OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEW: PARTS AND DESIGN
Fujifilm’s proprietary imaging technology is packed into a die-cast magnesium encasement that looks and feels as solid as a rock—a very light rock, if I might add. Like nearly all of Fujifilm’s premium digital cameras, the body of the X-E1 is wrapped in faux leather—a nod to rangefinders and other retro cameras. To the dismay of some, the X-E1 doesn’t come in any other color of faux leather except black.
There’s a rubber grip on the front face—right side, if you’re holding it with the rear facing you—but it doesn’t protrude as much as I would’ve wanted it to so as to have a firmer grasp on the body especially when long lenses are attached to it, like the 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 Fujinon XF zoom lens with optical image stabilization (OIS) that I used for the duration of the test. Nevertheless, the X-E1 is friendlier to one’s grip than the X-Pro1 since it is more compact.
The control layout enables what you would generally consider easy manipulation—even one-handed operation, if you’re using the 35mm Fujinon XF lens—although at times I was bothered by how the close the AE and AF lock button and the Q button were to the right edge, forcing me to shift and, in effect, loosen my grip on the camera.
Despite being smaller than its predecessor, the X-E1 managed to squeeze in a built-in flash that pops out when you push the button with the lightning symbol on the camera’s rear—something that you cannot find on the X-Pro1. If you want a bit more control, though, the X-E1 also has a hot shoe for external flashguns.
There are a lot of dedicated buttons on the rear and top plate of the device, but the controls that are pretty handy and worth mentioning are the Fn button, which opens the ISO levels list by default, but can be reassigned to open a different function; and the Q button, which opens a comprehensive quick-access menu containing all the important settings like image size, white balance and ISO. Under the Q menu, you can store up to seven sets of custom settings to make it easier for you to adjust depending on the lighting situation.
Also found on the back end of the camera are the viewfinder and the LCD monitor—two important things that differentiate the X-E1 from its predecessor. The X-Pro1 has a hybrid viewfinder that lets users switch from optical (OVF) to electronic (EVF) with the simple flick of a switch. On the other hand, the viewfinder on the X-E1 is purely electronic. It’s also important to note that its successor, the X-M1 doesn’t have any kind of viewfinder at all, making the EVF a rather important selling point for the X-E1. As such, Fujifilm saw it fit to upgrade the resolution of the viewfinder to 2.36 million dots for the X-E1’s OLED EVF.
As much as the EVF delivers bright colors and good contrast, I couldn’t say the same for the LCD monitor, which uses 460,000 dots to display an image. At 2.8 inches diagonal, the LCD is also smaller than that of the X-Pro1—a consequence of the shrunken body. Some users also might not be comfortable with a fixed monitor instead of one that tilts and swivels.
Terminals include a miniHDMI port, a microUSB port, and a 2.5mm microphone/shutter release input. The NP-W126 Li-ion battery and the full-sized SD slot is kept hidden behind a little door at the bottom of the camera. It’s a bit too close to the tripod mount, though, which means you’d have to unmount the camera before you can switch the SD card or the battery pack.