Northern lights with the Fuji X-H1

16mm f/1.4 Fuji XF lens, 1/5 shutter speed, ISO 12 800, JPG normal, SOOC

Northern lights with the 16mm f/1.4 and the Fuji X-H1

I came to love my X-H1, after the deal on a X-Pro2 fell apart. I thought to myself, hell, this isn’t too bad! The image stabilization is a big plus over the X-Pro series, that and the fact that I can have the battery grip for extra running time.

I got my early review here and my one year later review here. Notice the change of the tone haha.

Anyway. I wanted to test out the Fuji X-h1 high iso ability, something that I never had done in a year with it. That, and I forgot my tripod…

Have a look at these photos. I was disappointed in the high iso performance of the X-H1. It took me a year to finally discover that it sucks, in comparison to my older Nikon D800E (reviewed here) or even my 11 years old Canon 1D Mark IV.

I had no tripod with me, so I had to keep the shutter speed up a bit. That and I was curious about the high iso ability of my Fuji. It is very rare that I shot above ISO 6400, in my five years love story with the Fuji family. The shots below were all taken at ISO 12 800, speed at 1/5 and f/1.4

Wide open at f/1.4 1/5 shutter speed, ISO 12 800

100% crop of the shot above


See below for the 100%

100% blowup


How does it compare with the rest? Below is a 2009 Canon 1D Mark IV, which is not even a fullframe camera. It has a 1.3x APS-H sensor. Below was shot at ISO 12 800.


Below is the northern lights taken with the 20mm /1.4 Sigma Art on my old Nikon D7500. It was taken at ISO 25 000. Why is the result so much better than the Fuji X-H1? I didn’t think it was… but after looking at the pictures taken by the D7500 back in the day, the Nikon has a much superior sensor.


I will probably need to shoot in RAW with the Fuji from now on, at high ISO. The JPG noise reduction kills the details and creates weird artefacts.

Thanks,

JP

Back to the blog