After the flop with the first iteration of X-Txxx series, an underwhelming X-T100, today we have a worthy successor that makes many things right, and announces new improvements on Fujifilm cameras…

“This is a camera that X-T100 should be!” — that would be a recapitulation of the early first impressions with the reviewers who got it in hands. It is an entry level camera, with the controls through oversimplified (MASP) dial, and controls over the touch screen menus. You can’t expect more in the ‘beginners’ category. But aside of that, you have several improvements that can make this cute little camera interesting even for the enthusiasists. For example, autofocus is greatly improved, 4K video options are not a gimmick any more, camera has a proper 3.5 mm 3-pole mini jack for mic, an adapter for USB Type C connection with headphones, audio level controls, and finally — fully articulating LCD!

Yes, we had fully articulating LCD on X-A7, but that model didn’t have viewfinder, which is — in my humble opinion — a dealbreaker. Just as the dealbreaker was that atrocious down-only-flippy screen at the pro model X-Pro3…

^{Source: Fujifilm}

Key changes in relation to X-T100:

24MP APS-C sensor with Bayer color filter and faster readout speeds
Updated hybrid autofocus system with 425 phase-detect points
Refined ergonomics, aside of the switch button
An excellent 3.5", 16:9 fully articulating LCD with 2.76 million dots
Easy-to-use touch menus
2.36M-dot OLED viewfinder with 0.62x magnification
8 fps burst shooting
New 'Clarity' effect
Oversampled 4K video with no crop — 4K (3840 x 2160): 29.97P/25P/24P/23.98P Continuous recording: up to 15 min.
Audio level controls
Microphone and headphone inputs (latter via USB-C adapter)
New Digital Gimbal and HDR video options

Full specs you can see at this link.

Ah, yes, you also have another gimmick — an electronic gimbal, which you can dismiss and put this very light camera (370g / 13. oz. including battery and memory card) on a real gimbal, in which case X-T200 becomes a blogger’s holy grail…

Chris and Jordan from dPreview.com had a chance to put their hands-on the new camera:

Duration: 11:51

But more important than pure specs of the new camera, is the promise of the things that will come after it. That beautiful fully articulating screen should be a standard feature on all future models. I was hoping for it at X-Pro3, thinking that the announcement of the flip-down only screen was just a bad joke… Now I’m looking forward to X-Pro4. Or maybe X100v with that screen? And imagine this one at X-T4… A dream!