Hi Steve,
I picked up the X-E1 with it’s 18-55mm in Tokyo last month and I have to say this is one fun and surprisingly intuitive little camera, so much easier to pick up and use than the X100 it replaced. The attached photos are all taken in Paris last week with the X-E1 and the kit lens, postprocessed in LR and Silver Efex (check out sortvitt.com for more X-E1 shots). It was cold, windy and overcast – just perfect for BW shooting.
“Feeling Art, Louvre 2012” (X-E1, 18-55mm at 19mm, f4.0, 1/30, ISO2500)
There is a department in Louvre for visuallly impaired where you can touch and feel the sculptures. I passed by it’s entrance seeing a group of visitors exploring this little angel. I like the way it seems to bend down, tilt it’s head towards the couple and let itself be touched. There is an array of colours in the original so I decided to process it in BW to have it “settle down” and let the eye focus on the interaction amongst the three…
“Cable car, Eiffel 2012” (X-E1, 18-55mm at 19mm, f4.5, 1/10, ISO400)
Coming down from a trip to the top of the Eiffel tower I spotted this cable car getting filled up and ready to ascend. It was one of those moments where you know there will be a photo in there somewhere especially when you get kids in range, This works well in colour with the red cable car framing the passengers, but BW seems to bring more focus to the expectations in the kids faces.
“Fleeting heart, Paris 2012” (X-E1, 18-55mm at 44mm, f4.0, 1/30, ISO1000)
The bubble-maker was creating these huge spheres with the heart existing for a couple of seconds. It was drizzling and the wet ground add some nice reflections in the scene. Again I chose BW to make the heart shaped bubble stand out more.
Jan C. Brunaes
Wonderful black and white shots here!!
Richard,
As an Xe-1 owner, I’d say go for the X-pro if you don’t mind the size. Yes, the evf isn’t quite as nice, but having an actual ofv is a so much purer form of composing…
Thanks for the honesty. I believe you are the only one who I have read who had the nuts to say go with the Pro over the XE-1.
Love the images especially since you did them as monchromes. For me, I just prefer my images in b&w just because, IMO, it removes distractions.
One question, Jan, how does the handling of the X-E1 compare to the X-Pro1? I am looking to add either one or the other (maqinly for the high ISO capability) but cannot decide between the two. Image quality is the same (same sensor, processor, etc) but the EVF of the X-E1 is higher resolution than the Pro but the Pro has OVF and a better LCD for review when needed. Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.
I haven’t used the X-Pro1 besides handling it briefly in shops. I needed a smaller size camera that could fit in my bag when I am on the road. I use a Leica M as my main camera and got a X2 first. It had to go when the X-E1 came out, it just ticked all the boxes. Is it the perfect camera? At this price point it certainly is to me. Until the next one come out 😉
Good luck with your selection, I am sure you will be happy with either camera. As lainey says above, the kit lens is really good. I was considering a couple of primes, but the 18-55 covers most of the situations I need it to.
I agree that the Fuji X-E1 is a wonderful camera. The kit lens is awesome as well.The out-of-camera JPEGS are the best I’ve seen from ANY camera. Fuji just nails it. I save the RAW files. I am hearing Capture One is the best to use right now for those files. One of these days I will add some of the lenses to the mix, but for right now, the 18-55mm kit lens is superb.
I’m pretty much a sucker for photos shot in Paris, so I had to read the article after scanning the first two sentences. Really enjoyed the shots. Your explanation of the angel bending down to be touched by the visually impaired visitors was quite moving.
I’ll be going back to Paris soon and hope to bring back intimate shots like yours.
Do you have a link to more of your work?
Hi Thomas, you can see more on http://www.sortvitt.com. All of the city shots are taken with the X-E1, except Bangkok where I used an M9.
Enjoy Paris, an awesome city for photography!
Nice pictures! B&W perfect for rainly day. I like the “cable car” shot!
Kudos to your eye and editing skills. Really like the cable car image too. Jan, you mentioned that when you shot bracketed that it only saved in jpg format, can that be changed to RAW in the settings options?
Yes, you can shoot bracketed in RAW (I had tried out different shooting modes at the top of the Eiffel tower and forgot to reset it on the way down).
The cable car shot is amazing. Im thinking of moving to the X-E1 from X100, can’t decide between the 35 1.4 or the 18-55, both seem great but these shots are def down to your skill as a photographer rather than any camera system.
Great set – looking forward to see more of your work here!
And I agree, b/w-jpegs produced on the X-series do impress.
Really love the cable car image, so much to look at with all the expressions, almost like a painting.
Nice set. Thanks.
I love the Eiffell car shot!
Really interesting to see your BW and hear your reflections on why you chose rather than colour. I’d like to know whether you shot in RAW and whether LR gave you the necessary support, given the discussion there’s been on RAW support for the X series.
Hi John,
Two are shot in RAW while the “Cable car” was shot in JPG (I had set the drive to autobracketing and wasn’t aware it saved bracketed files as jpegs…). The JPG quality has to be some of the best straight out of the camera, it is really impressive.
I used LR for some basic adjustments before editing in Silver Efex and had no problems with it. It seems slower in processing than if I work with DNG or CR2, but it could be my aging computer can’t keep up.
I think what John wanted to know is if you had the so called ‘water color’ effect in you images when processing in Lightroom. You have to zoom in to 100% to see the effect. It’s nasty and because Lightroom is my editing tool, it kept me from buying a Fuji X series camera.
I haven’t noticed any of the watercolor artifacts when using LR for the X-E1 RAW files. Went back to sample a few, but I cant find any signs of it (I am on 64-bit LR 4.3) .
Snappy, I’m not trying to be provocative here but if you have to zoom in to 100% to see the effect, how much of a problem is it really?
Nice shots Jan. You have a good eye.