Fuji So I played with an X-Pro1

Pelao

All-Pro
Location
Ontario, Canada
Name
Stephen
I managed to get to a store today to play with the Fuji.

I haven't purchased a new camera since December '09, choosing instead to concentrate on skills, technique, and printing. I've had a blast just being a photographer, and squeezing the best out of my gear.

I know more now about what I want and need, and have narrowed a purchase down to the Fuji, the Nex 7, and a distant maybe of the OMD.

Anyway, my impressions of the Fuji from an interface perspective generally fit with what I have read, and it seems to be more than fine for my style of shooting and preferred subject matter.

I like the controls a lot. I think the Nex 7 and OMD have great control layouts too, but there is one factor that is significant for me, and in the Fuji's favour. By simply glancing at the Fuji I can confirm the current settings. Controls are dedicated, and have physical markings on them. I like that. It suits my way of shooting. I have read some comments that the Exposure Compensation dial is a bit too loose. It may be if you are perched at a desk playing with it, but for me at least it seems fine in actual use. I would also say that it doesn't move by accident any more easily than that of the Nex 7 - but at least with the Fuji I can see the setting at a glance. I would say the same about aperture. More positive stops would be welcome, but really, the way I handle a camera in actual use I don't see it being an issue - and of course again a quick glance tells me all I need to know, even before the camera is switched on.

The camera didn't have the latest firmware, and chattered away to me. Very friendly. In other words, it didn't bother me: it was wearing the 35.

VF
Love the optical VF. Wow. So nice. The EVF is an EVF. No complaints.

Build, handling, and weight
As others have noted, it's lighter than it looks. It's also solid. Great work Fuji. It feels good in my hands, which I would say are mid-size.

AF
Well now, the famous AF. Given the massive amount of server space devoted to this subject, I'll be considerate and keep it brief. For my purposes, it was somewhere between more than good enough to very good. After a few tries I barely noticed it - it just worked. I'd say it was faster than my GF1 or 5D. I pushed it with areas of variable contrast etc. It's clearly not a speed demon, but I don't care much for specifications. I care about how it will work for me.

If I think it through now, two things stand out. First, the overall handling experience. The camera comes nicely to my eye and the controls are where a photographer needs them to be. It all just flows and works. A real pleasure. Second, the optical VF is just so nice. Bright, clear, and with the rangefinder style of being able to see outside the frame.

So overall, nothing you haven't read elsewhere. What I do find entertaining is the range of traffic grabbing headlines about this camera, or indeed any other. A lot of definitive statements about what a camera is or isn't. In my experience the only statements that matter are the ones ones from people who actually use the camera (as opposed to a brief test), and the ones that come to mind after my own experience.

I'll play more with the Nex 7, but I think the Fuji is a camera I can love. That hasn't happened in a while.
 
I've gone into liquidation and now have money in my pocket! I'm going to New York and wanted a wide angle for the buildings etc. I've been looking at the Fuji and the OMD with the Nex 5/7 as my third choice. I'd really like the speedy AF of the Olympus as I really miss being able to catch the moment and I rather liked the touch focus on my EP3. I have mixed feelings about the Fuji because I didn't like the X100 very much although there was nothing wrong with it's output. I owned a NEX when they first came out and have a couple of Contax G lenses I could use but again, do I really want to manual focus? Everyone is raving about the Fuji but it could be a rather expensive mistake if I don't gel with it so I'm hoping someone will post some fantastic OMD pics really soon! I couldn't tell Ray's Fuji's from his OMDs after the Snapseed treatment!
 
Christina,

If you want wide angle, I'd go for the OMD. You have options like the 9-18 or even 7-14 and you have the 12mm prime that are all a good bit wider than the 28mm EFL of the Fuji. The Nex has the same focal length as the 12mm in the 16, but its not nearly as nice a lens, and there's nothing wider AFAIK. I did a good bit of UWA shooting near downtown. The OMD IQ is very very good - the more I see on the larger monitor (and realize how much I missed it with just the ipad for both viewing and processing), the more impressed I am. The X-Pro 1 IQ is amazing, but the OMD is surprisingly close to amazing and the versatility of m43 beats either of the other two by a good margin at this point, particularly at the more extreme wide and long ends....

I did a TON of shooting with the 12mm in New York (most of the street stuff and some other work as well). Less with the 9-18, but here are a few 9-18 shots. The one of the memorial is with the EPL3, the others with the OMD. At Flickr sizes, I don't think you'd have been able to tell the difference between the cameras without snapseed either, even the low light shots. I wouldn't want to have done a trip like this without a wide angle, and in retrospect I should have used it more than I did...

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I've gone into liquidation and now have money in my pocket! I'm going to New York and wanted a wide angle for the buildings etc. I've been looking at the Fuji and the OMD with the Nex 5/7 as my third choice. I'd really like the speedy AF of the Olympus as I really miss being able to catch the moment and I rather liked the touch focus on my EP3. I have mixed feelings about the Fuji because I didn't like the X100 very much although there was nothing wrong with it's output. I owned a NEX when they first came out and have a couple of Contax G lenses I could use but again, do I really want to manual focus? Everyone is raving about the Fuji but it could be a rather expensive mistake if I don't gel with it so I'm hoping someone will post some fantastic OMD pics really soon! I couldn't tell Ray's Fuji's from his OMDs after the Snapseed treatment!

I hope you are able to play with both and see what works for you. Ray raises some strong points that the OMD has in its favour, and overall it's more versatile for some photographers. I think I might differ with Ray with regards to IQ, but that would only be about certain aspects of the IQ, and the differences matter to me, but not most others. The fast AF is not a factor for me, but it may be for you.

I should add that I am not too interested in having my photographs online. I print those I like. If my output was mainly online, some of my views on quality might be different.

I have yet to play with the OMD, but I sense it's the most comprehensive M43 yet.
 
I hope you are able to play with both and see what works for you. Ray raises some strong points that the OMD has in its favour, and overall it's more versatile for some photographers. I think I might differ with Ray with regards to IQ, but that would only be about certain aspects of the IQ, and the differences matter to me, but not most others. The fast AF is not a factor for me, but it may be for you.

I should add that I am not too interested in having my photographs online. I print those I like. If my output was mainly online, some of my views on quality might be different.

I have yet to play with the OMD, but I sense it's the most comprehensive M43 yet.

Don't get me wrong - for your stated purposes I think the X-Pro is a great way to go. In terms of IQ, there is a difference, but I think its a bigger difference with large online files (like 100% versions on Flickr) than it is with printing unless perhaps at very large print sizes. At 12x18 or even 16x20 print sizes, I think the differences in pixel level IQ are harder to spot, although perhaps not in terms of DR, which is where I'm seeing some difference. My point to Christina was purely in terms of versatility - if the range of lenses available now (Fuji may catch up in some very important areas within a year or two), THAT's the one area where I think m43 has it over either Fuji or Nex for at least the next year or two. If buying a camera in a couple of years it may be a different story, but for an upcoming trip... And I wasn't commenting on the faster AF - its rarely an issue for me. I guess on the rare occasion I shoot with a longer lens, AF speed seems to matter more, but for normal and wide focal lengths, the Fuji AF is more than adequate for me and when I want the ultimate in speed, I'm using zone focus anyway, so AF isn't an issue for me. The good news is that there are fewer and fewer bad choices today, its just a matter of determining what's most important for a given person at a given time.

I, obviously, have no capacity to DECIDE anything! :D Which leads to buying all of the above (not Nex, but I've owned that too within the past year)...

-Ray
 
Following my purchase of a Canon G1X last month I've decided that I don't want/need my Canon DSLR gear any more, which will free up some money from selling some quite expensive lenses and leaves me to decide what on I want as an interchangeable lens system going forwards. I went into a camera store the weekend before last and was faced with the same three cameras mentioned here.

The NEX-7 looked like a serious piece of kit but the lens selection still kills me. Ultra-wide? Fast standard prime? Maybe some day.

Next, the X-Pro1. I looked at this one for a while. Everything suggests that the IQ is superb and the camera's operation okay, but...I don't know. It just seemed to offer some features that I didn't care for and lack some features that I did. Price too, was an issue as well as the current limited lens selection. I think it is a great camera and could learn to love it, but based on my brief experience I wasn't drawn to it.

Lastly, the E-M5. Being an existing Micro 4/3 user I was automatically drawn to it. It's tiny, BTW. No bigger than a Pen excepting the hump, and smaller than a Pen fitted with an EVF. It was fast, responsive, had lots of great features like the new IBIS and the touchy, feely, flippy screen. More than that, it was an improved version of what was a known quantity for me and one I have used quite successfully for almost two years now. Being able to team it up with the existing Micro 4/3 lenses like the wonderful Leica 25/1.4, the tiny 20/1.7 and 9-18mm, and the versatile 14-140mm was another big point in it's favour. I'll admit that the E-M5 was my favourite going into the store and it still remained my favourite on the way out. If the price had been right I'd have bought the one E-M5 they had in stock (the display model), but for only $60 more I was able to order one from another store with the new 12-50mm instead of the 14-42mm. It's ETA is tomorrow...
 
Christina,

If you want wide angle, I'd go for the OMD. You have options like the 9-18 or even 7-14 and you have the 12mm prime that are all a good bit wider than the 28mm EFL of the Fuji.

The 12mm(24mm) is a really nice lens, wide but not so wide you get the funky distortions (unless you like that). Plus it has that back to the future focus ring that slides back to show you DOF for zone focusing.

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Haha, you know you need to just buy it, Pelao! Look forward to seeing your images. :D

If you want wide angle, I'd go for the OMD. You have options like the 9-18 or even 7-14 and you have the 12mm prime that are all a good bit wider than the 28mm EFL of the Fuji. The Nex has the same focal length as the 12mm in the 16, but its not nearly as nice a lens, and there's nothing wider AFAIK. I did a good bit of UWA shooting near downtown. The OMD IQ is very very good - the more I see on the larger monitor (and realize how much I missed it with just the ipad for both viewing and processing), the more impressed I am. The X-Pro 1 IQ is amazing, but the OMD is surprisingly close to amazing and the versatility of m43 beats either of the other two by a good margin at this point, particularly at the more extreme wide and long ends....

Nice shots, Ray. I would greatly appreciate any feedback, once you have had a chance to start processing at home, how well the E-M5 files hold up to severe PP flogging. I ended up grabbing a K-01 (which I am guessing the XPro1 will DXO close to, at least at base ISO) with 23mm equiv for landscapes. The big differences for me in these files, versus the E-P3, is that they are so much less brittle to work with in post. There is the DR thing, but then also noise starts cropping up (especially in the skies) in Nik with the E-P3 files pretty quickly. Happy with the K-01 for this application, but would be interested to know if you find an improvement in processing the E-M5 raw files.

The 12mm(24mm) is a really nice lens, wide but not so wide you get the funky distortions (unless you like that). Plus it has that back to the future focus ring that slides back to show you DOF for zone focusing.

+1 on the focal length. I really like the fact that you can either make the shot look normal, or embrace the weird wideness if you want.

I was able to order one from another store with the new 12-50mm instead of the 14-42mm. It's ETA is tomorrow.
Congrats on bagging the unicorn, Nic! Was it the extremely rare albino (silver) or did you go Darth Vader? :D
 
Congrats on bagging the unicorn, Nic! Was it the extremely rare albino (silver) or did you go Darth Vader? :D

Ha ha, yeah E-M5 numbers are still thin on the ground. I originally preferred the look of the silver, but over time I started to lean towards black. Seeing and holding one in the flesh just confirmed that Darth Vader was the one for me. Cue The Imperial March...
 
Nice shots, Ray. I would greatly appreciate any feedback, once you have had a chance to start processing at home, how well the E-M5 files hold up to severe PP flogging. I ended up grabbing a K-01 (which I am guessing the XPro1 will DXO close to, at least at base ISO) with 23mm equiv for landscapes. The big differences for me in these files, versus the E-P3, is that they are so much less brittle to work with in post. There is the DR thing

I agree. For my shooting, I like every bit of DR I can get. I was looking at comparisons between the Olympus, the Fuji and the Nex 7. Now these were OOC Jpegs but while the OMD shots were outstanding, the others (especially the Fuji) had extra spect, especially in the shadows.

But for most purposes the Olympus would be outstanding.
 
When you really get a great shot, I'm picturing you speaking to your camera in the Emperor's creepy voice....."You've done well, Lord Vader".

:rofl:

Oh, I was just thinking, the E-M5 IBIS hum is kind of like Darth's respirator thing. If you could just hack it to vary the pitch and intensity, so it would sound like the E-M5 was breathing!
 
:rofl:

Oh, I was just thinking, the E-M5 IBIS hum is kind of like Darth's respirator thing. If you could just hack it to vary the pitch and intensity, so it would sound like the E-M5 was breathing!
Shockingly, when I powered up my OMD in my quiet home this morning, I actually heard the hum quite obviously - I could never hear it before unless I literally held the camera up to my ear. I guess a quiet ambient environment makes a big difference. In a noisy environment (even a NYC apartment), you might never hear it. In a quiet room, though, it's loud enough to be somewhat distracting, at least at first.

But it's not a Darth Vader like sound. More like an Eewok or whatever they're called.

Enjoy the camera Nic!

-Ray
 
Thanks, yes I am curious to hear what the E-M5 sounds like in a quiet environment because I didn't notice the hum at all in the store. Another reason for choosing Darth Vader over the silver version was to ensure that Amin didn't try to pull any strings with Olympus and have it transferred to the States.

Oh, and let me wish Pelao an early congratulations for when he gets an X-Pro1 in the next few weeks :)
 
Well I had a quick play with the Fuji today. It fit nicely in my hand and was a good weight although I felt that it was a teensy bit plasticy. The focus with the 35mm was faster than I had imagined, the 18mm wouldn't work on the camera and the 60 was very very slow inside the shop. It seemed very much like the X100 as far as the rear screen and buttons. Shutter was very quiet and I was quite impressed with it although I still think it's rather pricy. The assistant was keen to show me the NEX 7 as they didn't have the Olympus yet, her dad has the NEX apparently and is very pleased with it. I did venture to pick it up and I really liked it's speedy focus and the evf, also the size in my hand is really good. Annoying as I'd already placed this at the bottom of my wish list. DPR has given the OMD a fine write up and now I'm no further forward!!!!
 
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