Fujifilm X-E3: Impressive AF Tracking… Small, but Fujifilm Needs More “Fujicake” Pancake Lenses!

LivingVertical had a long Fujifilm X-E3 live stream Q&A (1:26 hours). Check out the video above.

But since I know that many of you might not have the time right now to watch it all, and I’m in bed on my 9th day of antibiotics anyway ;), I took my time and made summary of his main points below.

Overall he is seriously impressed with the camera, especially with the autofocus. Just two major complaints: the EVF eye piece does not protrude enough to block light properly and given the small size of the camera, he would like to have more pancake options from Fujifilm, besides the XF27mm and XF18mm, in order to make it really pocketable.

Do you agree? Would you like to have more “Fujicake” or “Fujimarit” options in the Fuji X lens line-up, in the addition to the F2 “Fujicron” and the fast F1.2 or F1.4 “Fujilux” lenses?

I certainly would love them. A nice 23 pancake prime and why not, maybe even a pancake zoom, something like the Panasonic 14-42mm OIS pancake (35mm equiv. to 28-84) that I owned in my early mirrorless life, before my love story with Fujifilm started.

So… here is the summary:

• X-E3 feel really fun, well conceived and executed. Small but not tiny. Clean and simply design, but not lacking anything. Very simple and intuitive
• body is small, but lenses (except 27 and 18) are not really that small, so it’s not a jacket-pocketable camera like the X100F
• tracking Autofocus speed and accuracy noticeably better than X-T2. The X-E3 found the face of his daughter and tracked it great out of the box no matter in which direction his daughter run. Fast and precise and no delay and hunting. He’s incredibly enthusiastic about the AF.
• touch screen pretty well implemented, but still work to do to improve responsiveness
• viewfinder eye-piece does not block properly the outside light. The EVF is actually his one major complaint (or better, the EVF eye piece)
• Bluetooth connectivity is not so straight forward and a little bit touch and go (but a major X-E3 update is coming for bluetooth)
• Video: LivingVertical says the X-E3 is not in the “hybrid market” (stills+video). For video he recommends a camera with IBIS (Sony A6500 or Panasonic G85), but for stills he would pick Fuji over Sony
• Using touch screen in EVF mode: normally, when you are in LCD mode, you can change focus point by tapping the screen or by dragging the focus point around. When you are in EVF mode, though, you can’t tap anymore, only drag the AF point. Sometimes dragging the AF-point activated one of the 4 custom functions. He ended up using the joystick.
• He is confident that future firmware update will improve touch responsiveness
• He wants a line of pancake lenses, like there is a new line of F2 lenses, so that the X-E3 would become super-portable
• The lack of tilt screen is not a big deal to LivingVertical. He misses more the weather sealing.
• Fuji colors are consistently really very good, but he shoots mostly RAW because he likes to edit his photos
• battery life indicator not accurate. When it shows 50% left, it’s basically just 10% left
• built-in ND filter on interchangeable Fuji cameras would be awesome

See the whole video at LivingVertical Youtube

More X-E3 stuff

• Fujifilm X-E3 review at thephoblographer
• Family Time With The X-E3 Pt.2 at Fuji Guys Youtube

Fujifilm X-E3: USA: BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS, FocusCamera EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, WexUK, PCHstore