My New Favorite Camera: The Fujifilm X-E5

All right, I'm back. I know I haven't posted a video in a while, but before the end of the year, I want to get this video out and tell you my thoughts and feelings on a camera I recently picked up and have been loving. Spoiler alert. But before I do that, let's talk you through the setup real quick. Today we're filming on the Lumix S1 R2 with the 1635 F4S Pro lens. It's a mouthful. I love this camera. I love this lens. You know, if you look at my lightroom stats, you'll see that the 35 millimeter focal length is probably my most used focal length. And so I've been really enjoying this camera when I'm able to take a bigger camera just because the IBIS is so good, the images are high resolution, and it's really become that middle ground between my Fujifilm APS C cameras and my GFX for medium format. So, really love this camera. But today we're talking about a different camera from a different company. And before I do that, earlier this year I did make a video on the Fujifilm XM5. I had showed you a lot of videos around the lenses that fit really well with that camera, like the Viltrox lenses, the seven artisan lenses, and the TT artisan lenses that are pretty small and really affordable. And one thing I mentioned in that video about the XM5 is that I didn't love the fact that it didn't have a evf. And while that definitely wasn't a deal breaker because it's such a great camera for me, you know, something I struggle with and probably didn't anticipate to struggle with that much. And so over the year I started looking at my S9 from Lumix that I shoot with all the time as a full frame camera when I want to do some, you know, smaller format video and photos, and that one doesn't have an EVF either. And it's my biggest gripe with that camera. But not having an EVF on two cameras that you're daily, if you want to call it that, is a real struggle. And so what I did was I ended up selling the XM5 for a different camera, which is, as you can probably guess, the Fujifilm XE5. And if we can get it to focus here, this is the Fujifilm XE5 and it's with the 28 millimeter or 23 millimeter F2.8. And this camera has been so good, you know, for the price I know that's the first thing people are going to say. The price is well over it and you're right, it's ridiculously priced and they're saying it's because of the top plate and all this stuff. It's typical Fujifilm in 2025 where the prices have skyrocketed. The hype has kind of died down a little bit, but people are still purchasing this brand a lot more, which over the years. Fujifilm has always been an affordable brand for the quality you get. I don't think the quality has improved. I don't think they've done enough with the autofocus and maybe I'll save those thoughts for a different video. But you know, prices have certainly gone up. You could say it's tariffs, it's, you know, inflation, whatever. But certainly I think we all know that Fujifilm is taking advantage of the newfound interest in their cameras, which is great, they probably deserve it. They have still made great stuff over the years. But for the X E5 in particular, I think I want to talk to you a little bit about this camera today. And before I kind of get into the camera itself, I think this lens is really worth talking about. And again, this is the 23 millimeter F2.8 lens. And this is, you know, the launch lens for this camera. And so a lot has been said about this lens. People say, oh, it's not as sharp and you might as well go with the F2. And the F2 has close focus distance issues. This doesn't. But this focuses slowly. I mean, with. If you're a Fujifilm shooter, you know that there's like pros and cons at every single level. But I would say with this lens it has been. Again, this is probably my favorite focal length, the 35 millimeter equivalent. It's been so fun to shoot on. I've been using a lot of recipes that I typically don't shoot with recipes and been having a lot of fun with it. And I even have some, you know, my daughter touched the front of it and it's got a little halation effect, a little mist filter kind of pre built on it. So I need to get that cleaned. But it's been such a great lens to use because you know, you can get an X100VI and it's very similar to this. But I can take this and go throw on one of my F1.4 lenses or I can throw on one of the small Viltrox lenses that I was using on the XM5 and, and get incredible shots. And so when I think about this camera and what it can do, it's really miraculous. So zooming out a little bit. I think when we think about these Fujifilm cameras nowadays, we split it up into a couple of different camps, right? These new cameras that have the older sensor, the 26 megapixel sensor or some of the newer ones that have the high resolution sensor, the 40 megapixel sensor. But I think that's not really fair to do because if you think about again, this camera versus the X100VI, really the difference is the lenses, as you know. But also this camera just feels a little bit better. I don't know what that means. But if it's, this lens is lighter than, you know, the components in there, I don't know, it just feels a little bit better. The EVF on here not having the rangefinder style is interesting to me. And the EVF here isn't great. But the fact that it's there and the fact that it's small enough for you kind of just to forget about it is, is kind of nice because it's there when you need it. It's not really in your way when you don't need it. And I actually, this is really scary that I'm going to say this, but I actually really are, you know, am enjoying this sort of film simulation. Dial, if you will. You can make a couple custom ones, which is pretty cool. I'll put some B roll here of the custom functions. But it's been great, man. I have a few recipes on there and as someone who's been shooting Fujifilm forever and saying I don't really do the recipe thing, it's kind of a weird thing. But because it's always there and it's easy to move around, I don't know, I, you know, certainly I don't cycle through the recipes and I'm gonna shoot velvet or I'm gonna shoot Astia soft. Like the way I use this actually is go from standard into one of the recipes, one of the custom ones that you have here. So that's been helpful for me. I mean, obviously on any other camera you could press Q button and cycle through. But it's kind of cool, right? It's kind of nice. Now am I going to buy another Fujifilm camera that has this because of that off? No. Short answer is no. But it is really nice. I will say on this, I do feel like it's a little bit nicer built than the X100VI in terms of the, you know, dials on the top and it just feels a little bit more solid, especially the back, the back wheel. So the hardware I would say is, certainly is a little bit cut above where the X100VI is. And you know, past that it's, it's, it's been a lot of fun. Now you know, some people love the, the fact that the screen, you know, pops up like this so you can, you know, do some selfie video. I've never done that. I don't think I will. I would have loved what is on the S1 R2. A pop out and a flip screen that's just so good. I think every camera should have that. But obviously, you know, for them to make this design it's going to be a little bit more shallow. So yeah, I mean look, I'll share some photos at the end of this video of what I've shot on this recently, but I wouldn't have got those shots had I taken this S1 R2 or taken my X T5 or you know, in the past even taking my XM5 because the XM5 was not very motivating to use because of that EVF. So I would say, you know, again to most people that are probably stuck in that position of is it XC5 plus the 23 pancake or the X100VI or do I get the XM5 with the 23 pancake separately? I think between all of those purchases you're really going to need to think about price obviously like what price you can get these things at. But if you're going to buy a camera that's over that thirteen, fifteen hundred dollar mark at this point I would say get this just because of the versatility that comes with switching the lenses. I mean I've invested heavily into the Fujifilm lens world, so don't take my word for it, but there are some incredible lenses from Viltrox and I mentioned seven Artisan and TT Artisan as well that do really good. I'll be doing a video on the 90 millimeter F2 that I recently got from one of those companies we'll share on this channel. But I just wanted to talk briefly about how great and inspiring this camera is and also want to share some photos that I've taken with it so you can see. But yeah, thanks so much for watching. You know, stay tuned. We'll get some more videos coming soon. Take care and happy New Year.