Fujifilm X-T20 Performance

Very good performance in the lab.

Power on to first shot was slightly faster than average for a mirrorless camera, but not as fast as most DSLRs. Play to Record wasn't bad, but we had to press the shutter button again to get a shot. These are similar results to the X-T10, and High Performance mode only shaved 0.1 second off of both values.

The Fuji X-T20's single-shot full autofocus shutter lag was much faster than average for a mirrorless camera in our lab tests. The Fuji X-T20 produced a full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) of only 0.069 second using Single Point AF mode (center) with the Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 Macro lens. Note that High Performance mode was enabled for the above results (it speeds up AF and increases display frame rate at the expense of lower battery life). With High Performance mode disabled, full AF shutter lag increased to 0.147 second, but that's still quite fast.

As expected, manual focus shutter lag was lower than full AF, with an average of only 0.057 second. Prefocused shutter lag was very low at only 0.047 second. These results are faster than the X-T10's, but of course not as fast as the X-T2's.

Note: Mechanical shutter was used for these measurements. The X-T20 also offers an electronic shutter, but shutter lag is usually a bit slower with e-shutter.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times were so fast with either the mechanical or electronic shutter when shooting JPEGs that they were difficult to accurately measure as they depend on the tester's dexterity and ability to maintain an optimum rhythm, especially given the intermittent pre-press penalty. When shooting RAW+JPEG files, cycle times increased to an average of 0.64 second, though that's still pretty fast. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.)

The Fuji X-T20's Continuous High burst mode speed with the mechanical shutter was quite good, at just over 8.1 frames per second no matter the file type, slightly exceeding Fuji's spec and matching its higher-end sibling, the X-T2.

Fuji rates the X-T20's top burst speed at 14 frames per second using the electronic shutter. In the lab, the camera managed just over 13.7 fps, which is pretty close to the spec. Performance here also essentially matches the X-T2.

Full-resolution buffer depths were quite good at 8 fps, though as expected not as good as the X-T2's as unlike that camera, the X-T20 does not support faster UHS-II cards. With our SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I card, buffer depths were 49 best quality JPEGs, 29 losslessly compressed RAW files, and 26 lossless RAW+JPEG files before the camera slowed in our tests. The buffer-full rate when shooting JPEGs wasn't bad either, at about 5 fps, but RAW and RAW+JPEG slowed down to 2.5 and 1.7 fps respectively.

Unsuprisingly, buffer depths fell in the faster 14 fps electronic shutter mode, but were still good at 32, 25, and 21 frames respectively, only slightly shallower than the X-T2.

Buffer clearing wasn't as quick as the X-T2 because of the slower card type, taking between 7 to 15 seconds to clear after a max-length burst depending on the mode and file type. The Fuji X-T20 lets you adjust settings while the buffer is clearing, but unlike the X-T2, you cannot view just-shot images.

Recycling the built-in flash after full-power discharges took an average of 3.8 seconds, which is not bad.

Bottom line, the Fuji X-T20's performance is very good with a decent startup time, fast autofocus, low shutter lag, fast cycle times, and very fast bursts modes. As expected, buffer depths and clearing times aren't as good as the X-T2's due to a lack of UHS-II support, but they are still better than average.

Battery Life
Average battery life for a mirrorless camera.

The Fuji X-T20 uses a custom NP-W126S rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and a dedicated charger, although in-camera charging via USB is also supported.

Fuji provides battery life numbers for when using the electronic viewfinder and LCD monitor, as well as for Standard and High Performance modes. CIPA-rated battery life is about average for a mirrorless camera in Standard mode, but no where near a typical DSLR when using its optical viewfinder. As is usually the case, we strongly recommend getting a second battery for your X-T20 if you plan any extended outings or shoot a lot of video.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))