Is the Fuji X-T1 still a good camera

The Fuji X-T1 came out in 2014 and I bought my copy second hand in 2019. I bought it with the XF 18-55mm lens and have since bought the 27mm pancake lens (mark II version). 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 XT camera is worth considering.

There seems to have been an explosion in price of secondhand Fujifilm 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. Is this all down to the trend of Fuji cameras being popular, having analog style dials, and that they look a bit retro. I guess being a camera from 2014 it almost is a bit retro.

I have always liked the Fuji line of cameras, I like the look of the jpegs out of camera, 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 4896 megapixels on the long edge, this provides a 16 inch print at 300dpi. How many people are printing their images larger than that in 2025? I’m not sure to be honest. If you are printing much larger than that I guess you really do need a higher megapixel 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 sure but I’m not going to argue that is isn’t a bit different to more modern sensors. Is 16 megapixels the 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 standard 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 & video I'd 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, and it’s much higher resolution for sure. I’ve decided to keep my X-T1, even with the sky high second hand prices that make me tempted to sell it sometimes.

I could sell my copy for 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. It’s just too much fun to sell and I think the jpegs the X-T1 produces are the perfect aesthetic for the travel photography genre. While I don’t think Fuji's film sims really look like film most of the time 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.