Canon R7 vs Fujifilm X-T5 Camera Comparison, Which Is Better?

(If you want to watch the video go here!)

Hey everybody, we’re back here on The Slanted Lens with another camera comparison. I’ve got Kassandra here with me. We’re going to take a look at the Fujifilm X-T5 and the Canon R7. These two cameras are incredible. And I think we need to see exactly which one of these you would choose and why. Why are we choosing these two cameras?

Well, they got great specs for video and stills. That is absolutely the case. And the thing about these two cameras I’m most interested in, is that larger megapixel sensor, APC sensor, large megapixel, those megapixels are creeping up. This is the high end for APS-C sensors. Let’s see how they compare and let’s just see exactly which one of these you would buy and why. Let’s get to it.

Let’s break these cameras down. These are both APS-C sensors. The crop factor though is very different. We have a 1.6 and a 1.5. You might think to yourself, “Why is it so different?” It’s just annoying to me, 1.5 is bad enough. 1.6, I think it definitely goes to the Fuji 1.5 crop factor.

Now when it comes to resolution, we have a 32.5 megapixel sensor here and we’ve got a 40.2 megapixel sensor here. It’s the same sensor is on the X-H2, which is a beautiful high resolution sensor.When I looked at the picture quality test though, I was having a hard time seeing it. But that’s coming up. So when it comes to megapixels, Fujifilm wins.

Price is a big deal. This is $1,499 (R7). This is $1,699 (X-T5). So it’s $200 more for that Fujifilm. That’s going to definitely go to the Canon.

Let’s go over to the computer now and take a look at the image quality test. So let’s take a look at the picture quality test. In this process we brought all these images into Camera Raw. And in Camera Raw, we just sampled the 18% gray on each camera and set the color at 18% grey as it came off the Spyder Checkr. And we got really nice color on both of these images. It really is beautiful color. We got some great blues in the background. We got skin tone. It is interesting when you look at these two cameras though, this is where you see, I think, the difference in these two sensors. The Canon is a lot more contrasty and a little more sharp. When I say sharp it’s almost an over sharpening kind of feeling. Whereas the Fuji is a lot softer. It’s not as contrasty. I see a much different image there. The color is, you know, within range of correcting them between these two cameras without any problem. But at 18% gray sampled from the Spyder Checkr the color on the Fujifilm is much prettier to me. It just has a beautiful skin tone, a nice warm look. And I think the colors look excellent on both these cameras. They’re just very similar to one another. Just beautiful images for those APS-C sensors. So there you have it, there’s the picture quality test. I didn’t see that the Fuji was really super outperforming the Canon. They were very close to one another, very sharp images. I think it’s pretty hard to tell. But in the end, I think the picture quality because of color and things goes to the Fujifilm.

Let’s talk about the ergonomics of these two cameras. They are very different. The X-T5 is very tactile, has a lot of dials that are going to give you all of your different controls. As the R7 is really more about internal controls. You don’t have as many buttons and everything’s going to go into the menus inside the camera. So it really depends on the type of shooting that you like to do. I do love, on the X-T5 that you have all the dials, you have your ISO, your shutter speed, your everything is on the camera and accessible. I love that. But the minute you have to get into the menus on this camera it becomes very difficult, the X-T5 in the menus I think. I have a hard time sometimes not getting lost in the menus. As long as you can stay on the dials on the top you’re really golden with this camera. But if you’ve got to get into the menus, like I want to change the color balance to 4300, it’s like changing the time of day. You know, I got to get in there and it just was very difficult to do. So as long as you stay in these dials on the X-T5 you’re great. The X-T5 really is a move from, we had the X-T3 which is a beautiful camera, small and compact.It really fit a place in the market that was perfect. With the X-T4 it got big and bulky. Now they’ve slimmed this X-T5 down to where it was meant to be, what it was supposed to do. And they did keep that bigger grip which I think is really nice. It makes it easy to get a hold of it. But it is smaller, lighter weight and more of what really this X-T series should be. The X-T5 really fulfills that. The one dial on the back was driving me crazy because I could move things around with it but I kept pushing in, as I was trying to roll it. That was driving me nuts.

Now the Canon, it’s a little bigger body. It has a nice size grip. I do like that because it feels good in my hand. I can use it and it’s really easy to access the dials. I don’t like this little thing they put on the back. It’s a round thing. I’ve got to move my hand off to get to it. I pushed the button in the middle of which is a little D pad. And it’s just, it’s not, I don’t know where this came from. And I guarantee I won’t see it very much longer in the next generation. I just, that was very difficult to use. Everything menu wise in this camera is very accessible. You get into the menus, you can make your changes, and it’s easy to move things. But when I’m trying to use this, it’s not easy to toggle between the different options that I have. So as a Canon goes, I think it’s very usable. I think it’s very friendly as far as the menus go. It’s just that round thing on the back just does not make me very happy. So when it comes to usability with these two cameras, I kind of love the old SLR, all the dials are right there. You can make it happen really quick. I kind of love that. But I don’t like getting into the menus. I feel like the menus are great on the Canon. But I don’t like that thing in the back. When it comes to ergonomics, I’m going to give them a tie. They both irritate me.

Both of these cameras have dual SD card slots, so Tie.

So let’s talk about the monitors on these two cameras. The Canon, they’re both three inch monitors. And you can see a little bit of the difference there. It may sound similar to you, but I think you see a better image on the Canon. The one thing though, that really makes them very different with regards to monitor is this has that vlogging style flip out screen on the Canon R7, whereas on the Fujifilm, it just tilts up. It does not come out, it’s just going to come out and up. It does flip over. But it just doesn’t give us the same kind of, you got to get that screen outside if you want to be able to vlog with it. And not just vlogging with it. If you want to get it in someplace, you got to get that screen to be able to reverse if you’re going to put your camera inside of a mail box or something like that. I think it’s just a lot more useful. So when it comes to the monitor, the Canon definitely wins.

Now let’s talk about the viewfinder. This is very different on these two cameras. On the R7 we’ve got a viewfinder with 2,360,000 dots, which is really a beautiful viewfinder. But it’s not near as good as the 3,690,000 dot that we see here on the Fujifilm. That is a gorgeous image. It gives us a great look. You see a clarity in that viewfinder that I think definitely exceeds that of the Canon. So when it comes to the viewfinder the X-T5 definitely wins.

Let’s talk about autofocus. This is really important to me. And a point that I make my decision about a lot of cameras on, and that is autofocus. And how well does that really perform on each of these cameras? The Canon has 651 autofocus points, whereas the Fuji has 425 autofocus points. Really the Canon should edge this out. I mean, the Fuji has, they both have phase detect, but the Fuji has a combination of phase detect and contrast detection. So that all sounds good in the shower. But let’s go out and see how that performs when we took it outside and did some images. So let’s take a look at the autofocus test.

So when it came time to do the autofocus test, it was raining like crazy outside. So we did it in the kitchen here. And as she’s walking towards it, this is not as demanding, as when we do it outside in this kind of full body into a tight face shot, which I like that transition. It shows us two or three transitions in there that really make a big difference with regards to how the autofocus works. In this situation she’s fairly close. It’s not as far distance as she walks. And both these cameras did really well. Canon was right on and there were more frames per second on the Canon on a lot of these tests. But that Canon just was right on all the way right from the back to the front. It did an excellent job. It really did. The Fuji, had a little, Fuji had a difficult time a couple of times. But I got it set up and finally got it working to where it was working really well. I think the Fuji struggled a little more than the Canon did. And if I’m looking at these two, I’m thinking the Canon was a much stronger autofocus situation. And the Fuji was struggling just a little bit. But when I say that, we’re talking about, they’re not miles apart. Fuji was right there. Alright, so there’s the autofocus test. You know what, as I look at these, the Canon definitely performed better. I had to shoot the Fujifilm several times, the X-T5 several times. And a lot of times I was missing frames. The Canon was pretty much on just about every single time. So when it comes to autofocus, the Canon definitely wins for me.

Let’s talk about frames per second. These two cameras have very similar frames per second in mechanical shutter. They both have 15 frames per second. But the Canon will capture 52 or 51 Raw and 224 JPEGs, whereas the Fujifilm only captures 19 Raw or 119 JPEGs. So you’re able to shoot more images and it buffers quicker, and it’s going to give you more images to be able to shoot longer. So that is a huge advantage in my mind to the Canon R7.

When it comes to electronic shutter, 30 frames per second (X-T5) and 20 frames per second (R7). But in 30 frames per second on the Canon it will only capture 42 raw images or 126 JPEGs. It doesn’t capture as many images before it has to buffer. So I’m not so sure how the electronic shutter is that much of an advantage. Because you can get bursts in that mechanical shutter and just keep buffering. It’s going to buffer quicker. It’s going to be a much better issue. Plus, you’re getting rolling shutter on this electronic shutter on both these cameras because they have single, they don’t have stacked sensors. They’re not writing and reading very fast. And so you’re getting major rolling shutter issues. So when it comes to frames per second, the Canon definitely edges out the Fujifilm.

Let’s take a look at the video autofocus test. Now when I looked at the autofocus in live action mode and video mode on these cameras, I see the Fuji starting to pop in and out quite a bit as she’s walking towards us and walking back. The Canon was on the subject matter much better. It did a better job all the way through. It just seemed like the Canon was there. And the autofocus was very nicely done. As she walks we just see it stay with her. Yeah, maybe a couple of spots in there we see a drift just a little bit. I mean, it’s not nailing it exactly, but it’s pretty dang good. Whereas the with the Fuji X-T5, as she comes in, it’s just a little, it starts to come in and out just a little bit on her face a couple of times. And especially as she gets a little closer, it kind of pops in and out. All right, when we come back, the Canon autofocus in video mode was definitely better than the Fujifilm. It goes to the Canon.

Let’s take a look at the internal recording modes of these two cameras. They both give you a good 10 bit 4:2:2 Codec. That’s really become a standard. A few years ago, that was not the case. The Fujifilm X-T5 has got the same sensor as the X-H2, but does not have the same video recording capabilities. It’s much different. The Canon R7 has great video recording capabilities. But both these cameras really suffer because they don’t have a stacked sensor. So you get really bad rolling shutter when you’re doing video in the video modes. So let’s take a look at some of the clips that we’ve recorded and just see exactly what we got. I’ve got some video clips here I’d like to look at real quickly. Because you know, all the kind of technical stuff you can be thrown at you, it just starts to really boil down to what does the picture look like? And I think there’s a pretty good idea here.

First off, the Fujifilm X-T5, this is a 6.2k. And it’s a very beautiful image. I mean, you get great detail on that 6.2k. I mean, I’m not showing it to you in 6.2k. But I’m looking on a screen here and I’m seeing the detail. The problem is that you get a crop. You get a pretty good crop. I think the oversampled 6.2k to 4k is a nice, beautiful image. It is giving you a bit of a crop. If you go back just the 4k it doesn’t have a crop.We’re getting a wider image, but the quality is not quite as high. Is this quality bad? No. It’s really interesting when we start talking about quality on this level, the 4k from the X-T5 is going to play absolutely fine if you’re doing stuff for social media, if you’re doing stuff for Instagram and YouTube, all those kinds of things are going to be great. Do I like the 6.2k? I do. Do I like the crop? No, I don’t love the crop. That part about it bothers me. I would probably shoot on this camera, the 4k HQ. Which gives you, its oversampled for the 6.2k. The file is larger, which means you’re going to have more problems with overheating on this camera. And if the overheating starts to be a problem for longer clips, then I would go to, you know, to the HQ. So if you’re shooting 4K HQ and you’re having problems with overheating, you may have to go back just to the regular 4k. The reality is, why would you shoot long clips with this camera? If you’re doing long clips, some kind of an interview or a seminar or something, this is not the camera. If you’re really serious about video, I don’t think this is the Fuji camera for you. I think the Fuji X-H2 is a much better camera with regards to video specs. Obviously it is. And that’s a camera that makes sense as a crossover camera. This camera is more about still photography than it is video and I think that’s where it lives.

So the Canon has an oversampled 4k. This 4k Fine IPB is a crisp, beautiful video image. When you go to the 4k, it’s not as nice. It’s not as, it’s a little soft-ish. It just doesn’t give you the sharp crisp image that you get with that 4k Fine. It does shoot in 10 bit 4:2:2 which gives you the detail, the depth, necessary to use this in so many different video applications. These are lower end video cameras. It’s really not the place that you want to be if you’re a video shooter. If you are a crossover shooter or if you’re a vlogger this is not a bad camera. The Canon has a lot of capabilities that make that work.So there’s a look at the clips. That’s really what matters to me. That is, what does that image look like? And there’s really beautiful images on both these cameras.

Let’s just wrap this up with a couple of specs here. We have C-log 3 on the Canon. We got F-log and F-log two on the Fuji. I see an advantage to the 6.2k as far as being able to punch in. But it does come with a crop factor and a larger crop factor. So we saw those crop factors. We saw the images. These cameras are very similar to one another. I think they come head to head. They’re certainly in their price range. With regards to video capabilities, they are not standout video cameras.I think this camera would be an excellent vlogging camera. The R7 would be a great vlogging camera, just because you’ve got that pop out screen. You’ve got certainly codecs and video capabilities here that exceed any kind of application you’re going to do on YouTube and those kinds of platforms. So I think it really works that way. The X-T5 doesn’t have the same advantage when it comes to vlogging. Because of that pop out screen. So these two cameras are head to head when it comes to video, I think I’m going to give them a tie.

Both of these cameras have a micro HDMI output. That’s a tie. That’s a tie on the low end of ties.

Now let’s take a look at the image stabilization between these two cameras. So let’s get over to the computer and take a look at that test. Look at the image stabilization with these two cameras. The Canon is pretty smooth. You get a bounce a little bit, it’s definitely not a Panasonic. But it’s way, way better than the Fuji X-T5. The Canon is just much smoother as it moves through the frame. The Fuji X-T5 occasionally is doing this little jump on me here, which is really interesting. I shot it a couple of times. I was kind of getting that result where it just kind of shifts every so often. It’s probably playing off my step. It’s pushing it enough and it’s making it adjust. So, I think the Canon is definitely smoother when it comes to the autofocus mode. Okay, that’s pretty obvious to me that Canon definitely has superior image stabilization in video mode. It’s much smoother. It’s not jumping like it was on the X-T5. So I think the R7 is going to win on that one.

Alright, let’s take a look at the ISO test. Over to the computer we go. So let’s take a look at the ISO test. For this test, we took the raw images into Camera Raw. And the only thing we changed is that we sampled off from the 18% Gray from the Spyder Checkr. And we set that color for each of the different cameras. So at that point, nothing else has changed. No de-noising, nothing like that. And we just output the images. We didn’t use the JPEGs. Because we don’t want the internal kind of manipulation that JPEGs are getting. We just want to look at the raw images we’re getting from the cameras. So this first one we go to 400 ISO and at 400 ISO, these cameras are very similar. I think maybe the Fuji looks a little, a little better. The Canon is very contrasty. And we see that when we go to 800 ISO. Now the Fuji is, the Fuji is just a little softer. The noise is not as prevalent. And we get a nice transition on the nose from the highlight to the shadow. When we go to 1600 look at that transition in the back there. And they’re both looking pretty, pretty noisy at that point. I think the Fuji is slightly ahead. I think it’s just slightly ahead.When we go to 3200, at 3200 I’m starting to see this kind of color kind of transition happening in the Fujifilm. The Fujifilm’s got a little bit of red in that transition from the highlight to the shadow. And the Canon is still holding pretty good. But I’m seeing a little bit of that color transition started having at 6400. But overall, I think the Fujifilm is just a little, little bit, I don’t know, they’re pretty similar. They kind of keep going back and forth a little bit on me. So I’m not sure on this one. When I go to the 6400, definitely the digital noise is pretty strong at this point on both these cameras that you’re getting the artifacting. But the one thing that shows up on the Canon at 6400 is you get this banding, this vertical banding. And you don’t see it really strongly here. But look what happens when I go to the next one, which is the 12,800. That banding is really strong on the Canon. We don’t see anything like that on the Fujifilm. But the noise on both these cameras is pretty high. I mean, it’s just, it is what you would expect at 12,800. When I go to the Canon it goes up to 25,600. The banding is really strong in there. Alright, so there’s a look at the ISO test. I think the Fuji is just a little softer in it’s transitions and I think the digital noise is a little better. So these cameras are very close to one another but I think that banding on the Canon kind of push the Fuji ahead just a little bit. There you have it. These two cameras were very close to each other. Sometimes the Fuji was edging out the Canon. Sometimes the Canon was edging out the Fuji. In the end I’m going to say that the Fuji was slightly ahead, a slight advantage.

Okay, back to the computer dynamic range time. Let’s take a look at the dynamic range tests. We did the same thing with this. We took the raw images into Camera Raw. We just sampled off the 18% gray on the Spyder Checkr and we set the color there for each of them. Now you see, you do see some difference in the head size on these. We have two different things at play here. We’ve got a 35 millimeter lens versus a 33 millimeter lens. And we have a 1.5 crop factor on the Fuji versus a 1.6 crop factor on the Canon. So the head sizes are just a little different. It’s on the same tripod, exactly the same distance from the person. But let’s look at the dynamic range right off on the neutral. You see in the background that the Fuji is just not holding the whites back there, like the Canon is. If we jump over here to the plus or minus one stops or underexposing, one stop, we see still, we see great rendition on the faces. There’s not a lot of digital noise starting to happen. In the background, though, the whites are starting to kind of push a little bit on the Fujifilm. If you’re looking at the Canon, you still see the lines in the car back there. The Fujifilm, the car is starting to just kind of blur. So if we go to minus two, now, if you look at the nose, we’re starting to see a little bit of digital noise start to happen. You start to see that you can’t underexpose, two and three and four stops without there being some price to be paid. And that price is digital noise. You start to see that start to build. And you see it here at minus two stops. But we’re seeing it’s recovered. We’re recovering the highlights in the background. It’s looking really nice. We are opening up the shadows. But the Fujifilm is still losing detail in those highlights outside. If we go to minus three, if you look at the digital noise on the nose, or on the eye here, it’s now starting to build. We’re at minus three stops. And we’re pushing that up, and you just see how the digital noise starts to build. And in the background, we still see we’ve recovered the highlights on both these cameras. The Fujifilm is about where it was when we started at neutral. But the digital noise has built on both of these cameras. It seems like the digital noise is building a little bit faster on the Canon than the Fujifilm to me. But let’s jump up now to minus four stops. You see how that digital noise has really jumped up in that trying to recover them. And it is interesting at four stops, you know, and sometimes when these tests do this kind of thing to me, it just drives me crazy. I’m seeing better detail on the whites back there on the, on the Fujifilm. Which actually shouldn’t surprise me because you’re underexposing which means you’re giving more detail to the highlights back there. And the Fujifilm looks, it’s not perfect, but I’m at least seeing the lines in the car. But the digital noise has definitely jumped up. So now if we go over, I love going over because it’s such a train wreck. Plus one stop, so you have one stop too much exposure and the Fujifilm is just really, the highlights are suffering pretty bad at one stop. The digital noise is pretty clean at plus one stop. It should be. But when we go to plus two stops, now the color shifts. Look at the Canon, how the colors shift. She just went really, she’s very jaundiced right now. She’s having a bad day in that case with a Canon color. The Fuji is still pretty warm, a little pinkish. But it’s starting to go a little bit to that kind of yellowish side. It’s transitioning and the background is blown out. You can’t see the car. It’s kind of a mess back there. But when we go to plus three stops, she’s looking really bad. It starts to posterize. You don’t see the car in the background on either of these cameras. I mean, it’s just really, yeah, plus three stops, you can’t overexpose digital images. I’m telling you right now, don’t do it. You can under expose it, you cannot over expose it four stops, you get a lot of digital noise. The dynamic range between these two cameras is very obvious to me, the Fujifilm does not keep up with the Canon. I think the Canon is much better when it comes to dynamic range. It holds as we over and underexpose. It’s just showing us a better image right from the beginning. So when it comes to dynamic range, Canon definitely wins.

Alright, let’s wrap this up. Who are these two cameras for? This is a little confusing because the Fujifilm is a couple of $100 more than the R7. So that R7 really is, from an economic standpoint, is a great buy. There’s not a lot of lenses for the R7. The APS-C sensor lenses for the R7 series that are our RF lenses, they just don’t have that many out there. It’d be great if there’s wider lenses. You’re not getting that crop factor on that. It would make a big difference. That would make this more compelling. I think the Fujifilm X-T5 really has the lens selection that you need. They’ve been in this space for a long time. Usually great lenses. But I think the downside for this camera is it’s a little more expensive. But you want to really want to be into this kind of SLR type of body. And I think that can be an advantage or a disadvantage advantage depending on you and how you like to shoot. I love the body. I love the picture on the X-T5. I think the picture is beautiful. I don’t think the Canon compares when it comes to the picture. I don’t think it’s quite as nice. But again, not as many lenses or more lenses. Picture quality’s not as amazing, amazing picture quality. Better autofocus, but not quite as good autofocus. These two cameras are great solutions in that APS-C sensor category. You’re going to have to decide which one works best for you. I think they’re both amazing cameras, and they kind of went back and forth for me. Leave a comment below. Let us know what you think. Look at these lessons here to compare other cameras to help you know exactly what’s going on out there. So you keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’!