Re: Fun with the Fuji X-E1
Brief 'just got mine' perspective:
The camera body feels light, but is beautifully made. Likewise the 35/1,4 lens: feels much lighter than (say) the Rokkor 50/1.4.
First impressions are that the EVF is good enough to use; but like the NEX-7 (and in contrast to the OM-D) harder to get in perfect focus (the diopter adjustment wheel requires that you take your eye away from the EVF a finger thickness or so; this changes the image); but definitely perfectly fine.
The menus are excellent, and no scrolling needed.
The UI is excellent for me; all buttons come to hand without fiddling or searching, after only a cursory glance over the camera.
Image review can be switched off, not just have its duration changed. I prefer not to have the last images shot block the finder. The EVF only blacks out for an instant after pressing the shutter button.
AF at ƒ1.4 has been perfectly spot on, so far (indoors) at low light levels; this includes macro.
MF for legacy lenses is outstanding, and (IMHO) way better than any other mirrorless camera, including the NEX-7 (with its peaking); let me explain.
I have tried the Rokkor 50/1,4 and the CV 12/5.6. Now, I don't know if I am imagining things, but pressing the command dial brings up a perfect amount of magnification for critical focus—on either lens. I seem to recall that this amount is adjustable; but the default setting seems perfect. It seemed like a lot more magnification was being brought up on the CV 12—I am sure this can't be the case, yet I was able to focus on the writing on a lightbulb that was a metre away (and which I could not read with the naked eye!).
The size of the MF rectangle is fixed if using legacy lenses, but easy to move to wherever you want in the frame (seems more than 3/4s of the frame in all directions; enough for portraits, in any case).
I was able to focus on the cat's iris in very poor light (the EVF bumps ups the gain); the two images I took are perfectly sharp at ƒ1.4. I would not have been able to do that in the film days.
The 60/2.4 is very slow to focus, relatively, compared to the 35/1,4, and hesitant to lock on to close objects. It may be that one needs to hit the Macro button to limit focus to a closer range; I will report back.
(later): Yes; my error. MF is possible too (tho' fly by wire, with no great feel) and pressing the Macro while in AF works perfectly for bringing close objects into focus.
It can focus down to 4", and where your focus plane is in the image is shown graphically in the distance display in the finder (if you select MF). And (this is amazing, IMHO) the handy AE lock button gives you AF, while in MF mode if using an AF lens; and the 35 allows focus down to 4" as well. It's fast.
EV comp is perfect and clearly visible in the finder; as well, the info displayed is very customisable
Image review is FAST (not just compared to the DP2M!); and pressing the centre of the command button magnifies wherever the focus rectangle was (and this is true for MF too!!!). As well, when you magnify the rectangle on Playback, and turn the command wheel, you go to earlier (or later) images, and these too only show the focussed-on area—this will be great when shooting portraits.
So far, so good.
It looks as though I will have to brave Fuji's Raw converter to show images.... for now.