Fujifilm X70 review – Build and handling
Perhaps a worry is that the lovely finish and feel of the X100T wouldn’t carry over to the smaller and more affordable alternative, but as soon as you pick up the X70 you’re left in no doubt that this isn’t going to be the case.
Available in black or silver finishes, both look very stylish and have some classic rangefinder design cues, with the black model looking a little more understated. Dials are pleasing to the touch and are milled from aluminium for a quality feel, while there’s a large rubberised handgrip and thumb rest at the rear that allows for comfortable one-handed shooting should you wish. All in all, just as we’ve experienced with the X100T (and numerous other X-Series cameras for that matter), the X70 looks and feels the part.
Along the top are shutter and exposure compensation dials that are complemented by a button to access the X70’s drive modes and an Auto mode selector lever. Switch over to this and the X70 goes into Advanced SR Auto, where pretty much all the decision-making is given over to the camera if you just want to point and shoot.
If you thought the arrival of touchscreen functionality would see the reduction of body-mounted controls, think again. As we’ve mentioned already, there are eight customisable function buttons, including the four-way D-pad control – I like to set one of these for focus area selection so you can quickly toggle round the frame to select the desired AF area – whether you do that with the D-pad or simply by tapping the screen is up to you.
The menu is pretty comprehensive with plenty of options to tailor the camera to your needs, while the Q-menu, accessed via the Q button at the rear of the camera, offers quick access to a host of popular shooting settings.
