A little over a year ago Fujifilm announced the X-E1, the second body in its X system of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, designed as a more-affordable option for enthusiast photographers than the unashamedly high-end X-Pro1. We liked it a lot for its combination of ‚old school‘ handling and excellent image quality, giving it our Gold award in our review, and since then the X-E1 has received a couple of substantial firmware updates that bring real improvements too. Now it’s time for Fujifilm to to reveal its replacement – logically enough, called the X-E2.

The X-E2 is superficially very similar to the X-E1, with the same basic body design and control layout; at a quick glance it’s almost impossible to tell them apart. It keeps the same top-plate layout, including analogue shutter speed and exposure compensation dials, and has the same 2.36M dot OLED electronic viewfinder. The rear of the camera is still covered in buttons in much the same places as the X-E1, but their functions have been rearranged. The headline updates are the sensor and processor: the X-E2 sports the same X-Trans CMOS II sensor as we first saw in the X100S, which includes on-chip phase detection elements for autofocus, and in concert with the EXR Processor II allows Fujifilm to claim the ‚world’s fastest autofocus‘ (although inevitably with caveats). There’s also a much nicer rear screen: a 3″, 1.04M dot 3:2 aspect ratio unit, and a whole host of further tweaks and improvements. The net result is a camera that retains all the best bits of its predecessor, but has also been improved many respects…..

See on www.dpreview.com

dpreview.com First Impressions Fuji X-E2 Fujifilm