I’ve had a lot of questions about what I ended up doing with my X-E5 after it broke.

For those of you who didn’t see my YouTube video, the strap lugs on my X-E5 randomly snapped off while I was walking around London. This is an issue that Fujifilm has since acknowledged.

Rather than going through Fujifilm’s repair process, I decided to contact the retailer I bought the camera from. Fortunately, consumer laws in the UK are pretty strong, so I was able to get a replacement within a week.

Whether this new X-E5 will suffer from the same issue is still unclear. Fujifilm hasn’t specified which units are affected, which does make me a bit cautious. Even if the body is covered, any damage caused by a fall to the lens is unlikely to be.

With that said, I do still enjoy using the X-E5. For me, it feels like the X-Pro4 we never got. I prefer rangefinder-style bodies for street photography, and the X-E5 is one of the few recent cameras that fits into that category.

It’s a really enjoyable camera to shoot with. Even with its issues, it’s fun and easy to use. Paired with something like the 27mm f/2.8, it becomes a lightweight, compact setup that works really well for travel.

So, would I still recommend the X-E5?

It’s hard to say. Build quality concerns seem to be creeping into Fujifilm’s recent releases, and at this price point, there are alternatives. For a bit more, you can pick up something like the X-T5, which offers more professional features like dual SD card slots and weather resistance.

If you missed the original post where the issue happened, I’ve written about it in more detail here.