First day out with Fuji X-E1

Stream Lily | Fuji XE1 with XF18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS lens

Yesterday I've done 17 km Coomera track at the Lamington national park located on the border between Queensland and New South Wales. The park is located on the McPherson Range at 800-1000 meters above sea level, so it is cooler there than in Brisbane. I arrived late, started the walk around noon and returned to Binna Burra after the sunset. It was pitch dark at the last couple kilometers, and the forest was packed with fireflies.

The whole "hiking photo kit" with Fuji X-E1 and XF18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS was very light and compact compared to my traditional DSLR gear. I also took Manfrotto 785B tripod instead of Triopo GT-3228 X8C. The only inconvenience was the battery compartment door blocked by the tripod plate.

It was not a "photographic" day by any means. It was sunny and the contrast between bright and shady spots was just enormous. Anyway, I managed to squeeze couple  hundred shots from Fuji X-E1 on the original battery, and a little bit more from the spare one. All pictures were taken in "Aperture priority" mode as JPEGs, with Auto WB, in STD (Provia) or V (Velvia) modes, with noise reduction at -2. 

Impression. The autofocus was fast enough for me in most situations. Obviously, it is not as fast as DSLRs, and it depends on subject and background. Couple days ago I struggled with the autofocus on Olympus E-30 trying to get photos of some exotic fruits hanging on tree. It is possible to improve the autofocus on X-E1 by reducing the focusing area. 

I wish it would be possible to set up the command dial to control the aperture in "Aperture" mode. I use the command dial to change the aperture since switching to digital cameras in year 2000. By default the command dial is disabled during shooting in Aperture priority mode. It would be really cool to have ability to change the aperture both with the dedicated aperture ring on the lens and the command dial. I may get used to "on lens only" aperture control in the future but I found myself constantly rotating the command dial - and guess what - nothing happens! :( I need more training with the camera :)

The XF18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS is not a macro lens, even with the Macro mode enabled. I have better close-up images with ZUIKO 14-54mm F2.8-3.5. The stabilization works magic. Most hand-held pictures were taken using rear screen, and in some shutter speed is very low.

I have tried EVF in very bright sun where the preview on the rear screen was essentially invisible. It was very comfortable view. After one year with Fuji X10 I found the viewfinder essentially useless but the EVF on X-E1 does help a lot on sunny day.

For hand-held shots the camera was set up on Auto iso (1600 or 3200), and most images were taken at the top of the iso range: it was not much light under canopy even at the bright day. I am very impressed with the results. OK, I came from 4/3 Olympus DSLRs and sensor technology of year 2008, so it is not hard to impress me :) 

The negative exposure compensation was applied to most shots with metering at whole scene because I got used to blown highlight with my previous cameras. After looking at photos from Fuji X-E1 I would say it is not necessary. Maybe I should try both RAW and JPEG, and see what can be done in camera. 

Both pictures posted here were taken later during the day, when the sun went down. Tripod and polarizer was used, so the exposure is in range of a few seconds. It was a joy to use a polarizer on Fuji X-E1. The camera was slightly unbalanced on the tripod but even a digital tripod handled it reasonably well. The hi-res images are available on flickr. On lower photo the levels were adjusted in GIMP.

Rainforest at Coomera track, Lamington national park | Fuji XE1 with XF18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS lens