Reading about a Better Work Out

I left the big and brawny DSLR and its bevy of lenses in Canada and packed only the Fujifilm X E-1 and the 18-55mm kit lens in my carry-on bag. Destination: Maui. All the images on this page were shot as jpgs and minimally processed.

Outside Maui Mike’s Beach House

The photo above was a ‘drive-by-shooting’ from our swanky rental car upgrade, our Maui exploring vehicle:

ISO 6400, 1/18 sec, handheld

Northern Maui, 18mm

Zig Zag Track, 18mm

The X E-1 excelled in this environment. No complaints.

Back to Salt Spring Island via Vancouver and Victoria. A weather transition.

A Rude Weather Transition in Vancouver

Fernwood Pier in the Fog

Winter Morning Fill-Up

Old Farm Building Windows

Lone Garry Oak Tree

Pre-Dawn Clean-Up in Ganges

The tiny size, very good optics and low cost qualify, for me at least, is an excellent no hassle camera.

Restricting myself, at least for now, to this one lens means the X E-1 will go everywhere with me. And after a few thousand images, the sensor remains dust free; an advantage to not changing lenses.

Restricting myself, at least for now, to the excellent JPEGs this camera produces rather than shooting RAW means very little post processing. Perfect for my Salt Spring photo of the day website, travel and family images.

Finally, I had a few minutes to take some photos with the new Fuji X E-1. It was late morning and raining so I stopped at the Creekside Rain Forest on Salt Spring Island. With the X E-1, the new 18-55mm lens, a tripod and boots. My impressions and observations follow. But first some context: where my opinions and observations come from. I’ve been at this for a long while, starting back in the early 1970′s with Leica, Hasselblad and Linholf. With film of course. But the last many years has been with digital SLR cameras, with the Canon 1D X being the newest and possibly my last DSLR.

note: all images here were shot in single AF mode as JPEGs, minimal or no processing

I didn’t buy the Fuji E-1 to become my main camera system. Because it can’t. From what I’ve seen, it may take on some of my client work and almost all of my personal photography including the photo of the day at saltspringphotos.com and that’s pretty amazing from such a small, light camera.

Before purchasing the camera, my understanding was that it’s not built for:
1. focusing on moving objects (athletes, fast moving children, birds and animals etc)
2. shooting at a high frame rate (more than 10fps)
3. tilt-shift architectural work
4. very low light work; and low light motion work
5. long range (telephoto) work
6. harsh weather work [Read more...]