Fujifilm has built a reputation for retro-styled yet compact designs – and the brand's efforts have not gone unnoticed. The compact Fujifilm X-E5 mirrorless camera has just won the top APS-C Camera award from the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) awards, with Fujifilm’s budget-friendly X-T30 III taking home a value-based award.
The EISA awards are an annual call-out to the biggest new cameras, lenses, and sound tech of the year. The 2026-27 awards are headlined by several highly popular models, including the Sony A7 V as the Camera of the Year, its big sibling the A7R VI as Professional Camera, Nikon’s first cinema mirrorless the ZR topping the photo-video category, and the sold-out Panasonic Lumix L10 taking top compact camera honors.
But Fujifilm has taken home honors for both the best APS-C camera with the X-E5 and the “Best Buy Camera,” a category meant to highlight a more affordable shooter, with the X-T30 III.
The X-E5 and X-T30 III sit at opposite ends of the price range for Fujifilm’s APS-C range, but the two mirrorless cameras have a few things in common – a compact, retro-inspired design.
The Fujifilm X-E5 is regularly heralded as the mirrorless twin to the viral X100VI compact camera when paired with its compact pancake kit lens. The X-E5 uses a rangefinder-inspired design that places the electronic viewfinder off in the corner, rather than in the center like an SLR. Like the X100VI, the X-E5 boasts plenty of retro dials.
But the X-E5 also gives a dedicated spot for one of Fujifilm’s most famous features: a dial just to swap film simulations. That gives photographers quick access to switch in-camera color profiles.
Inside, the X-E5 packs in the tech that sits inside Fujifilm’s top X-series models: a 40.2MP APS-C X-Trans sensor with the X-Processor 5 and, unlike the X-E4, image stabilization and subject-detection autofocus.
The EISA Awards called the X-E5 “a photographer’s delight for street, travel and everyday shooting.” As someone who has actually traveled with the X-T5, I would have to agree. Working with the mirrorless and the 23mm pancake lens, I could almost forget that I wasn’t shooting with a compact camera.
The Fujifilm X-T30 III, on the other hand, is still retro and rather compact for a mirrorless, but sits as one of Fujifilm’s more affordable choices. The X-T30 III takes on the look of a vintage SLR rather than a rangefinder, but unlike Fujifilm’s cheapest mirrorless camera, the X-M5, the X-T30 III still has a viewfinder.
The budget price shows a little in the specs, with a 26.1MP resolution X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor rather than the fifth-generation 40.2MP option. Still, that sensor’s no slouch – in fact it’s the same one inside my X-T4 that I still use as a pro photographer.
While the X-E5 was a major upgrade from the older X-E4, the X-T30 III feels like a more incremental update. Still, DCW gave the X-T30 III a Recommended badge, as the refreshed budget camera updates the autofocus but not the price point.
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