Switching to a Fuji X-E4? First Impressions
A few years ago, I was pretty heavily invested in the whole world of Fujifilm cameras. However, since my X-Pro 2 broke a few years ago, I haven’t had the time or the finances to replace or repair it, and so I’ve fallen out of regularly covering Fujifilm topics. Moreover, my various Fuji guides have become really out of date, and I’ve been wanting to get back to if for some time. So recently, I decided I was going to get one of the latest Fuji cameras to re-immerse myself in the ecosystem, and start (finally) updating my guides. But then the conundrum came – which one to get?
Now, obviously you already know the answer to this question, as it’s in the heading, but I briefly want to discuss my thought process in case anyone else is having a similar dilemma. Perviously, I have owned the following:
- X100 (still have and use occasionally)
- X-Pro1 (sold)
- X-E1 (Still have but rarely use)
- X-Pro2 (Currently non-functional)
I had considered three options for the new camera: X-T4, X-E4 or X-S10. I spent nearly a month trying to decide (they were out of stock too, so that helped) and I watched a tone of video reviews on YouTube as well as reading many reviews and trying sample images.
At first, the X-T4 would seem like the obvious choice. It is effectively the highest end of the Fuji lineup, but it’s also the most expensive. It’s also the oldest of the three. The X-S10 is like a cut down version of this but without the manual dials. The X-E4 is the cheapest of the three, and also the smallest. The thing with Fuji is they all have the same sensor, so they’re all going to have the same image quality. So, it comes down to ergonomics. As I want to also use it for shooting street photography, I went with the X-E14 as this feels file the ideal option for that. I also wanted a more up-to-date replacement for my X100 and with a small pancake lens, the X-E4 is around the same size, so I ended up getting the kit with the new 27 mm pancake lens.
Initial reactions
I’ve had it for a few days now, and I’ve taken it out on one attempt at street shooting, so below are some observations, in no particular order.
Body Design and Ergonomics
I really like the new design. It feels really solid. It seems much more substantial than my older Fuji X-E1, and I like the clean, minimalist design. Furthermore, it’s more reminiscent of a Leica camera or something Apple would have designed under Jonny Ive.
Ergonomically, I don’t mind the feel of it. I’ve seen some reviewers complain about the smoothness of the body, and suggesting that it needs the optional grip to be easier to hold, but I found it ok. I may end up getting the external grip anyway, but it wasn’t an issue, at least on my first outing.
film X-E4 compared to X-E1 and Fuji X100
The lack of d-pad is a bit annoying. It was handy on the older bodies for quickly getting to settings. Between that and the lack of a focus mode switch, there appears to be a bit of hoop-jumping on this to get to various settings that used to be easier to get to.
The other minor annoyance is the lack of a charger in the box. I get that this has been the way with Fuji cameras, and in fact most cameras, for a while now, but it’s still a bit of a pain. All you get is a very short USB-A to USB-C cable. They say in the manual that the charging time when connected to a computer is around 5 hours, which seems a bit ridiculous. Luckily, I can still use the chargers for my older cameras, so I didn’t have to go buy another one. They don’t make it clear in the manual whether you can fast charge from a higher spec USB charger, but for now, I’ll stick to only using USB charging in emergencies.
There were a few “flyers” in the box – little leaflets for various things. One of them was a leaflet for Capture One express, which I guess is the default software now. There didn’t seem to be any mention of the older silkypix based software, so I guess that's a thing of the past now. The other funny one was a leaflet warning not to attempt to attach the strap to the camera by the strap buckles, as it might brake it. So, I guess someone has tried that before then.
It’s a shame the body doesn’t have IBIS. I know Fuji have said it’s too small, but I don’t buy that. The X-S10 isn’t that much bigger, and it has IBIS. Moreover, the Sony A6600 is the same size, and it too has sensor stabilisation. It’s not a huge deal, but it would have been nice.
Functions and Shooting
Functionality wise, it seems like a big step-up over my previous Fuji cameras. I know I’m late to the X-Trans 4 space, and so some of this is probably old now, but compared to the X-Pro2, there seem to be far more options and menu commands than on previous versions. The way the touch screen works is a little confusing too, but I expect it’s a matter of figuring out.
I took it out to do some street shooting, and it worked remarkably well. Autofocus is super snappy and seems to work very well for the way I was using it – and I hadn’t even optimised my set-up for street shooting. It does still have an issue with locking onto small objects into a frame, but overall, I was impressed.
The flip up screen is great for shooting from the hip, but there’s a really annoying bug in the camera. Well, technically, it’s not a bug but the way a feature is implemented.
Because you can flip the screen completely up to turn it into a selfie screen, the camera uses an optical sensor in the back of the viewfinder to detect the position. This flips the image on the screen, so it’s the correct way up when the screen is facing you. Most other cameras I’ve ever used have some sort of mechanical switch in the mechanism for this, but Fuji uses a similar sensor to the one which switches to the viewfinder when you put the camera up to your eye.
The problem is, this sensor is very sensitive, so the camera flips the screen if you’re holding it anywhere close to your body. If I’m trying to shoot with the screen flipped up, and I hold the camera at waist level, I have to hold it away from me or the image flips upside down. Numerous other reviewers have noticed this issue too. It’s a crazy stupid implementation, and I hope they can fix it in a firmware update. It’s the only really bad feature on the camera that I’ve found. Other than that, it’s great.
Overall, it’s a fine camera for my style of street photography. My main camera for street shooting has been my trusty Sony A6000, and as it’s getting a little worn around the edges, I’m happy enough that this can easily replace it for my way of shooting. If only they’d fix the screen flip thing. I’ll have more on the X-E4 for street shooting soon. (I’m still getting used to it)
27 mm Lens and Image Quality
The 27 mm lens is quite interesting. It’s very compact, and yet, the quality is surprisingly good. It’s quite sharp, but does seem to suffer from quite a bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration. It’s not the best lens Fuji makes by any means, but it's more than good enough. I only wish it was a bit sharper.
In terms of image quality, as the X-E4 uses the same 26mp sensor as many other Fuji cameras, you’re probably already well aware of what this sensor can do. For the samples here, I shot raw and processed in Lightroom using the “enhance” function. I also tried Capture One and got similar results. I found that the dynamic range is a little less than Sony’s APS-C cameras, although it could simply be that Sony’s favour highlight recovery a bit more.
The one thing I did find, is that on a couple of images, the highlights were for some reason un-recoverable. It’s as if they were clipped, but there was no reason for them to be. I thought at first, maybe they were at a higher ISO or something, but they weren’t. I really don’t know why they were like that. It could simply have been some weird freak of the scene, and the way it was backlit, but it’s something I’ll keep an eye on.
Conclusion
I’m more than happy based on my initial testing. It’s a nice little camera, and I’m hoping it will replace my X100 and Sony A6000 in my current workflow. It is also replacing my X-Pro2, but that hasn’t worked in a long time. I’d get it fixed, but the cost was about two thirds the cost of the X-E4. I still have more to test, including the video, which looks promising so far based on my quick tests with it. I hope to get one or more of the sigma lenses too when they come out. Finally, as well as finally updating my various guides (I’m already working on the Lightroom one) I hope to be able to get back to shooting “Street Photo Diary”. Lots more to come, so stay tuned.
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