Fuji X-Pro1

....

Conclusions

While both lenses are quite good, Fujifilm has a major advantage with a more affordable offering while also retaining a better build quality. However, Zeiss has faster focusing and better image quality. This is kind of a tough test to consider but we should all take comfort in knowing that both lenses are excellent. But on a personal scale, I’ve always had a love for Zeiss products the same way that Steve Huff loves his Leicas. And in the end, I’ll have to give the win to the Zeiss despite owning Fujifilm’s lens.

Well, for us, it is a way of pointing out not only the strengths and weaknesses of each model, but it is also an occasion to summarize our personal experiences with them. It is a place where we can give you advice about the style of photography that best suits these cameras, while helping you answer that tricky question: which model is best for me?

You won’t find scientific comparisons but rather our personal experience with each camera based on a real-world usage. For more information about the cameras, you can check out our reviews and galleries across the site (relevant links are mentioned throughout the article).

But that is not all: it isn’t just about us. If you’ve had the chance to use both of these cameras and want to share your opinion about them, feel free to leave a comment or even write to us at info@bestmirrorlesscamerareviews.com. We would love to hear your two cents! ....

CONCLUSION

So, if you went through the entirety of my comparison, you can probably already guess what my conclusion is: we simply can't say that one camera is better than the other, because they are two different models that have been designed for two completely different purposes. The important point is that both produce excellent image quality. You really have to make hypercritical comparisons to highlight the differences between the two, even though their technical specifications may suggest otherwise.

The E-M5 is certainly more versatile: the Micro Four Thirds system offers a great variety of lenses from Olympus, Panasonic and third party manufacturers, and it has all the accessories you need to use it as a real alternative to DSLRs, with the advantage of it being lighter and smaller.

The X100s is very good at what it has been designed to do: street photography. It is small, light and discreet. Despite its few weakness, I really enjoy using it and I am starting to employ it as a second body not only for personal purposes but also professional. At the same time, I know it won't ever become my main camera, as I would always miss the beauty of a good wide angle lens, for example.

I recently reviewed the Fujifilm X-E1 and really enjoyed it. As a X10 owner, I’ve been very interest in the X series cameras by Fujifilm so I had great hopes that they would continue to improve. They have, so I was thrilled last week when my review copy of the X20 arrived, but I was shocked when the X100s arrived this week. I thought – how perfect, I can finally get to compare some of the most exciting Fujifilm cameras all at the same time! I was in the final stages of my X20 review and quite happy with what I was seeing, so to have the new X100s in the mix is going to delay my original plans a bit. However, I think many readers will enjoy a first hand account of how they compare. I hope you stick with me for this and the subsequent articles where I do just that. Now before anyone blows a gasket, I realize that the X10/20 are very different from the XPro-1, X-E1, and X100s cameras. I’m including this comparison simply because I have all of the cameras together. I also often get asked about all of the X series cameras, so here’s a one stop shop to find out what I think.

Conclusion

I’ll dive into more details in my upcoming X20 and X100s reviews, but let me just say – Fujifilm fans rejoice – the engineers have listened and taken these charming cameras and made them usable. I’m definitely buying my X20 review unit and I’m going to have a hard time not getting the X-E1 replacement down the road (I still prefer interchangeable zoom lenses with stabilization)....

Kein Labor! Kein Vakuum! Es war das echte Leben, das uns an diesem Tag in Erinnerung rief, dass eine Kamera sich ganz anders anfühlt, wenn sie aus Metall ist! Und da dieses echte Leben mit Schwung aus Nord-Nordost kam, brachte es verdammt wenig frühlingshaftes mit. Wir ersparten uns das Notieren von Messwerten. Unsere verfrorenen Nasen und die Bilder sollten beredt Auskunft über gefühlte  – 10° Celsius geben. Doch breiten wir den Mantel des Schweigens über unser Wehklagen, schließlich nehmen wir etwaige Vorzüge des Sommer ja auch in Kauf. Hoffentlich bald. Die nagelneue FUJI x100s war angekommen und bettelte förmlich darum getestet und verglichen zu werden. Natürlich draußen! In freier Wildbahn! Erwähnten wir die Temperaturen? Nun, es wundert Euch also nicht, dass sich niemand aufdrängte, um uns stundenlang für Vergleichsfotos Modell zu stehen. Niemand, außer dieser einen sexy Backsteinmauer. Für diese eine sexy Backsteinmauer ließen wir sämtliche digitale Kamerasysteme, mit denen wir aktuell fotografieren, antreten. Den ganzen Technik-Schnickschnack ersparen wir Euch und uns an dieser Stelle, da sämtliche Features der neuen x100s zur Genüge im Netz abgefeiert werden.

Es treten also an:

Canon 5DMK2  & EF 35mm 2.0  // 21 Megapixel

Nikon D800 & AF-G 24 @ DX-Mode  (36mm Brennweite am Kleinbild ) // 16 Megapixel

Fuji X100s & 23mm 2.0 (34,5mm Brennweite am Kleinbild)  //  16 Megapixel

Fuji X-E1 & 35mm 1,4 (52,5mm Brennweite am Kleinbild)  // 16 Megapixel

Leider lässt das für diesen Test passende Fuji XF 23mm f1.4 noch auf sich warten. Ein Blick auf die Fuji Lens-Roadmap verrät aber einen Erscheinungstermin 2013. Im nächsten Post gibt es dann Bilder aus der Werkstatt von Lutz Graichen von Windflüchter Boards. Lutz baut in Rostock „Custom Made Surfboards“, also ganz nach den Wünschen seiner Kunden und Timo war mit der Fuji x100s beim Shapen eines dieser „Bretter nach Maß“ dabei.....

I spend the evening, night and next morning with the camera (I was up at 6 to keep trying it!) and tried it in all the sort of situations that I’d normally use my X100.  I had already decided I wasn’t going to upgrade (at least not yet) as my X100 is now pretty much just a personal camera and I have other commitments to buying some more professional work kit before I can go and drop £1099 on a new camera just for fun!  I was none-the-less excited about the latest Fujifilm camera as I’m a huge fan of their X-Series cameras.  I know I might not have had it to test for a long time, but I know how I use my cameras and I know what sort of shots I take and put it through the same sort of routine I would on a daily basis with my X100 and can spot any issues pretty quickly.

I first ran around the house chasing my little girl and trying to get photos of her (any camera that can get in-focus shots of her has got to be good!)  The X100S was certainly getting a lot more hits than my X100 would normally do.  I started to believe the hype surrounding this camera, and some of the things I’ve read online.  I was already thinking of how I could explain to my wife that I wanted yet another camera after telling her previously that I didn’t need it!  +1 for the X100S! My wife and I were due to go out to a restaurant that evening.  The X100S came along (as my X100 would normally).   To start with it was performing well, then it got dark.  I couldn’t get it to focus on my wife’s face.  I gave up and switched to MF, and using the brilliant split-screen focusing I could continue shooting without any more frustration.  Wow, that split-screen focus-assist mode is fantastic – whoever thought of putting that on the X100S should get a large pay rise!  Twist the focus ring, it zooms in automatically, line up the split rectangles and boom! You’ve got your shot.  I do remember saying something about not using MF on my X100 and wondering why anyone would bother, well with the split-screen assist mode I can absolutely see why someone would use it!  +1 for the X100S!  Sadly though the love affair with this new camera was starting to fade – it was still missing in auto-focus and frustrating me.  Again, it was faces that it had a problem with – I don’t know what it is with Fujifilm and faces, all their X-Series cameras seem to suffer from this issue! After we got back, I took a wander around the streets in the dark on my own (I do love night time scenes in a deserted town).  This time I took both the X100S and the X100.  I carefully set both cameras to identical settings beforehand.  I started testing out the high ISO to compare the two cameras.  The X100S really does out-perform the X100 here, anything over ISO 1600 and you can really notice the difference, get to ISO 6400 and it’s seriously ahead, another +1 for the X100S. Then things started to go wrong again.  I found a bench lit by a streetlight from above.  The X100S resolutely refused to focus no matter what I did.  I switched to split-screen, but because the bench had only horizontal slats I couldn’t see the splits in the focus panel!  Now I understand why they put focus-peeking in as well!  I got it focused and took a few shots, then switched to my X100 – bang, AF locked first time!!  I repeated this over and over, checked the settings on both cameras – the X100S totally refused to focus where the X100 got it every time.  I couldn’t really believe it – after everything I had read about how wonderful the new AF system on the X100S was and that it was slaughtering the poor old X100, but here I was with the X100 locking AF where the X100S just wouldn’t!  Several other incidents that night proved to show the same thing. I got up early the next morning and sat the X100S and X100 up side-by-side to do a video comparing the two, running through the differences and the new X100S menu system, followed by some AF tests.  Initially the X100S was outperforming the X100, as I fully expected that it would do, then I turned the lights out – the X100 started focus quicker than the X100S.  I closed the blinds and they both ended up pretty much identical!  There is one case where the X100S is very clearly way ahead of the X100 and that’s close range shooting – you no longer have to switch to macro mode for things that are at close-ish range (30-50cm) to get it to autofocus reliably – and that’s where the X100S was beating my X100 the previous evening shooting my little girl.  The X100S is so much faster than the X100 at that, you can hardly tell that they are related. The problem comes when you get into low light, where phase-detection doesn’t work all that well.  For some reason it looks like Fujifilm have installed an older AF firmware routine in the X100S than the X100!  As I say in the video (below) I think a lot of people, particularly ones that only ever used the X100 at launch don’t realise just how much better the X100 became after Fujifilm started releasing firmware updates for it.   If you don’t believe me then have a look in the video below.  I’m not trying to put the X100S down, I’m a massive Fujifilm X-Series fan and I’d much rather tell you that it’s better and harp on about how wonderful it is and you should buy it, but I’m not going to lie just because I love Fujifilm! ....

This page will get updated as I get to know the camera better. Having used the previous model, the X100, I will primarily focus on the differences between these two models.

I will also link to photos as soon as I have had time to shoot properly. Check back in a while! :)

Auto focus

- Let’s just get that one out of the way. Incredible speed-up compared with the X100. Nothing more to add. It’s fantastic.
- There is something called “High Performance” under “Power Management” in the settings, which will increase AF speed further (as well as shorten startup time). I will get back on how this may impact the focus speed. Somehow it doesn’t feel important as the AF speed is already fantastic.

Manual focusing and the MF ring

- The MF ring is quick, responsive and smooth and it just works! It features variable sensitiveness and becomes more sensitive as you go closer (e.g. macro), requiring more turns.
- You can set the camera to automatically zoom into the MF assist modes (standard, focus peaking, split image) when you touch the MF ring. Half-pressing the shutter will zoom out. Nice feature!
- Quickly switch between AF-S and MF as they are now the outer options of the switch on the side of the camera. Minor design difference which gives major impact on how I will use this camera.

Hybrid viewfinder

- Higher resolution is very noticeable and refreshing.
- Less lag, if any.

Menus

- Auto ISO is now available in the same menu as ISO.
- ND no longer accessible from Q menu (but can still be assigned to the Fn button, just like on the X100). It should really be added to the new Q menu though (via future firmware update), if possible.
- Menus feel much snappier, no lag anywhere. Now you can shoot and use the menus immediately without any lockup of the menus.
- The menus are now organized and with tabs on the side and the new Q menu is a quick way to choose - or divert from - the three saved custom settings (C1, C2, C3).
- Hold and press Q results in increased brightness of LCD. Great for shooting outdoors in bright light. Nice!
- Possible bug: The Q menu’s “Basic” mode does not remember the Auto ISO setting when switching between C1/C2/C3/Basic. Instead it inherits values from custom profiles C1 or C3 (depending on which way you scroll through the three custom profiles). To clarify, “Basic” mode is what your camera is set to when you haven’t loaded a saved custom setting — or what happens when you load a saved custom setting (e.g. C1) and then divert from it by changing a setting on top of it.

Video

- The MF ring works really well while recording video. When turning the MF ring, it’s hard to not shake the camera (just like with any camera) and some sound noise is generated.
- Much improved bitrate/quality, video looks great.
- MF assist does not work with video, where it is badly needed. Especially focus peaking. I hope Fuji will implement this in a future firmware update.
- Macro control can’t be reached in video mode (you have to exit video mode and enable macro, then go back into video mode and it will work).
- There sometimes seems to be strobing in video shot the wider you go and in certain lighting conditions. This is probably just the way it works as the camera is setting the shutter automatically (this also means no need for zebra). When I’ve experienced strobing, I can just go less wide and it disappears. It’s a non-issue to me.
- Both 30 and 60 fps modes produce a 1920x1080 movie. I’ll check and see if there are different bitrates to them. I’ll also perform a slowdown test from 60fps to 30 fps to see how slow motion would look.

JPEG

- JPEG blacks by default seem to too dark for my taste. I’m experimenting with custom shadow tone values here…
- Sometimes noise reduction smearing at default value when pixel peeping at 100% scale. I’m experimenting with custom NR values here…......

Better late then never. I finally had the chance to play with the Sony Nex 6 and the new collapsible 16-50mm kit lens. First thing I noticed was the size of the lens, retracted, it is about the same size as the Fujinon 18mm f2 and looked proportionally “correct” on the Nex body. There was no time for an in depth comparison between the Fuji X-E1 since I only had the camera for half a day. Instead, I will try to summarize my impressions of both cameras.....

As a purist with no interest in video, the choice is easy. Fuji X-E1. Anyone serious about video, the Nex 6 is a no brainer. I hope this helps some of you to make a decision. PS: I was also interested to find out how the 16-50mm collapsible lens performs, esp when compared to Sony’s monster flagship 18-200mm and managed to shot a quick test. Should have it up in a couple of days.

.... I looked for chromatic aberration at 18mm, and found it. It's about the same as the CA on the prime 18mm lens - so that's no big deal, easily corrected in Lightroom. I turned off the image stabilization on the zoom (more about the IS later) and took a few test shots at 18mm and 35mm so that I could compare the sharpness to the two prime lenses. At 18mm it's pretty much the same. At 35mm the prime has a thick hair's advantage.

I didn't have any complaints about the focus speed of the prime lenses right out of the box, clearly this wasn't a clunky DSLR with huge, heavy lenses so I had realistic expectations. After the firmware updates the speed of focus was a non-issue for me. At 18mm and 35mm the auto focus speed of the zoom lens is the same as the primes. The response is a little slower at 55mm, but I don't have the 60mm prime to compare.

I had only one lens for my Nikon D700 with image stabilization, a 70-300 f3.5-5.6 zoom. I rarely used the lens, so I have nothing to which I can compare the Fuji's IS. I am, however, totally impressed with the increase in flexibility that the IS allows. I have been able to hand hold the camera and shoot comfortably at shutter speeds down to 1/30th second. I pushed some shots one stop slower - to 1/15th sec. - and the results are quite satisfactory considering that the slower shutter speed buys some ISO speed and lower noise in the image.

The first of these shots was taken at 1/60th second, f4, ISO 5000, these are jpegs, generated from raw data by Lightroom, without any processing.....

Adobe made a little noise with the release of Lightroom 4.4 and its working closely with Fufifilm to provide top notch decoding of .RAF files from Fujifilm X-Pro1, X-E1, X100S, and X-20 cameras. This lead to some speculation that Apple would be left out in the cold with Raw decoding for X-Trans sensors.

Well, apparently not. Apple today released Raw Compatibility Update v4.05 with support for these very same cameras. So how do these two applications stack up for Fujifilm camera owners?

No image editing was enabled in either application. Files were saved out at the highest export settings. So what you see here is essentially how each application decoded the .RAF files from a Fujifilm X-20 camera. (Imagine how the Raw files from the X100S look!). In my opinion, both applications do an excellent job of handling .RAF files. And the fact that both Apple and Adobe had the RAW updates so quickly after the release of the new X-Trans cameras (X-20 & X100S), says that both are taking these cameras seriously. Well done....