Retro-Tastic Fujifilm Mirrorless X-E1 Announced

Hot-looking. And fairly capable.

Fujifilm has – as expected – announced the X-E1 mirrorless compact camera. If it had come a year ago, we’d all be going crazy about it. Now, though, it’s little more than a cheaper version of the X-Pro1, without that all-important hybrid viewfinder.

Worse, the X-E1 isn’t even that cheap. The body alone will cost you $1000, and with an 18-55mm ƒ2.8-4 (stabilized) kit lens it’ll be $1,400. The X-Pro1 costs $1,700, body-only.

What you do get is the same 16MP APS-C sensor as in the X-Pro1, a 2.4-million dot optical viewfinder (not bad!), and a pop-up flash. And if you pair it with the above-mentioned kit lens then the AF times are as short as 0.1 seconds, which sounds good but isn’t quite in DSLR territory.

Should you buy this camera? Well, it looks nice – better than any of the Sony NEX cameras. And it also seems very well built. It also accepts Fujifilm’s growing line of X-series lenses. So if you already have an X-Pro and you need a second, smaller body then why not. On the other hand you could buy the Canon EOS-M, which doesn’t have a viewfinder but costs $800 and works with pretty much any Canon lens made since the 1980s.

You decide.

• Source FUJIFILM
• Via Digital Photography Review

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