Fuji X-E1 - Camera - A preview. Smitten rather

[nymphetamine]

Here is my quick preview on my new aquisition. A beautiful Silver fuji X-E1. My current cameras include both the fuji and canon 1d mark III. I have a bunch of canon lenses.

Disclaimer - I have no affiliation towards a specific brand. I adore every camera from Nikon, olympus to old minolta film and digital.

I wanted to get a 6D and the cost of 6D was what i could afford. Suddenly decided to add a new system and went with Fuji X-E1. The cost was less than 6D body only and it came with the kit lens.

Here is my short preview:-

Body:- Having held 1d Mark III for years Fuji X-E1 was such a pleasure to use. Its probably the same weight with the kit lens as my 85mm . I loved the silver the moment i opened it out of the box.

I am not going to detail on the controls and how they are. Instead concentrate on few controls which takes some time to learn but are good.

Three buttons you will use majorly - Fn, Q and AF button. Q is basically the joystick access to the core functions and settings. Along with the rear wheel this button lets you chose host of functions while you compose your image.

AF array:- The AF array is pretty darn impressive. Composing an image got just easy like the picture below. I had no issue holding the camera down my knees while chosing one of the top left corner AF points. The AF speed is not exactly 1d comparable. But AF lock is just stunning. once locked the pictures are nothing short of astonishment.

EVF:- For me coming from a 1d all these years, the EVF is like a child looking at a box of his favorite chocolate. Gives you goose bumps and when shooting a dark room the EVF almost generates a brighter scene for you to quickly review. WIll write about this more in detail.


Lens:- The Kit lens will throw all kit lenses ever produced for different cameras to shame. This lens is not your 18-55 lens that canon gives with its camera. This lens is of highest quality both build and optics. The bokeh is more than enough and i may actually skip the need for a 35mm f1.4.

The lens OS is one of the best. The lens has aperture completely mechanical and a button to switch of the IS(Why would you).

The lens is quite sharp from the initial pictures i have and is definitely looking good.

The JPEG's are just straight out of the camera very good. The dynamic range does look good and hardly needs effort to edit them. This means understand the dynamic range curve for different settings is all that is needed to set this camera to shoot different types of picture.

The custom functions which again can be tailored with different settings including ISO, Highlight tuning, shadow, sharpness, color, film style etc etc etc etc... Again i repeat it will take time to tune the right curve per your liking but once that is done the pictures straigt out of the camera can make you feel good all day.

I got the canon adapter as well. Yet to use some of the L lenses and take pictures. Will slowly start posting them.

Here are the first cut samples, straight from the camera. Love it Fuji.


Pattani by Heavenhated, on Flickr


B&W by Heavenhated, on Flickr




Pattani by Heavenhated, on Flickr


Soft filter with -1 sharpness by Heavenhated, on


Dad by Heavenhated, on Flickr

[nymphetamine]

Here are few more pics at ISO3200. Still understanding the camera. Love the B&W directly from the camera. All these pictures are unedited.


Pattani by Heavenhated, on Flickr


Pattani by Heavenhated, on Flickr

lookin good!