purchase one.  What is better in the X-H2S is the grip and position of the shutter button, but I miss the top dials.  I guess that is why I like using the X-T4 a bit better than my Nikon Z7II.  I'm curious if this will change as time passes.

I’m hoping that as I use this camera in the future and I learn it’s quirks that my overall results will improve.  As I mentioned, there seems to be a lot to learn when it comes to AF-C settings and I don’t think I can blame the camera entirely for my lower than expected hit rate.  I’m sure some of the blame is mine for being a novice with it.

Canada Goose. 400mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 1000 (click to enlarge)

I'll keep using this new camera and continue to learn its strong as well as weak points, how to take advantage of those strengths as well as find work around for its weaknesses.  As I do I will pass on any additional information that I believe may be useful to other X-H2S owners as well as those who are thinking about buying one.

Would I recommend it?  As is the case many times, it depends.  I think it is a worthwhile upgrade in capabilities over the other Fujifilm X cameras and if you have a need for face/eye or various subject recognition capabilities, yes.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022:  Fujifilm updated the chart I included above and added the words along the very bottom.  My understanding is that the chart as previously published was ambiguous to many persons (including myself), Fujifilm finally understood that and added the clarification.  The added verbiage reads,

“The list specifies our selection of lenses that have high resolution performance from edge to edge at maximum aperture, allowing you to fully experience all that the 40MP sensor has to offer. Lenses not listed will also allow you to experience the improved resolution performance of the 40MP sensor.”

I am thankful Fujifilm clarified this issue that is important to many of us.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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