First of all, I purchased the X-H2s. I loved it. Immediately fell in love with it. That was the first obstacle to accepting the Fuji X-H2, surprisingly. But more on that later.

Let’s rewind, because I haven’t always been a Fuji shooter. Here’s my history with Fuji: A couple of years ago, I rented the X-T4 and then bought it. I bought the X100V. I sold the X-T4. I sold the X100v and bought the X-E4 (small form factor that also had a flip-up screen so that I could more easily film YouTube videos. Watch the video where I made the decision to sell the X100V below 👇

I sold the X-E4 and bought the X-T4. In the meantime, I borrowed an X-H1 from Fuji, a GFX50R from Fuji and the X-S10 from Fuji, and oh yeah, the GFX100s. I bought the X100v again – friendly tip – follow Fuji’s twitter and make sure you set yourself to get “notified” of every tweet – sometimes those tweets tell you when X100v’s are in stock! I was able to pick one up and took it to Italy this summer. I’ll put a link to a video here with some of my experiences with the Fuji X100v here.

I sold the X-T4 and bought the X-H2s. Immediately I knew why I had owned the X-t4 twice and sold it – not image quality, not video specs – just simply put, ergonomics. The deep grip was what I needed.

Watch the livestream where I unboxed the X-H2s and had my moment of realization here (about 7 minutes in):

I used the X-H2s at a professional gig – event photography. Did great. Took it to another gig. Excelled as well – eye AF was locked on. Then I took it to a mammoth event – all day long, 6am to 11pm – with a high profile client. And it nailed every shot that I needed – so much so that the client reached back out right away about future gigs. Part of that I credit to the 50-140 lens which creates incredible images.

So, I sold my Canon R5 (this fall) because if I could shoot event photography with Fuji – which is my favorite type of client photography – then I’m set! The image quality and resolution on the X-H2s was solid. I sold the R5 and bought the X-H2, and honestly, after a month of shooting with the X-H2, I sent it back. I was not happy. Now, I’m me – you’re you. Just listen to my story – and see if anything applies to you.

Watch the video – from a year ago – where I questioned my original decision to buy the Canon R5 here (like I was predicting the future!?!) 👇

I did not perceive a significant difference in resolution – and I posted a video about this. Watch below 👇

Which drew some fire from people who watched it. I was told that you would have to print prints bigger than 24 x 36” to see the difference between 26 and 40MP. And, if that is true, then I made the correct decision. I’ve printed 24 x 36 prints for my studio shot with the X100v and the X-E4, but I’ve never printed anything bigger. My client work is all delivered digitally. So – if the resolution doesn’t’ really show up in those delivery formats, then I don’t benefit from the 40MP sensor.

The second reason that I sent the X-H2 back was the AF issues I encountered. I took the camera camping in Sequoia, shot a local 5k race with it (as well as the X-H2s), took it to local events- car shows at the local park – and I found that it had noticeable issues locking focus on subjects and staying on them. Sometimes, high speed continuous shooting, I’d find that several images out of a series would have focused on the background. I shot with several lenses. In a previous video, I mentioned purchasing the 56mm lens just for this purpose – of having lens that “fully resolved” for the 40MP sensor and I got comments that I had the “old” version and I needed the new version of the lens. I bought the new version of the lens for the record. I was also told that I was shooting a slow lens and shouldn’t expect it to lock on focus and that it would be quick. So, the same lens performs better with the Fuji X-H2s in the same scenarios. Obviously, the X-H2s is a different sensor, and it performs better in terms of focusing the 56mm lens. I used the 16-55mm lens, and other lenses. The X-H2 just continued to have focusing issues that did not compute or make sense for 2022. It reminded me of the GH5 that I picked up in 2017. Again, just my experience. You can make your own decisions – but look at Omar Gonzalez’ and Jerred Z’s videos – they have similar experiences to share. Read the blog post and see photos from Sequoia here.

Bottom line was that I did not see it outperform the X-H2s, and I already had that camera. It was a bit redundant. Why keep it? I thought or I expected that I was getting a resolution upgrade and I had performance issues with the focus and saw a flatline in resolution where I hoped to see improvement.

Those are my notes. I’m a simple guy. I used it for a month, shot thousands of photos, and here is my one caveat: when I look back at the photos I took, I like them. They are good photos. If it was the only Fuji camera I purchased, I would keep it and love it. It’s only in comparison to the Fuji X-H2s that it didn’t hold up for me.