entropic remnants
Hall of Famer
- Name
- John Griggs
I'll probably review this as part of an overall "X Camera" experience in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, I do want to say a few things about my first impressions of this camera. I've taken like maybe 50 or less shots with it so I won't try to compare the image quality though from what I see it matches my X-E1.
That's just some first impressions. I was thinking this would be a camera I would put up with to have a backup X-Mount body and second shooting camera for events -- but in fact I find it actually pleasant to use if you disregard the lack of a viewfinder and so forth. It's really quite well done.
- Plastic-ness: Not an issue. Yes, it's light and plastic feeling -- but it's a tight little brick of a camera. Definitely doesn't feel cheap. The budget body-only one I got is black and the finish is better than the chrome finished ones I've seen. The shutter button and power switch looked not smoothly chromed on some I've seen, the black one is quite nice. I really can't find much to comment negatively on in terms of the overall feel of this camera and it presents to me like a small micro four thirds camera like the GX1 or something.
- Overall Controls: Well, although one could wish for the dedicated shutter speed dial, I do understand what Fuji did here. Certainly it all works well and to me the controls feel fine with positive clicks on buttons and all wheels. It is possible to move the top wheel a little easily, but I'll live with it for this price.
- Control Wheel Layout: Well, Kai Wong on DigitalRev made a big show about how easy it is to adjust the two dials at the same time by accident. Yes, it can happen but I really don't find the control wheels bad at all and the fact that there are two on a low end body is a plus. Certainly, sans touch-screen you need them and all the buttons.
- Display: It's really very bright and can be dialed up super-bright. It looks great and the tilt mechanism feels solid to me.
- Autofocus: On par with the X-E1 as far as I can tell. I don't have the 16-50mm which some say is a little faster. It focuses as well as any X camera which is to say slower than most other cameras, lol. It's fine though for me. X100S feels quicker but it's a dedicated lens.
- Responsiveness: I can very much feel the difference shooting with the X100S vs. my X-E1 due to the higher end processor of the X100S. The X-M1 feels similar to the X100S. If you do things like shoot brackets, even film simulation brackets, the speed of making and storing those images is noticeably faster on the X100S and X-M1 than on the X-E1. In single shot shooting it's hard to see much difference but if you are shooting RAW+Fine or a bracketing mode I'd say the X-M1 seems much quicker to process and store then X-E1 (with matching UHS-1 cards in both).
That's just some first impressions. I was thinking this would be a camera I would put up with to have a backup X-Mount body and second shooting camera for events -- but in fact I find it actually pleasant to use if you disregard the lack of a viewfinder and so forth. It's really quite well done.