Is the Fuji X-T1 still a good camera

The Fuji X-T1 came out in 2014 which is old considering how fast technology develops. I bought mine in 2019 second hand, with the XF 18-55mm lens, have since bought the 27mm pancake lens (mark II version), and I've also adapted Nikon and Minolta lenses to it. Overall it has been a great camera. You might assume it’s obvious that newer versions all the way up to the XT5 are better, but if you are only a stills photographer then maybe the original X-T1 is worth considering.

There seems to have been a sharp rise in the price of secondhand Fuji cameras over the last year or so. Around 2022 I was thinking of selling my copy and saw eBay prices of about $150-$180 USD for them, I thought at that price I will just keep mine. Last year I looked up the prices and it was $480-$600 USD. This seems all down to the trend of Fuji cameras being popular, having analog style dials, and that they look a bit retro? I guess it is a camera from 2014, that is a bit retro I guess.

When I was first looking for a digital camera I was drawn to the idea of great jpegs out of camera, the Fuji cameras offered this. I like that the bodies are mostly made of metal (in comparison to other cameras), and I, originally, liked that you can adjust shutter and ISO just like a film camera with all the dials. My tastes may be changing on that one but when I bought the camera in 2019 I loved that. I don’t dislike now that much either, its just a changing of personal preference.

The Fujifilm X-T1 camera provides 16mp images, that is 4896px on the long edge, this provides a 16 inch print at 300dpi. How many people are printing their images larger than that? I’m not sure to be honest but probably not many. If you are regularly printing much larger than that you probably know you need a different type of camera.

The XT1 features an X-trans II sensor and there are a lot of claims all over the internet about the earlier Fuji sensors like this one, the X-trans I, and the X-trans III found in the XT2 and other cameras. The claims that the X-T1 is more filmic, whatever that means, I’m not going to argue that is isn’t a bit different to more modern sensors. It might be something to do with 16 megapixels being a sweet spot for an APSC sized sensor.

You don’t get all the Fuji film simulations that you get on modern cameras. Notably missing is the black and white Acros simulation. All you have is Monochrome, which despite the unimaginative name is actually a good black and white profile. Since I’ve owned my XT1 I've gone from shooting in Monochrome and Hi Neg pro, to shooting mostly in Astia for color and err… still Monochrome for black and white.

So why have older Fuji cameras exploded in price in the last couple of years? The answer is they are great cameras with high build quality but also the film camera look which some people love. Is the X-T1 still a good camera? Yes, for me the big advances in camera technology in the last 10 years, or even 5 years, is in video. If I wanted to buy a mirrorless camera for stills and video I might look at something like the X-S20 or similar. Video was particularly bad on the X-T1 but even other cameras, of the time, were not that great compared to something in the last couple of years. Is the stills imaging better on the X-T5 than it is on the X-T1? I’m sure it is technically, it’s much higher resolution for sure, but I struggle to see a huge difference in still image quality. I’ve decided to keep my X-T1 although the sky high second hand prices for Fuji equipment sometimes make me tempted to sell it.

I could sell my copy for almost twice as much as I paid for it. The thing is I have used it a lot more in the last 18 Months since I bought the 27mm pancake lens for it. For me, it is now my weather sealed travel camera. With this combination I can - only just - fit it in my sling bag. I think the jpegs the X-T1 produces are the perfect aesthetic for the travel photography genre. While I don’t think X-T1 film simulations really look like film they do produce an image that doesn’t look overly ‘modern’ for want of a better word, nor does it look outdated.

There’s another concern I have and is one of the reasons I’m more reluctant than I used to be in selling my old cameras. AI technology. If the next generation of digital cameras overly uses AI processing to ‘help’ the sensor process an image that’s not something that is particularly appealing to me. I’m not a luddite, I can see some of the benefits of this technology in education and such but as far as art goes I got into photography because I want to create images. I don’t want AI interpreting what I want the image to look like I want to do it myself. For me this is a big reason to hold on to older cameras like the XT1 or whatever camera of this era you have. The price will have to go a lot higher before I’m tempted to part with mine.