Fujifilm maintains its fairly busy release schedule with the announcement of the X-E5 at its latest X-Summit in Shanghai.
While the GFX ETERNA has understandably occupied a lot of column inches over the course of the past week, it is far from the only new product on the Fujifilm radar. The company is having a busy 2025 of it so far, with the analogue/digital hybrid X Half released last month and now the X-E5.
This is the latest in the series of the company's small mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses and replaces the X-E4, which means it has to step into some fairly big shoes. That was popular enough that once it was discontinued its pre-owned price shot up to overtake its launch price, which is always an impressive achievement. So, what will a $1699 body price of X-E5 get you four years after its predecessor was launched?
Turns out, quite a bit.
All this translates into a very likeable camera with a lot of features. It might no longer be the entry level to the whole Fujifilm ecosystem (the X100VI is $100 cheaper and comes with a fixed lens), but it offers a lot and straddles an interesting middle ground between a fully-featured pocket camera and something with the flexibility of interchangeable lenses.
Indeed, it has the same 40.2MP APS-C sensor and compact design of the X100VI, showing that the company knows a good thing when it sees it. Video is captured at a maximum frame rate of 29.97 fps in 6.2K, 59.94 fps in 4K, and 240 fps in Full HD, and is boosted by 425-point intelligent hybrid auto focus with AI-based subject detection. Users can record in H.265 and H.264 formats with All-Intra or Long GOP video compression. Bitrates at up to 200 Mb/s at all resolutions are supported, but early reviews suggest rolling shutter can be an issue.
A new pixel structure has been adopted to capture more light efficiently. That means that ISO 125, which was an extended sensitivity in previous models, can now be used as a standard sensitivity. In addition, the electronic shutter speed can be set to a maximum of 1/180000 seconds, enabling shooting with the aperture wide open in a wide range of scenes.
In addition to improved detection accuracy of the gyro sensor, a newly adopted algorithm enhances tracking performance for blur, achieving 5-axis image stabilization with a maximum of 7.0 stops in the center and 6.0 stops at the periphery. The digital teleconverter function enables two-stage zooming at 1.4x and 2.0x. With the high-resolution sensor “X-Trans™ CMOS 5 HR,” resolution is maintained even during zooming, allowing for versatile performance across a wide range of scenes.
There are plenty of physical changes. For the first time in the X series, a camera top case has been precision machined from aluminum. A newly designed Film Simulation dial placed at the left side of the top panel features a window for easy visibility. Any of the 20 Film Simulations and image quality settings can be registered to three positions, FS1 to FS3, while personal FS recipes can be saved and accessed by switching the dial.
The viewfinder and diopter adjustment dial have been designed to minimize unevenness. In addition to narrowing the gap between the dial and the main body, Fujifilm says that the overall vertical and horizontal balance has been optimized, and the layout of the dials has been designed so that all operations can be performed with the right hand alone when holding the camera and looking through the viewfinder
A new retro and simple view mode called “Classic” has been added to the EVF display modes allowing you to recreate the information that you would have been given by an SLR camera in the 80s, even down to a match needle interface. A newly equipped surround view function displays areas outside the shooting range as either semi-transparent or outlined, depending on the aspect ratio.
And a new control lever is mounted on the front of the camera. The lever can be assigned functions such as changing the view mode, switching the aspect ratio, and changing the digital teleconverter magnification.
The X-E5 will ship at the end of August for a recommended ratio price of $1699. Available in black or silver, its release is accompanied by a brand-new pancake lens, the XF 23mm f/2.8 R WR, pretty much the same as the one fixed to the front of the X100VI. Bundled with the X-E5 it raises the price by $200, but if you want to buy it standalone that price rises to an 'interesting' $499.