Autofocus and Performance
Not surprisingly, the X-T20 has a lot in common with the AF system on the X-T2. That is to say that it has on-sensor phase detection that covers 50% of the frame horizontally and 75% vertically.
There are three AF modes to choose for both AF-S and AF-C: single-point, zone and wide/tracking. In single-point mode you can select from 91 or 325 points using the four-way controller. Zone AF lets you define a focus area 3x3, 5x5 or 7x7 points in 'size.' Wide/tracking mode essentially takes up the entire frame.
When using continuous AF, the zone mode will try to keep whatever is under that focus area in focus as your subject (or you) move around the frame. Wide/tracking is similar, except for that it'll track a subject across the entire field-of-view. We'll see how those two modes perform in a moment.
The X-T20 offers five different settings that define how it handles subject movement. You can't fine-tune it like on the X-T2, but most of the X-T20's peers don't allow you to tweak this at all.
Here are Fujifilm's descriptions for each of the five AF-C custom settings:
Set 1 Standard Tracking for typical range of moving subjects. Set 2 Choose this with subjects that are hard to keep in the focus area or if other subjects are likely to enter the focus area. Set 3 Choose this for subjects prone to rapid changes in velocity. Set 4 Choose for subjects that appear abruptly or when rapidly switching subjects. Set 5 Choose for hard-to-track subjects prone not only to sudden changes in velocity but also to large movements front-to-back and left-to-right.
Depth Tracking
To see how the X-T20 handles a subject approaching in a straight line, we used the generic 'Set 1' described above. In this instance we used a 3x3 Zone AF area.
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As you can see, the X-T20 does pretty well, keeping the approaching subject in focus for the majority of the shots.
Autofocus Tracking
To see how the X-T20 handled a subject that's moving randomly while approaching the camera we used 'Set 5', designed for 'hard-to-track subjects prone not only to sudden changes in velocity but also to large movements front-to-back and left-to-right.'
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Generally this did pretty well and produced better results than Set 4, which prioritizes would-be subjects closer to the camera but is a little more 'jumpy' and expects slightly more predictable subject movement. The six mis-focused images included here were the only mis-focused ones in a run of 50 images.
Even in Set 5 the camera would occasionally switch from the cyclist and re-focus on the center of the scene. It would tend to find the cyclist again when they re-crossed the center. For most runs it would perform as seen above, with six slightly mis-focused images from a run of 50. The lack of the X-T2's custom option means you can't fine-tune the AF behavior if none of the presets gives you the result you want (there's no preset that gives the settings that gave us the best results with the T2).
The bottom line is that there's too much inconsistency in AF tracking performance to recommend the X-T20 for serious sports or action photography. If do a lot of fast action photography and are set on a Fujifilm camera then it's worth stepping up to the X-T2.
Autofocus tracking at close distances
As the X-T20 has a similar autofocus system to the X-T2, we would expect its tracking performance to be similar, and indeed it is. Let's take a look at how it performs with the 23mm F2 lens and custom autofocus settings at 'Set 5,' since we haven't strictly choreographed our subjects' movements.
As you can see from the video, the X-T20's tracking performance is pretty typical Fujifilm. The autofocus points appear slow to respond, and not very 'sticky' with regards to their original subjects. As with the X100F, though, performance is better than the interface's visualization suggests, with around 70% of the shots ending up in acceptable focus (available above the video).
Although Fujifilm has suggested face detection is improved on the X-T20: now making it available in continuous shooting mode, but we weren't particularly impressed. It struggles particularly under dim lighting (the face-detect box will toggle on-and-off randomly unless the subject is staring right at you). For the fastest and most consistent candid shooting with the X-T20, we recommend Single AF (which is quite fast indeed) and using the touchscreen to quickly move your autofocus point as needed.
Continuous Shooting
The X-T20's burst rates depend on which type of shutter you're using. With the electronic shutter the camera can exceed 14 fps (we measured 15 fps) with continuous autofocus for up to ~22 shots (Uncompressed Raw + JPEG). If you'd prefer the mechanical shutter, the burst rate drops to a very respectable 8 fps (8.5 fps in our test) for up to 23 shots. While it takes a while for the buffer to clear, that doesn't prevent you from entering playback mode or the menus. If you want real-time live view while shooting continuously, you'll need to drop down to 5 fps.
Battery life
The X-T20 can take a respectable 350 shots on a single charge of its 8.7Wh battery. A high performance mode, which improves AF performance and LCD/EVF quality, will drain the battery at a higher rate. As always, the precise number of shots you get will depend on how you shoot, and getting twice this number is not unusual. However, these standardized figures do give a good idea of how much better or worse one camera's battery life will be than another's.
The X-T20's battery can be charged via the included charger or internally using a USB cable.
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