How manufacturers develop model series can sometimes be astonishing. This is also the case with the X-E4 from Fujifilm. Compared to the X-E3, the current model has been upgraded with 26 instead of 23 megapixels of the sensor without shift for image stabilization, with a foldable monitor and other film simulations (these are primarily image styles that influence the color and detail). At the same time, the camera has undergone an external overhaul, which distinguishes it from the previous model far more clearly than expected: with the dimensions barely changed, the user interface has not changed fundamentally, but has changed significantly in detail.
Within Fuji's successful portfolio of cameras with APS-C sensors, the XE series is in the middle class, above the cheaper entry-level XA and below the X-S10 or X-T4, which also clearly differ from the outside. It is not uncommon to say that the X-E4 is a camera with the design of a viewfinder camera. This is funny in that, unlike the Fuji X-100, it does not have a viewfinder window in the front, but it does have an electronic viewfinder. What is meant is: The XE series lacks a prismatic gable, which in the X-T4 does not have a prism - because it is completely superfluous with a mirrorless one - but gives it the appearance of a mirror reflex.
As straight, smooth and compact as the X-E4 with the pancake, the flat Fujinon XF 27mm f / 2.8 WR (WR means weather resistance) stands on the table, it is reminiscent of generations of 35mm cameras, the Japanese industry built in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century: Minoltas Hi-Matic, Canons Canonet or the Olympus 35, including their variants and copies, were automatic exposure systems, often with rangefinder. They looked very similar to each other and had a built-in, high-speed 35mm focal length of around 40 millimeters. As an interchangeable lens, the XF 27mm corresponds almost exactly to this value on the X-E4 and turns it into a snapshot camera as a normal lens with an extended angle of view for around 1200 euros (housing: almost 900 euros).
The fact that Fuji took the rear rotary wheel, three of the eight buttons on the back, the thumb pad there, the bulge on the front and the AF / MF switch in no way downgraded the X-E4 to an entry-level camera. The changes also do not make the purchase of the handle and the thumb rest, which conceals a button on top of the housing, mandatory.
Equipped with the flat lens, the new housing is easy to grip. The classic operation with timing wheel and aperture ring was retained, the fast hybrid autofocus with its 425 groupable measuring points from the upper class of the X system is on board. What more do you want? Maybe a slightly less clunky display. It can - for the price of a few contortions - be folded forward in the selfie position. The X-E4 is even more a camera than its predecessor, and it is extremely personable.