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Guest Post by The Overrated Photographer. You can follow him on instagram or on his website

Introduction

The Fujifilm X-E3 is Fuji’s fourth iteration of the X-E series camera. It was the X-E1, X-E2, X-E2S and now the X-E3 (although I stand corrected if I missed one). I’d love to say my journey started with the X-E1, but back in those days, I was in Nikonland oblivious to the world of mirrorless. Some hardened Fujifilm users would say I haven’t paid my dues. My journey in the X-E series started with the X-E2s and despite it being a great camera, it’s been a little frustrating for me, in part because I also had an X-T2. I liked the image quality but I wasn’t using it much for a couple of reasons:

1. The AF was not great coming from DSLR’s, it’s only really with the arrival of the X-Pro/X-T2 that we saw DSLR like AF performance.
2. The button layout was poor compared to the X-T2 – It was probably good at the time it was released, I think I was spoilt by the X-T2 and that made the X-E2s experience seem substandard. It was simply too hard to do what I wanted coming from the X-T2.
3. I miss Acros whenever I use it – Acros is one of my favourite film simulations so having access on the X-T2 and no Acros on the X-E2S meant more often than not I’d be reaching for the X-T2 over the X-E2S despite it’s smaller size.
4. I miss the joystick from my X-T2 – For AF, the joystick is a pleasure to work with and having worked with the X-T2, I find it hard to shift back to my X-E2S or X100T.

When I started looking at a replacement for my X-E2S, I looked at the X-T20, but the joystick was missing from the camera.

For a period of time, I was stuck on the choice between the X-T20, another X-T2 and perhaps even an X-Pro2 as a second body. I’d given up on the X-E3 as the X-T20 didn’t have a joystick so why would the X-E3 have one?

Fortunately it turns out I was wrong but the choice still wasn’t a foregone conclusion: It came with the joystick, but minus the tilt screen and minus the D-Pad. The lack of tilt screen I could live with as I could use my X-T2 for that, the lack of D Pad I wasn’t so sure about. As I started looking at the videos of the X-E3, I realised it may not be that big an issue if Fujifilm was right about their implementation of the touch screen so I decided to give it a try.

Pricing

The US retailer price is US$899 or about AUD$1300 in Australia (where I live). I picked mine up at CameraPro who seemed to be one of the first with stock of black X-E3’s. It’s fairly reasonable pricing given the specs and performance. The X-E3 also comes with two kit lens options, a XF23mmF2 or XF18-55mmF2.8-4 option, both of which are very good lenses and not “kit” lenses in the conventional sense of the word. I’d highly recommend considering one of these options if you don’t have either lens.

Packaging and Contents

Capture One Vs. Lightroom

Ming Cai (a photographer and youtuber who has way less subscribers than he deserves, so go and subscribe!) is now in the process of switching Capture One Pro for his Fujifilm X-Trans files editing.

He shared the first video of what will probably become a series of videos about Capture One. So make sure to check out his channel and see the first video at Ming Cai Youtube.

He really likes C1 and he seems to prefer it over Lightroom, since it offers features and tools that Lightroom does not have.

• Capture One Pro renders details better than Lightroom. You can get same sharpness with Lightroom, but it requires extra processing steps
• Capture One Pro gives more control over images (more tools)
• Capture One Pro allows to add contrast without adding saturation
• Capture One Pro has a much more advanced color editing tool

Capture One 10% Off

Remember, you can get Capture One 11 with 10% discount at Capture One here, by using coupon code “AMBFR”.

Capture One & X-Trans

In 2017, Capture One has made huge steps forward when it comes to Fujifilm X-Trans files support by adding Fujifilm compressed RAW support, OpenCL and more (we reported about it here).

Tethering is not supported, but if you own an X-T2, X-Pro2 or X-T1, an easy and quick workaround is to use Fujifilm’s free tethering software X Acquire.

C1 still does not offer film simulation profiles, but there is a great homebrew at the fuji-x-forum. However, a Capture One manager said in 2017 here, that “there is no reason why we can’t offer Fuji’s film simulations profiles in future“.

C1 is slow, when it comes to add new cameras to their supported list. They just recently added Fujifilm X-E3 support and there is no Fujifilm X-H1 support yet (but it will come).