First of all, I’m not a camera review guy, so that is not what this post is about.
I’m just one of the masses who, when the “latest and greatest” are arriving on the scene, I fall into the “I gotta have it!” category.
Most recently this applies to the new mirrorless camera from Fujifilm, the X-Pro 1. It’s beautiful and is promoted to be one to watch this year.
For the two of you who occasionally read this blog, you’ll remember that after looking for an alternative to my 5D Mark II to take out for street shooting I finally landed on the Fujifilm X100. I’m still in love with this camera.
Yep, the honeymoon is still going strong.
I still love this camera for the same reasons for which I made that purchase.
- APS-C sensor for high-quality images
- Retro look and feel
- Fixed 35mm (equiv), f2.0 lens
- Awesome exterior control over aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation and even ISO (function button) You really don’t have to take your eye away from the viewfinder when changing any of these settings.
- Hybrid optical view finder and electronic view finder. Awesome!
The camera takes great shots (especially b&w), feels great in the hand and is a blast to shoot with.
Things I Wish
Although the APS-C sensor along with a 2.o lens can deliver some great shots, the image quality, overall, is a little soft to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m spoiled by the image quality of the 5d2 so take that for what it’s worth. Also, the autofocus can be a bit (okay, sometimes really) slow.You may miss some shots with this one.
Also, one thing that can play in this camera’s favor for most is it’s size. It’s bigger and more substantial feeling than a compact camera, but when coming from a dSLR it is much smaller and lighter. For myself, I wouldn’t mind a little more size and weight here. Don’t get me wrong, when in the hands, the build feel is high quality, and like I said it’s substantially bigger than most compacts out there.
Issues Addressed… and More. The Fujifilm X100 Pro
This is Fuji’s new release in their “X” series. It is very similar to the X100 in many ways, but also goes much further in many ways. Other than the fact that it’s still got that beautiful, retro look that the X100 has (except it’s all black), here’s what’s getting the drool started for me….
- New sensor. Too technical for me to effectively describe, but the claims of image sharpness is that it is greatly improved from that of the x100, impressive and may rival (or exceed) that of the 5D Mark II
- Interchangeable lenses. Okay, I’m divided on this one. On one hand I love being forced to think more about each shot, using the fixed beautiful 35mm (equiv) lens on the X100. But c’mon, a new lens system!!! Also there’s talk about having an M mount system introduced for this camera later this year so you can use Leica lenses. Awesome!
- Slightly larger body. Some are already complaining about this – listing it as a negative. For me this is a plus. I’m just used to feeling something bigger and heavier in my hands (okay, that didn’t come out the way I planned).
Nooowww, how much would you pay?
Along with the body size, the price is also significantly reported to be bigger. No official price tag yet, but rumors have it at around $1600 for the body and $600-$700 for the lenses? Okay, that’s putting it into the “serious” category. But if it lives up to the rumors, could be worth every penny.
If you haven’t seen any videos yet, here are a couple that might get you drooling too. Again, I’m not a pro camera reviewer so check out this more in-depth preview on dpreview.com (this is also the source of the Fujifilm images used in this post.) http://www.dpreview.com/previews/fujifilmxpro1/
