Birks Building at Night with Fujifilm X-E1

I saw my bus coming and I was really tired, but I wanted to get this final shot before I ended my long day of testing the new Fujifilm X-E1 camera through the streets of downtown Vancouver. It rained all afternoon, so I had to take most of my images with an umbrella in one hand and the camera with the other.  I’ve taken a picture of this building before, but I’m a sucker for blue lights. I just had to get this shot! I ran across the street, waited for traffic to die down, and fired off a few shots at iso 1600 and 3200. Both iso speeds looked great, easily printable to 16 x 20; but the above shot (1600) had the right amount of people and the least amount of traffic…

One of the things I noticed about the X-E1 is that it has amazing high iso/low light performance as long as it’s a still image, and you have steady hands. The image stabilized lens sure helps, but you still need steady hands as I shot this at 1/18th of a second. I also took this in the rain (notice the rain projected in front of the headlights of the car to the bottom left), it was dark, cold, and I shot single handed above my head.  Not the best way to take an image, but the X-E1 did a great job, especially shooting at iso 1600. In fact, walking around, I recommend keeping it at  1600 during the day, 3200 when it gets dark.


I shipped the X-E1 back to Fuji today, and I thank them for letting me test the camera for almost a month. I know I’ve been promising a review for a while, but since they let me keep it an extra 2 weeks over the holiday, I’ve had a chance to spend a lot of time with it and I’ve accumulated more notes and will add extra opinions. Overall, it’s a great camera and I would highly recommend it as a street photographer’s tool…


Obviously the above image has been reduced in size, but if you wish to see a full rez jpeg of it, please email me and I’ll be happy to send it to you to look for yourself.
More images coming and a full review in the next week or so…