Fuji X-E1/X-E2/X-E2S/X-E3 Owners Thread

drb5 said:
Sod's law!

After selling the 18-55, I've been asked to photograph my sister in laws wedding! :rolleyes:
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Ah- you'll be fine.

Shot Boxing Day's wedding with 35 on one camera and 18 on the other.

It was D-A-R-K......
 
Never shot a wedding before, or anything like it, but thankfully they aren't expecting the best.

Didn't you miss a longer FL? Surely with the price of the 18, I'm as well just getting another 18-55 to cover the range?

Did you use flash at all?
 
drb5 said:
Never shot a wedding before, or anything like it, but thankfully they aren't expecting the best.

Didn't you miss a longer FL? Surely with the price of the 18, I'm as well just getting another 18-55 to cover the range?

Did you use flash at all?
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I had the 18-55 in the bag but it was so dark I really didn't feel like using it. I don't think I closed down past f/2.8 all day.

I did on this occasion also have a Nikon with me with 24-70 and occasional flash. But I'd say 75% of the shots were on the Fujis. I think I've mentioned elsewhere that I shot a christening in an outrageously dark cathedral recently - D3S was running at 10,000 ISO but the little Fuji was producing nicer shots due to dynamic range and almost silent shutter.

I'll be posting Boxing Day's wedding later today but in the meantime if you didn't see it yet...

http://words.peoplebyryan.com/wedding-fuji-x-e1-x-pro-1/
 
Thanks Jonathan.

Read it again last night actually and will keep an eye out for the Boxing Day wedding.

Think I'll need to get a lot more practice with the AF, as I'm still struggling with it in lowish light.
 
Took the plunge over the holiday, popped into Digital Depot, and popped out with the XE-1 and kit lens. I have a Canon 5dmkii and a 7d (normally attached to a telephoto for wildlife shots) both great cameras, but big lumps, and somehow I always seem obliged to take a heap of kit when I am out,
I had been looking at the Fuji X100 but was put off by the fixed lens, I thought it would be too limiting for me, or perhaps I would not have the skill to use it well, watching the xpro-1 drop in price when along comes the XE-1.
With the kit lens it's a great deal, lots of reviews out there, yes it is slow with AF in poor light, but in other conditions no issues, what I really love about this camera is the simplicity of the controls, takes me back to my first serious camera, the Pentax me super.
Shutter speed control, on the top body, along with exposure compensation, aperture control on the lens, fn for ISO, so simple, back to being creative without cascading through menu's.
Brings a smile to to your face!
It is not a dslr replacement, it is not for fast action, AF is slow in poor light, but for considered shots it takes lovely pics, with you in control. So nice to use. I can see the DSLR's being used for specific purposes and the fuji being the pick up and go camera.
If you are considering one, do go and have a look

Regards Neil
 
Granarystudio said:
It is not a dslr replacement, it is not for fast action, AF is slow in poor light, but for considered shots it takes lovely pics.
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Yes, it's good for more static slower paced stuff, but I'm hoping a firmware upgrade will improve things a bit, a lack of mainstream RAW support is still a bit of a joke - but I'm pretty sure Adobe will sort that out at some point.

My XE1 enjoyed itself yesterday at Brooklands Motor Museum: http://lindsaydobsonphotography.com/blog/brooklands-motor-museum-new-years-day-2013/
 
Hiya,

I think you'll be fine too.

I shot a wedding in June with a Fuji X100 and X10 and was happy with the results overall:

Wedding

All the best,
Shane
 
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Hi all,

I'm considering purchasing an E-X1 to replace my hardly used Panasonic G3. I bought the G3 about 18 months ago thinking it would be ideal as a lightweight, high quality camera to use when I didn't want to lug around my Canon 50D, for instance when on holiday. However, I preferred the results and bokeh from the 50D and ended up using either the 50D or a compact X10 on other occasions.

I enjoy landscape in particular and hope to spend more time this year on portraiture. One thing I do not like about the 50D is the high ISO noise and think the Fuji will really help here. I also think for a holiday and day trip camera the fuji will be a better for than the 50D. So I was thinking of keeping the 50D for motorsport, kids at play running etc and hoping the Fuji XE1 could be used for general day to day, portraits and maybe landscape which is my preferred category. I know currently that an UWA doesn't exist so will stick with the 50D for wide stuff, but my understanding is the 18-55 fuji is quite good at the 18mm end perhaps even better than the prime? So I could use the zoom as a general purpose landscape lens as well.

Has anyone compared output from a 50D / 7D against the XE1? I'd love to know how it performs against say a 17-55 Canon or 10-22 at the 18mm end.

Normally I shoot RAW and believe that currently even lightroom is not able to make a good job of conversion vs the OOC JPEG, is this still the case?

This is my main worry as I always shoot landscapes in RAW as to me JPEG always looks to "artefacty". I prefer to add my own level of sharpness and do like to PP to my taste.

Would the JPEG give me enough PP room for landscapes or is Lightroom improving for RAW?

I also notice a couple of other niggles like only -1+1 ev for bracketing which is a pain for HDR and the flash compensation seems to only allow 2/3 of a stop adjustment. How do people find these?

Overall it just seems to me that the XE1 is the camera I thought the G3 would be in that I would get similar quality as my 50D at a more easy to handle size for making sure its with me more. Just the G3, although good, didn't seem to be able to match the quality of the prints from the 50D when I started making A3+ prints. Focus isn't a huge issue for me as I tend to have time to compose and will keep the 50D for anything high speed anyway.

Last thought! The lenses are quite expensive and seem to rely on the camera for focus, so if Fuji change anything with the focus system, which doesn't seem the best, will we be left with expensive paper weights? What I like about canon, nikon is that even old lenses still work fine, I'd hate to spend a small fortune in the the next few years to be left with an obsolete set of lenses... m I wrong to worry about this for a new mount?

Thoughts anyone?

Many thanks for reading!
Steve
 
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stevebuk said:
Just the G3, although good, didn't seem to be able to match the quality of the prints from the 50D when I started making A3+ prints.
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I'm a little surprised by this as I find that at low to middling ISO's my G1 with a decent lens attached and when shots are processed to get the best out of them can match my 5D most of the time with it being very difficult to identify G1 shots amongst 5D shots even when looking closely. It's really only at the highest ISO's that larger chipped DSLR's pull ahead IMVHO.

Granted I've only done a few A3 comparisons, paper and ink prices being what they are, but if my G1 can compete with my 5D I'd have hoped that a G3 would get even closer to a 50D so I'm sorry that you're not getting the results you hoped for.
 
Thanks for the update. It's not that the G3 is poor, just doesn't seem to quite get the the 50D level.
 
stevebuk said:
Normally I shoot RAW and believe that currently even lightroom is not able to make a good job of conversion vs the OOC JPEG, is this still the case?
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I think the raw decode issues are overstated. There are some problems with decoding the Fuji sensor and if you go looking for it in foliage then you can spot nasty stuff. But I process everything in LR and am very happy (though it's a bit sluggish on Fuji raws).

I think many of the people talking of issues are just repeating what they read somewhere. Also, the jpegs are beautiful ;)

If it helps, I'm hearing promising rumours about the next version of Capture 1 for Fuji raws.

stevebuk said:
Last thought! The lenses are quite expensive and seem to rely on the camera for focus, so if Fuji change anything with the focus system, which doesn't seem the best, will we be left with expensive paper weights? What I like about canon, nikon is that even old lenses still work fine, I'd hate to spend a small fortune in the the next few years to be left with an obsolete set of lenses... m I wrong to worry about this for a new mount?
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I think that's very unlikely. Fuji will IMO continue to improve focus in firmware and they have shown a commitment to applying updates across the range. I think it's terribly unlikely they will make incompatible hardware in the medium future. But I guess it's possible.

If you think about it, it's not really true that old Nikon lenses fit new Nikon cameras. Sure a 30 year old screw driven lens will focus great on a D4. And it will fit (say) a D5100. But you won't get autofocus with a D5100. And that's without talking about the Nikon "1" system or the IX mount they did for a while. There have also been couple of different variations on the Canon mount.
 
Thank you for the update.

Has anyone compared image quality to that of an SLR such as the 50D or against m43 such as the OMD?

Regards,
Steve
 
Surprised so many people ask this question. I thought it was common knowledge that the X-pro1 and X-E1 have the best APS-C sensor out there at the moment.
I had a play with a X-E1 and found it irresistible, I have to say that the files blown up on a 27 inch mac look absolutely gorgeous, the 18-55 zoom is way sharper than anything I have experienced before (both Canon & Nikon with quality glass). I'm guessing that is down to the lack of AA filter with good glass though?

I think it's safe to say it will have better IQ than most/ all crop DSLR's and certainly the m4/3rds O-MD.

I was initially hoping to downgrade to just using a fixed lens compact after offloading my Nikon gear, but having played with the X-E1 i have to admit I am very tempted!
 
stevebuk said:
Thank you for the update.

Has anyone compared image quality to that of an SLR such as the 50D or against m43 such as the OMD?

Regards,
Steve
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I currently use either Fuji X-E1 or X-Pro 1 along side my Nikon D3S. Nobody has yet complained about the quality of the smaller cameras ;)
 
Thanks guys. I think I will go ahead and grab one! Does anyone have any idea as to when we can expect to see the UWA and the telephoto?

Thanks
Steve
 
14mm is allegedly a couple of weeks away.

Telephoto is supposed to be first quarter but I've heard nothing about it so assume it's delayed. X lenses appear to get released a little later than they should.
 
I've just bought a X-E1 with zoom and am so far loving it. I traded a Nex 7 in as that felt like a computer with mediocre lens attached (IQ was decent but nothing like I'd hoped for from 24mp and primes).

I like the old style interface (reminds me of my M8 which I enjoyed more than anything else) and the lens lineup and roadmap looks perfect. I don't feel that the lenses are pricey, when you hold one the quality is obvious, waiting for some decent weather to get out and shoot!
 
Once you factor body + separate lens price its better to just get a new kit elsewhere imo.
 
So many have/had the X100 also, whats the focus speed of the XE1 and 35mm like compared to X100?
 
Lindsay D said:
Unfortunately it wasn't suited to my work Jonathan.
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Yep. That right there is professional photography ;) Sucks sometimes but if kit isn't paying its way then it has to go.

You'll be back - the XE-5 will be awesome.
 
Hi all,

My black XE-1 has arrived :) Is it just me or is the pinch cap on the 18-55 rubbish? Seems very flimsy and was loose on the lens in the box. Anyone tried an alternative? My canon caps are solo much better!
 
I have no plans to purchase any more Fuji cameras, in fact I still own two other X cameras which I use for my personal work. The XE1 was very much an experiment to see whether this particular system could be incorporated into my professional work and unfortunately it could not. I am not a fan of X Trans either I'm afraid and I much prefer the output from my current X-100 to that from the XE1. We all have different needs and requirements of our kit and for me there has to be economic justification in any new purchase which is destined for my pro-kitbag - as Jonathan said there is no point having something which does not pay its way. :)
 
Hi all,

A few XE-1 questions if I may.

1) I've seen some quite nice panning shots of slow moving people and bike etc from the XE-1. Now to do this on my 50D I'd normally use servo focus and pan. On the XE-1 would I be better of in single focus and then just panning after focus is fixed rather than using continuous or is it okay for slow(ish) stuff?

2) It seems RAW is not the best at the moment, so I plan on using JPEG, but have read you can shoot RAW and then process in camera. Does this mean I can shoot in RAW and then spit out a variety of JPG's using different settings that would be as the camera "saw" the picture when taken using those settings? I was thinking I could shoot RAW and then potentially change the DR or film type etc and also keep the RAW if I needed it.

3) If I shoot JPEG and want to do some PP, should I turn of noise reduction and sharpening and do this in Aperture rather than having settings baked in?

Thanks
Steve
 
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stevebuk said:
Hi all,

A few XE-1 questions if I may.

1) I've seen some quite nice panning shots of slow moving people and bike etc from the XE-1. Now to do this on my 50D I'd normally use servo focus and pan. On the XE-1 would I be better of in single focus and then just panning after focus is fixed rather than using continuous or is it okay for slow(ish) stuff?

2) It seems RAW is not the best at the moment, so I plan on using JPEG, but have read you can shoot RAW and then process in camera. Does this mean I can shoot in RAW and then spit out a variety of JPG's using different settings that would be as the camera "saw" the picture when taken using those settings? I was thinking I could shoot RAW and then potentially change the DR or film type etc and also keep the RAW if I needed it.

3) If I shoot JPEG and want to do some PP, should I turn of noise reduction and sharpening and do this in Aperture rather than having settings baked in?

Thanks
Steve
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1) Not tried it and so can't comment.

2) Yes. It's more fiddly to process raw files in-camera, but it works just as you described.

3) In-camera noise reduction and sharpening are likely to be done before the image data is compressed into a JPG file whereas you would be processing a JPG which has less image data for you to process and then having to save it again as a JPG. The cost of doing it in Aperture would be a degraded image from the two doses of JPG compression.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Had my first play today. Very easy to use and I like the image quality. However, I am surprised how slow the focus is and how often it hunts and fails to focus is low(ish) light.

Not scientific test in bedroom with three spotlights on showed it was significantly slower than the G3 and 14-42 kit lens combo. The EVF on the Fuji is also very laggy compared to the Panasonic G3. Much prefer the Fuji pics though. Will have to play around and try to improve my hit rate with the focus.

I have the kit 18-55 which I thought was the fastest focussing lens? I'm looking to get the 35mm, is it even slower?

Thanks
Steve
 
Steve, you are correct in your observations, the points you have raised have been echoed by many others and form the reasoning behind my inability to incorporate this camera into my professional toolkit. I can confirm that the 35 is slower to focus. However, there was supposed to be a firmware update coming out today, it didn't materialise and I have no idea what the delay is, but do keep an eye on Fuji's site over the coming weeks. I say this because the update is supposed to include help with the autofocus.

However in March the X100s is due to be released and this is said to have a noticeably improved hybrid autofocus system which should be much faster than what you're seeing on your XE1. If you wish to stick with Fuji then perhaps it might be an option for you to return your camera and wait for the next one? However you could potentially be limited by the fixed lens on the X100S.

I'm sure that in the future we will see further incarnations of the XE1 which are much improved (at which point I will be very interested in returning to them), in its current state it has unfortunately retained the well-documented limitations of its bigger brother the XP1. Things are moving along at quite a pace in the mirrorless world so I'm sure we will not have to wait too long for current issues to be resolved. I am brand agnostic and I must say I am hugely impressed by my OMD and the lenses I have invested in.
 
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