Fujifilm X70 Performance

Generally very good performance from the Fuji X70, but response time can be very inconsistent.

Power on to first shot was quite good for its class, but difficult to accurately time, as there is a shutter pre-press penalty. Play to Record was a bit slower, requiring two shutter button presses to capture an image.

The Fuji X70's full autofocus shutter lag was faster than average for a compact camera in our lab tests, but it unfortunately varied wildly. The Fuji X70 produced an average full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) of only 0.172 second using Single Point AF mode (center), however measured lag times varied from as low as 0.038s to as much as 0.467s during our standard 10 trials. With the built-in flash enabled, the X70's full AF shutter lag actually decreased to an average of 0.119 second with lower but still significant variation, perhaps because we had to wait much longer between trials for the flash to recharge.

Manual focus shutter lag was quite fast, at 0.023 second on average, and prefocused shutter lag was incredibly quick, at an average of only 0.010 second. However both those measurements also varied more between trials than we're used to seeing.

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 difficult to measure accurately as it required an irregular rhythm imposed by an intermittent pre-press penalty (if you press the shutter button too soon after a previous shot, the camera may ignore it and you would then need to press again). On average, we measured about 0.95 second for large/fine JPEGs and about 1.0 second for RAW+L/F JPEGs, but your experience may vary. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the result is usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG modes.)

The Fuji X70's Continuous High burst mode speed was quite good, clocked at about 8.5 frames per second when shooting JPEGs, 8.6 frames per second for RAW files, and 7.8 frames per second for RAW+JPEG files. There is also a Continuous Low mode rated at 3.0 fps, but we did not test that in the lab.

Full-resolution buffer depths were mediocre, though, at only 10 JPEG frames with our difficult to compress target. You may do better with typical subjects. When shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG files, the buffer depth dropped to only 7 or 6 frames respectively.

Buffer clearing was a fairly quick 4 seconds after shooting a max-length burst of JPEGs, 5 seconds for a burst of RAW files, and 9 seconds after a RAW+JPEG burst, though as mentioned, buffer depths weren't very deep. The Fuji X70 does allow you to take additional shots, view just-shot images and change settings during buffer clearing.

Recycling the flash after full power discharges took an average of 6.3 seconds, which is quite slow.

Bottom line, the Fuji X70's performance was generally very good with a fast startup time, quick autofocus, low shutter lag and a fast 8+ fps burst mode. However buffer depths were on the shallow side, and the varying response times and intermittent shutter pre-press penalty can be annoying at times.

Battery Life
Above average battery life for a large-sensored compact.

The Fuji X70 uses a custom NP-95 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with a single battery and an AC-USB adapter for in-camera charging. The CIPA-rated 330 shots per charge is better than average for its class, but as is usually the case, we strongly recommend getting a second battery for your X70 if you plan any extended outings.

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))