After several years of struggling with my Nikon D5200, I finally broke down and bought a Fujifilm X-S10 with an XF 16-80 mm. lens. So far, I am a happy camper.
When I started looking at a new camera, the Fujifilm cameras appealed to me because of their retro styling and control layout. I learned photography on film SLRs, and using dials for the basic settings is perfectly natural to me. They're also highly customizable and have wonderful image quality, even allowing for the APSC sensor size. In an ideal world with an unlimited budget I would have bought an X-T4, but both the older X-T3 and X-T4 were out of my reach. I then considered the X-T30, which I probably could have lived with, but found the newest camera, the X-S10 on sale with the wonderful XF 16-80 lens, including a spare battery and high-speed memory card for less than what I would have paid for the X-T30 with the zoom lens. So I went for that.
The X-S10 is a mirrorless camera, but it's not especially small. The body is a bit smaller than the Nikon, but with the lens attached it weighs just over a kilogram, which is a bit heavier than the Nikon and kit lens combo. The build quality of both camera and lens is excellent; they feel solid, well balanced, and comfortable in the hand.
Unlike Fuji's other cameras, the X-S10 has a control layout that's more like most current digital cameras, with a PASM control dial instead of a shutter-speed dial. Otherwise, the controls and the menus are similar to Fuji's other cameras. It has a large grip, which was one of my concerns about the X-T30. The deciding factor for me, other than the sale price, was in-body image stabilization. The 16-80 zoom also has stabilization, so it's a bit redundant right now, but if I ever get any prime lenses that don't have it, it will be useful.
So far, I have been using the camera in auto mode or aperture priority without getting too fancy and just trying to get a feel for how it handles different lighting situations. The metering is very accurate, there's lots of dynamic range, and colour rendition accurate. I've mostly been using the Velvia Vivid film simulation, which provides bright vivid colours. It might not be to everyone's taste but I like it, and it's easy to change to one of the other film simulations.
I was worried that the viewfinder would be too small for my vision, but it's actually larger than the one in the Nikon and much easier to use. I did set the viewfinder and LCD display setting to show large indicators; I would have trouble using the camera if that setting wasn't available.
The XF 16-80 zoom is very sharp and the only time I've wished for a longer reach is when taking pictures of birds. I'll have to test it more to see what apertures and zoom ranges provide the sharpest results, but I don't think there's much to complain about. With the image stabilization, the F4 fixed aperture is perfectly usable.
There are a few things that I don't like but they're all minor.
- I do wish that the screen tilted vertically so you could use the camera for waist-level shooting. (The Nikon has the same limitation). If you plan on doing a lot of street photography, the XS-10 may not be for you.
- The buttons could use more vertical relief. It's hard to find them in the dark.
- Fujifilm recommends using only their charger, or a computer, to charge the battery, but they don't include a charger with the camera. Given that it charges through a USB-C connection, any cell phone charger should be fine, although I have read varying opinions about that online.
- Battery life is not great. I was using the camera mostly in auto mode at first, which does use up battery power faster than some of the other shooting modes. You will probably want a spare battery or two. (The camera can be used while plugged into a power pack, if need be).
- The camera has both Bluetooth and Wifi connectivity, but Fujifilm's software to connect with computers and phones is, to put it gently, awful. I will get it to work, I'm sure, but so far the manual hasn't been much help.
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