John Neil

I’ve owned and used the Fujifilm X-T4 for almost four years now. And, while it certainly isn’t the perfect camera, I think it is as relevant today as it was when it was released in 2020.

For this review, please do not expect a laundry list of technical specifications. You can find that in hundreds of other places. I will be focusing on what it has been like to use and own this camera over the last few years, as well as addressing whether or not you should consider purchasing one.

All images in this article were taken with the X-T4 and edited by me in either Lightroom or Capture One.

Image Quality

The big dark secret that almost no one seems to mention when it comes to image quality with digital cameras is this: virtually any professional or prosumer digital camera made in the last 7 years is going to provide you with extremely high-quality images. I have a large, 24-inch print on my wall from a 12-megapixel Panasonic camera I bought 8 years ago, and it looks fantastic. So, if you are concerned about the 26-megapixel sensor in the X-T4 not being sufficient for you, please don’t stress about it. I take photos with it and commonly crop them down by 30% to 40% while still walking away with high-resolution (or high enough) images.

What matters much more are color and dynamic range. Both of which, I am happy to say, are more than adequate with the X-T4. Of course, the camera includes Fujifilm’s fantastic colors.

And, while I love the Fuji colors, I can’t say I like them that much more than Canon or Nikon files. I think this aspect of Fuji’s cameras might be a touch overhyped. But, don’t get me wrong. The colors are great, and having Fuji’s custom color profiles available for post-processing in my edits is extremely handy and saves a lot of time. This is especially true for editing portraits where appealing skin tones are important. Being able to start my edit with the Astia profile and then work from there just saves me a lot of effort.

Beyond that, I would say that in general, the X-T4 was a significant step up from the Fujifilm X-T2 I was shooting with before. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I distinctly remember opening the first files I shot with the X-T4 and having that ‘wow’ moment. The files were truly impressive. Not that the X-T2 was bad by any means, great camera. But the X-T4 took things to another level.

Build and Ergonomics

My next opinion will probably be a bit controversial. I don’t expect many people to agree with me.

First, I find all of Fuji cameras to be a bit lackluster when it comes to build quality. Sure, they feel ok in the hand and I’ve never had one break down on me. But, for me, they lack a certain robustness and premium feel that I enjoyed with my Nikon cameras. It’s an unfair comparison in a way, because Nikon is probably best-in-class in the build/feel department. I’ve never owned a Leica. But, there it is.

The Fuji X series cameras are well made. But command dials feel plastic-like and unsatisfying to click. The buttons everywhere on the camera are just… fine. And, while I commend them for the quality and feel of the top dials (shutter, exposure comp, iso), everything else just kind of lets the camera down a bit. Now, I much prefer Fuji’s cameras over the Panasonic cameras I have owned in terms of look and feel. But, I still can’t give Fujifilm 5 out of 5 stars here.

The ergonomics of the X-T4 feel decent. The grip is larger than some of the other X cameras and I am a happy flip screen user. Of course, the top dials are lovely to use and make operating the camera enjoyable. They also allow you to see all of your settings while the camera is off. So, I can shoot with this camera all day and then some, leaving it off most of the time and still being able to see my settings or update them. It’s not as comfortable as literally any other camera with a deeper grip, but for its form factor, I feel it is a reasonable compromise.

Autofocus

Nothing to write home about here in the autofocus department. With single point AF-S (which is what I shoot in 90% of the time) everything is good. Focus the camera, re-frame the shot, take the shot. Works great. Very fast and very reliable.

Face tracking and eye tracking? Well… it depends.

Putting the camera into AF-C (continuous) mode and enabling face and eye detection yield mixed results.

In low light, it can be particularly untrustworthy. In good light, I will often get a 70% or more keeper rate. It’s something I use, but not something I depend on, if that makes sense.

One thing I will say is that changing the AF-C Custom Settings to number 2 (Ignore Obstacles) helps a bit. The biggest game changer was when someone on the internet recommended I change the Release/Focus Priority setting from ‘Release’ (the default) to ‘Focus’. This turned the X-T4 into a completely different camera when it came to autofocus tracking. So, I do recommend that.

Anyway, all that to say if you’re taking portraits for fun or of friends and you want to use the autofocus tracking, it works decent. If you’re depending on it for professional wedding work or something… yeah, I’m not so sure. People do it. And, I’m not a wedding photographer. But, I’m not sure I’d depend on it.

Should You Buy It?

And now for the big question. The question you are probably here to answer. Should you buy one?

Honestly, yes. I’ve been very happy with my Fujifilm X-T4 and it has served me reliably. Delivering high quality images with no complaints. I shoot landscapes, urban environments, night photos and travel photography. And for me, it has been a fantastic companion. It’s small enough to enjoy carrying around and ‘professional’ enough to justify using it over my cell phone. What has kept me with Fujifilm for the last 6 years is the versatility of their APS-C X system. It’s not the biggest sensor, but the lenses are pretty small. It’s not the cheapest system but it’s also not eye-watering expensive. It’s not the best image quality you can get, but it’s very good. It’s not the lightest camera, but it’s far from heavy. You can’t get the shallow depth of field, but you can get a shallower depth of field than on a micro-four-thirds camera.

For me, Fuji just checks most of the boxes. It’s an easy camera to take around the world and for the most part, it stays out of my way and lets me take the photos I enjoy. Which, after all, is what it’s all about.

Having spent the last 10 years or so refining my photography skills. And, having reached a point where I am fairly pleased with the photos I am able to take, I have begun a new endeavor: drawing and painting.

While this experience has been a tremendous amount of fun, it hasn’t been without its difficulties and frustrations. In fact, something became very clear in my early art attempts.

Art is very hard.

And that difficulty can be discouraging, especially in the beginning. I think this experience is probably pretty common for new artists because artists are the kinds of people who appreciate… uh… art. So, making art that you know is bad (because you are not yet good at making art) isn’t exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world.

So, I thought I would take a moment here to talk about one way I am working to improve my skills and still enjoy the process.

Immediate Feedback

Something I find difficult about learning, uh, anything—is the ratio of effort to results. In other words, I spend a lot of time and energy trying to improve at something, but the improvements are slow and not very rewarding to the part of my brain that wants a payoff. This has been especially true for me with art; many hours spent with a pen or pencil—without much to show for my efforts.

However, I found a shortcut to help me deal with this problem. Instead of spending hours of my life laboring in my sketchbook with nothing but disappointment to show for it, I began copying the techniques of other artists. Not copying their exact work, but trying to emulate the way in which they create it. This has unlocked so many doors of progress for me.

I won’t record an account of every instance in which this has been useful, but most recently, I’ve been watching a YouTube channel called InkRebellion. He has a video on drawing with markers and pens that I found intriguing, so I gave it a go. And I was floored by how quickly I was able to produce something with some visual interest. Sure, I can still see that my skills are not where I want them to be. The drawings aren’t perfect. However, part of his methodology is simply to go straight to marker and pen. No thumbnails, no pencil. Nothing. You just jump right into the thing.

This has worked very well for me as a process because it has increased the volume of art I am making. Which, I know from my photography endeavors will help me improve faster. And it has given me something to show for my efforts after only an hour or so of work. Instead of spending days at a time wondering if the thing I am drawing will end up being any good.

I’m sure this process isn’t for all artists. You, of course, will have to decide who you want to emulate and what of their techniques are useful to you. But for me, this strategy has produced a lot of leaps forward in my art.

Hopefully, it’s something that could work for you, too.

I will never forget taking my first images with my first camera. I was 16 and so excited to see what I might produce with the new tool I had spent a month of my modest teenage earnings on.

I will also never forget what it was like to get those early images back (this was in the days of film), reviewing them and experiencing a unique emotional blend of both wonder and despair.

What I did not know at that time, was that I would endure that mix of emotions almost every time I reviewed images from any photographic session. This was to be my experience, for not weeks or months—but years of my life. It was so daunting, in fact, that I quit taking photographs multiple times. And I think it’s why a lot of beginner photographers quit. Becoming frustrated, disenchanted, and disappointed with my images caused me to stop making them. And it was only after multi-month or multi-year breaks that I would come back to photography.

However, in my experience, it was those years of frustration and poor results that eventually created the conditions for me to produce photographs I was happy with. So, it’s ironic that the very process I found frustrating was the same process that helped me get where I wanted to go. Perhaps this seems transparently obvious to you, but it certainly wasn’t to me.

Let me tell you a two-paragraph story. It’s related, I promise. I was a fitness instructor for a number of years, and something I would see my clients often frustrated with was the slow speed of their progress. Sometimes, this was due to diet or genetics, but often, it was something else: volume of training.

The clients that progressed the slowest were usually the ones who spent the least amount of time training. The ones who excelled and broke their own records week after week and month after month were the people who we saw in the gym multiple times every week. The direct correlation of how much time people spent working out and how they progressed, became quite obvious to me.

Volume Matters

Similarly, what I came to understand about becoming a better photographer was that I needed to forget about the quality of the individual photographs. I needed to let go of them being good or bad or being pleased or displeased with them. What I needed to do was simply focus on producing more of them. Going out with my camera more often, shooting as much as I could. This isn’t to say that I stopped trying to take photos I enjoyed; quite the opposite, in fact. But the focus turned from one of results to one of process. And that changed everything for me. So, in my experience, volume matters. You need repetition after repetition. Year after year. And the more of it you do, the shorter amount of time you do it in, the faster you will progress.

That has been my experience anyway. I hope that was helpful. Take care.