[LRflex] Re: A small, portable camera [long]
- From: David Young <dsy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 08:57:49 -0700
Good Morning, Xavier, and fellow flexers!
> As you know, I am quite fond of novelties, this time, obviously, it
> comes from Fuji:
>
>
> http://fujifilm-x.com/x-e1/fr/
It seems Fuji is fast becoming a company to reckon with.
When Howard Cummer visited, last weekend, he brought both the X-100 (fixed f2
lens) and the X-Pro-1 with him.
The X-100 is very nice, but the X-Pro-1 is simply a gorgeous camera. Over the
two days, I got to play with it extensively and I would venture that the build
quality is as good as Leica's... for about 1/5th to 1/4 the price. If it's not
as good, it certainly "feels" as good. The two lenses he had ... the 35/1.4 and
60/2.4 are silky smooth in operation and optically the equal of anything
around.
If it sounds as if I was impressed, you're getting the message.
I found the EVF to be very good (others may disagree)... as is the optical
finder. You activate the EFV by flipping a lever, conveniently located where
you'd expect to find the self timer. Touch it again and the EVF disappears.
If there is a drawback, it is that the camera uses a new, non-Bayer, colour
filter. This is said to prevent Moire patterns, which means that the camera,
like Leicas, is made without a low-pass (AA) filter. This greatly enhances the
final optical performance of any camera/lens combo.
You can see the difference in the standard Bayer filter, to the new X-Trans
filter, here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-pro1/3
Howard tells me that the problem is that Adobe have not caught up to the
technology. He says that either converting to DNG, or simply developing images
with Adobe products produces unwanted colour bands in the images. It seems
they are simply applying the Bayer filter algorithm to Fuji's non-Bayer filter.
The result is that Howard is shooting JPEG's, but the results are startlingly
good!
OTOH, apparently Fuji has supplied Silkypix with the secrets of the X-Tran
filter, and a version of Silkypix comes with the camera. That works for me, if
not many others.
Still, I prefer to keep my files as DNGs, so I will look forward to see what
the Fuji can manage once Adobe gets their act together!
From the link you sent (above) it appears that the X-E1 is the same camera as
the X-Pro-1, but without the viewfinder... just the back panel display, like a
P&S camera.
I'm afraid that would not be for me... but I am having visions of the Fuji
X-Pro-1 with a Leica R to X adapter (there are many options on OhBoy); and
using it with my 80~200/4 Vario and, of course, my Telyt 400/6.8!
Until I played with Howard's cameras, I'd never have considered a Fuji... but
now....
For balance, the Luminous Landscape has a full review, and found some
inadequacies that I missed. They, presumably, had more time with the camera.
Many of those inadequacies are supposed to be resolved by a new firmware
update, coming Sept. 18th.
http://tinyurl.com/8vpsgb2
> I guess the queues in front of the Fujifilm booth shall be long at the
> French "salon Pgoto" but I'll stand in to approach the X-E1. At least to
> update my low opinion of the EVFs.
I found the EVF in the X-Pro-1 to be very useable... if not downright
acceptable. I will be most interested to hear what you have to say abut the
X-E1 and it's back-panel display, after "Salon Photo" and you get to play with
one.
David.
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