Camera manufacturers are showing off their latest and greatest ahead of Photokina later this month, and as always seems to be the case, with a new set of announcements comes a new gorgeously retro shooter from Fujifilm. This time it's the X-E1, effectively a more affordable version of the ultra-high-end X-Pro1. Of course, "more affordable" is a relative term: the X-E1 will still set you back $999.95 for the body alone, or $1399.95 with an 18-55mm X-mount kit lens. The new camera justifies its price, though, offering a 16.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, a 2.36-million-dot OLED viewfinder, and blistering fast autofocus. It can shoot six frames per second, and records 1080p video at 24 frames per second.
Of course, one of the biggest hooks for Fujifilm's X-mount lineup — from the X-Pro1 to the X100 and X10 — is the beautiful retro styling, and the X-E1 continues the trend. It's a much smaller device than the X-Pro1, but its silver or black chassis offers the same textured look. Fujifilm also says the camera's image quality should equal the X-Pro1's; the only loss seems to be some measure of manual controls. We'll be able to tell how it measures up when it ships in November, but we can already safely say it's a looker.
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