the Fuji X E1 is still a great camera...

Hi guys, I'm new to the Fuji X system, I've been shooting Canon for the past 10 years. And although I love my 5D mark iii, I started to find that I wouldn't take it out with me as often as I would like, because of how big, heavy and expensive it is. So a few weeks ago I decided to have a look at a small mirrorless setup and the Fuji cameras caught my eye. I love the retro styling. I new that a big part of getting this camera was to be able to use it in manual mode. I wanted to be able to control the f stop, shutter speed and manual focus as I use to in the film days. After some research I decided that the Fuji X E1 was a good choice as I was not concerned about auto focus. I managed to pick one up in very good condition for just over a £100.

Next came the big question, what lens do I use with it. I knew I wanted one prime lens (at least for now) to use as a general lens, for portraits, urban/city and Art photography. As good as the fuji lenses are, they use focus-by-wire for manual focusing. After trying one of their lenses I decided it's was not for me. The focusing just didn't feel right. So my next option was to get a manual focus lens and after some searching online, I came across the tiny Voigtlander Nokton Leica M-mount 40mm f1.4. This becomes a 60mm filed of view on the fuji crop sensor (in 35mm terms) which is a little tight to what I'm usually use to, but still works great in all but the most tight of spaces. The lens is a little bit soft at the extreme edges at 1.4, but stop it down to f2.8 and it becomes very sharp. I'm loving the sharpness from the TransX sensor and this lens. The only drawback is that the minimum focus distance of the Voigtlander is only 0.7m, so I might be looking to get a close focus adaptor for the M to X mount to be able to get some close-up shots.

It took me a few days to get use to the only manual focus lens and the EVF of the Fuji, but after a few days I have to say I'm totally hooked, and I love using the little Fuji. One thing I have to say is that using focus peeking is not as great as I've read, not very accurate. However pressing the command dial while composing the shot zooms in 3x or even 10x, which allow for very accurate focusing, and I find I've not had any issues getting my focus spot on each time this way. Obviously this wouldn't work that well for very fast moving objects, But then that's not what I use the Fuji X E1 for.

I thought I'd share my experience here so that others searching online, that might be thinking about getting a manual lens and a Fuji X camera, , might find this useful.

Here's a few shots I've taken with the Fuji X E1 and the Voigtlander Nokton 40mm 1.4 since I got it last week. I'm Still learning to use the camera and the EVF.