Fujifilm XH3s: 5 Things It Must Fix

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This camera has made me real money. Luxury real estate shoots, commercial productions, client work that pays the bills. The Fujifilm XH2s is my primary shooter and I genuinely love grabbing it. The image quality is there. The color science is there. Some of the most beautiful photos and videos I have ever taken came off this sensor.

And yet — there are days I want to throw it across the room.

I run a video production company and the XH2s goes on every paid production I take. So when I talk about what the Fujifilm XH3s needs to fix, I'm not reading off a spec sheet. These are real frustrations from real shoots. And if Fujifilm doesn't address these five things, I'm having a very different conversation about my next camera body.

1. Fujifilm Needs to Fix the Autofocus

Let's get the obvious one out of the way first.

The XH2s autofocus is not as bad as people make it sound. If you ever shot on an A7S II, you know what genuinely bad autofocus looks like. This is better than that. But in 2026, Sony, Canon, and Nikon have made autofocus a complete non-issue. It's not even part of the buying conversation anymore with those systems.

That's not the case with Fujifilm — and for a hybrid camera sitting at roughly $3,000, that's a problem.

What the XH3s needs: improved phase detection, better subject recognition, and reliable face and eye tracking under mixed lighting. Not marginal improvements. Meaningful ones. The kind that make you stop thinking about focus on set and start thinking about the shot.

2. Bring Back the Physical Dials

This one is about identity as much as it is about function.

The tactile experience of shooting Fujifilm is a core reason people choose this system. The dials, the physicality, the feeling of actually operating a camera rather than navigating a touchscreen menu. That identity is real and it matters to the people buying these bodies.

So it makes no sense that they pulled the dedicated manual focus to autofocus switch that exists on virtually every other Fujifilm camera. On the XH2s, that switch was replaced with a programmable button. And yes, more programmability sounds like an upgrade — but every single person I know who shoots this camera has mapped that button right back to focus switching anyway.

The problem is the experience. Instead of a simple physical flick, you now press the button, look at your screen, scroll through options, and confirm. That's three extra steps on a camera built around fast, intuitive handling.

While we're on this topic — the D-pad on the XH2s is solid, but it doesn't rotate as a jog wheel the way virtually every other camera does. Give me the ability to map that to ISO. Let me have shutter speed, aperture, and ISO all accessible without diving into a menu. That's not a luxury feature. That's basic hybrid ergonomics.

3. A Dedicated Photo and Video Switch with Mode-Specific Custom Settings

Fujifilm markets the XH2s as a hybrid camera. But the workflow between photo and video tells a different story.

Right now, switching between photo and video means scrolling through custom modes from C1 to C7. There is no dedicated physical switch. And the custom settings don't reflect which mode you're in — meaning your carefully dialed-in photo settings and your video settings are all living in the same pool of custom slots.

What I actually want: a dedicated photo/video toggle, and custom dials that reflect whichever mode I'm in. That means my film recipes are mapped and ready in photo mode, and the moment I flip to video I can cycle through 4K 60, 4K 120, open gate — all from the custom dials, without touching a single menu.

That's what a hybrid camera should feel like. Right now it doesn't.

4. Better Open Gate Frame Rates

One of the XH2s's biggest selling points at launch was what it could do with its stacked sensor — open gate 6K at 30fps, 4K at 120fps, dynamic range numbers that made staying with APS-C feel like a smart professional decision rather than a compromise.

The argument was compelling: why go full frame when Super 35 can push specs that full frame cameras couldn't touch?

That argument has an expiration date. Full frame cameras have caught up. In some areas they've surpassed the XH2s. The spec advantage that justified the crop factor is narrowing fast.

The XH3s needs to respond. I'm not asking for high resolution open gate for its own sake — but if full frame cameras are hitting 6K at 60fps, an APS-C sensor with a stacked architecture should be capable of 6K at 120fps. That's the kind of leap that would justify staying in the Fujifilm ecosystem for another generation.

5. Film Recipes for Video Monitoring, True Log Capture, and Custom LUT Import

This is the most nuanced point on this list and the one I feel most strongly about.

Fujifilm's film simulations are genuinely exceptional. Eterna, Classic Negative, Nostalgic Neg — these profiles are a significant part of why people choose this system over Sony or Canon. The color science is real.

But right now, if you want to shoot video using a film simulation, you're baking that look directly into your footage. You're trading dynamic range for aesthetics. For client work where you need flexibility in post, that's a trade most professionals can't afford to make.

What I actually want: the ability to shoot F-Log2C for full dynamic range capture, while simultaneously monitoring with a film recipe applied as a live preview LUT on screen. My client sees beautiful Fujifilm color on the monitor during the shoot. My card has clean log footage with full latitude in post.

And while we're there — custom LUT import. Let me bring my own LUTs into the camera as monitoring LUTs. Sony already does this. It's a professional-level feature that belongs on a $3,000 hybrid body.

Here's the ask that would genuinely put Fujifilm's color workflow in a class of its own: dual recording with the look baked in. ProRes or RAW log to the CFexpress card. H.265 proxy with the recipe or LUT baked in to the SD card. Both files, simultaneously.

That means I can deliver a color-accurate proxy to my client the same day for an initial review, while I work through the online edit and proper color grade on the log footage in the background. The revision process starts earlier, the client experience is better, and I'm not choosing between dynamic range and color science.

That combination — recipe monitoring, true log capture underneath, custom LUT import, and dual recording — would make the XH3s the most complete color workflow camera in its class.

Would I Upgrade?

If Fujifilm delivers on even half of this list, more than likely. If they deliver on all of it, I would probably pre-order the day it's announced.

Because underneath every frustration in this post, the XH2s is a camera I genuinely love. The image quality is there. The color science is there. The ergonomics — when they work — are unlike anything else at this price point. These aren't the complaints of someone ready to abandon ship. They're the complaints of someone who wants Fujifilm to fully become the camera it already almost is.

If you shoot the Fujifilm XH2s or you're considering making the jump to the X system, I'd love to know which of these hits closest to home. Drop it in the comments below.

And if Fujifilm is reading this — you know what to do.

If you want to see my full breakdown, the full video is available HERE