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Author Topic: I now have a Fuji X system  (Read 6899 times)

Paulo Bizarro

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I now have a Fuji X system
« on: September 12, 2013, 03:29:03 am »

Just sharing my experience. For the last two years or so, I have been following the development of the Fuji X system with much interest. Seemed to me like a good compromise between sensor size, camera size, and good lenses for my purposes. I mostly shoot travel, landscapes and documentary photography. For the last 20 years I made my photography with a (D)SLR system, plus a smaller camera (of the serious compact variety) for when travelling light. So the Fuji looked to me like a good "mid way" option, small enough not to need a serious compact anymore; but with god enough image quality and lenses not to need my DSLR anymore.

I have started using the XE-1 plus 18-55 lens, and so far I am happy with the results. I can carry this kit in a small shoulder bag everywhere, when travelling. Next I am also buying another XE-1 and the 14mm lens, for landscapes, startrails, etc. I want to compare the results with what I get from the Canon 6D and Zeiss 25, this will be fun.

Regards

Petrus

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2013, 03:51:40 am »

I have used X-Pro1, X-E1 (now sold) and X100s for over a year now for my travel photography and reportage (Israel, Jordan, Burma, Tibet). I have been able to travel with a 7-8 kg carry-on daypack only, which holds everything, also an innocent looking messenger bag for the cameras when walking around, leaving the backpack in the hotel.

So far about 30 pages of pictures from those trips  have been published and 14-16 pages more coming soon. These cameras have very high image quality, very low annoyance factor* in use and the colors are both true and outstanding/different from other cameras to be favorably noticed. Then on the other hand they are not perfect in the operation speed department, that is why I keep a Nikon D4/D800e kit for most of my professional work.

*) In many situations this is more important than having a perfectly functioning tool like D4. There are a lot of situations where using a Fuji-X series camera is not noticed or regarded harmless, but wielding a big DSLR would be not tolerated. I can trade a few missed shots for more opportunities to take great shots.
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Iluvmycam

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2013, 06:56:56 am »

Yes, Fuji x puts out some nice work. I use it for street as my go to cam. The book I am doing was shot 95% with a Fuji. But I can use it only for zone focus. For fast street shooting the AF is not good. And forget the focus by wire it is terrible. AF with the 14 is better than other Fuji lenses, but still not great.
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Paul2660

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2013, 09:26:36 am »

I have been using the X-E1 now for a little over a month.  All with the 18-55 and just received the 55-200. The AF with the latest firmware seems fine to me.  There times in low light when the camera misses but so domy Nikon and Canon cameras. 

The manual focus got mush much easier with the addition of peaking. 

You can get a very detailed image when focusing as you can zoom in to almost a 100 percent view.  Playback is not the same and it can be a bit tough to judge images as you can't zoom as much. 

My only other real issue is that the image view does not reflect the actual exposure settings as they are adjusted.  Fuji claims you can depress the shutter release 1/2 to get a preview but I don't find that too accurate.  The small exposure meter in the viewfinder is what I use now.   This exposure preview is something that the Sony nex did better but overall the image quality of the Fuji is much better.

Paul Caldwell
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Paul Caldwell
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Alan Smallbone

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2013, 10:43:58 am »

Congrats on being happy with the camera so far. I have had my X-pro since it came out, love using it. It is my day to day carry with me cameras. Lens quality is excellent and with some of the health problems I have had recently carrying the lighter kit makes things a lot easier. Image quality is great, I too still have my dslrs and they still have their uses. So all in all it is all a win-win situation for me.

Alan
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Alan Smallbone
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Chairman Bill

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2013, 10:47:58 am »

I'm seriously temped by the XE1. About the same size as my old Nikon FM & FE, with a simple adaptor I can even use my old lenses.

Ken Bennett

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2013, 10:50:04 am »



You can get a very detailed image when focusing as you can zoom in to almost a 100 percent view.  Playback is not the same and it can be a bit tough to judge images as you can't zoom as much. 


Paul,

Are you shooting raw files only? I found that if I shoot raw+jpeg, I can zoom in much farther on playback to check for sharpness. This, combined with the one-click press of the thumb wheel, means I can very quickly check the center (or the focus point) of the image.

I've been shooting with a pair of XE1 bodies and the 14, 35, 18-55, and 55-200 for a couple of months now. They won't replace my Canon system for everything, but they are a significant upgrade over my older m4/3 system for travel and personal work. I've been using them for work assignments too and getting very good results.

Cheers,

Ken
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Paul2660

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2013, 11:18:18 am »

Ken,

Thanks for the tip on playback, I will try this tomorrow. 

Paul Caldwell
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Paul Caldwell
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armand

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2013, 09:15:15 am »

I just did a quick comparison between an X-E1 and a D90 and to my surprise it wasn't a slam dunk for the Fuji. The initially rendered colors with LR4 were more to my liking with more vibrant reds/magenta. LR does have an issue with magenta/reds rendering for Fuji though.
Manual focus, particularly on a tripod, is as easy as it gets, if you keep a larger box it's easier to play with DOF also. On D90 I just used autofocus.
Having played with both of them side by side I would say that latitude in processing is similar.
See comparison here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=82163.0

Paul2660

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2013, 07:16:41 pm »

Ken:

Thanks again for the tip on the jpeg plus raw for image playback works great.   Just a great little camera with amazing output.

Paul Caldwell
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Paul Caldwell
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Ken Bennett

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2013, 08:27:16 pm »

Paul,

Happy that it worked for you. I too like these little cameras. They won't do everything, and they aren't for everybody, but they make me pretty happy.

Ken
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2013, 04:16:13 am »

Nice thread, with useful tips. I just took my XE-1 plus 14mm lens on Sunday morning, to photograph a favourite place of mine (Cabo Sardao, in SW Portugal). I arrived there at around 5.30 am, I have looked at the images, going to process them soon, and will post some for sure.

All in all, I am very happy with my choice. And the 14mm lens is amazing, it does not require any correction.

Paul2660

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2013, 10:30:55 am »

Paulo, 

Something I learned on this forum, the lenses from the Fuji are all auto corrected at least by LR.  I kept looking for the manual corrections, but apparently on the mirror less cameras, Sony, Fuji etc. the info in the meta can be read by LR and it corrects the lens. 

Nice feature.

Paul Caldwell
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Paul Caldwell
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: I now have a Fuji X system
« Reply #13 on: September 16, 2013, 12:18:31 pm »

Paul, thanks for the reply, I already suspected that. However, I remember reading some reviews that mentioned that the 14mm lens had insignificant "native" lens defects; meaning that they were corrected optically, rather than relying on software?

I am now waiting for the coming 56 f1.2 lens, to round up my kit...
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