Chris and Jordan throwing Sigma Bf and Fuji X-Half under the bus

[Andrew - EOSHD]

I have an opinion on that...

https://www.eoshd.com/opinion/chris-and-jordan-select-sigma-bf-fuji-x-half-and-sony-fx2-as-worst-cameras-of-the-year-just-goes-to-show-that-some-people-dont-have-a-single-creative-brain-cell/

[ArashM]

well as an X-Half owner I have to say, it's a very fun camera to use, overpriced, yes! 

A bunch of years back, they voted the Canon XC-10 the worst camera and lens of the year, and to date that camera did so well for me and paid for itself over and over again!

I don't shoot puddles!

am

[eatstoomuchjam]

The BF is beautiful.  If I found one used at half price, I would probably take it.  B&H has one used right now for about $1,700 which gets into a range where I daydream for a minute, but I'd be much more interested at $1,100-1,200.  It's the same thing that makes the X-M5 tempting.

The X-Half is... not for me, at all.  Not at any price.

I think that a lot of the FX2 irritation is that they released it so close to releasing the A7V.  But I also suspect that it's only a small number of people who bought it who want the A7V now.

[BTM_Pix]

I’ll write a spirited defence of the X-Half when I’ve got more time but suffice to say that having bought one and actually used it they have exposed themselves yet again as knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[MurtlandPhoto]

2 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

 

The X-Half is... not for me, at all.  Not at any price.

Same. But, if they added raw they'd change the whole ballgame for me.

[Andrew - EOSHD]

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

exposed themselves yet again as knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Listening to the Canadians is like reading the side of a box. Tick, 30fps burst rate. Tick, autofocus is fast. Tick, price is just $3000, a bargain. Thousands of 2 legged sheep...following the affiliate links. And don't forget to bag that 24-70mm F2.8 for 2 grand before driving home in your white Tesla to your home decked out in grey and white, stopping off on the way at the US Camera Shop for Boring Twats, to buy a massive gimbal.

[ND64]

According to my humble experience, just like a very known phenomenon that people who zealously concentrate on practicing religion end up being the most materialist/machiavellist member of their community in the long term, those who see no value in camera other than specs, or in best case pure utilitarianism, end up advocating smartphone as replacement for every possible photography tool. 

[MrSMW]

I’ve never cared for either of them as ‘personalities’ and their market has pretty much always been the low-mid consumer so without being (too) snobby, not where I’d go for opinion anyway, but…

The Fuji seems a fun little thing but probably overpriced and will end up being a lot less on the used market next year because it IS going to be an alternative to a phone and for most, the phone is going to win that one.

As much as I like Sigma, that one is just a little too limited and compromised for me. Sorry Sigma, but I would rather have seen a 3rd gen FP.

The FX2 I like and was a strong contender for me for hybrid use, but against the S1RII, simply lost out in a few key areas (but not lenses where it wins and wins comfortably). I think I’d still pick it over the new V though, despite that not being as terrible as some YouTube hype would have you believe. It’s a really solid piece of kit, but just perhaps not great appeal to more video-centric folk and a little over-priced.

[Clark Nikolai]

On 12/18/2025 at 10:17 AM, MurtlandPhoto said:

Same. But, if they added raw they'd change the whole ballgame for me.

Same here, if it did raw I would give it a second look. But it's really just a fun toy for rich teenage girls to match their outfits  or for their rich parents wanting a stocking stuffer for the kids knowing that they'll play with it for a week, then drop it on the floor, the maid will clean it up and put it in the storage room. If I wanted a cute retro style camera that saved to JPEG I'd just go to a thrift store and get a 20 year old camera.

But you know, it's cute, it has retro styling (so a fashion accessory), it's easy to work, the vertical format, supposedly a retro reference to half-frame film is really just the framing for smart phones.

[Emanuel]

The Sigma BF, from what I’ve seen so far, looks like a design-first camera that deliberately embraces limitations and a very specific tactile shooting experience. If your baseline is “fast, familiar, efficient, and feature-complete,” then yes, it can easily feel like a compromise for the money. But cameras built around constraints are often the ones people actually end up using, because they push you into a different pace and a different kind of attention. Calling it “bad” is basically mixing up “not optimized for my workflow” with “objectively worthless.”

Same story with the Fuji X-Half. If it really ships as JPEG-only and is clearly marketed as a “fun,” frictionless camera, then the fair comparison is less “serious camera vs serious camera” and more “intentional point-and-shoot experience vs phone.” In that context, price becomes the whole argument: a fun toy is fine; an expensive fun toy is where people split. And wanting RAW isn’t necessarily pixel-peeping. It’s about long-term ownership, personal rendering, and not being locked into a single pipeline. Fuji could improve the proposition a lot with a smart firmware strategy (RAW/DNG, better HEIF options, more flexible output) without changing what the camera is supposed to be.

[Mr. Freeze]

I ignored their videos the moment he started a video with "welcome back peta-philes"... that was a poor decision!

[BTM_Pix]

On 12/18/2025 at 5:57 PM, BTM_Pix said:

I’ll write a spirited defence of the X-Half when I’ve got more time

As many of you will have guessed, I’m not a rich teenage kawaii girl so take my opinion on this camera with a grain of matcha.

What I am though is a member the unspoken demographic for it which is the jaded old photographer with a bad back.

So I’m not her, I’m not you and you aren’t either of us so I’m predicting your mileage will vary wildly.

Which is a good thing.

I enjoy it for what it is, a genuinely pocketable holiday camera that makes me take silly snaps with far more frequency than I would do with a “real” camera because I’ve long since understood that holiday doesn’t mean assignment.

Anyway, some silly soft, noisy snaps I took with it.

Could I have taken these with my phone and at likely better quality ?

Of course but the question is would I?

No, because getting my phone out of my pocket and wrestling with it like a wet fish when I see something interesting is not my idea of using a camera.

 

 

[BTM_Pix]

Incidentally, FujiFilm have announced a new instax camera today that is already boiling the piss of many people in the same way as the X-Half does.

It’s basically a video focused version of the Instax Evo but retains the printer and is based on their Fujica cine cameras of the past.

The dial on the side let’s you choose the era of look that you want to emulate.

 

So it shoots video which transfers to the app and then it prints a key frame still from it complete with a QR code on it that people can then scan to download the video from the cloud.

It looks beautiful and based on my experience with the X-Half, if they made this with that larger format sensor (sans printer obviously) then I would be all over it for all the same reasons as I love the X-Half.

 

[ArashM]

25 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

I enjoy it for what it is, a genuinely pocketable holiday camera that makes me take silly snaps with far more frequency than I would do with a “real” camera because I’ve long since understood that holiday doesn’t mean assignment.

So true, I find myself shooting way more random snaps with this camera than any other camera I own, and it's fun! 

 

27 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

Could I have taken these with my phone and at likely better quality ?

Of course but the question is would I?

No, because getting my phone out of my pocket and wrestling with it like a wet fish when I see something interesting is not my idea of using a camera.

 

Ditto, Couldn't agree more! I only use my phone camera for visually documenting something!

[Andrew - EOSHD]

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

Incidentally, FujiFilm have announced a new instax camera today that is already boiling the piss of many people in the same way as the X-Half does.

It’s basically a video focused version of the Instax Evo but retains the printer and is based on their Fujica cine cameras of the past.

The dial on the side let’s you choose the era of look that you want to emulate.

 

So it shoots video which transfers to the app and then it prints a key frame still from it complete with a QR code on it that people can then scan to download the video from the cloud.

It looks beautiful and based on my experience with the X-Half, if they made this with that larger format sensor (sans printer obviously) then I would be all over it for all the same reasons as I love the X-Half.

 

I really like the idea of the time travel dial

A really elegant way of switching the look.

Good to see the Super 8 / Bolex form factor make a come back as well.

Fuji of course, now should do a high-end version of this with Cinema DNG.

[BTM_Pix]

45 minutes ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

I really like the idea of the time travel dial

Trump would be locking his on the 1930s.

47 minutes ago, Andrew - EOSHD said:

Fuji of course, now should do a high-end version of this with Cinema DNG.

They’d still get people whining about autofocus and IBIS.