Fujifilm X100T Review – Build and Handling

The magnesium-alloy body and metal control dials of the X100T are superbly finished and give it the premium feel you’d want and expect. It’s every bit the gorgeous example of quality design you’d expect if you were to spend around £1000 on a camera.

The X100T earns points for its handling too, which represents a significant improvement over previous generations. The exposure compensation dial has been expanded to offer a wider range of +/- 3 stops, and thanks to the live histogram in the viewfinder you can adjust it with greater accuracy. The aperture ring can now be adjusted in 1/3-stop step increments, meaning you no longer have to fiddle with the rear controller if you want to make fine adjustments.

The top-plate Fn button has also been repurposed to operate video recording by default, though if you have no interest in shooting video it’s a simple matter to change it to set ISO, as it did on previous models. One standout alteration is the new ability to use the D-pad on the rear to adjust the focus area, which is especially useful in conjunction with the optical viewfinder.

That’s not to say the handling is perfect. The X100T inherits its small circular rear buttons from the X-T1, and they are just as awkward to use here as they were on that camera. We would welcome a return to the larger buttons on earlier models.

There’s also an issue with the macro mode, which can only be accessed by rooting through menus unless you’re willing to devote an Fn key to it. This approach, however, comes with its own problems, as just one press is enough to activate macro mode without any confirmation, and it’s easy to do so inadvertently and thereby slow down AF and disable the optical viewfinder.