Fuji X-E2: Un-Boxed & First Impressions

Fuji X-E2 + Fujinon 35mm f1.4

It's no secret that the X series from Fuji has become incredibly popular in a very short time.  Holding the little Fuji X-E2 in my hands, I can see why.

The X-E2 exemplifies everything that's popular about mirrorless cameras.  It's small, lightweight, and most importantly, it's exquisitely built.


In a time when DSLR digital cameras have gotten ever bigger, while one would think technology would allow them to get ever smaller, they've also gotten less interesting in and of themselves, less desiring as a thing of beauty.

That may sound strange to some, to say that DSLRs are less desiring as a thing of beauty, but if you hold a camera like the Fuji X-E2 in your hands, you'll understand instantly what I'm driving at.

The X-E2 is an object to be desired, in and of itself.  It looks beautiful, or if you don't like the word beautiful applied to a camera, then let's say it's alluring.

Fujifilm X-E2 dials close-up

It's superb craftmanship is evident just by holding the X-E2 and turning it over in your hands.  When you touch the dials and push the buttons, you feel a sense of high-end, perhaps even a connection back to a time when things were actually crafted and built to last.

To say the X-E2 is retro seems a cliche.  The word is over-used these days, perhaps because of a desire to connect with that past time, the one where things were crafted, built to last.


The X-E2 reminds me of my old Olympus OM-2.  It's solid and feels right in the hand, like a precision instrument that imparts it's own confidence on the user.

The lenses I have the use of during my time with the X-E2 are the Fuji 35mm f1.4 and the Fuji 56mm f1.2, both fast primes.  I will not be shooting any zooms with the X-E2.

And somehow, this seems appropriate, reminiscent of the days of 35mm film before zooms were popular.  I picture Annie Leibovitz in the early '70's, three Nikons strung about her person, one with a 35mm, one with an 85mm, and perhaps one with a 105mm, but they could just as easily be Fuji X-E2's and I don't think Annie would've minded one bit. 

Fuji 56mm f1.2 & Fuji 35mm f.14

The Fuji 35mm and 56mm primes are beautiful themselves.  I love that they have manual aperture rings, and I sit and revel in the feel of their movement as I twist them from wide open to stopped down.

They are metal and solid feeling, and like the X-E2, they feel like they were crafted, not built, and I picture a wizened old man perched at a bench, a magnifying monocular over one eye, the bright light of a bare bulb in a steel reflector shade hanging just above his head as his hands move delicately over a hand ground lens element.

Perhaps I'm a romantic, given to seeing something that others don't, but I think I'm not alone in my impressions of the Fuji X-E2.  Indeed, I think there are many that will understand exactly what I'm trying to say here.