Fujifilm X-T30

VERDICT By distilling features from the X-T3 into a smaller, lighter and cheaper body, the X-T30 is everything you need in a travel CSC

- Amy Davies

FUJIFILM HASWON a lot of fans with its XT camera range, and deservedly so – its approach of applying the same features from more advanced models to cheaper cameras has produced some greats. Just as the X-T20 was a pared down X-T2, so the latest X-T30 is a baby X-T3 (Shopper 375).

Featuring many of the same specifications as its pricier big brother, which costs £1,699, the X-T30 is ideal as a travel camera, a backup camera for X-T3 owners or just an all-round good performer for those who don’t want to push their budget too far.

With the same 26.1-million-pixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor and X-Processor 4 combination as the X-T3, the X-T30 should be capable of delivering the goods, quality-wise. The APS-C sensor might be smaller than the full-frame chips in cameras such as the Nikon Z6 (Shopper 377) or Canon EOS R, but Fujifilm clearly believes this size of sensor is the perfect balance between portability and image quality: big enough to capture lots of light, but not requiring a huge body to house it.

Other similarities that the X-T30 shares with its sibling are its autofocus system and fast burst mode of up to 20fps. Where the X-T30 differs from the X-T3 is its buffer depth, offering a more limited 17 frames (Raw) before the camera needs to pause for a breather; the X-T3 shoots up to 79. If you’re from the ‘spray and pray’ school of action photography, this might not be the camera for you, but if your subjects tend to be more static, it’s likely to be less of a bother.

MINI THREE

Cameras in Fujifilm’s range currently fall into one of two camps: there’s the flatter ‘rangefinder’ style of the X-Pro series, and the more DSLR-like ‘XT’ style, which finds the viewfinder in the middle of the top plate. The X-T30 follows suit and is very much like a smaller X-T3 in shape.