Fujifilm X-Half Review: A Fun Little Camera

One of the most interesting offerings from Fujifilm, the Fujifilm X-Half is a tiny camera that brings the fun back to photography. This Fujifilm X-Half review pulls together all of my thoughts and photos from a few weeks of use!

Back in November 2025, I was sent a copy of the Fujifilm X-Half from the lovely people at Fujifilm UK to test out. It coincided with a family holiday to Malta too so I wanted to see whether it was a perfect addition to my travel photography kit, see how much fun it could be and whether the photos I created were any good.

I had seen quite a lot of posts about the Fujifilm X-Half so really didn’t want to miss out on what seemed like such a fun camera, a camera that would perhaps bring back some joy to just going out and shooting for the sake of shooting. I had the camera for around two weeks or so and made sure that I used it each and every day. Whilst I can’t provide a long-term review of the camera, I feel confident that I used the camera enough to be able to share my thoughts with at least some level of credibility.

With that said, I’ll do like a little mini conclusion here before we dive into it all – yes, the Fujifilm X-Half is a really fun camera and it does do perhaps what it sets out to do; makes you focus solely on looking, paying attention and capturing the little details, the little moments of life. That doesn’t necessarily translate into great photos but I enjoyed creating memories with different film simulations and effects that I wouldn’t ordinarily use. Would I buy it and add to my ever-growing collection? We’ll come on to that.

FUJIFILM X-HALF REVIEW

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FUJIFILM X-HALF

“Half the size, twice the story”

That’s the slogan that Fujifilm markets the unique Fujifilm X-Half camera with; a tiny camera providing a half-frame vertical sensor and an as close to film experience on digital as possible. It’s not necessarily a ‘serious’ camera in the sense that absolutely anyone could pick this up, with no photography experience, and capture ordinary everyday moments.

So firstly, the sensor, the X-Half contains a vertical half-frame sensor – that is, all the images it shoots are vertical which is really cool (especially these days where practically everything we view is in the vertical format on our phones). The sensor is 1-inch in size, offers 17.7 megapixels in a 3:4 aspect ratio. This isn’t designed to be a top-end camera; if you’re used to using a Fujifilm X-T5 or X100VI this will come as a big shock.

The lens is fixed at 10.8mm (equivalent to 32mm on a full-frame – quite wide) with an aperture of f/2.8 which is ok for low-light shots though we have an LED flash to help out. With the smaller sensor and a smaller lens it means that this camera is absolutely tiny. As in, fits in the palm of your hand kind of tiny. It will fit in your jeans pocket and so it can come with you anywhere and everywhere. If you’re bored of clinical looking iPhone photos and want to bring a retro look to your daily life, this is the camera for you.

The Fujifilm X-Half adds a few quirky features too that are actually, in my view really cool for day to day use. There are two small touchscreens; one for flicking through the film simulations (love this) and the other is for all other controls and settings.

Finally, we’ve got a plastic construction that helps keep the weight down (though I can’t help but say it brings a toy-like feel to the camera), no weather sealing, one SD card slot and it uses the same battery as the X100VI and early Fujifilm camera models.

That gives you a little introduction I hope to what this camera is all about. It’s pretty simple, it’s got an aperture dial on the tiny lens and has some cool features. Let’s see how it performs in the real world then.

THE THINGS I LIKED

So I added the Fujifilm X-Half into my camera bag, well actually my Bellroy sling as it’s so small and practically weightless, and took it along with me on a family trip to Malta. I also tried to spend every day before and after the trip taking it out with me to see what I could capture. I must say that my ordinary day to day life is nothing extravagant; I work full-time, I walk the dog and we have two little kids to care for so don’t expect wonders. I did bring it along for Halloween which was cool to be fair. In that sense, the first thing I really liked was its portability. I know the Fujifilm X100VI is pretty small but this is like 3/4 if not half the size. There’s no issue with chucking this in your bag and bringing it along with you no matter where you’re going. I guess as long as you don’t bring too many options; it seemed a little overkill on holiday when I had the X100VI, X-T5 and my iPhone…

The X-Half features all of your favourite film simulations such as Classic Negative, Classic Chrome, Nostalgic Negative and Acros (with the multiple options, yellow being my personal favourite). There’s no ability to make any adjustments or dial in your preferred Fujifilm recipes (I would have added my Summer Negative recipe in a heartbeat) but as you intuitively flick through each film stock you can see the impact each have on the colours or lack thereof. I found myself reverting back to Nostalgic Negative, Classic Negative and Acros the majority of the time.

Now in addition to the film simulations, though I’m still not quite clear if they combine, you get a whole wrath of effects to implement into your photos (26 in total). The effects or filters mostly include those that you might never even consider when using your main camera but some are worthwhile and a bit more ‘filmic’ – I really enjoyed the light leak though tried my best not to over-do it. Not every light leak is the same thankfully and it will rotate through a few different types with each new photo. The ‘first roll of the film’ impact it is not but nevertheless I loved adding it to photos. Same with double exposure, if I was any good at them, and the ‘expired film’ look. I didn’t really venture into the realm of ‘toy camera’, ‘miniature’ or ‘mirror’. They’re really not for me.

What was for me was the ability to create 2 in 1 diptychs where two images are set side by side in a horizontal, presumably 4×3, image. This meant a little more creativity to match photos in pairs and again I loved the intuitive flick of the lever to enter diptych mode (if that’s what you want to call it)

Did I enjoy the photos I created? Well, yes, I guess I did. it was really nice, and this is kind of the point, to just go out with no aim and just document the little moments. I probably wouldn’t capture half of the things I did with my X100VI or X-T5 though I would likely have taken similar quick images on my iPhone instead. That wouldn’t however have quite been the same as it’s more about the experience with the Fujifilm X-Half.

As we’ll come on to, the photos will never be the best quality but I did enjoy the experience of capturing the photos probably more so than the photos themselves if that makes sense. The photos aren’t necessarily anything special and probably don’t make much sense to others but (as in the film mode which I’ll explain later) I was able to capture things that are important to me or perhaps more so just laid around the home haha! So the main thing I liked about the Fujifilm X-Half was it was just pretty good fun messing around with different film simulations and effects and capturing whatever I felt like. No rules!

THE THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

It’s no secret that the Fujifilm X-Half’s photo quality is no match for the rest of the Fujifilm lineup but still it probably wasn’t quite as good as I expected. It’s fine don’t get me wrong and probably more than good enough for the intended audience but, when looking at the price (currently discounted to around £549 in the UK and around $649 in the US but full price at release was much higher), I think I’d want much closer to the quality of the higher end cameras. Considering the X-M5 is only say £200 / $250 more (without a lens though), you could get a whole lot more camera with incredible picture quality and something that does it all. So it’s not terrible by any stretch but it could be better!

The focusing again wasn’t fantastic, quite slow and often missed what I was intending to focus on. I do however accept the limitations; you aren’t going to get super speedy focusing on a camera like this. It did mean however that I slowed down a lot more before eventually taking the shot.

I think it was user error as I’m so used to using the electronic viewfinder with the X100VI and the X-T5 but I didn’t realise I was centring subjects in the viewfinder only to find my images all over the place; the off centre viewfinder will do that… I’m not really sure how I would resolve this one using the viewfinder, perhaps just psychologically get used to framing the subject more to the right so that it then becomes central in the image.

Finally, I didn’t get on too well with the focal length finding it much wider than I would have wanted but 32mm is pretty much standard point and shoot territory. It made composing a little more difficult but I guess again that’s the point as it makes you slow down and apply some thought to what you are shooting.

FILM MODE

Ah, the film mode. Whilst I didn’t include this in the ‘the things I like’ section, it doesn’t mean that I absolutely did not love it. I felt it deserved its own section as this is my favourite thing about the Fujifilm X-Half; something I wish a firmware update could perhaps bring to the X100 series. So, the film mode is essentially a simulation of shooting an entire roll of film. You pick whether you wish to shoot 36, 54 or 72 photos and you cannot physically review those photos until you’re done with the roll (or purposely exit the mode). You have to use the little lever to advance onto the next frame and you’re locked to a film simulation throughout. Once you get to the end, the film ‘develops’ and you have access to all your images.

Just before I had to send back the camera, I made sure that I entered film mode and shot a digital roll of Acros. I noticed almost immediately though that you can’t really made adjustments to shutter speed (I think it sticks at 1/125) and it is practically just point and click. I loved the mode in the sense that it brings back that nostalgic feeling of unpredictability and anticipation as you don’t necessarily know how the images are going to look until it’s all over. I was however slightly disappointed that I hadn’t quite noticed the impact of the off-centre viewfinder (more of a hole) so most of the photos are also off-centre. I guess that’s why I love through the lens electronic viewfinders so much…

There’s really nothing too exciting about the images I created within the film mode Im afraid – I probably should have risked it whilst in Malta. Instead you get a very raw look at post-holiday life where we did absolutely nothing of interest! Social media is awful at making you thinking that everyone is doing everything all of the time; whilst probably quite boring for you the reader, at least I’m being honest and delivering the reality of my life!

Finally, another cool feature of the film mode is the little film sheet (is that how it’s described I don’t know) that is created as a separate image. The only thing I wish you could add to the film mode is effects; it would be cool to add a light leak every now and again or ‘pretend’ we’re dealing with some expired film. Yes, you could just go and shoot some film but not everyone fancies doing that!

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s time to wrap this review up. I hope you enjoyed the post and that it helps in some way when coming to make your own decision as to whether to add the Fujifilm X-Half to your camera bag. Overall, I had a really good time with the camera and captured some really cool memories in a unique style; some of the images are of things that I wouldn’t necessarily take photos of either. if you’re looking for something completely different and fun, this perhaps could be the camera for you. Obviously the price will play a part but it’s often on sale at the moment and that could help make your mind up!

Will I be adding the Fujifilm X-Half to my own camera bag? Probably not at this stage. It’s already hard to enough to juggle capturing everything I Want with the various lenses and camera bodies that I already own plus, for me, the money would be better invested elsewhere – for now at least.

BUY THE FUJIFILM X-HALF HERE!