Moving from NX300 to XT-1 or A6000

Mekrel · 26 Mar 2014 at 14:01

I wanted to gauge people's opinions on changing from my current set up of NX300 & lenses to the Fujifilm XT-1.

I travel quite a lot and changed to a compact system about two/three years ago and have not looked back, simply as I can fit the NX300 and four lenses into a relatively compact camera bag (LP Nova 160 AW). The main purpose for my travels isn’t photography, so I'm completely comfortable with the balance between image quality that CSCs offer and portability.

Whilst the NX300 is good value for money, there are certain downfalls in the NX300 system and the lens line up, namely:

Downfalls:

Lens range isn't that great, especially as no third party produces NX mount lenses
Screen isn't that useable in direct sunlight
ISO performance could be better
Build quality of some of their lenses is suspect
Focus speed isn't really all that great and I've had focus issues in low light

I've been eyeing up the XT-1 and I've been reading a few reviews over the past month or so, with the main benefits I like the look of being:

Fantastic EVF - Although noise does become an issue in lower light to keep refresh rates high
I especially like the EVF feature that overlays focus distance and DoF distance info
Fantastic build quality
Dials, dials everywhere
A good lens line up that are better built than Samsungs
Looks to have fewer artifacts at higher ISOs than the Samsung NX (might be down to 16mp on a similar sized sensor)
The phone companion app for remote operation looks fantastic

I've been weighing up the cost to "upgrade", especially as Fujifilm have a decent £300 cash back offer that's about to end on the 31st of March and I believe the rough upgrade cost to be about £2.2K - maybe slightly less if I can get more for the NX, lenses and accessories and better costs on the Fuji equipment.

What are people's thoughts? Is this cost worth it? Part of me does believe the Fuji is priced on the high side as I've also been eyeing up the Sony A6000, but there aren't any real in depth reviews out yet.

Columbo · 27 Mar 2014 at 11:20

edit - misunderstood.

GTRacer · 27 Mar 2014 at 11:33

While Fujis are quite expensive, you generally can't fault the image quality of both the sensors and lenses. The 18-55 kit lens has more in common with something like a Canon 24-105L than say the plasticky Canikon kit lenses from a few years ago. The fast primes are all up there with Canon/Nikon/Sigma/Leica equivalents, I remember one prominent Leica expert saying that the 35/1.4 gives the Leica's own Summilux lenses a run for their money. Plus, you can be sure that Fuji will keep supporting the camera with meaningful firmware updates, they updated the X100 even when they had moved on to the X100s, they've added new features and revised a few things with the X-Pro 1 too. Then there are the controls and design, which are just great. I have a friend who really likes the XT1 and actually uses it alongside his D4, he doesn't have any major complaints about it save for battery life.

Mekrel · 28 Mar 2014 at 06:35

GTRacer said:
While Fujis are quite expensive, you generally can't fault the image quality of both the sensors and lenses. The 18-55 kit lens has more in common with something like a Canon 24-105L than say the plasticky Canikon kit lenses from a few years ago. The fast primes are all up there with Canon/Nikon/Sigma/Leica equivalents, I remember one prominent Leica expert saying that the 35/1.4 gives the Leica's own Summilux lenses a run for their money. Plus, you can be sure that Fuji will keep supporting the camera with meaningful firmware updates, they updated the X100 even when they had moved on to the X100s, they've added new features and revised a few things with the X-Pro 1 too. Then there are the controls and design, which are just great. I have a friend who really likes the XT1 and actually uses it alongside his D4, he doesn't have any major complaints about it save for battery life.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, your points stack up with other views of Fuji on other other sites such as DPReview.

I'll most likely make the change, technology upgrade itches never tend to subside with me. It's a shame they don't have a TX-1 or any of the lenses I want at duty free today.

Mekrel · 31 Mar 2014 at 11:45

I was in Berlin this weekend and managed to check out the Sony A6000 in the Sony Centre (fantastic store by the way) and I've decided to go with the Fuji X-T1, mainly because of the dials. Even with the iFunction Samsung lenses, I’ve had some moments of frustration with being able to change settings quickly through the touch screen interface.

I've got the 35mm & 50-200mm ordered today as the cash back offer ends at 23:59 tonight, I can wait a few more weeks for the body as the price drop. Plus I'm waiting until the statement due date for my credit card in order to clear the thing off (never pay it off before I have to, so my current account balance remains higher for longer, so get more interest paid).

I'll be putting my Samsung gear on eBay tonight, but I wanted to understand people's opinions on the best way to sell? Group the camera kit (body + 18-55mm lens) with the three other lenses and speed light together as one listing.

Or put everything up separately?

Combat Fighter · 4 May 2014 at 18:01

A6000 is the way forward. Excellent camera.

Fuji X-T1 is a bit meh.

Mekrel · 6 May 2014 at 19:06

Combat Fighter said:
A6000 is the way forward. Excellent camera.

Fuji X-T1 is a bit meh.

On paper, the A6000 is most likely the better camera, especially with the amount of phase detection that cover most of the sensor.

For me though, the A6000 falls short in the exact area where I was having problems with the Samsung system and that's the lack of physical controls. Obviously I've not played with the A6000 for an extended amount of time outside of the quick play I had in the Berlin Sony Centre, but it doesn't take long to realise that you're forced into sub camera menus for most of the settings (most reviews criticise Sony's NEX UI, although the Alpha tabbed UI is better).

I've found myself visiting a lot of forums whilst researching the X-T1 and at first, I was amazed by the amount of posts I came across where people were willing to dump their Canon 5DMKII/III gear for one of these. Surely people who own such expensive gear are very much the 'no expense sacrificed' type of people and there are always sacrifices that come with moving into smaller bodied CSC systems from dull DSLRs.

But that being said, I think the main reasons why people are happy to consider the move is how similar the control system of the Fuji X-T1 is to most DSLRs and how good the Fuji prime lenses are.