Going Mirrorless with the Fuji X-E2 and 23mm f1.4 Prime Lens

Saturday, February 22, 2014

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Years ago I sold my DSLR (a D70) since it was showing signs of age and while I loved it, there were things I didn’t like about it over time. It was big (I mean, come on, its a full sized DSLR). But it didn’t do video. And as someone who works in After Effects all day, every day, I like being able to shoot bits of video from time to time.

So for years, my main digital camera was the one that came for free with my iPhone 5. Now, that’s a nice camera for a phone. But there’s only so much you can do with a lens and sensor that are the size of a grain of rice.

A few months ago I started seeing programmers writing about how much they loved their micro 4/3 mirrorless cameras. Hmmm. Shawn Blanc was one who really influenced my choice to start researching this maturing niche. Nice cameras, and many were close to my price range.

Then in January, I and two team members won an annual creativity award at our work. As part of the prize pack, I had the opportunity to pick up a camera.

The Fuji X-E2 was already at the forefront of my list and so the arrangements were made and today it arrived along with the 23mm f1.4 prime lens.

After just a few hours of playing with it, I must say that I like so much about it. The camera body is very small, yet feels good in the hand (okay, most of the weight is the lens, after all, the thing IS an f1.4!).

And I was really impressed with the Electronic View Finder (EVF). To be honest, I never realized how advanced this tech had gotten. Looking into the viewfinder and seeing a realtime image from the main sensor with almost no lag was amazing. Someone said it updates at 50 frames per second, which almost makes it like an optical viewfinder like the one in my DSLR from so many years back.

My wife has an event drawing caricatures in Philly tomorrow, and I’m dropping her off at the train station in Lancaster in the morning. So I’ll be taking it with me and wander around downtown Lancster for awhile to see what I can find.

I’m really looking forward to learning the personality of this camera and sharing my images.




Ciao! I'm Scott Sullivan, a software engineer with a specialty in machine learning. I spend my time in the tranquil countryside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and northern Italy, visiting family, close to Cinque Terre and La Spezia. Professionally, I'm using my Master's in Data Analytics and my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, to turn code into insights with Python, PyTorch and DFE superpowers while on a quest to create AI that's smarter than your average bear.