Mastering the Fujifilm X-E1 and X-Pro1

I purchased the Kindle version. Having a Fuji X100s, I recently bought the X-E1. Based on past camera purchases, the provided user manuals are confusing because they are typically written by engineers and not photographers. Hence, I bought this book to help me with my new XE1.This book has excellent information. However, it is written to cover two Fuji cameras, the Pro1 and the XE1. Additionally, the writer is very familiar with a third Fuji camera, the X100. This family of cameras share much in common but there are some distinct differences in certain areas of operation between the three.The writer presents much of the information in a confused manner because I think he forgets which camera is is describing. For example, he describes focus peaking in a manner that makes the reader believe the X-E1 has focus peaking. It does not ! I assume that the Pro1 has it.I got the impression that the author was insufficiently familiar with the XE1 to understand that the two cameras are different in operation sometimes.Additionally, the description of Flash use is very confusing, again because the author is confused himself about which camera he is describing. However, if the reader uses his camera's operator manual in tandem with this book, the reader can sort it all out. Unfortunately, it is a pity that the author failed to properly proof read his own book before it was put into print.There are portions of the book that present lengthy descriptions of topics that are only tangentially related to the two cameras. For example, too much space is devoted to sensor cleaning. The information is useful but readily available on the internet. One would get the impression that the Fuji cameras are especially susceptible to dusty sensors, or that this is one of the author's favorite areas of interest.In conclusion, many of the self-help type books for photographers are poorly written and are cryptic . This book is better than most but is flawed.Would I buy the book again ? Yes. As a Kindle purchase it was not too expensive. I place blame for the flaws in this book on the publisher, not the writer . Poor oversight and editing are to blame. But this seems to be the norm.These are my opinions and others may draw other conclusions.

If anyone out there wants to learn how to write superbly about how to get the best and most out of some technological product — camera, computer, smartphone, drone, etc. — study this or another book by Rico Pfirstinger. He's got it down to a slick, smooth, class act.For starters, Pfirstinger knows these cameras forward, backward and inside out. He's learned them, used them and communicated with the people who made them. He's thought of everything necessary to get you comfortably and knowledgeably beyond the cut-and-dried contents of the cameras' official manuals. Tips, advice, explanations and useful insights — he's left no nugget of useful, interesting knowhow unturned. Pfirstinger's prose is comfortably conversational and unerringly clear as a bell.While my review headline says "camera-specific book," note this: If you happen to have another model Fujifilm X-camera, there's still much you can learn from this book. And, as I indicated, if you want to write about some other camera or tech gadget, you'd do well to study how Pfirstinger does it. I've read more than one or two such books, and none of them impressed me the way this one has.

Having previously worked with some of the more famous camera guide series, only to find them largely rehashed manuals, I was not expecting much from this book, but for less than ten bucks thought it might offer some useful tips for my new Fujifilm XE-1. I found it to be full of insight about setting up and using the X-Pro 1 (almost all of which is transferable to the XE-1) that I would never have found on my own without much trial and error, certainly not with the help of the skimpy Fuji manual. Novice and intermediate photographers moving from a point-and-shoot, or from a bulky DSLR that collected too much dust on the shelf, will find loads of information here to make the most of the extensive manual controls of the XE-1. If you are a highly skilled and experienced photographer, there may be less new information here for you, but the author's extensive knowledge of the details (and quirks) of the X-Pro 1 should be worth at least the modest cost of this book.

The Fugi X E1 is an awesome camera. Each button does a number of things, depending on which shooting mode one is using and it can be a daunting task to remember it all. This book is much clearer than the camera manual and makes learning fun.The downside, if there is one, is the information on the XPro camera, which one has to unnecessarily read through to ensure that they don't overlook any pertinent information about the X E1. Also, with each new firmware update, the new information is not included in the book.Overall, I find the book to be a really valuable asset to learning the mechanics of using the X E1 to it's full capacity and would highly recommend it. The author also has an Internet blog about the camera which is very helpful!

The X-Pro 1 is a camera that comes with a very limited manual and this book certainly brings additional valuable information, especially for autofocus, dynamic range and ISO settings, presenting tips and solutions in a clear and practical manner. The X-Pro 1 owners that haven't taken the time to look for all this additional information in the internet will appreciate it. But if, like me, you've been waiting for this book since it was announced last summer and in the meantime have been looking for information in the numerous Fuji internet forums, the book will not bring you too many new things. Besides, the camera firmware has been updated several times and some of the book information is not updated.

This what a camera manual should be! Plain and simple, no hidden instructions between warnings. Written in a simple to understand manner. My only regret is not to have founded before.

I hadn't used by XP1 for anything other than holiday snaps for over a year and, when I tried to use it for something more serious, I had forgotten how it worked. The XP1 is a quirky little camera, with a user interface all its own. It can take some getting used to or, in my case, re-familiarization.I picked up the original manual and my heart sank. It's extremely terse, with print so tiny that I had to hold it up to my face. To make sense of it you have to flip back and forth between sections repeatedly. I did all this before, when I first bought the camera, and I just couldn't face doing it again.This book is much longer than the official manual, but I don't think it really contains any relevant additional information. There's a lot of stuff that isn't (in my view) all that useful. There's a discussion, for example, of issues related to raw conversion. That's stuff you'll either know or you won't; but if you don't, you need to study it properly -- the brief treatment in a book of this sort won't be sufficient. Similar considerations apply to HDR imaging and general camera handling. These things aren't handled badly in the book; but they aren't specific to the camera, and are dealt with better in general photography publications.Still, the book is much, much more fun to read than the manual. Topics are grouped together in a useful way, and there are plenty of colour photographs to illustrate important aspects of the user interface. The author clearly has some real, practical experience with the camera, and is willing to point out aspects of its operation that are unhelpful or just defective -- something that the manufacturer's manual won't do. He has a clear idea of how the camera should be used and, although he does offer a justification for his opinions, he comes across as fairly sure that his way is best. If, for example, you're one of those people who like to do all the work in the camera, and not post-process images using a computer, I suspect you'll find the author's opinions a bit grating. Since the author's approach is much the same as my own, his biases don't bother me, but I can see how they might be a bit distracting to some people.I'm torn about whether this book is really with £20. Time is money, as they say, and I guess I saved twenty quids' worth of my time by reading this rather than the manual. Still, for my own purposes it would have been nicer if the content had been more restricted to specific operation of the XP1/XE1, particularly if that had made the book a little cheaper.

Warum habe ich gerade dieses Buch gekauft?Ich war schon länger auf der Suche nach einem Kamerabuch zur X-E1, hatte aber keine Lust 40 Euro dafür anzulegen, da habe ich, über den Umweg des auch von Rico Pfirstinger erhältlichen ausschliesslich auf die X-Pro1 zielenden Buches, dieses hier entdeckt. Als Kindle Buch aktuell zu unschlagbaren ca. 7,50 Euro. Da kann man doch eigentlich, auch auf Englisch, nicht so viel falsch machen.Vorweg, alles in allem wurde ich nicht enttäuscht, danke an dieser Stelle an meine Vorrezensenten, deren Urteil mich ermutigt hat.Gut gefallen hat mir:Rico hält sich nicht mit fotografischen Grundlagen zu Blende / Belichtung etc. auf. Ein Fotografie Einsteiger könnte das eventuell bemängeln, aber die beschriebene Kamera ist meines Erachtens eher kein Einsteiger Equipment. Sämtliche Kamerafunktionen werden ausführlich dargestellt, da wo es sich anbietet auch gern mal wiederholt (aus meiner Sicht didaktisch sehr gut, bleiben dabei ein paar Tricks und Kniffe doch umso besser hängen). Für mich persönlich insbesondere interessant der Teil zu 'automatischen' Erweiterung des Dynamikumfanges und die Hintergrundinfos zu den ISO Empflindlichkeitseinstellungen. Rico gibt auch vielfältige Anregungen zu seinen präferierten Einstellungen, incl. einer Erklärung warum (etwas was sonst eher zu kurz kommt). Auch wenn man dem nicht immer folgen mag, ermöglicht er auf diese Weise das Bilden einer eingenen, jetzt dann auch fundierten Meinung.Neutral bin ich bzgl.:Der Teil zu erhältlichen Objektiven und Zubehör nimmt meines Erachtens einen zu grossen Teil ein (überschlagen ca. 10% bzw. die Hälfte des 1. Kapitels). Hier wäre weniger mehr gewesen. Aber eventuell ist das ja für andere Leser ein wichtiger Punkt.Negativ aufgefallen ist mir:Inhaltlich betrachtet nichts, aber die Sprache macht es an manchen Stellen nicht gerade leicht zu lesen. Einige der Fehler sind ja eventuell amüsant, aber allzu viele der Formulierungen kommen doch etwas komisch daher. Für den Deutschen im Zweifel noch gut zu verstehen, wäre hier dennoch der muttersprachliche Lektor bestimmt hilfreich gewesen. Hier war ich kurz davor nur 3 Sterne zu vergeben. Aber es gilt natürlich: "you get what you pay for". Für 7,50 Euro ist das mehr als gut zu verschmerzen.Ich habe auf jeden Fall von dem Wissen des Authors sehr gut profitieren können.

Ich bin in der letzten Zeit selten für ein Kamerabuch einschränkungslos zu begeistern gewesen, weil vieles sich bei genauerem Hinschauen als oberflächlich zusammengeschustertes, schnelles Machwerk kurz nach Erscheinen einer neuen Kamera herausgestellt hat, das - so jedenfalls manchmal der Eindruck - sich lediglich in einer etwas opulenteren, farbig bebilderten Gebrauchsanleitung mit lesefreundlicherem Druck erschöpft. Nicht so Rico Pfirstingers X-Pro1 und X-E1-Buch. Das sollte man sich schon deshalb gönnen, weil Fuji-Kameras "anders" sind und funktionieren als viele andere Kameras, vor allem anders als die Platzhirsche der DSLR-Szene. Pfirstinger weist immer wieder in seinen ausführlichen Beschreibungen darauf hin. Auch, wenn man wie ich fujimäßig vorbelastet ist durch früheren Besitz einer S5pro für das Nikon-System und einer X100, die aber ein "Solitär" ist, wird einem nach Durchlesen dieses Buches erst klar, wie vieles an der X-E1 z.B. anders funktioniert als am gewohnten Nikon- oder Canon-System. Ja, es ist sogar empfehlenswert vor Anschaffung einer X-E1/2 oder X-Pro1, auch einer X-T1, das entsprechende Kamerabuch von Pfirstinger zu lesen, ob man denn da tatsächlich in ein Kamerasystem investiert, was den eigenen fotografischen Interessen entspricht, bzw. man kriegt relativ schnell raus, was das Fuji-System iVm mit einem bestimmten Gehäuse kann und was nicht. Und dann weiß man genau, wofür man seine X-E1 oder X-Pro1 gebrauchen sollte und für welche Verwendung sie minder begabt ist. Dank Pfirstinger, der alles genau beschreibt.................

This book complements and further develops the manual, providing tips and advice from Rico's extensive trialling of the camera during 2012. It is extremely well written, laid out in a progressive and logical order, and would be suitable for the beginner through to the more advanced user.I don't find it too technical at all - indeed I think it strikes the right balance. If I wanted to state a minor criticism it would be to the effect that the camera and its associated lenses have had their firmware updated since the book was published ( Fuji are about to release a further update very shortly to coincide with the release of the 14mm lens) BUT you have to accept that in this day and age all digital cameras are likely to require firmware updates periodically - that cannot be avoided.Would I recommend it to other X-Pro1 users? 100% yes. What are you waiting for? Place the order now!