Introduction

Ease of Use

The new Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver looks stunning in its new silver and black guise, and the unique three-layer coating process promises to make it more resilient too. The X-T1 Graphite Silver is a weather-proof X-series camera, with 80 points of weather sealing offering dust-resistance, water-resistance and freeze-resistance down to -10°C. The optional Vertical Battery Grip (VG-XT1) offers the same levels of weather-proof-ness. Paired with a weather-resistant lens like the XF 18-135mm or new XF 50-140mm, you can achieve a a fully weather-proof system.

As with the X-E2, the the X-T1 Graphite Silver dispenses with the range-topping X-Pro1's innovative Hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder, replaced instead by a high-resolution OLED electronic viewfinder. Although sharing the same 2.36m dot resolution as the X-E2, Fujifilm have clearly been hard at work on making the X-T1 Graphite Silver's electronic viewfinder even better. With a magnification of 0.77x, it narrowly beats the Olympus M-D E-M1 to the title of "EVF with the world's highest magnification", while it has a lag-time of just 0.005 sec, in practice answering one of the most common complaints about electronic viewfinders.

Fujfilm's engineers haven't stopped there though. The viewfinder has a stunning Graphic User Interface that no optical viewfinder could ever hope to emulate. The default Full mode does what its name suggests and displays an uninterrupted view of the scene with all the settings information displayed outside the frame so that you can really concentrate on your subject. Normal provides an optimum view, including the shooting settings. The very clever Dual mode is unlike anything that we've seen before, taking advantage of the EVF's size to display a split view of the scene before you, with the full frame on the left and a smaller 100% manual focus area on the right, complete with either focus peaking or Fujifilm's digital split image function. The displayed settings in the Full and Normal modes automatically rotate when the camera is held in a portrait orientation (although sadly not for the Dual view). Finally, Fujifilm have added the Natural Live View which cleverly removes the current image quality settings and provides a more real-world view similar to that offered by an optical viewfinder.

Front of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

All of this - size, magnification, speed, and display - adds up to make the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver's EVF the best that we've ever looked through, no mean feat considering the likes of the viewfinders inside the Olympus M-D E-M1 and the Sony A7/A7R. Electronic viewfinder sceptics should definitely take a look through the X-T1 Graphite Silver's viewfinder - you might never go back to an optical viewfinder again.

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver is another amazingly well-built X-series camera, with absolutely no flex or movement in its chassis thanks to the die-cast magnesium alloy body and machined control dials. At the same time, it's actually a little lighter than a first glance might suggest, weighing in at 440g body only with the battery and memory card fitted, about the same as the X-Pro1. Measuring 129.0mm (W) x 89.8mm (H) x 46.7mm, it's slightly taller and deeper than the X-E2.

The X-T1 Graphite Silver has a pronounced hand-grip at the front and a prominent rest at the rear for your thumb, with your grip helped in no small part by the textured faux-leather surface that runs around the full width of the camera. Two small metal eyelets on either side of the body are used for connecting the supplied shoulder strap. A metal tripod mount is positioned slightly off-centre from the lens and next to the battery compartment, so you'll have to remove the camera from the tripod to change the battery. The memory card is located on the right-hand flank of the camera when viewed from the rear. The X-T1 Graphite Silver offers compatibility with Ultra High Speed UHS-II SDXC memory cards, which has the main benefit of increasing the data writing speed in continuous mode to about twice that of a conventional UHS-1 card. The X-T1 Graphite Silver offers a continuous shooting rate of 8fps for 47 JPEGs if you use a UHS-II SDXC card, certainly up there with the fastest compact system cameras, although not as fast as the Olympus O-MD E-M1 which can shoot up to 50 RAW files at 10fps (even with a non-UHS II card).

At the heart of the X-T1 Graphite Silver is the 16.3 megapixel APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS sensor, which is also used by the X-E2 camera. APS-C is a sensor size that's more commonly used by the majority of DSLR cameras, rather than by compact system cameras - Sony's NEX range and Samsung's NX series are the others. Fujifilm actually claim that the X-T1 Graphite Silver's sensor will deliver image quality that surpasses most APS-C DSLRs and even some full-frame ones, and as our test photos and sample images on the next two pages show, the X-T1 Graphite Silver actually does live up to those claims. We won't say any more at this point other than to recommend that you take a look at our Sample Images for yourself.

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

The large APS-C sensor makes it easy to throw the background out of focus and achieve some really nice bokeh effects, and the extensive ISO range of 100-51200 makes the X-T1 Graphite Silver very well suited to low-light shooting, allowing you to hand-hold the camera in places where you'd usually be reaching for a tripod (if allowed) or other support. The clever ISO Auto Control setting allows you to set a maximum sensitivity (up to 6400) and a minimum shutter speed (1/30th is a good starting point), with the camera over-riding your ISO choice if it thinks you're being too ambitious whilst maintaining a shutter speed that won't introduce camera shake.

The X-T1 Graphite Silver actually has two kinds of shutter, mechanical and electronic. With its mechanical focal-plane shutter, the X-T1 Graphite Silver has a very adaptable top shutter-speed limit of 1/4000th second in all shooting modes. Consequently there's no built-in ND filter as on the X100/S, so if you want to use the 35mm lens at F/1.4 in very bright sunlight, for example, then it's a good idea to buy an actual glass ND filter. The X-T1 Graphite Silver utilises a focal-plane shutter rather than the leaf shutter that the X100/S cameras have, much like a regular DSLR camera. This results in slightly noisier operation than on those very quiet cameras, although the shutter on the X-T1 Graphite Silver is pretty stealthy by DSLR standards, and a much slower flash-sync speed of 1/180th second (versus the X100/S's 1/400th second).

Fujifilm have also added a completely silent electronic shutter to the X100T which provides a much faster top shutter speed of 1/32,000th second. This allows you to continue shooting wide-open with fast aperture lenses in the brightest of conditions without having to resort to fitting a glass ND filter or using external flash and lights. There are some important caveats with the electronic shutter - the ISO range is restricted to 200-6400, you can't use the flash at all, and the slowest shutter speed is only 1 second, but overall it's a great addition that makes the X100T more versatile than its predecessors. It's also possible to set the electronic shutter in 1/3 steps from a range of 1sec to 1/32000sec. Note that Fujifilm are releasing a firmware update in December 2014 for the original X-T1 that will also add this feature to that camera.

To make the camera even less obtrusive there's a Silent menu option which turns off the speaker, flash, AF-assist lamp and most importantly the shutter-release sound, instantly making the X-T1 Graphite Silver perfectly suited to candid photography.

Top of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver's auto-focusing speed is very similar to the X-E2, with a quoted fastest auto-focus time of just 0.08 seconds when using the 18-55mm zoom. The X-T1 Graphite Silver has the same ultra-fast hybrid AF system with both a conventional contrast-detection system and built-in Phase Detection pixels which enables the camera to achieve a focus lock so quickly and accurately. The X-T1 Graphite Silver has 49 individual AF points laid out in a 7x7 grid, with the ability to change the size of the focus point via the rear command dial to achieve more precise focusing.

Manual focusing is activated by setting the focusing switch on the front of the camera to Manual and using the ring that encircles the lens to focus. The X-series lenses have an electronically coupled focus-by-wire manual focusing ring, rather than a physical one. We criticised some older X-series bodies for taking a lot of turns to change the focus from 0.1m to infinity, commenting that it was a much better idea to use the AEL button on the rear of the camera to set the focus automatically, then use the focusing ring to micro-adjust the focus manually, if required. This is still a viable technique, but is perhaps no longer required as Fujifilm have cleverly made the focusing ring more sensitive to how you use it - turn it slowly and the focusing distance changes slowly, but turn it more quickly and the camera quickly moves through the distance scale. It now only takes less than 2 full turns and a couple of seconds to jump from the closest focus distance to infinity.

The X-T1 Graphite Silver offers not one, not two, but three ways of manually focusing. Firstly, there's a handy blue distance scale along the bottom of the viewfinder (both the OVF and EVF) and on the LCD screen if you're using that for composition, with a red bar indicating the the focusing distance and a white bar showing the depth of field, which actually changes in line with the current aperture - very clever. In addition to the AEL button, the X-T1 Graphite Silver has another trick up its manual focusing sleeve in the shape of the Focus Assist button. As its name suggests, you can press this in to magnify the view in the electronic viewfinder. Furthermore, if you hold down the Focus Assist button, the manual focusing aid then switches to Digital Split Image, and then to Focus Peaking - a very neat way to change between the three modes.

The second manual focusing method is the Digital Split Image feature. Harking back to film cameras of the past, this displays dual images on the left and right which then need to be lined up together for accurate manual focusing, enabling accurate focusing especially when shooting wide-open or for macro shooting. It's much easier to understand in practice than written down. The third and final method is the Focus Peak Highlight function, which displays a white line around the subject when it's in focus, something that Sony NEX users in particular have been enjoying for a while. Both of these functions make manual focusing on the X-T1 Graphite Silver more of a pleasure than a chore, although the revised fly-by-wire manual focusing ring operation is arguably more important.

Tilting LCD Screen

In addition to the class-leading electronic viewfinder, the X-T1 Graphite Silver has a higher-resolution 3 inch LCD monitor on the back, which offers 100% scene coverage and 1.04 million dots, and can be usefully tilted up and down by about 90 degrees. The LCD screen has a handy Info view which presents all of the key settings at once, or you can switch to the Standard or Custom Live View modes, with the latter offering 14 customisable options (these are also used for the electronic viewfinder). The X-T1 Graphite Silver has a built-in eye sensor so that you only have to hold the camera up to eye-level to switch between the rear LCD and the electronic viewfinder (or you can press the View Mode button on the side of the pentaprism).

In terms of operational speed, the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver is very satisfying to use. Shutter lag is virtually non-existent on this camera (0.05 second), so once you have set the focus, you'll never miss the moment because the camera can't fire the shutter quickly enough. The shot-to-shot time is just 0.5 second, and it starts-up in only 0.5 second too. The write speeds from pressing the shutter button to recording to the SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card are fast too. Shooting a single RAW + Fine JPEG takes less than a second to record to a UHS-II card, a big improvement on the already speedy X-E2. Continuous shooting speeds have been slightly improved, with a faster top rate of 8fps for up to 47 JPEGs or 23 RAW files if using a UHS-II card, with a slower 3fps speed with AF tracking up to the capacity of the card also available. Thankfully the camera doesn't lock up completely for a long time if you shoot the maximum number of images in a burst, allowing you to continue shooting after just a few seconds. The X-T1 Graphite Silver also offers interval timer shooting for time lapses, with intervals of 1 second to 24 hours and up to 999 frames.

One area in which the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver excels is its handling, thanks in no small part to the numerous external controls that make changing the key settings a breeze, especially when holding the camera at eye-level. Surrounding the 18-55m lens is a circular aperture ring, although it has no markings due to the variable aperture. This dial also allows you to choose third-stop apertures. On top of the X-T1 Graphite Silver is a large, tactile, lockable control dial for setting the shutter speed, with settings ranging from 1 second to 1/4000th second, an Auto option, a T setting for longer exposures (2 to 30 seconds, set via the circular command wheel) and a Bulb mode for exposures up to a whopping 60 minutes in length. Alongside the shutter speed dial is another tactile dial for changing the exposure compensation, with a range of +-3EV, and on the left-hand side is a third, lockable dial for setting the ISO speed, with settings ranging from Auto to H2. Together these three controls make it extremely easy to set the exposure.

Underneath the ISO Speed and Shutter Speed dials are two more dials, the first for setting bracketing, burst, multiple exposure, advanced and panorama functions, and the second for setting the metering mode. Cleverly, unlike the dials that sit on top of the them, these two dials are not locked in place.

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver In-hand

Four other controls complete the X-T1 Graphite Silver's top-plate. The small but responsive shutter release button is encircled by the On/Off switch, although sadly there's no thread for a traditional mechanical cable release, as on the X-E2. Alongside are the one-touch Movie Record and-the Fn/Wi-Fi buttons, which by default provides quick access to the Wi-Fi options, but can be customised to suit your own needs from 12 different settings. Further customisation is available via the 7 Custom Menu options, which let you create, save and recall up to 7 sets of user-defined settings, and no less than 6 configurable function buttons. Finally there's an external flash hotshoe for suitable dedicated external units, into which fits the new EF-X8 flash that ships in the box. This small but handy flash unit has a guide number of 11 at ISO 200, more powerful than the X-E2's flash, which goes some way to compensating for the fact that it's not built-in to the camera.

The X-T1 Graphite Silver features enhanced built-in wi-fi connectivity. Install the new FUJIFILM Camera Remote App and you can transfer your pictures immediately to a smartphone or tablet PC and then edit and share them as you wish, transfer stills and video onto the camera, and embed GPS information in your shots from your smartphone. You can also now control the camera remotely, the first time on an X-series camera, with the list of available functions including Touch AF, shutter release for stills and movies, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity, Film Simulation modes, White Balance, macro, timer and flash. The built-in wi-fi also provides a simple means to backup your photos to your home PC.

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver can record full HD 1080p movies at 60/30fps with stereo sound and a high bitrate (36Mbps), with the option for turning this mode on curiously buried at the bottom of the Drive menu, although at least Fujifilm have finally added a one-touch record button. It's fair to say that the X-T1 Graphite Silver's movie mode isn't overly advanced. You can set the aperture and shutter speed before recording begins, but not during, and you can also set the Film Simulation mode, so black and white footage is possible, and the exposure compensation. Continuous auto-focusing is possible, although it still tends to hunt around before locking onto the subject, and manual focusing is also available (with the same caveats as for stills). There is a HDMI port for connecting the X-T1 Graphite Silver to a high-definition TV, although as usual there's no cable supplied in the box. Also missing is a paper copy of the otherwise helpful manual, which is supplied on CD-ROM instead, along with the consumer MyFinepix software the slow and rather unintuitive RAW convertor (essentially a specially customised version of the commercial Silkypix application).

The X-T1 Graphite Silver has a logical enough rear control layout, although it's not quite as streamlined as the X-E2 thanks to the inclusion of the tilting screen. Above the LCD screen and to the left of the viewfinder are two buttons for choosing image deletion or playback, while on the right is the AE-L button, rear control dial and the AF-L button. Beneath those is the Focus Assist button, then the Quick Menu button. This provides quick access to lots of frequently used shooting settings including the ISO speed, White Balance, File Size and File Quality, with the 4-way controller and command dial used to quickly change them. A 4-way controller is used to change the shutter speed and aperture, toggle the macro mode on and off, and set the AF point. In the middle of the controller is the Menu button, which accesses the eight Shooting and Set-up menus. Underneath is the Disp/Back button which is used for changing the LCD display or going back.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver produces images of outstanding quality. It recorded noise-free JPEG images at ISO 100 all the way up to 6400, with a little noise at ISO 12800 and more visible noise and slight colour desaturation at the faster setting of ISO 25600, an amazing performance for a camera with an APS-C sensor. The new highest speed of 51200 is best avoided though. The RAW files were also excellent, with usable images throughout the entire range of ISO 200-6400.

The images were a little soft straight out of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds being long enough for most after-dark shots, and the Bulb mode allowing much longer exposures if required.

The Dynamic Range settings subtly improve detail in the shadows and highlights, while the Film Simulation modes hark back to a bygone era. Motion panoramas are the icing on the proverbial cake, although they didn't work very well in mixed lighting conditions or with moving subjects in the frame. The Advanced Filters provide some creative control over your JPEGs before taking the shot.

Noise

There are 9 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver for JPEGs, and 6 for RAW files. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW files.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)
ISO 12800 (100% Crop)
ISO 25600 (100% Crop)
ISO 51200 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft and ideally benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver's 18-55mm kit lens provides an effective focal range of 27-83mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

27mm	83mm

File Quality

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

16M Fine (4.85Mb) (100% Crop)	16M Normal (2.96Mb) (100% Crop)
16M RAW (32.2Mb) (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver are Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash and Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (27mm)	Forced Flash - Wide Angle (27mm)
Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (83mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (83mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced Flash setting or the Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash option caused any red-eye.

Forced Flash	Forced Flash (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash	Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash (100% Crop)

Night

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds in the Time shutter speed mode, and there's a Bulb mode which allows exposures up to 60 minutes long, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 30 seconds at ISO 200.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Dynamic Range

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver has three dynamic range settings - 100% (on by default), 200%, and 400% - and an Auto setting if you want to let the camera take control. These settings gradually increase the amount of detail visible in the shadow and highlight areas, with the side-effect of more noise appearing in the image. Note that you can't actually turn this feature off.

100%	200%
400%

Film Simulation

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver offers 8 different film simulation modes to help repliatce the look of your favourite film stock from the past.

Provia / Standard	Velvia / Vivid
Astia / Soft	Pro Neg. Hi
Pro Neg. Standard	B&W
Monochrome + Yellow Filter	Monochrome + Red Filter
Monochrome + Green Filter	Sepia

Advanced Filter

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver offers 13 different filter effects which can be previewed on the LCD screen.

Toy Camera	Miniature
Pop Color	High-Key
Low-Key	Dynamic Tone
Soft Focus	Partial Color (Red)
Partial Color (Orange)	Partial Color (Yellow)
Partial Color (Green)	Partial Color (Blue)
Partial Color (Purple)

Panoramas

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver can create motion panoramas, either 120 or 180 degrees in length. Exposure is set on the first frame, which caused some problems indoors where different light sources caused areas of vertical banding. Watch out also for moving subjects in the frame as the X-T1 won't compensate for this.

120 Degrees

180 Degrees

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Fujifilm RAW (RAF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Front of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Image Displayed

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Turned On

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Main Menu

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Quick Menu

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Info Screen

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Wi-fi

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Tilting LCD Screen

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Tilting LCD Screen

Rear of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver / Tilting LCD Screen

Top of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Bottom of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Side of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Front of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Front of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The new Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver seems like a relatively minor update of the original all-black version released at the start of 2014, but the new electronic shutter, natural live view mode, and the Classic Chrome film simulation are all very welcome additions to an already brilliant camera that has proved to be one of the hits of the year. Fujifilm have announced that all of these features (and a lot more) will also be made available to original X-T1 owners just before Christmas, so there's no need to rush out to upgrade that camera. The FujifilmX-T1 Graphite Silver is a little more expensive at launch than the black version too, and with street prices of the original already lower than the RRP, the more prudent amongst you would be advised to consider that colourway and then apply the upcoming free firmware update - unless, of course, you happen to prefer the stunning new silver/black version and can afford the price premium...

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	5
Image quality	5
Value for money	4

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver.

Specifications

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