XH2 for Macro

[Heccie Thump]

I currently own a XT4 and love shooting macro, using both the Laowa 65mm and the Fuji 80mm lenses, while dabbling in most other types of photography but mainly landscape/seascape.  I never shoot video.  I am considering upgrading to one of the newer bodies and my attention has fallen on the XH2 as the prime candidate for the 40M sensor but haven't really seen a lot of information on how good the camera is for macro.  Most of the videos on YT seem to focus on comparing the three new cameras as a general overview and seem to spend a lot of time on their relative video capabilities, which is fine as they are marketed as hybrid cameras.

Does anyone have any opinions on how well the XH2 holds up in the macro arena?  I know the XF80mm is on the approved 40Mp lens list so not worried about that.

Oh, and the other consideration that is important when settling on the XH2 is the ergonomics - I am a fairly 'robust' person with hands like shovels and the form factor of the new bodies with the deeper grip is what made me discard the XT5.  I use the XT4 at the moment as I have fitted a SmallRig hand grip to it which makes holding it and carrying it a lot easier.

[Swanny]

I am very new to the XH2 but bought it mainly for macro, woth the 80mm.

I haven't got a flash yet but in sunny weather I habe been able to take some pretty great macro shots of flowers and insects. (Nothing pro-level, just happy the eyes are in focus and background looks o.k.)

 

There are howeverr a few points that strike out:The lack of traditional eyelets for a belt , means you can put the camera flat on a table on any side , maybe use the lens cap to prop it up and get 20, 40, etc second exposures on basically anything that you can get in its field of view.

I own a tripod and macro rail,  but just putting the camera down on a table and get insanely detailed images of  wear and marks on your keys is  pretty cool. (And make for a pretty cool lock screen wallpaper)

I tried this with apples, pocket knives, candles etc. and have found a lot of joy in seeing so much detail in mundane objest without any specialized gear.

The other thing is that the 40 megapixels allows for insane cropping: you can crop a portrait oriented picture from a landscape photo en still end up with a 20-ish megapixel result.

 

The grip on the XH2 is also much nicer with the 80mm macro than the XT5.

 

The picture below is a tiny wasp like creature, perhaps 0.5 cm long, and this is a SOOC JPEG, with at most 5% saturation and maybe a bit of contrast added. (The litt.e bugger looked blue when I spotted it, but on camera   this is what it actually looked like, this is a 20 is mp crop, the flower it sits on is about 1cm wide.)

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Edited July 25, 2023 by Swanny