Who is a sleek, retro-styled mirrorless camera with a fully articulating screen, and a refined autofocus system in a kit for under $900? It’s me, the Fujifilm X-A7!

Fujifilm just announced a new little camera that is their entry-level competitor against other new mirrorless cameras in the 24-megapixel range. (i.e. Sony A6100, Canon M50, etc.) They say it is designed to attract new photographers or people who have been primarily photographing with their phones. 

The biggest physical difference between this new camera and other Fujifilm mirrorless cameras with a similar sensor is the LCD screen and lack of an electronic viewfinder. The new LCD screen is fully articulating, 3.5”, with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It promises to be very responsive and extremely bright allowing it to be viewable in even the harshest sunlight. We will have to be the judge of that when we get our hands on it. But, the specs for this screen are very promising. 

The body alone is very lightweight at 320g, and the body is sleek with dual dials. As mentioned above, it does not have an electronic viewfinder, and although it has a hot-shoe, there are no plans to create an attachable electronic viewfinder. I was personally a bit disappointed to hear that. But, if the screen is as good as they promise, users may soon forget their longing for an EVF while using this camera. 

The interface is also a unique feature for this camera. For example, it has film simulation sliders. I absolutely love Fuji’s film simulations and love the concept of being able to see the before and after results with a slider. It also has a new feature called depth control with a slider that will be handy for beginners to easily control the look of their portraits. I also love the twin control dials and the scene more dial on the top of the camera. 

In many of our recent YouTube reviews, we’ve commented that Sony has been winning the autofocus game. But, I think Fujifilm comes very, very close with their refined face and eye detection. In the Fuji comparison demonstrations we saw, the focus appeared to be more precise and sticky compared to the XT-30 and the X-T3. Fujifilm is also very tenacious about upgrading firmware and I would expect to see their autofocus technology continue to evolve. 

On the video side of things, it is capable of recording a maximum of 30fps in full sensor readout 4K (no crop). It has a 2.5mm microphone jack and Fujifilm Canada includes a 3.5mm adapter cable in the box so non-Fuji microphones can be used easily. We’ve also been told that rolling shutter (jello) will be extremely well controlled.

The Fujifilm X-A7 is interesting because Fuji is putting their best autofocus technology into an entry-level camera while maintaining the classic retro design of their other X-series cameras. Based on what we’ve seen, the handling looks good and I am looking forward to testing the new interface. Stay tuned for our upcoming YouTube review once we receive our sample to play with.