X-E1/X-1 Pro with on-chip phase detection AF

Ray Sachs wrote:

I've had plenty of cameras I could shoot with just fine and make fine images with but that I was still VERY happy to upgrade to newer models that did some key things better. I'm an m43 guy, in addition to Fuji. I spent a couple of years shooting with m43 cameras that had fairly slow AF and weren't much good above ISO 800, maybe 1600 in a pinch. I was happy with what I had and I made some treasured images with that gear. When newer gear came out that radically improved on those limits, a lot of folks made the same arguments about the old stuff being OK and "It's not gonna stop working just because something newer came along". And they were right. And yet now that I'm shooting with my OMD and faster new lenses and think back to my EP2 with slower lenses, man, it's night and day. I would NOT go back! I'm not a better photographer, I have largely the same eye, but I get a much higher percentage of keepers and the new gear has extended the kinds of shooting I can do with the camera and those things don't have any downside. And the upsides aren't imagined.

So there's nothing wrong with enjoying your gear even as its surpassed. There's ALSO nothing wrong with being excited about the new gear and its breakthrough capabilities And the advantages it will bring. The AF issues with the first X100 and with the X-Pro / XE1 can be worked with and they're all fine cameras. But they're not overblown limitations - they're REAL. And the X100s looks like a significant advance that bodes well for the future. In a couple of years, given the choice between an XE1 and an XE3 with an EVF that isn't leggy as hell and AF that you never have to think about because its just THERE and nails focus pretty much every time, the differences won't seem overstated and the limits of the first gen cameras will be abundantly clear. And, sure, you'll still be able to make fine photos with the XE1, but you won't want to.

My manual everything film cameras still work really well too and I took some of my best images with THOSE too. But I'm not going back, thanks very much.