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Archive 2014 · X-E2 Worth It?

  
 
AtelierPhoto
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · X-E2 Worth It?


Indeed much more pleasing with the calibrated color profile! Thank you for sharing the images... I will have to look into this for myself!


Feb 10, 2014 at 09:40 PM
planalpha
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · X-E2 Worth It?


Thanks for posting! Is that profile available for download somewhere?

Thanks again!



Feb 10, 2014 at 10:48 PM
sge998
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · X-E2 Worth It?


Jman13 wrote:
Ok...here are two examples. One under fluorescent light at high ISO, and one with studio flash at base ISO. Both show the issues with the Adobe profile rather clearly.

First, this one. This is with the X-E2 and Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 at ISO 2000.

First, with the stock Adobe color profile in Lightroom 5.3: No major adjustments were made here, just a bit of a tick up on the vibrance.

http://www.jordansteele.com/2014/xander_adobe.jpg

Now, here's the same image...the ONLY difference is I have switched from the Adobe Standard color profile to the custom Dual Illuminant profile I made for my X-E2 with the
...Show more

Just out of curiosity what kind of light bulb do you use for 2850k profile? I've been trying to find a color accurate bulb to calibrate my cameras but so far only find them to be mostly 2600k-2650k.



Feb 11, 2014 at 01:24 AM
JasonMichael
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · X-E2 Worth It?


Is there a "Performance Mode" on the X-E1? At least on the X-E2, it's what kicks the AF into high gear... might be worth seeing if it meets your needs.


Feb 11, 2014 at 04:19 PM
Jman13
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · X-E2 Worth It?


sge998 wrote:
Just out of curiosity what kind of light bulb do you use for 2850k profile? I've been trying to find a color accurate bulb to calibrate my cameras but so far only find them to be mostly 2600k-2650k.


The CCPassport doesn't really profile like that. (Well, you CAN use it like that if you wish, but I'm not that anal about my color correction at this point...I just want it close without going nuts). What I generally do is use a Dual-Illuminant profile, which is created from two different light sources and then it uses those two samples to interpolate other lighting situations. My profile is created from outdoor early morning light in the shade (cool blue) and a shot under the compact fluorescent lights in my family room (since I take a lot of shots there). It does a pretty darn good job with most lighting situations. I also have a standalone profile for fluorescent, but it's almost identical to what the dual illuminant does.

If you want, you can create profiles for every shoot (though that could get cumbersome)...just shoot the color checker, then in LR, right click and set it to create a color profile. It does its magic and comes out.

I'm sure it's not as accurate as some of the more sophisticated (and expensive) camera profile tools out there, but it has done a very nice job for me, and it's relatively inexpensive and very easy to use.



Feb 11, 2014 at 04:48 PM
sge998
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · X-E2 Worth It?


Jman13 wrote:
The CCPassport doesn't really profile like that. (Well, you CAN use it like that if you wish, but I'm not that anal about my color correction at this point...I just want it close without going nuts). What I generally do is use a Dual-Illuminant profile, which is created from two different light sources and then it uses those two samples to interpolate other lighting situations. My profile is created from outdoor early morning light in the shade (cool blue) and a shot under the compact fluorescent lights in my family room (since I take a lot of shots there). It
...Show more

Thanks! I am not trying to calibrate every setting but to create a dual-illuminant profile just like you.
Haven't really been able to do so lately in the Bay area as its either super sunny or dark cloudy.



Feb 11, 2014 at 08:30 PM
planalpha
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · X-E2 Worth It?


I just thought I'd circle back to you all and report on where I'm at with the X-E1 and trying to get faster AF'ing. The two things that are working better for me is while in Single mode, if I make the focus area bigger things are much better speed wise. At 2.8 it may not be super crisp, but at least I have the photo. Much better. The other thing I discovered tonight was playing in Continuous mode, if I put he crosshairs right on the subject's eye, push halfway down to AF lock, then recompose, the instant I push the rest of the way down it snaps the photo. I'll have to play with it to see if it's more effective in the "child running amok" mode.
JasonMichael, I don't see a "Performance Mode" in the settings. Does that exist on the X-E2?

Thanks all for the suggestions!



Feb 12, 2014 at 01:38 AM
DaveOls
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · X-E2 Worth It?


The Sony A6000 is now another option, to be release sometime in March.


Feb 15, 2014 at 07:32 AM
jcolwell
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · X-E2 Worth It?


Spyro's thread on a recent interview with Fuji's marketing manager had many interesting points,

see https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1273949

One of them was this,

"we will release new firmware for the X-E2 soon which will improve the refresh rate of the EVF bringing it to the same level as the X-T1 and also add an interval shooting function."

I will pick up my first X-E2 on Monday...



Feb 15, 2014 at 07:36 AM
pgood14
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · X-E2 Worth It?


One thing you can say about Fuji is that they are committed to their customers and continuous improvement. Very nice to see and will certainly drive some brand loyalty.


Feb 15, 2014 at 02:22 PM
galenapass
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · X-E2 Worth It?


pgood14 wrote:
One thing you can say about Fuji is that they are committed to their customers and continuous improvement. Very nice to see and will certainly drive some brand loyalty.


They have my loyalty...unlike Canon.



Feb 15, 2014 at 02:28 PM
jcolwell
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · X-E2 Worth It?


galenapass wrote:
They have my loyalty...unlike Canon.


I don't think that I have "brand loyalty" for photo gear. I have "preference" and I have "investment". Currently, both are strong with Canon and Fujifilm.

I have "brand loyalty" with Toyota. Every time I buy a new vehicle, it's an opportunity to make a clean break with my past vehicles. The same can't be said for buying new cameras, when you already have lenses, flash, and etc. for your previous cameras. I'm not sayin' that I won't switch away from Canon and Fujifilm, but I haven't seen anything in the past two years that would cause me to do so.



Feb 17, 2014 at 08:32 PM
planalpha
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · X-E2 Worth It?


Well I ordered the X-E2 so I'll be able to find out firsthand how different things are between the two model's AF, color, etc.

Thanks for the help, all.



Feb 17, 2014 at 08:33 PM
paparazzinick
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · X-E2 Worth It?


planalpha wrote:
Well I ordered the X-E2 so I'll be able to find out firsthand how different things are between the two model's AF, color, etc.

Thanks for the help, all.



To be honest, there isn't much difference in color or how the images look between the cameras. Where you will see a difference is in how the image is captured. AF is better on the XE2, it is snappier, it is speedy, it is fun



Feb 17, 2014 at 10:11 PM
kevinkjones
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · X-E2 Worth It?


I haven't owned the X-E1, but I love my X-E2. Auto focus is pretty snappy. Even works pretty well with the 55-200 for my niece's high school basketball games.

Kevin



Feb 19, 2014 at 11:18 PM
planalpha
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p.2 #16 · p.2 #16 · X-E2 Worth It?


So I received the X-E2 yesterday and haven't had too much time to test it out, but so far, I like it. Right off the bat just looking at the two side by side there are some obvious changes like the bigger screen and buttons have been moved a bit. I give those things a solid, "meh." Maybe I was just used to the old locations of the X-E1's buttons, but I never had any heartburn with them. To be honest, the more buttons you have the more things I accidentally push. The X-E1 struck just about a perfect balance between ease of access to common features and too much stuff to get in the way. Not a deal breaker, but just giving my initial impressions of my time with it. One thing I REALLY like is that I can select the highest sync speed of 180 on the shutter speed dial. Nice fix, Fuji! Going from +/- 2 stops to +/- 3 stops exposure compensation up time is nice too.
The Wifi is nifty but not stellar. Ya, you can geotag now and push photos off of it but it's a bit onerous to use. If they firmware the X-E2 to use your iPhone as a remote shutter release, that would be the bee's knees. Let's hope they backport that from the X-T1 soon.
Alright, now the good stuff, the reason I upgraded, the Auto Focus. There is a noticeable speed increase overall with the X-E2 which by itself wouldn't be worth the price to upgrade. But some of the new AF features certainly justified the cost to me. Face recognition is a great feature and seems to work faster than me moving the focus point around with the arrows but not quite as fast as hitting the eyes and recomposing, which has its own issues. Low light AF is also better but it seems that something with the sensor has better AF in low light at the center of the screen. For example, I set the focus point near the right side and couldn't get a backlit 3 year old in focus. It just wouldn't lock on despite all my attempts. Then I moved it to the center and boom! Locks right on. I was able to repeat that so it doesn't seem like an anomaly, rather how the PDAF pixels are located I didn't try it in continuous mode yet, but will have to play with it. The focus point is also a square whereas the X-E1 was a rectangle and pushing the center button would snap it back to the center focus point which was a nice shortcut that no longer exists on the X-E2.
I setup a couple of Speedlghts tonight, one with a Softbox III and the other with a little snoot and just snapped away at my little girl who never stops moving. With the X-E1 I would get a SD card of blurry, but I was very happy with how well the X-E2 did locking on to my maniac and getting a pretty high success rate of photos that were useable and sharp. Kudos to Fuji for their work on the AF improvements!

So, in summery, the new features of the X-E2 are great, but if you're on the fence about your X-E1, take the money and buy more glass unless you really need the faster AF. Otherwise be happy with the X-E1 and hold out for the X-E3.

For me, I'm glad I took the gamble and upgraded since it hit the big issues I had with the X-E1.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who is trying to get more info on what to do. I was pretty frustrated trying to get info on the practical differences between the two, not just spec sheet data, hence this post. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.



Feb 20, 2014 at 01:51 AM
planalpha
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p.2 #17 · p.2 #17 · X-E2 Worth It?


Just as a FYI, the Continuous Mode with Pre-AF and Face Detection has really been working for me. It's a pretty significant upgrade!


Feb 24, 2014 at 12:34 AM
tomrock
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p.2 #18 · p.2 #18 · X-E2 Worth It?


On the X-E2 it's the Disp/Back button to snap the focus point back to the center.


Feb 24, 2014 at 06:23 AM
Jman13
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p.2 #19 · p.2 #19 · X-E2 Worth It?


The reason AF is better with center points is that the PDAF pixels are used in the center 9 focus points only.

I don't use the wifi for geotagging, but I LOVE it for transferring photos to my phone or tablet.. In conjunction with the excellent in camera RAW conversion, it's a great thing to have.



Feb 24, 2014 at 07:01 AM
timpdx
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p.2 #20 · p.2 #20 · X-E2 Worth It?


planalpha wrote:
So, in summery, the new features of the X-E2 are great, but if you're on the fence about your X-E1, take the money and buy more glass unless you really need the faster AF.



That is what I decided to do, put the $ into glass, and I am glad I did, the 14 is very nice, and 20-24 is where I like to shoot interiors and this sharp baby slips right into that focal length. I just did the firmware on all three lenses on the X-E1 and the AF did get a bit better in terms of lock on subject time, for sure. Love the ergonomics on my body, too. Seems to be a bit more noise in the blue channel (skies) than I thought, but otherwise, I am happy with the X-E1 and its very competent for the images that I want to shoot.



Feb 24, 2014 at 09:06 PM
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