Fuji X-E3 First Shots: See what this affordable X-Trans imager can do with IQ!
posted Monday, October 16, 2017 at 2:50 PM EDT
The Fuji X-Pro series has been a vastly popular "rangefinder-styled" line for Fujifilm for half a decade now, and the baby brother X-E line has followed stride in general popularity. Now, with the Fuji X-E3, this model steps into the 24mp present day and represents the only current X-Trans model with a street price below $900. This puts it into the budgetary hands of many hobbyists, as well as X-Pro series enthusiasts looking for a capable second camera body for their bag.
But does the image quality hold par with its X-Pro2 bigger brother? And does this new imager match IQ stride with the mirrorless and DSLR competition in this price range? That's exactly what our signature laboratory First Shots are here to answer for us.
For anyone who wants to skip the comparisons and simply pixel-peep across the available ISO range, please be our guest! Head to our X-E3 Lab Samples page and dive in wherever you'd like, with access to the original images at full resolution and the accompanying RAW files available for download as well.
And for you comparison-minded shoppers out there, we offer our Comparometer where you can view images side-by-side as the ISO rises against any camera we've ever tested! This is a quick and sure-fire way to separate the serious players from the wannabe's, and Fuji has a solid history of scoring high marks for high-ISO prowess even with its budget-friendly lines.
For a quick head start, let's take a look at a few comparison together, starting with the big brother Fuji X-Pro2.
Fuji X-E3 vs. Fuji X-Pro2
Very similar indeed! The X-Pro2 exhibits slightly less noise, but also slightly less detail, perhaps due to subtle differences in focus or default processing algorithms. But slight differences aside, at least you can be assured that having the X-E3 as a second camera to the X-Pro2 will yield familiar results for IQ!
Now let's remain at that tricky yet convenient ISO 6400 and compare to another popular 24mp APS-C mirrorless camera, the Sony A6300.
Fuji X-E3 vs. Sony A6300
We have to award the victory here to the X-E3, which manages to pull slightly better fine detail with less obvious noise and processing artifacts when compared to the A6300 here at default settings.
And lastly, let's take a quick look at an ISO 6400 comparison against a popular 24mp DSLR in this price range, the Canon 77D.
Fuji X-E3 vs. Canon 77D
A decided advantage to the X-E3 over the 77D, which is clearly the noisiest of the bunch at this ISO.
Thus far, this first round of comparisons argues quite favorably for the Fuji X-E3 in the ever-important image quality department. Keep going with your own comparisons and pixel-peeping using the links below, and stay tuned for much more to come from us on the X-E3.