The Fujifilm X-E3, a Z5, and my Sony A6300
Updated 5/29/2023 with additional notes.
My quick thoughts after months with the X-E3
You can see some of the image I’ve shot with my X-E3 on my Fuji Corner page here on my website. I’ve shot quite a few images that I’m very proud of with this camera and I do love the tactility of the Fuji cameras. They resonate with I think every photographer who has shot film, worked in the dark room, and any who like to slow down and make meaningful and impactful imagery while shooting. Rather than shooting a bunch of photos, and then sorting through the thousands you took for the 1 of 30 of the same subject that is the right shot. The Fuji and the idea of using film simulations will make you slow down and try to shoot great photos with no need to edit, and this is wonderful because your “hit rate” will increase. But don’t be fooled, you can do “film simulations” in other cameras as well. They just aren’t called film simulations like Fuji calls them in camera. So lets get on to my story of my acquisition of this camera.
The Trade-In and the Regret
A few months ago, I traded my Sony A6300 and it’s lenses to put towards a Z5 for a backup camera. I quicly came to regret hocking my little walk around camera that had shot many photos I’m proud of. I would even say I regret it to an extent and potentially wish I has just put the money up front for the Z5. It wasn’t that I couldn’t have, I just though the Z5 would become the EDC camera that the A6300 was.
I was super excited and got the Z5 home and unpacked. I tossed the 40mm F/2 onto the Z5 and the 24-200 F/3.5-6.3 into my 5.11 Messenger bag. As I went to put the Z5 into my bag, I noticed the error I had made, and it was already done, no takebacks… The EVF of the Z5 was much larger, and quite frankly, the Z5 itself, even minus the EVF, was much larger than the A6300 and I was worried about the potential of either the Z5 taking a bump through the bag, to the hotshoe and EVF, or that the EVF and hotshoe would damage a laptop that may occasionally be in my bag. Now I don’t recommend using cameradecision.com to truly base any decisions you make during camera purchases, but I’ll use it to illustrate a point here. Click the link below, and then scroll to the size diagrams.
https://cameradecision.com/compare/Nikon-Z5-vs-Sony-Alpha-a6300
Do you see my lack of awareness? The Z5 is 101mm tall, and the A6300 is 67mm tall. Upon this discovery, it didn’t take much longer than a week or two for me to be on the hunt for an EDC camera. That is a huge margin of difference. Enter KSL Classifieds, and the Fuji X-E3. Sadly, it seems most people LOVE their Sony A6x00 cameras. There are almost never any on KSL that are in good shape, or that are priced to what I could justify. I always see the A6000, A6100 posted, but don’t want to go backwards from what I had. I also always see A6400 and A6500 cameras but they are priced more than I can justify. Although now that I think of it, my regret probably signifies I should have just justified one of these. Eventually I come to the idea that I’m after a Fuji model camera. I’ve see many wonderful images from photographers with their X-Pro’s, X-T3s through now the X-T5 and I come across the X-E line. It’s extremely similar to Sony’s A6x00 line of cameras and is a small “rangefinder” type, compact camera. The ideas that you get when you have shot film in the past and relish the days of the darkroom will make you salivate for a Fujifilm camera. I began my search for an X-E camera at this moment.
If you have seen the X-E line of cameras, you’ll know they are very popular. They are like a mini X-Pro camera, minus the OVF/EVF and instead solely have an EVF. While scrolling KSL Classifieds, I find an X-E3 for sale about 2 hours from home up in Ogden. It’s for a great price and includes the 18-55 F/2.8-4 kit lens that is considered very highly among Fuji fans. It’s for a great price and I quickly drive up to Ogden, meet with the owner in the Home Depot parking lot and exchange the cash for the camera. It had just over I think 3500 shots on the camera and had the box and all the accessories. It was pretty near new. I quickly got it home and then a day or two later, picked up the Tamron 18-300 to be able to shoot the long distant telephoto landscapes that I love to shoot with my Z7II. About a month later, I purchase the 10-24 F/4 from MPB and begin shooting with it as well.
A view through a dirty or smudgy window?
I begin to notice a trend though. I know people complain about the Autofocus of Nikon’s being behind Canon and Sony, but Fuji is a whole other level or two lower in the X-E3’s case… I quickly find that some of the imagery I’m shooting is just shy of sharp and initially I think the issue is motion blur or high ISO and noise. I begin to shoot in much brighter conditions to find out what I am doing wrong. It must be ME, not the camera. What a fools thought. If I can shoot with a Z7II and it’s 45.7 megapixel sensor, much under the shutterspeed to focal length ratio type rule (I.E. 1/30s at 70mm) and get sharp shots, and the same on my previous D810, then I should be capable of this on the X-E3. I do have quite a steady hand and am well practiced in taking stable shots, considering I hate pulling out a tripod. I even did break out a tripod and begin testing this and then I found it, the blur was there, and wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Even when shooting at 1/500s to the APS-C equivalent of 450mm and lower on the Tamron, I was getting blurry, unsharp shots. Even when on a tripod! The same shots I was caple of shooting with the Z7II or the Z5 and my Nikon 100-400, I was running into troubles with when using the X-E3 and the Tamron.
This recently led me to complain to a friend at the local camera store that I frequent. He mentioned that he has seen this commonly too and that I am not the only one to complain about it. I then begin a crusade on Google to find other people in my same boat and quickly realize that I’m not in a small life raft alone, but on a cruise ship sailing with others in a sea of unsharp imagery. I find a photography veteran who has been shooting for 40+ years, and a Nikonian too, complaining about his own Fuji EDC Camera. He has shot other brands, but I feel a sense of kinship with him being a Nikon shooter and owner myself. He shoots many different subjects, professionally and for fun, and had shot all brands and for coorporations. One I’m sure you have heard of, it being the military of course…
He is quickly told HE is doing something wrong and that the problem is HIM. That HE hasn’t learned how to focus the Fuji yet. This is when I ask myself “what is the point of Autofocus if the camera can’t autofocus itself.” I find other examples with many Fuji fans gaslighting other photographers, saying that they are doing something wrong, or that they aren’t seeing what they are seeing with the Fuji X system… You’ll find no other group as defensive and fanboyish as Fuji fanboys it seems. All these users trying to get the complaining parties to try different settings, that this power setting will solve the issue, and that specific focus priority rather than release priority will solve the problem. I promise, that wont solve the problem of the camera telling the photographer that the image is focused (when it isn’t), and then a second later them taking the photo. The release would only matter if you are shooting so fast that you’re pressing the shutter release before the focus has been “acquired”, or not by the Fuji.
So, the answer I have come to is to let the camera focus, then check focus by doing the focus peaking and verifying this. The issue is when you’re at the 450mm equivalent with the Tamron at 300mm, it’s extremely wobbly and hard to verify focus. Some solution that is. So then is the answer to use a tripod when you’re shooting at 1/1000s? That’s a farfetched solution… What is the point of 1/1000 of a second to reduce motion blur if you’re not certain that the camera has acquired focus, when it says it has. I guess I don’t have a solution or answer other than to put down the Fuji and get out one of my Nikons, or to leave the Fuji at home altogether.
I regret getting rid of my A6300 which was always able to focus sharply. I’ve been working on a series that I started with the Sony that I’ll post the images below for you to view. Sadly at 100% to 200% the Fuji just gets trounced by the Sony. I can’t stand pixel peeping to sharpen the images because I realize the Fuji isn’t as sharp or defined as my Sony A6300 was. Take a look below for a few examples of this. These were all shot from about the same vantage point, and about the same focal length. The Sony is the fall shot with the sunset, and the X-E3 photos are the Winter and Spring shots. Now the Sony shot IS noisier, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. Look at the winter shot compared to the spring shot, notice how blobbish the leaves are? Then look at the Sony’s leaves. Although the noise is there, you can see they are seemingly more defined in a way. The summer shot has also had photoshops new AI denoise ran across it which is why it seemingly has no noise, but trust me, it was there…
I know I’m nitpicking, but you don’t shoot for a decade across numerous cameras and brands, in out out of collegiate classes with digital and film, in out out of studio, and not find what you do an don’t like. I also have experience with large format film and crazy shallow depths of field on a 4x5 camera and have experienced having to “fudge” contrast in the darkroom when I shot the 4x5 out of focus or incorrectly in order to present the image to my professors. So I hope this isn’t a figment of my imagination. It is very annoying to look at images at home that you felt were in focus or perfectly sharp when on scene. There is no getting that shot again some times. Now in this case, yes, I work at UVU and can reshoot it over and over and over and over. However, in other cases I will never get the chance again and the images MUST be sharp and in focus. I have been discarding images that I felt happy with on the back of the camera, but then seeing them on computer to throw them in the computers recycle bin. Whether the camera didn’t focus on the correct subject, or for some reason it was blurry with no discernible focus point.
Summary and Moral of the Story
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the X-E3. Or maybe I love the idea of the Fuji X-E3 and the Fuji X system? I don’t know. I would love an X-Pro3, or an X-T5, but after my experiences with the missed AF, as well as the unsharp images with what seems to be no discernable focus point, it has caused me to put the X-E3 on KSL and hope that someone will take it off my hands. Then I can go purchase a Nikon Z FC to get the nostalgia and manual control and connection that the Fuji has, but also the autofocus that I have known from my other Nikon cameras. The AF that is up to my standards and that I trust. Until someone takes it, I may continue to shoot the X-E3, or I may take that KEH Quote for about $1200 (far less than it’s worth or I have spent on it) and send it off so I can go after a Z FC, with the Z5 in my bag until I get one. But I’m thinking I’ll run into the same issues that I’ve run into with the Z5 with the Z FC. Maybe I just need another Sony and need to tuck my tail between my legs as I hobble back to the Sony APS-C System. Rebuying the body, the 18-135, the 11-20 Tamron that I owned, and maybe an 18-300 Tamron to match what I enjoy in the 18-300 on the Fuji. I don’t know where I’ll end up but such is life. We win and we lose, and this time I feel like I’ve lost.
Moral of the story, if you have something you EDC, whether a knife, phone, pen, tool, camera, etc. DO NOT TRADE IT IN IF YOU ARE HAPPY WITH IT. This is my new rule of thumb. Learn from my mistake.
A small gallery of images from the Fuji X-E3 that I’m happy with.
Additional Notes and Another Example.
I took a few more photos with the camra today and have another example of what I’m seeing. I wanted to post it here so I could show a little more what is happening. I’ll post not only the JPG that the camera gave me, which I initially thought was the issue, but upon inspection, realize the RAW still exhibits the same side affect of softness. This shot was created using Fuji Weekly’s Kodak Gold 200 recipe. I initially thought that the sharpness was due to the camera processing the image with less noise correction and sharpening, but the RAW file also exhibits the issues as the images afterwares will illustrate. This was shot at 1/250s, F4 (I know, “THAT’S LOW!”, the F9 sample doesn’t look much better), ISO 250. I turned down to 1/100s, F9, and 250 as well and the closer “S39.5” sign got a little sharper, but the railroad utility building didn’t get any better. If it makes everyone feel better, I’ll use the same settings on the Z5 when I go out next.
As you can see these are zoomed in to 100.3%, which is where many would do their sharpening. I would expect to be able to read what is written on the railroad utility building, but can not. I’ll have to get out with the Nikon Z5 and shoot a similar image. This was shot at 55mm which would be about an 82.5mm full frame equivalent. I can shoot such a shot with my 24-200, but I wouldn’t mind giving the Fuji a leg up, and shooting at 70mm with the Nikon 24-70 F/4 kit lens as well to compare. Maybe I’m just being picky?
Thanks for enjoying my rant/musings…
