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Lamington Spiny Crayfish | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, iso 3200 f/5.6 1/60 sec
I've got the Fuji X-E1 zoom kit at the very end of November 2012. It took me some time to get used to the camera layout. For example, the aperture ring is close to camera body while the ring at the edge of the lens is responsible for manual focus. Some external controls are not active in certain mode. I already wrote about "dead" dial in Aperture priority mode some time ago.
It took me about one month to adapt to the new camera. The use interface is working OK for me. I created a couple Custom setting for different iso and dynamic range because it is faster to change iso this way. It is a Fujifilm camera, so it has very good user interface.
I travelled around SE Queensland and northern part of New South Wales during holiday season with Fuji X-E1 and XF18-55mm lens. I used Olympus E-30, too, but with the Fuji I took over 2000 images, probably ten times more than with the Oly. While some pictures were taken as JPEG and RAW, I have not touched RAW yet.
So, the impressions.
Usability. The UI is very good. I like Q menu and aperture control ring. It can be improved, that's for sure. The only thing I hate is a mediocre battery life. The spare battery is "must to have" even for single day shooting. For longer trips I need more, plus option to recharge. I'm looking at solar panels and car chargers.
The viewfinder. I love it. While I do not use it much, it is very handy at sunny weather. Very comfortable to my eyes. It is oversaturated to my taste, but it does the job.
Autofocus. I am very satisfied with it. It is not a speed demon but I found it very accurate and reliable in most situations (check the kangaroo picture). My blog has several posts on Fuji X-E1 autofocus.
Video. It sucks. The autofocus hunts all the time on any moving subject. Link to video clip on flickr. I do not have much experience with video, maybe it is just me.
Image quality. It is my best camera regarding to image quality. There might be some color bleeding in certain images but in my "real life" it is not an issue. It is my first camera with usable high iso. Images taken at iso 1600-3200 on Fuji X-E1 are amazingly good compared to my older cameras. This is the positive side of non-frequent upgrades: you do see the difference :)
Image stabilization. It does work. The crayfish photo was taken at arm length, with the camera near the ground, and it turned to be very sharp. On static objects I can go with really low shutter speed which can be useful in dim light.
For me Fuji X-E1 is "a serious camera". It takes very good photos but it is less fun to use than Fuji X10. I don't have Fuji X10 with me right now, and I miss it a lot. I guess for me it is all about the winning combination of relatively small size, manual zoom, supermacro option and acceptable image quality. With current price Fuji X10 represents a viable alternative to a macro lens on Fuji X-E1 :)
Eastern grey kangaroo | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, iso 800, f/7.1, 1/600 sec
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