Fujifilm’s unusual X Half elicited a lot of feelings from photographers when it came out earlier this year — from “That looks like so much fun,” to “Wait, it costs how much?“ Its $849.95 list price felt way too high for what is, by all accounts, a fun, unserious little point-and-shoot. But its $649 sale price? Much easier to stomach.
The X Half comes with a 1-inch sensor, a fixed 32mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, and a whole lot of nostalgia-inducing features, designed to make it feel like you’re shooting with an old-school analogue camera. There are, of course, vintage film simulations, but it goes beyond that with a mode that even requires you to manually “advance” the roll between shots. It’s pretty dang charming.
Despite the retro vibe, it’s a modern digital camera through and through. But that doesn’t mean you should expect to get the usual suite of features you’d get from most other premium point-and-shoots. There’s no electronic viewfinder, no stabilization, and no RAW mode. Giving all that up for an $850 camera would be tough, but if you were looking for an excuse to treat yourself to an inventive, dare we say fun gadget, then this might just be the right price.
