Top 3 Loves and Hates of Shooting Fujifilm X-T1 in 2019 compared to Fujifilm X-E3

It’s summer, which means 2 full months of holidays from my teaching job!

I have already passed 2 weeks with that annoying SonyAlphaRumors guy in beautiful Croatia. :)

However, I have no other travels planed, given that I married in May and must a little bit recover financially now (*).

So, together with my wife we decided to spend most of our summer just hiking on the mountains around my home. And frankly, I do not desire nor need more than this right now.

Sometimes we sleep on a mountain hut and enjoy the sunrises at high altitude (and with a bit of luck also meeting fellow Fujifilm shooters up there).

We might, though, make one short honeymoon city trip, maybe to Paris?

Ok, I hear you, come to the point! Camera comparison, NOW!

Well, since I bought the Fujifilm X-E3, I have basically never touched my trusty Fujifilm X-T1 anymore (which still holds the sceptre for taking my all time favorite image).

My wife kindly invited me to sell it, but the answer I could give her was no other than this one :).

So, to justify the fact that I still own the X-T1, I took it out for a recent mountain hike, put it into my Camslinger bag, and shot again a whole day with it.

It was like rediscovering the Fujifilm X-T1, and here are 3 things I loved and hated about shooting with it again.

Loves:

• the ISO dial
  I know, manual controls are not for everybody. But they are for me. And I loved it to have my dedicated ISO dial back
• the big EVF
  It might not have the stellar resolution of the most modern Fujifilm cameras, but having such a big EVF was a pleasure
• the tilt screen
  Who hikes high up in the mountain, will know that even in highest summer, the greenland is full of flowers like it was spring. So I took some images of my wife in the grass, surrounded by flowers, and the tilt screen came in handy for some of those low angled shots

Hates:

• no joystic
  One could wonder how Fujifilm could have even designed a camera without joystick in the first place. A camera without joystick is a deal breaker for me nowadays
• no corner placement of viewfinder
  I don’t have the Voldemort nose. Being right eye dominant, I missed the freedom of having most of my face and my view free
• no one-handed operation
  It annoyed me more than I would have thought, but I missed the one-handed operation of my Fujifilm X-E3. On my X-E3 everything is nice and clean on my right side, and I can do everything without ever needing to remove my eye from the viewfinder or my left hand from the lens

Ergonomics vs Performance

Sure, the Fujifilm X-E3 offers faster autofocus, higher megapixel, cleaner high ISO, eye detection, more dynamic range, additional Fujifilm film simulations, better video etc.

But as you can se from the list above, all these aspects were, for me and my personal needs, less important compared to the handling and ergonomics of the camera.

Probably because the performance of relatively modern cameras is usually pretty amazing anyway, and certain design/ergonomic choices that do not suit my shooting style annoy me more than less megapixel or a bit slower AF.

I am not saying that ergonomics are more important than performance, but, for my needs, they are at least just as important.

This is why I am so grateful that Fujifilm offers so many different styled cameras, as opposed to for example Sony.

The Sony A7 series is almost unchanged since its launch, almost as if Sony would think they crafted the universally perfectly designed camera for every photographer right at the start.

Don’t get me wrong: Sony is amazing, Sony is great, Sony is a much-needed competitor in the camera business. But it’s not my pair of shoes.

I want choice. I want a camera that suits my style.

I want…

… a Fujifilm X-E4 with combined ISO/Shutter dial and tilt screen. :)