Last Updated on 10/11/2017 by Chris Gampat
If you’re looking at the Fujifilm X-E3, then consider the following
We’ve called the Fujifilm X-E3 in for review, and we’ve been playing with it for a few days now. Many photographers are bound to love it due to the design aspects that were incorporated into it that took some thought. This is essentially a really stripped down Fujifilm X Pro 2 with more of an emphasis on gestures and using the touchscreen in addition to the few buttons and exposure controls that are available. Enthusiast photographers may really like this camera as will the folks who these days love shooting in ISO auto mode. But what I’m finding so far is that the touchscreen isn’t the simplest thing to use.
In fact, it took me a few days to really begin to understand how the touchscreen works. When I go to do reviews like these, I always try to work with as little interference from the reps at companies simply because real people don’t have the same access. So while I was actually creating this video, I finally found that the issue with the touchscreen and the Fujifilm XE3 is that it doesn’t work like many others. What I’m specifically referring to is the fact that the Fujifilm X-E3 has a touchscreen that works with gestures. These gestures replace the function buttons. For example, you can program the Fujifilm X-E3 so that if you swipe up, you can access the ISO settings. Swipe down and you’ve got white balance, etc. But these swipes need to be very swift and sort of dramatic. In real life use, I probably wouldn’t do that simply because of the way that my brain has been wired to work with Apple devices.
Now, this isn’t as much of a problem as it is an abnormality of the camera. The screen could be intentionally designed this way to ensure that people don’t accidentally screw things up or access a setting that they otherwise may not want. But it also means that Fujifilm is changing quite a bit. A company that has put a heavy emphasis on dials and buttons–the old way of working with things that simply give them the best ergonomics of anything on the market–is being sort of intertwined with the use of these gestures on the screen. It’s surely innovative, if not a bit of a learning curve.
For more, you can check out our Fujifilm X-E3 first impressions that have sample images. Stay tuned for our review. The Fujifilm X-E3 is going for $899 body only on Amazon right now.