fujifilm xq1

Which are the smallest mirrorless cameras in the world today?

30/09/2014 By Heather 5 Comments

The other day, I was sitting in the living room with my mum over the usual cup of tea. The conversation had jumped from my life in Italy to gardening to travel, when it finally took a turn towards the inevitable, photography. For years she has used my old Olympus waterproof compact for everything from landscape to plant and wildlife photography, and though it takes reasonable pictures in daylight, it suffers in more challenging conditions. Knowing that she wanted to take better pictures, I recently gave her my Nikon D3000 (an old camera by digital standards but still miles better than her low-end compact) but she’s only ever taken it out once.

At first I couldn’t understand why–after all the D3000 is hardly a large camera as DSLRs go–but compared to the tiny Olympus, I realise now that it must have felt like a literal millstone around her neck.

Testing out the new Fujifilm XQ1 & X-A1 in Cossato, Italy

27/10/2013 By Heather 17 Comments

At the Italian Fuji X Day in Cossato, we had originally hoped to spend some time with the new Fujifilm X-E2 but it turned out that it had somewhere else to be – most likely in the hands of a journalist or an X photographer! Despite our disappointment, we were compensated by the presence of the XQ1, Fujifilm’s newest compact, the X-A1 or the X-M1’s twin sans X-Trans technology and the highly-anticipated Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 (hands-on review coming soon but you can see a preview in this article as most of the product shots were taken with that lens).

The Fujifilm X-E2 and XQ1 become official and the X100 gets a boost

18/10/2013 By Heather 3 Comments

We finish off the work week with the third camera announcement in three days. First there were the Sony A7 and A7r full frame mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, then there was the super-small and compact Panasonic Lumix GM1, and now we have the the Fujifilm X-E2, the successor to the high-end X-E1 model, and the compact XQ1.

The announcement of the Fujifilm X-E2 is exciting because Fuji has the tendency to improve its older models with firmware updates rather than replace them with newer versions. Unlike other camera companies which push out new models with every tiny improvement and new feature, Fuji only releases something new when they really feel it’s necessary. And even older models already replaced by newer versions still get the T.L.C. they deserve from the company. Today’s X100 firmware update is a good example of this.

Mirrorless Camera News Round-Up: Full frame NEX, two new Fujis and more!

03/10/2013 By Heather 2 Comments

The swirling sandstorm of rumours that has engulfed the mirrorless world over the past few weeks appears to be beginning to settle, which is why we felt a quick news round-up was in order!