The”late adopter” strikes again.

I had been interested in the Fujifilm XE3 since it was introduced in September of 2017. I already had 2 bodies with the same sensor and processor ( the X100F and the X Pro 2) and couldn’t justify the introductory price. So I bided my time.

Several months back, a deal was offered on the XE3 in this case bundled with the XF23mm f2.0 lens and I finally gave in.  The new camera was meant to replace my previous small bodied interchangeable lens camera, the X-T10 for one with the same image quality and controls which I have grown accustomed to on my other bodies.  I’ve been shooting enough now that I have some thoughts on where this camera and lens fit in, at least in my workflow.

This is not meant as a technical review , for this equipment has been out a long time, and there are many in- depth evaluations available elsewhere.  This piece, merely fulfills my self-imposed obligation to have something to say about the Fujifilm gear that I acquire.

The XE# is really small.  It is certainly smaller than its predecessor, the XE2, thanks in part to the loss of the directional pad, and some of the external buttons functions are taken up by a touch screen.

With the 23mm lens mounted, the combination is quite compact though not as much so is my X100F.  But like that camera, it is discreet and non-threatening, and I think another good choice for street shooting.  Though not quite as sturdy in feel as the fully weatherproofed X Pro 2, it definitely feels substantial, and “part of the family”.

It has a very adequate electronic viewfinder with the usual features.  There is a new icon on the screen however signaling the functioning of the touchscreen, which can be turned off, turn on fully, or to avoid being activated by one’s nose, activated on one side only.  So far I’ve tended to keep it off as it’s reasonably easy to unintentionally trigger a camera function.  But the screen is fully customizable as are the other buttons and dials on the camera. I may yet turn it back on.

In keeping with its status as a more amateur/enthusiast product, it carries a switch on its top plate, offering to move the camera into an “auto” mode.  This switch can be inadvertently triggered, likely changing the settings and format you have chosen (it has happened to me).  I should probably use some gaffers tape to keep it from moving.

The camera is quick and responsive, it seems to have autofocus performance certainly similar to my X Pro 2.  In fact with a joystick, it shoots pretty much like a miniature version of the camera.  And with the same sensor and processor, it has the same image quality.

A new feature of this camera is Bluetooth.  This allows you to connect for control from your cell phone in a matter that is less battery intensive than the Wi-Fi connection used in previous cameras.  I’ve played with this a bit and it seems to work well.  Using my phone’s display helps to make up for the fixed rear screen of the camera. 

The XF 23 mm f2.0 WP is a small compact lens, fairly well built with a small sun shield, which hugs the front element.  The small lens cap either fits on the filter threads of the lens or the orifice of the sun shield.  The focus ring moves smoothly, and the overall impression of quality is high.  Though I have done no formal testing on the lens, I had been shooting some casual landscapes with it, and so far it seems to be very sharp.  I know from MTF testing published elsewhere, that the lens outperforms the lens in the X100 series, and stands up well to the significantly larger 23 mm f1.4 version that has become one of my favorite optics in the XF series.

In fact, this camera and lens combination really begs the question as to why I need an X100 series camera.  Though this combination is larger than the fixed lens X100, I’m not sure the size difference is significant.  The other main difference would be the X100’s optical/electronic viewfinder but I’ve rarely if ever use the optical feature so this is somewhat lost on me. 

Now some of you are probably thinking: why should I buy the XE3 when there is a new generation of Fujifilm products, with a new sensor and processor being introduced. Well maybe, because the new hardware brings only slightly improved resolution and dynamic range over those products I currently own. 

As I’ve written elsewhere I’m starting to think that cameras in general and Fujifilm products, in particular, are reaching a point where further improvement to the basic technology is slowing.  If I am right, it probably makes sense, at least in terms of cost/benefit ratio, to buy equipment one series behind, so to pick up bargains.

We’ll see how long I stick to that idea.

This is an editorial of mine published in a local daily, The Wilkes Barre Times Leader on Sunday May 13, 2012. It is here in all its unedited glory.

 

Every spring around Earth Day, my family and I join a group of my neighbors on a Saturday morning to perform “roadside cleanup” along a stretch of highway that runs near our community in Mountaintop. 

We’ve been doing this for roughly 15 years. 

Because we’re creatures of habit, I suspect that each of us gravitate towards one particular section of road that we call our own.  I generally end up policing a roughly 200 yards section that runs along a fairly isolated part of the route. It’s a spot I suspect that people, knowing that they are unobserved, feel emboldened to toss all manner of garbage out of their vehicle windows and onto the surrounding landscape.

 Because of this, over the years I’ve noted several patterns involved in littering and dumping that make me somewhat cynical about my fellow-man.

Some things I guess are just ingrained in you.  I cannot imagine throwing anything out of a car window, or failing to comment negatively if a fellow occupant did.  Yet judging from the volume of roadside debris that I encounter each year, there are many others among us that feel no such restraint.

The piles of debris along our roadsides are sadly, too me, another indictment of this region’s people and their attitudes, in some ways as damning as those being handed down in our Federal courtrooms.  Travel for instance, to State College, the Hershey area, or out to Western Pennsylvania and the amount of roadside trash vastly decreases or just disappears. .  I honestly do not know whether this is because of more vigorous cleanup efforts occurring elsewhere in the state but I doubt it.  People in those regions I think, just aren’t as callous about their surroundings as we are.

 Over the years I have decided that there are three main categories to categorize those that litter our roadsides.

The first group is those who dispose of random objects tossed at the point on the drive when the food or beverage it contained is either consumed or no longer desired.  In an unscientific sampling from this year’s cleanup I would say the most popular item to toss is a coffee cup, followed closely by empty beer cans, generally brands that are so cheap, I haven’t even heard of them( malt liquors cans are very common).  You rarely see an empty Stella Artois, or a Magic Hat bottle alongside the road.  Not to be a snob, but I think this says something sociologically about people who throw their crap out on our roads.

I did find a lot of energy drinks this year, particularly the Monster brand of beverage so popular among the youths.  This does not bode well for the future. 

A new item in the last several years is quarter full bottles of water and sport drinks. This also discourages me.  It suggests that even people intelligent enough to be at least, mildly health, conscious, still think it’s OK to toss trash out of their car.  They are at least intelligent enough to leave some liquid in the container so that it can be lobbed reliably from their car to the surrounding woodlands.

I did find less this year of what was once a common phenomenon, the quart plastic iced tea bottle, filled with human urine.  This was certainly a welcome development.

Then there are the serial litterers.  For many years, in one 100 foot stretch of my assigned roadside I would find perhaps 40 of the same size coffee cups, of varying stages of decay, bought at a vendor whose closest store is in Wilkes Barre. One could easily imagine this thoughtless individual finishing the beverage in roughly the same place, every day on their way to work, and then adding the empty cup to our local landscape.   

This year, there was no such pattern.  It makes me wonder whether the closure of the nearby CertainTeed fiberglass plant recently, means that my coffee-drinking nemesis has lost their employment and no longer needs to travel that stretch of road.  Perhaps the plant closure also explains the loss of the urine bombs, said to be the spoor of over-the-road truck drivers. 

The last and most egregious group of litterers is the dumpers, who think our roadside is an appropriate place for their unwanted household garbage. I suspect that one reason that this problem exists here is for lack of municipal dumps, which elsewhere in the country, give people a place, maintained by their taxes, to discard unwanted items. We commonly find plastic bags full of family detritus, along with old tires, furniture, and inoperable electronic devices. This year, we found the carcass of someone’s dog in a plastic bag sentimentally discarded among the Mc Donald’s bags and Power Aid bottles.

“…Mommy, where’s Fido?”

At least some people have the courtesy to save their garbage until after our cleanup, placing their bags next to ours to await pickup.

So for several days at least, our stretch of road will be fairly neat and tidy. The white garbage bags will be collected, leaving only the emerging greenery of spring. In about a week as I drive past, the glint of a fresh beer can (or a fresh case of beer cans) along the road will once again catch my eye.

Thus is the cycle of life in Northeastern Pennsylvania.