Fujifilm X-T30 vs Sony A6400 – Part 1

Gerald Undone has often critiqued Fujifilm quite hard and never recommended to buy Fujifilm, except for the Fujiflim X-T3. He now reviewed the Fujifilm X-T30 and compares it to the Sony A6400.

Interesting to note that he gets better autofocus tracking results in stills with the Fujifilm X-T30 over the Sony a6400. But the a6400 is the better choice for video autofocus.

Down below are the key points of his comparison.

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Fujifilm X-T30 Review

• less video features than Fujifilm X-T3
• overheats much faster than X-T3 in video, hence shorter recording limit
• X-T30 is a serious upgrade from X-T20
• Mic/USB-C/HDMI ports are to close together. If you use one, you block access to the other. You don’t have this problem with Fujifilm X-T3
• X-T30 battery life lasts 65 minutes when shooting 4K. You can 90 minutes when shooting 1080p
• When used with external video recorder, the camera shuts down due to overheating after 31 minutes
• to extend video-life up, turn boost mode off (it affects mainly brightness and EVF refresh rate), pull the LCD screen away from body, mount it on tripod (no hand-holding), less AF-C. He got up to 69 minutes recording this way
• X-T3 is definitely worth the money if you shoot lots of video. But for shorter family/travel videos, the X-T30 is great

X-T30 Pros

• Sony lenses tend to be a bit larger, hence X-T30 system is smaller
• in video the X-T30 has higher bit rate (200 Mbps) whereas the A6400 shoots at 100 Mbps. But higher bit rate does not mean automatically better image quality

A6400 Pros

• Sony A6400 tripod mount does not block access to battery door
• A6400 has a better screen design (flippy selfie screen)
• A6400 lasts longer when it comes to overheating and with high temperature setting enabled, it can last for hours
• no recording time limits, so no external recorder required
• true 120 fps at 1080p
• 3.5 mic jack (X-T20 has 2.5mm mic jack)
• Sony wins for overall video recording usability
• battery life is similar, but Sony is a little bit better (around 10 to 15 minutes longer recording time and 50 more stills)
• A6400 Sony’s RAW buffer is about twice at large

Autofocus in Video

• for Video, the Sony wins by a little bit
• X-T30 offers eye detection in video (the Sony A6400 only face detection), but the X-T30 is just a tad slower to catch up to a subject when moving in and out from the camera. The Sony manages to maintain the focus better
• Both are great, but side by side, you can see the X-T30 autofocus drift a little
• You can improve this on the X-T30, by increasing autofocus speed, but then it makes focus transition a bit too jumpy. The Sony has a nice balance of offering nice transitions while still locking on the face

Autofocus in Stills

• in burst photo shooting continuous focus, the Fujifilm X-T30 beats the Sony A6400. The Fujifilm X-T30 hit a 100% hit rate in his test, whereas the Sony A6400, even with more expensive full frame glass, hit about 80%. The X-T30 consistently nails focus

NOTE: the Fujifilm X-T3 will get the same new AF algorithm in a firmware update in April. This means Tony Northrup’ eye-AF comparison between the Fujifilm X-T3 vs Sony A6400, Sony A6500, Sony A9 and Sony A7rIII will be obsolete soon and I hope he will retest it.

Noise and Image Quality

• likely due to the lens he used, he got sharper results with the Sony A6400. He used the Sigma f/1.4 contemporary crop lens vs the Fujinon XF23mm f/2 [admin note: he uses Adobe, too. If he played with the RAW files, then Capture One Pro 12 or the new Adobe enhance detail feature would have given different results]
• Fuji is 1 stop noisier, when equalizing the image brightness [admin note: comment about it below]

Conclusions

• He recommends the Sony A6400 due to more flexibility: selfie screen, better battery life, better video capabilities, deeper grip etc.
• X-T30 might be the better travel camera, since more compact

Fujifilm X-T30 vs Sony A6400 – Part 2