Fujifilm X-T50 vs X100VI: full comparison

Start with what is identical, because it is most of the camera. Both run the 40.2 MP X-Trans V sensor with the X-Processor 5, ISO 125 to 12800, 425 AF points with AI subject detection, and 6K/30 with F-Log2. Put the same 23mm view on both and nobody can tell which body took the picture. Stabilisation is close too: 7 stops on the X-T50, 6 on the X100VI. So if a review tells you one of these makes better photos, it is describing a lens, not a sensor.

This is the question that settles it. The X100VI has a fixed 23mm f/2, a 35mm view in full-frame terms, and that is the camera forever. The X-T50 takes the whole X mount, so it can be a 16mm landscape body one weekend and a 56mm portrait body the next.

I owned the X100VI. I loved it for a while, and then I sold it, and the fixed lens is the main reason. Some days I wanted 18mm, some days the soft look of the 56mm, and on the X100VI I could only stand there and crop in my head. If you already know 35mm is how you see, the fixed lens stops being a wall and becomes the reason the camera gets carried. If you are not sure yet, it will be a wall.

The hybrid finder flips between a real optical view with a projected frame line and a full 3.69M-dot electronic view. In optical mode you watch a person walk into the frame before they are in the picture, and nothing else Fuji sells does that. The X-T50 has a plain 2.36M-dot EVF. Accurate, useful, and unremarkable.

The X100VI also has a leaf shutter that is nearly silent and syncs flash at 1/2000s, and a built-in 4-stop ND filter, so you can shoot f/2 in bright sun or slow the shutter for video without screwing anything onto the front. Honest confession: I liked the clicky mechanical shutter of my X-E5 more than the silent one. That click tells me the photo is taken. Most people will disagree with me, and that is fine.

The film simulation dial sits on the top plate, so switching from Classic Chrome to ACROS is a twist, not a trip into the menu. The X100VI has the same simulations but you scroll to them in software. The X-T50 also writes to an SD UHS-II slot against the X100VI's slower UHS-I, which matters for long 6K takes and big bursts.

The X100VI fights back on speed and stamina. It bursts at 11 fps to the X-T50's 8, and CIPA rates it at 450 shots against 305. With the X-T50, a spare battery is not optional.

On paper the X-T50 is lighter, 438g against 521g. But the X-T50 number is a body with no lens. Put the XF 27mm f/2.8 pancake on it, 84g, and you are at 522g, the same as the X100VI with its lens built in. So neither camera is the small one. They are the same size of bag.

Price works the same way. The X-T50 launched at $1,399 for the body and the X100VI at $1,599 with its lens. That $200 gap buys very little Fuji glass, so by the time the X-T50 can take a picture, the price argument for it is mostly gone. The X-T50's money argument is the lenses you already own, or the ones you plan to buy.

Buy the X100VI if this is your only camera, you shoot street, travel and family at one focal length, and the optical finder makes you want to go out and take pictures. It is a finished object, and that is a real thing to pay for.

Buy the X-T50 if you shoot a range of subjects, already own X-mount glass, or want the dial-driven X-T handling with the film simulation dial on top.

And there is a third answer, which is the one I took. The X-E5 is the X-T50's sensor and IBIS in a flat rangefinder body. With the 23mm f/2.8 pancake on it, it is about as compact as an X100VI and still takes every lens. Bottom line: if what you love about the X100VI is the shape and not the finder, look at the X-E5 before you decide.