When I gave up shooting photos on my iPhone for a week with screen-free compact cameras, I found unplugging so liberating that I lasted nearly two weeks instead. I’ve shot with more than half a dozen screen-free cameras, and they each have their own unique quirks, with most of them meant more for low-fi style photography. But there is one camera that feels like unplugging yet still houses a larger one-inch sensor: The Fujifilm X Half.
The Fujifilm X Half technically isn’t a screen-free camera, as it actually has two: a more typical LCD screen plus a smaller one for swiping through different film simulations. But the X Half has a film camera mode that locks the screen, so I couldn’t look through my images until I had shot a full “roll.”
Screen-free cameras are a growing trend, and there are now quite a few of them to choose from. But cameras like the fantastic Camp Snap CS-Pro and the Flashback One35 V2 are meant to snap photos that look like early digital cameras with smaller sensors and lower resolutions.
The X Half feels like the “halfway” point between screen-free cameras and advanced compact cameras. The X Half has a screen-free mode, but the 17.7MP one-inch sensor beats cheaper options – and it still shoots video.
The real reason that I fell in love with the X Half, however, is because the film-like feel isn’t just in the camera’s “film” advance lever, retro dials, or screen-free mode. The photos from the X Half, while digital, still have a retro charm to them. There’s a built-in mode for creating light leaks, or shooting with the softer look of a film lens. Or, the camera can shoot with one of Fujifilm’s iconic film simulations. The retro compact camera can even shoot double exposures.
The X Half doesn’t have RAW files, but the X Half is meant for unplugging, not sitting behind a computer and tweaking RAW photos.
When the X Half launched, I thought the original $849 list price was too high, but that list price later fell down by $200. A temporary price drop during Prime Day has now brought the X Half to its lowest price yet in the US: $449.
Out of all the Prime Day deals that I’ve spotted so far, the lowest-ever price on the X Half is the one that I’m finding the hardest not to add to my cart.
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