18 months later - Fujifilm X-Pro2 review

    It's been roughly a year and a half since my move from the X-Pro1 to the second generation of Fujifilm's brilliant 'rangefinder' camera. Yeah, it is probably a little odd to write a review for a camera that came out almost two years ago but this one is still current and still being sold as there is no clear replacement on the horizon. Plus, reviewing something that just came out cannot be really fully comprehensive. The trials I've put my X-Pro2 through over the course of the last 18 months have secured it as the perfect camera for me.

    In the terms of the design, it's small but not too small. It's light but it doesn't feel cheap. The body is made of magnesium alloy and leather. The only plastic you can find here are the buttons on the back and the viewfinder enclosure. All buttons, openings and doors are weather sealed which gives you an all-around rugged workhorse of a camera capable of withstanding the harshest weather. Spending a week in Scotland expecting constant rain? Nothing to worry about. Going on a trip to Antarctica to shoot in sub-zero temperatures? No problem whatsoever. As long as you combine the body with the adequate WR lens you can be sure it will do the job for you. I can’t even count how many times my own X-Pro2 had to withstand some form of abuse. It’s been dropped countless times, hit, scraped against ground and walls, covered in water from use in rain, I even fell on it a couple of times with my full weight pinching it between dirt on the ground and my kevlar vest on the Conflict Photography Workshop last November. This little thing is built like a tank.

    The way you control the camera is by far the most intuitive of all manufacturers I've tried so far, and I think I've tried them pretty much all. Your main exposure controls are easily readable by a single glance at the top of the camera. Your aperture (seen on the top of the lens thanks to the dedicated lens ring), your shutter speed (on a clearly marked dial on the left side of the shutter button), your ISO setting (integrated into the shutter speed dial just like my old Pentax KM), and lastly your exposure compensation dial on the right edge of the camera. All of these dials are metal, easy to grip, tactile and analogue. If you've ever shot a film camera and enjoyed it you're going to feel like home using the X-Pro2. The overall layout of the remaining buttons is well thought out, easy to navigate, even easier to customize, and generally makes the camera get out of the way between you and the picture. I only need to go into the menu on the rarest occasions as everything I need to take the photograph is right at my fingertips. And if you ever need to go into the menu after all it’s well thought out, organised and easy to learn. If I’ve ever missed a picture it was mostly my own fault. I’ve learned that there is no way I could blame the camera for being too complicated.

    The X-Pro2 was the first camera to introduce the third generation X-Trans CMOS sensor with its unique pixel layout that tackles moire without the need for an optical low pass filter. Thanks to this the camera can rival full frame bodies with the level of detail and low light performance in the lovely files it produces. It boasts 24 million pixels rounded up to nice 6000x4000p images. Native ISO ranges from 200 to 12800 and thanks to the X-Trans layout and X-Processor Pro the high ISO files look different than what you’re used to from other cameras. The artefacts look more like film grain rather than digital noise. Especially in black and white. I personally have the camera set to automatic ISO and I don’t really care whether the picture is shot at low or high setting. Better to have a grainy image than not to have an image at all. In fact, I always know I can trust the camera to expose correctly as 90% of the time I shoot using “aperture priority”. That means I have the camera on auto ISO, auto shutter speed and just adjust the aperture or occasionally the exposure compensation dial. This keeps me from messing around with unnecessary settings when I need to be paying attention to the scene in front of me.

    If its speed you’re after, this is the camera for you. The autofocus has received multiple updates since the release of the camera improving its tracking capabilities and overall speed of snapping into focus. It uses a combination of contrast and phase detection points. You can either use 325 of them or limit the camera to use only 91 which makes the navigation between them quicker. That is done easily and conveniently using the joystick on the back of the body. I still find myself using just the central point and just doing the standard focus-recompose technique quite often even though that’s not really the ideal way to focus on a mirrorless camera.

    One of the main selling points of the X-Pro2 is the hybrid viewfinder which allows you to shoot through an optical viewfinder with the help of digitally projected overlay to help you compose or you can just switch to a standard electronic screen to see the exact image including the colour and exposure setup. And even though there are plenty of people who go for this camera for that feature alone I myself can’t even remember when is the last time I’ve used the optical viewfinder. The electronic one has just so much more information and works so well I can’t really go back from it.

    To not sound like a fanboy there are some issues I have with the camera. One is the exposure compensation dial. It moves way too easily. I always have to check it when I take the camera out of the bag to see whether I’ve accidentally moved it or not. It could really use a lock. The second issue I have is the viewfinder. The cheaper X-E3 has it much brighter, X-T2 has it much bigger. The X-Pro2 could really use a better viewfinder in terms of brightness or size. Resolution and framerate are decent though.

    The camera was clearly meant for professional use. It has dual SD card slots one of which is UHS-II. You can, of course, use them as a backup, RAW+JPEG or in a sequence. Speaking of RAW Fujifilm offers an option of lossless compressed allowing you to fit almost twice as many photos on the same memory card. JPEGs can be shot in multiple colour profiles simulating Fujifilm’s film stock such as Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, ProNEG and beautiful Acros. If you’re a Lightroom user you can also apply these profiles to your RAWs as they come installed in the Lightroom Classic CC. Unfortunately, the new Lightroom CC doesn’t have those (Not true anymore, this article is old, the simulations have been added to Lightroom). Dynamic range is definitely impressive as I was able to save plenty of details from seemingly blown out highlights or underexposed shadows.

    The video capabilities have definitely improved since the release date. The firmware update 4.0 brought 4k video at 29.97fps along 1080p at 60fps. You can of course plug in an external microphone using an audio jack but that's about it. The video controls are unfortunately very simple. You can set the exposure manually, focus manually or automatically, but you don't really see where the camera focuses as there is no indication of the central focus point whilst recording. Hopefully, some future firmware update might bring some better video controls or at least a dedicated video mode. But that's not what this camera is intended for. Its main purpose is stills photography and it excels in that regard.

    To sum it up I’d recommend the X-Pro2 to anyone considering photojournalism, street photography, travel photography, or weddings. Anything where you’d need a small rugged camera that doesn’t look intimidating and doesn’t break your back in half. You can trust it to be fast and reliable and to deliver good quality images. Keep an eye on that exposure compensation dial though, it can make your day pretty hard if you forget to set it right.

You can see what I use my X-Pro2 for on my Instagram @ondroidv.