In 2016, I joined team Fuji after being extremely impressed with the X-T2 body. I had been watching mirrorless technology for a while, but this was the first time a system had everything I wanted in a camera body. While I finally had a satisfying mirrorless experience, with great autofocus, low-light capabilities, and image quality, I quickly realized the system was lacking in the flash department. Not only did Fuji lack a dedicated speedlight, but the low market share has also kept 3rd party companies from building dedicated lighting products for Fuji systems.

After plenty of delays, the flagship Fuji EF-X500 speedlight has finally hit shelves globally. While it fills a monstrous gap in the system, it comes with a steep price of $449.99, which may be a tough pill to swallow for photographers who have become accustomed to affordable feature-rich solutions such as the Godox X series lighting. I have been holding out myself, but thankfully Fuji friend Jeffrey Lewis Bennett let me borrow his 3 EF-X500s to see if they were right for me. Here’s what I found in my testing.

*Note, my accompanying video is quite long and goes over the flash in-depth, so if you are interested in a specific portion you will find links in the video description, as well as the category headers.

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