Compatibility Report: Fuji X-T3

by Tino Brandt

In 2018, the Fuji X-T3 was introduced by Fujifilm. YouTube video bloggers quickly found out that this camera is very good for filming and photography.

What could be more natural to use this camera underwater! Up until this point, I have been shooting with Canon cameras (Canon 5D Mark III and 5DSR) and hence like many others, own some high-quality lenses with a Canon EF mount. However, I ordered the Fuji X-T3 and switched to Nauticam as my new underwater housing manufacturer.

There is hardly a camera that Nauticam does not build an underwater housing for. It also turned out that the support for Nauticam is very good through my Dutch partner: Onderwaterhuis.

For wide angle underwater photography, the Canon 16-35 f/4 IS and the Canon 8-15 f/4 Fisheye lenses are well proven as good choices. I discovered that Fringer-Smart-Adapter produces an adapter that allows the use of Fuji X mount with Canon EF mount lenses The adapter can be updated via a USB port and additional lens support is frequently added.

The crucial question is always, how good is the autofocus and image quality of the lenses with such an adapter?

The Fuji X-T3 uses the optimal part of the lens area due to its 1.5 crop. To put it briefly, the image quality is excellent.
With the autofocus, it varies a bit. With the Canon 16-35 f/4, the autofocus is so good that I use this lens for all my film projects. I can’t tell any difference between it and native Fuji lenses.

The Canon 8-15 f4 Fisheye is very interesting with the Fuji, because there is no native fisheye lens available that has “very good” autofocus from Fuji, or any other brand until today!

Other lenses with EF mount like the Canon MP-E 65mm, 100mm Macro IS, 70-200 F4 IS, or the Sigma 150-600 C super-telephoto lens work well to very well on the Fuji X-T3.

I, therefore, see no need to sell these lenses and simply continue to use them successfully.

Underwater, however, it is important to be able to control the zoom of the lenses as well. However, Nauticam does not normally offer zoom gears for Canon lenses on the Fuji camera.

With this problem, I turned again to Onderwaterhuis in the Netherlands. They took measurements and then talked directly to Nauticam in Asia. The response from Nauticam was prompt and they supplied zoom gears for the Canon 16-35 F4 and 8-15 F4 Fisheye for the Fuji underwater housing.

It is clear that these custom zoom gears are more expensive. But it allows me to use the large super fisheye dome with these Canon lenses.

Maybe this article will give an incentive for other photographers and filmmakers to also take their Fuji camera into the fantastic world underwater.

About the Author

Tino Brandt was born in eastern Germany and fled with his parents before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Over 15 years ago, he fulfilled his greatest childhood dream of photographing and filming underwater like Jacques Cousteau.

He completed his training as a diver in the Netherlands. Through this, he was very often diving in the underwater world of the North Sea near Zeeland.

With his pictures, he has successfully participated in national and international competitions.

For many years his pictures are part of the permanent exhibition in the North Sea National Park Center “Multimar-Wattforum” in Tönningen (Germany).

To see more of his work, please visit his website.

FTTC disclosure:

Tino Brandt is not an influencer for all brands mentioned in this article. All of the featured equipment was purchased for his topside and underwater filming and photography projects. Tino has included his personal experience with this equipment in this article and has received no financial benefit for it.