Don't buy the Fujifilm X-T10 if you will only leave it in automatic mode

Don't buy the Fujifilm X-T10 if you will only leave it in automatic mode. You'd be wasting your money and missing the camera's entire appeal.

The X-T10 is for people who understand (or want to learn) the intricacies of manually adjusting camera settings. At $800 for the body and $1,100 with an 18-55mm kit lens (what I tested), it's built for professionals who abhor touchscreens and love physical buttons and dials.

The camera also takes beautiful photos just like its more expensive big brother, the $1,200 X-T1.

See also: Can Fujifilm Bring Instant Film Cameras Into the Selfie Era?

Usually, when a company tries to sell you a cheaper version of its flagship product, corners are cut big time. The X-T10 retains most of the X-T1's key features. It has a 16-megapixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS II image processor, shoots 8 frames per second (fps) in burst mode and records video in various frame rates including 1080p full HD (60 fps).

If you've lusted for the X-T1, but could never justify one because of the price, the X-T10 looks to be the perfect little shooter without much compromise.

Old-timey design

The X-T10 can easily be mistaken for an old film camera. While walking around New York City, I had a few people ask me why I was shooting film. When I told them it was a digital camera, they were intrigued.

I'm all for minimalist designs, but the X-T10 has character that other mirrorless cameras don't.

The myriad controls (more on that below) are inviting, begging you to press each button, turn each dial and flip each lever. And, oh how satisfying they are to touch.

The camera body is made of plastic and not metal like on the X-T1, but it doesn't feel inferior at all. In fact, the only time it's obvious there's plastic is when you have the built-in pop-up flash flipped up.

At 13.4 ounces, the body is sturdy and has a good heft to it. The camera is wrapped in rubber and the grips (front and back) are roomy.

The only cues that this camera is digital are on the backside. The 3-inch 920K-dot display is sharp beyond all expectations and the screen pops out and tilts — 45 degrees down and 90 degrees up, which is always a plus. The lack of a touchscreen might upset some people, but let me remind you again: If you want something straightforward, use your phone or buy a different camera.

The viewfinder is also an electronic one and not an optical one; when you bring the camera up to your eye, you see a tiny screen. Electronic viewfinders (EVFs) used to be low-res and laggy just a few years ago. The one on the X-T10 is easily one of the best; it's high-res and very bright — exactly how an EVF should be.

The X-T10 has built-in Wi-Fi and connects to iOS and Android devices. The Fujifilm remote app is outstandingly good. You can use it to adjust all of your camera settings and remotely snap photos and start a video recording. I didn't experience any sudden wireless dropouts between my iPhone 6 and the camera like I usually do with other cameras.

The camera's battery life is also as good as the X-T1: Up to 350 shots per charge.
Control heaven

If smartphones and simple point-and-shoots have you jaded about the future of cameras, the X-T10 is reassurance that physical buttons are here to stay for a very long time.

The camera's body is covered with buttons, dials and levers.It's a photographer nerd's dream.

On the left side of the camera is your drive (mode) dial. Fujifilm doesn't follow other camera companies with the traditional PSAM (Program, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Manual) labeling, but that's fine. The system takes some getting used to if you're not familiar with it. As a shrunken down version of the X-T1, there wasn't enough space to fit in its ISO dial, which is a bummer, but not a huge deal.

On the right side is a shutter-speed and exposure compensation dial. And right in front and back of these two dials are two more command dials that can be customized.

I have two small complaints about the X-T10's buttons and dials. The two command dials are a little too loose and activate unintentionally too often, and the video recording button is too flush with the top of the camera, which makes it difficult to press unless you have nails. I, unfortunately, had bitten all my nails off at the time of testing.

Still, the X-T10 is as tactile as a camera of this size gets; there aren't many cameras this small that give you so much control. Olympus's OM-D series like the E-M10 gives you lots of controls, too, but I prefer the X-T10 more.
DSLR-caliber photos

Merely holding the X-T10 made me feel powerful. I wanted to take pictures of everything. I'm telling you, the camera's design gives you this confidence other cameras don't, especially when you're walking the streets of New York or underground in the subway. People don't try to hide from the X-T10 the way they do smartphones and DSLRs. Quite the contrary, they're drawn to it.

With that said, the X-T10 makes for a great camera for street photography.

The camera takes pictures with stunning clarity; the combination APS-C sensor and 16-megapixel resolution can take on any entry-level DSLR. Photos have nice punchy life-like colors and very little image noise at up to ISO 6400. Even ISO 12,800 is usable. The camera's capable of ISO 51,000, but the image noise on the photos makes them hardly useable. I found some images a little on the soft side, but nothing a little sharpening in Photoshop couldn't fix.

Source: http://mashable.com/2015/07/08/fujifilm-x-t10-review/