Some more observations on the Fuji X-E4 after several months with the camera
A little while ago I wrote my first impressions of the Fuji X-E4, but having been using the camera for a little while now, I wanted to follow up with some more observations. I often find that a problem with camera review is that they are written after only a short time with a camera, and often miss out on things that come to light later. So, that’s the purpose of this review. It’s not to slam the camera or say it’s the greatest thing ever. It’s to highlight some things, both good and bad, that I’ve discovered while using it, so that if you’re considering purchasing one, you can be fully informed. Or at least have a more complete perspective on what it’s like to use one.
The Basic Stuff
Overall, I’m mostly impressed with the camera. Well, perhaps impressed might be pushing it. Let’s just say it has surpassed expectations. I mean, it’s a fine camera, and it’s definitely superior to older Fuji cameras in the same lineup, but it’s nothing spectacular. Nor should it be, really. It’s about what you would expect a modern mirrorless camera to be. It does, however, still have a lot of Fuji’s…let’s just call them quirks.
Panorama taken with the X-E4
Still Image Quality
The image quality is better than I was expecting. Well, it is if you use a proper RAW conversion method, such as the “Enhance” function in Lightroom. I’ve been using this most of all, as I prefer the results I’m getting, even to something like Capture One. The extra step is a pain, and the bigger slower files are a pain, but the image quality can be that much better depending on the contents of the photo.
The only downside that I noted is that it doesn’t retain as much highlight detail as my 8-year-old Sony A6000. I can recover more highlights from that camera’s RAW files. I don’t know if that necessarily means that the camera has less dynamic range – it might simply be that it's calibrated more towards retaining shadow detail than highlight detail. Either way, I’ve found that I need to be more careful of highlights – but this is the case with all Fuji cameras. I'm not convinced that using the DR modes makes a huge difference if shooting raw, either – as I’m sure someone is thinking right now.
Image quality is a tricky thing to quantify. Compared to the Sony A6000, which again, is an old camera now, I would give the Sony a slight edge in terms of image quality – but only at lower ISOs (up to about 400). After that, the Fuji X-E4 is much better at controlling noise. But at lower ISOs, especially at ISO 100, the Sony is a little better in my opinion. Or at least, I prefer the results I get from the Sony. The only exception is that the Sony can sometimes give you weird flesh tone colours in some lighting conditions. Fuji’s colours are of course legendary, so it wins on colour, but the Sony has some good results too, depending on the subject and the conditions. The Sony has really nice green tones, for example.
I’m sure many people will disagree with this assessment. After all, it is to some extent subjective. I think it's down to the fact that X-Trans images just look a certain way – and whether you prefer that look or not is a subjective thing. To be honest, I go back and forward, but based on my experience, I still prefer the Sony in certain circumstances. But this could be partly just what I’m used to. It could also be the lenses that I'm using.
I’ve put up a gallery of real-world sample images taken with the Fuji X-E4 you can peruse here. These are photos I’ve taken while using the camera over the past few months, and aren’t specifically taken for the purpose of being used as samples. So when I say “real world” I reallyt do mean it.
Autofocus quirkiness
While the autofocus of the camera is much improved over my older Fujis (X-E2 and X-Pro2) it’s still problematic in certain conditions and with certain subjects. I may have pointed this out before in a previous article, but one of the things that annoys me about camera reviews these days is the way they test autofocus. They always concentrate on tracking quality and speed, and almost never check basic single point autofocus in a variety of conditions.
For the most part, the X-E4 is fine, but like most Fuji cameras I have owned, it struggles with small objects. For example – taking a picture of a flower or a branch in front of a background, it will tend to focus on the background. If there’s foreground items, it will tend to focus on them, and it’s very inconsistent.
You can ease this a bit by shrinking the focus point size, but it will often miss the focus. This has been the same for every Fujifilm camera I’ve owned – so unless I’m missing the magic “make it work properly” button, I think this is a fair criticism. (Cue people emailing me with the inevitable “this has never happened to me, so you must be doing something wrong or lying” comments. )
It’s not insolvable. Usually moving around a bit you’ll eventually get it to lock on the right subject – but it could be better, and it annoys me that most reviewers never …ahem…focus on this. Get it? See what I did there? Sigh.
Touch Screen and Other Niggles with the Fuji X-E4
The one thing that frustrates me most about the camera is the touch screen. I’ve previously highlighted my issues with the annoying way the screen flips the image if you have it pointing up and get too close to it, but wait, there’s more!
The screen is a touch screen, which is fine, except that it’s really sensitive, so it’s very easy to activate it accidentally. You can easily unintentionally move the focus point by just glancing off the screen. Now there is a control to turn the touch focus option off, but that itself is a touch control, and that’s really easy to hit off too, turning it back to touch and then moving the focus point. It’s kind of mad how easy it is to do. At one point I just turned the touch function off altogether, it was annoying me that much. I appreciate the touch screen, but it’s just super sensitive.
Overall, the only other thing that bothers me about it is just a general level of fiddliness. I’m sure most of this is simply a matter of getting used to it, but I think Fuji’s quest for minimisation has come at a bit of a price. One more custom button, bring back the d-pad, the focus mode switch or even the back dial would make it less finicky, but as it is, it’s a bit…well, fiddley.
Don’t get me wrong. In some ways, this belies the camera's underlying power. I mean, it's essentially 90% of an X-T4 crammed into a tiny body, but sometimes it just feels a bit unnecessarily complicated getting to that power.
Video
I am pleasantly surprised by the video quality. It’s much better than I was expecting. I had been checking lots of online reviews and footage tests before I bought it, and some of them looked good, but others looked terrible, so I didn’t really know what to expect. When I wrote the first review, I had only tried it a little bit, but since then, I shot a whole episode of “Street Photo Diary” on the camera, and I’m more than happy with it now.
This video was (mostly) shot with the Fuji X-E4 (even though it’s about the Sony A6000! - But its a good showcase of the X-E4 video quality.
I shot in Eterna and haven’t tried LOG yet, but Eterna gives you a nice image that's reasonably gradable, without having to go through too much effort. I’m sure dynamic range is substantially better when shooting in f-log, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle. Overall though the video image quality is excellent.
The only downside is the lack of IBIS. I thought that the IS in the lens would be enough, but it isn’t. It’s still fairly jerky using the 18-55 with IS on. In hindsight I should have got the X-S10, but anyway. It’s a pity Fuji doesn’t make a camera in this form factor with IBIS.
The only other thing that is mildly annoying is the method of switching between photo and video mode. You have to press the drive button then select video from the menu, and it takes a second to switch. It’s not something you could use in a hurry. You can set one of the custom buttons to act as a quick record button, but there are limited custom buttons compared to previous X-E series cameras. If only they hadn’t got rid of the d-pad. In the end, I set the top function button on mine to quick record. A physical switch for video mode would be ideal.
Conclusion
So, that's about it for now. I’ll do another follow up after I’ve been using it for even longer or if I find any more interesting did-bits, either good or bad. As I said at the beginning – it’s a fine, albeit quirky camera. If you’re looking for something small and compact, it does the job well. Is it better than the competitors in the field – I don’t know, as I haven’t really tried many of them? I think that question really depends on how you plan to use the camera. On paper, it has great specs, but reality is not a spec sheet. You can take great pictures with it, much like you can with most modern cameras, so it really comes down to usability, ergonomics and what your personal use case is. Hopefully, my modest observations will help you if you are considering one and are on the fence.
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