{"id":4798,"date":"2014-08-21T15:23:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T03:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/?p=4798"},"modified":"2015-05-04T18:34:49","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T06:34:49","slug":"the-fujifilm-x-e2-shooting-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/the-fujifilm-x-e2-shooting-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fujifilm X-E2 shooting experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first impression with Fujifilm X-E2<\/a> was nothing short of impressive.  The new and improved features on the X-E2, its brilliant ergonomic design and ease of use make it a superb mirrorless camera. You can check out why I think it is a great camera here<\/a>. Having used it for several photo shoots and in the studio, I am here to share some of my shooting experience.<\/p>\n

There are pro photographers and DSLR users that have turned to Fujifilm X cameras (X-E2<\/a>, X-T1<\/a> and X-Pro 1<\/a>) for one simple reason \u2013 Smaller and lighter kit without compromising image quality. I have been using mirrorless cameras for years both Sony and Fujifilm mainly as my casual camera and travel camera. This is the first time I brought a Fujifilm X-E2 to the set and use it to take photos. I am not sure what others think when I point my tiny camera at them, but I did exactly that.<\/p>\n

Image quality from Fujifilm X cameras is astonishing, I can clearly see the results from my images. X-Trans CMOS sensor is known to produce sharp images and its high ISO performance is as good as any APS-C DSLR. My shooting experience with Fujifilm X-E2  not only focused on the image quality but also on other important aspects that complete the whole shooting experience.<\/p>\n

My X-E2 comes with an 18-55mm f\/2.8-4 kit lens. This lens is superb in many ways, small but optically amazing. It is a nice general purpose lens. For  professional work like shooing portraits, Fujifilm has some amazing lenses like the XF56mm f\/1.2<\/a> and XF35mm f\/1.4<\/a>.  Meanwhile, Fujifilm still lacks some fast zoom lenses equivalent to the 14-24mm f\/2.8, 24-70mm f\/2.8 and 70-200mm f\/2.8, but Fujifilm is set to introduce a XF16-55mm f.2,8 and a XF50-120mm f\/2.8 before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The X-E2, as well as other Fujifilm X camera has the ability to use other exotic lenses via X mount adapters<\/a>. I have a Nikon to X mount adapter<\/a>, so basically I can use my Nikon lenses on the X-E2. The below two photos were shot using a Nikon 50mm f\/1.8<\/a> (equiv. to 75mm f\/1.8) on the X-E2. MF is necessary when using an adapter, but the 10x magnification view makes MF so much easier and I can get pin sharp focus on the eyes.  It is pretty amazing how such a small camera combo like an X-E2 + 50mm f\/1.8 can produce such quality images.<\/p>\n

You can order your Fujifilm X-E2 + 18-55mm f\/2.8-4 <\/font><\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The X-E2 is small and light weight, it was very easy to move around with which helps the flow of the photo shoots. The EVF played a very important role, it made me feel like I was shooting with a DSLR and provided a third point contact for extra stability. The placement of the EVF is like a range finder, no more pressing your nose against the LCD. The live exposure preview is great on the EVF, I was even \u201cchimping\u201d  via the EVF. The handling of the X-E2 is exceptional, it does take some time to get use to pressing smaller buttons, but all the controls are at the finger tips. <\/p>\n

I find the aperture ring is easy to slip, it is close to the zoom ring and is often where I hold the camera. Occasionally, my aperture setting changes and I had to change it back. Changing shutter speed and exposure compensation via the top dials take a bit more effort than wheeling the thumb dials on a DSLR. For off camera flashes, the X-E2 is compatible with Pocketwizard Plus III<\/a>, so you can pretty much trigger any strobes or any speedlights. Perhaps one down side on the X-E2 is the sync speed which is only 1\/180s, but I can live with that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The focusing system on the X-E2 is surprisingly snappy, Fujifilm X cameras are not known to have the fastest focus speed, but it has been improved with on-chip phase detection. I didn\u2019t  have any problem with focusing, but it is definitely slower than DSLR auto focus. Switching between AF\/MF is pretty simple via a flick of the S\/C\/M switch located at the front of the body. Even when I was shooting in pitch dark in the studio, the focus assist light turned on and I was able to lock onto the subject (see the last image). I have yet to test it in a fast pace photo shoot but I don\u2019t think it is designed for that. It doesn\u2019t seem there is a way to decouple the AF with the half press shutter. The work around is to half press the shutter to set your focus and then press AF-L to lock the focus, this is definitely quite troublesome and too slow. Alternatively, I can switch to MF and assign instant AF to the AF-L button, but you will end up with a fairly large AF frame which is hard to know what it is focusing on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The metering system offers spot, multi and average meter just like most DSLRs. I left the meter on average most of the time since I don\u2019t really need all these different metering when  I can see preview the exposure on the LCD. This means I don\u2019t  need to look at the meter anymore and I can concentrate on my composition.<\/p>\n

The write speed and buffer have significantly improved on the X-E2. I did try it and I would say you can sustain at a lower 3 FPS for quite some time provided you have a fast SD card<\/a>. At 7 FPS, you can sustain for a couple of seconds before it slows down. That\u2019s pretty amazing for a mirrorless camera. 3 FPS is more than enough for most situation and you can boost the FPS for a couple of seconds if you had to. For anything faster, you should be using the Nikon D4s<\/a>. Last but not least,  the battery life for these small cameras is only rated for 300-400 photos, so you will need a couple of extra batteries<\/a> if you are doing photo shoots. The good news is these batteries are cheap compare to DSLR batteries, so keep a few spares in your bag.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the studio, the shooting experience was pretty much the same. I have a RF trigger on the hot shoe to trigger the lights and the sync speed was set to 1\/180s. This is all good if you are shooting in a well lit condition. When I was shooting something a bit more contrast and dramatic with studio lights, the EVF is rather useless. I basically have to rely on  AF assist to help with the focus, as well as framing. It was  very hard to use in a darker studio setting without an OVF, I would need a very powerful modelling light or bring out the X-Pro 1.<\/p>\n

When it works though, it does produce very good images and you will not know they come from a mirrorless camera.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Where can I find the equipment seen on this site?<\/font><\/h3>\n

If you find this site useful and planning to purchase any of the equipment seen on this site, please show your support by purchasing your photo equipment at <\/strong>B&H Photo Video<\/strong><\/a>, or through any of the affiliate links seen on this site.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\n\"Printer\n\"Lexar\n\"Sandisk\n\"Tamron\n\"Olympus\n\"Nikon\n\"Canon\n\"B&H<\/map><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first impression with Fujifilm X-E2 was nothing short of impressive.  The new and improved features on the X-E2, its brilliant ergonomic design and ease of use make it a superb mirrorless camera. You can check out why I think it is a great camera here. Having used it for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[308,450,96,343],"class_list":["post-4798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-talk","tag-fujifilm","tag-portraits","tag-studio","tag-x-e2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4798"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4944,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions\/4944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentyuphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}