The Online Photographer

I do like the X-E models and picked up a used X-E2 for a song last year. I think it punches well above its weight class and I have enjoyed it very much. If it wasn't for the X-T1 that I bought used this year for a very attractive price, I would probably use it much more. I guess the bottom line is: buy used Fuji cameras! The value is often incredible.

Have tried the X-E cameras and they are nice - but too small for my hands. The X-Pro bodies fit much better.
All a matter of handling and being comfortable while I use the gear.

Yes I did frequently use a Fuji X-E2 (and previously the X-E1) for several years and actually made quite a few noteworthy images/prints with it.

In brief, what I liked best was:
- the image quality was excellent with Fuji lenses,
- it was small and light,
- it had an excellent EVF (not the X-Pro's optical impersonating-a-Leica viewfinder), and
- it was quick and responsive.

The X-E3 appears to retain and extend those traits. And having upped its sensor resolution to 24mp it would seem more than capable of getting the best from those Fuji lenses for a relatively modest price. What it does not have (that I now consider mandatory for ME) is a tilting touch screen. But that might not be as important to you.

My primary digital is the X-E1. Used it for my TOP OCOLOY project (with the 35. f/1.4). As the year (2015) progressed I realized that it is about as perfect a photographic tool as I could ever want.

I am a bit tempted by this new one, only because they have refined the ergonomic formula to change things I find mildly problematic with my current one.

The Fuji X-E3 looks appealing, and just about affordable, to me (I am always hopelessly hoping to find gear under $200, $300, maybe even under $500). No image-stabilization, I see. It costs nothing to look.
Bill Wheeler

Henry Rollins said: “ …For myself, I have to move on. Life is too short to live in the past. There is a lot to be done."

I graduated from High School about the time Mike was born, so I have a lot of past I could wallow in. But I choose not to. I listen to EDM, not Doo-Wop or Rock-a-Billy.

Therefore the brick-style X-E3 appeals to me while the faux-rangefinder Fujifilm X100F and X-Pro2 don't. It's also a lot less spendy ...faux nostalgia does't come cheap ;-)

I had both the X-E1 and 2 but upgraded to the X-T1 and now 2. I loved the X-Es though and a nine month project using the E1 which I made into a book, won silver in the fine art book category at the TIFA awards last year, so yeah, the XEs work for me and I'm seriously considering the X-E3 for travel which I'll be doing almost continuously in 2018-19.

I've had an X-E1 from when the X-E2 release dropped their cost. Nice camera, but auto focus is glacially slow unless in sunny 16 conditions. Manual focus is faster. Been waiting for the X-E3 for a while and intended to snap one up the moment they came out, but unfortunately I can now afford an M-D (262). I will have to let my brain simmer for 6 months or so until I am rational again. The best decision is often to put off making one.

This is my second choice but I REALLY need the option of the optical view finder (OVF.)

I liked that they got rid of the selector with the Menu/OK button in the center and now use the joy stick and the button below the stick.

Touch screen options looks really nice.

Less is more.

Big Head Taco, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UU8L_yUKTs&t=1158s, has an excellent video on the features of this camera.

I've said that given the ability to start again (which would also include the ability to not hoard cameras) I'd go with Fujifilm, based on my X-E1 and 35/1.4. My main camera should be a Canon 5DMkII but I always gravitate to the X-E1. I'd finally found my perfect film camera some years ago in the Voiglander R3A, and I had been waiting for a digital version of it. The X-E1 is that camera. I've a stable of lenses for the Canon, a good camera with some nice lenses that, for me, probably take technically better photos (I have printed more from it, admittedly usually to other people's preference). But it's taken me a while to realise I just need a smaller camera with a 50mm-equiv. to enjoy myself (which is all I'm in it for). Am I tempted by the X-E3? Abso-bloody-lutely! But I am mostly* content with the X-E1. For now.

*I bought an X100T about 12 months ago, and have been shooting exclusively** with that. I've learnt that 50mm is more my wheelhouse, but a 40mm might be a good compromise, And that the X100T is a good city and gallery camera.

**iPhone... it just goes everywhere to the point I'm concerned about how much more proficient I have become with iit than with my dedicated cameras.

I bought a new in the box XE1 last year, and it is a nice little camera. It is the one that led me to understand how someone could become a Fuji fanboy. Never quite got there after the 35mm f2 lens I bought later broke in my hands on Christmas Eve, but still a very nice camera.

It lacks only one thing really and that is an articulating LCD, which the XE3 also seems to be lacking. So sadly, it looks like I won't be able to learn firsthand how the XE3 is, for it has added nothing I want bad enough to pay $900 for.

I was definitely going to buy an X-E3 as my first mirrorless camera. Had been thinking of X-E2 but the 3 would have the new sensor so, as well as a tilt screen which is essential for me, the 3 was going to be perfect.

And then, no tilt screen. Pretty much all its competition has one. Cutting costs? Making it 2mm (that no one cares about) thinner? Don't know why but, probably Sony will be getting my business instead.

Oh and the EVF is smaller than before, and there's no built-in flash anymore (I don't use but many will miss it). Aside from the sensor and the speed this seems like a big step down from the X-E2. Can't see it selling well at all.

I guess an X-T2 would do what I need but I really dislike the finder being in the middle when there's no mechanical necessity for it. The whole faux-DSLR phenomenon baffles me. Maybe I just buy a used X-M1 and call it good.

I chose the X-Pro series simply because I love optical viewfinders. The EVF is a welcome addition for when I need to frame very precisely or when I use extreme focal lengths.

It is interesting to see how important the tilting screen has become to folks, based on the comments above. I have always sort of feared using them, just because they look like the weakest part of any camera, and the most vulnerable, the way they stick out on their complicated articulating/or folding arms. The other thing is that I use a lot of older legacy lenses (Konica SLR, Pentax thread-mount, Leica M and LTM mount) . . .so I wind up using focus magnification a lot with both my Olympus and with my Fuji XPro-1. It is not as convenient with a tilt out screen (too much ambient light). But that's OK. I am content to be a bit of a dinosaur in these things. Ultimately there are three things I care most about (in descending order of importance: image quality, ease of focus, and the ability to dial in exposure compensation easily and on the fly). Everything else is kind of a detail, or certainly something I could work around.

I will not be buying one of these, not because there is any design defect, but because my needs are taken care of by current gear. Somewhere there is a lottery ticket with my name on it and when that ship comes in I will indulge in every new flavor as it rolls off the assembly line.

For those who like an articulated screed: how are you using it? As a waist level finder? Around corners? I would be interested to know.

@Mike- thread idea: maybe you could ask TOP readers to explain their own "default" picture-taking techniques. Bet you'd get 1,000 different responses and that it would be very instructive.

I'm gutted (an English colloquialism for 'bummed') that they've made this even smaller than the XE1 & 2, both of which I've owned and used an aftermarket grip with. I used to own an X-Pro1 which was the perfect size for my hands, but I really and honestly didn't see any point in the optical finder (and still don't). Like some others here, I also don't agree with Fuji's insistence on not adding a tilting screen. I would probably also consider myself a Fuji fanboy, so will likely upgrade to an XT2 at some point. However I'd love to see an X-Pro with the XT evf and a tilt screen! Horses for courses I suppose and a compromise has to be made somewhere. I don't see myself buying an XE-3 though, it's just too small for me.

Best regards,
Don
U.K.

I was never a fan of EVFs but I became pretty happy with the one in the X-E2S. The size and weight of the camera is nice and, like all Fujis, the readily visible dials-for-everything approach fits me perfectly. But when the X-T1 prices dropped just before it was discontinued, I bought one and discovered its EVF is so much brighter, larger and nicer, I really haven't used the X-E2S much since.

X-E3 features? I expected I would often use the tilt screen on the X-T1 but that didn't happen. Touch screen? I have one camera (an Olympus OMD, with which I have a love/hate relationship) that has this feature and I've never used it. I really dislike touch screens. As long as it can be turned off in the X-E3, I'm fine with this feature. The 24mp upgraded sensor sounds great but it's really not a big enough resolution improvement to make me leave my older 16mp models behind. So, I'm unlikely to be a buyer of the X-E3.

But, really, the X-E3 will have the traditional Fuji control layout and it will use the outstanding Fujinon-X prime lenses. Oh, and it also will have Fuji's unique sensor and an excellent processor. It's almost guaranteed
to be a winner.

The XE2 was the best camera I ever owned. I sold my Canon 6D for it.
I just recently picked up a camera that I wanted for a few years now, the XTq, so it sucks that this is finally dropping.

I just had so much fun with the XE2 though... The dials, the corner EVF, it was a very fun camera.

Hopefully, if I get any spare cash, I just might go for the XE3

I'm glad that the X-E line hasn't been abandoned. I'm also glad I bought the X-E2S last year and didn't wait for the X-E3 because frankly, it's not much of an improvement.

The 3rd gen sensor and faster AF are nice to have, but I'm not sold on the touchscreen and I cannot understand why they didn't increase sync speed to 1/250".

Also, the X-E1 and X-E2 bodies are small enough already. Make the camera even smaller and part of its audience will drop out. One reason I got into the X-E line is because the X-T10 and X-T20 felt incoveniently small in my hands. And my hands aren't even large.

Bottom line: glad Fuji didn't give up the X-E line. Now where is that 27mm f/2 with aperture ring?

I bought into the Fuji-X world shortly after the X-pro1 was released. I always thought I wanted an RF camera, and always liked Fuji glass (from LF and 35mm) and figured it would be a winner. Although I love the images I have gotten with the X-pro1, I don't love the viewfinder. I think I'll never adapt to optical vf after too many years shooting with Nikon (D)SLRs, and the EVF on the X-Pro1 is mediocre at best. I might like the format of the XT series, but it seems to lose some of the advantages (size, in particular) of the X-Pro. The X-E line looks like the ideal middle ground, and with the X-E3 being even smaller than the X-E2, and cheaper than the XT, that might be the way to go -- if the EVF is better than the X-Pro1. I don't really care about AF speed, prefer a fixed screen that won't break as easily as an articulating one and IBIS is only a "nice to have" but not required. With the deals being offered now on the X-E2s and kit lens, though, that option is truly tempting. Most likely I will procrastinate until (a) the deals on the X-E2s goes away or (2) Fuji releases some new toy I can't live without and can (almost) afford. Too many options.