Fuji X-Pro1 Review
Posted on: Sun July 1, 2012
Click on the images for a larger view.
These are just a collection of random images from different projects to give you an idea of what the camera can do.
This is a straight forward review of the Fuji X-Pro1 camera, not too much digital tech talk, just my opinions. I hope you find it useful.
The Camera Design
The camera looks and feels really nice. I know this shouldn’t really matter, but to me it does, well just a little a bit anyway. A phrase I have heard a lot of recently is “retro-styling”, it’s a phrase I have come to hate if I’m honest – I prefer simply ‘classic design’. Having the aperture on the lens ring and the shutter speeds on a dial on the top plate is not just classic design, it’s very easy to use. When I’m doing my photography training and teaching someone how to use a camera, I show them my camera first and point out the aperture ring (f2 – f16 and A on the 18mm lens) and then the shutter speed dial (1/4000 sec down to 30 secs and of course A). You can either set both yourself , put one on Auto and adjust the other or put them both on Auto!
The ‘classic design’ 
is similar to a rangefinder for sure, a lot of it’s functionality is similar too. It’s not a tiny camera though and the Fuji AF lenses are definitely bigger than that of a Leica’s for example. But the camera is very light, much lighter than an SLR and that for me is very welcome.
I have heard two different people say that it reminds them a bit of the Contax G2, which is high praise. Obviously people will compare it to a Leica, but in honesty it’s not really like a Leica, I suppose it looks like a Contax G2 with a splash of Yashica Electro.
The design is always going to be a talking point but this camera is much more than just form over function. I sold my Nikon D700 camera to switch to the Fuji X system so it was incredibly important that the quality was there as well and I can assure you, it IS there.
Image Quality
It has a 16MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor. Okay, I’m going to try and cut out jargon here, firstly (16MP) means the sensor resolution is 16 mega pixels, which means you can produce very high quality prints up to around 18×12 inches at 300ppi. But in reality you can probably print much bigger and I think 30×20 inch prints will look lovely. The next part (APS-C), this means the sensor is smaller than a piece of 35mm film, typically the same size as an entry to mid level SLRs. This we sometimes refer to as a crop factor of x1.5, meaning that a 18mm lens is about the same as a 27mm lens on a 35mm camera and the 35mm lens the same as 52mm. For me the only issue is that you do get the same barrel distortion as an 18mm or 35mm lens, but this can be corrected with software to some extent. The last part (X-Trans CMOS) sensor is the technology used in this sensor and it’s bloody great! Fuji eliminated the need for an anti-aliasing filter which softens then image, something that most digital cameras have to have or else the dreaded moiré effect can happen – a sort of newton rings type patten that can appear on areas of intricate detail. This can still occur with images from the X-Pro1 but so far I have had no problems with this. Adobe Lightroom 4 even has a moiré tool now to help if it does occur. Because it doesn’t have an anti-aliasing filter it can produce very sharp and detailed images and it doesn’t disappoint at all, I think I see far more detail and sharpness in my X-Pro1 images than I did with my Nikon D700.
The other things people want to know about are low light capability (ISO) and dynamic range. ISO won’t interest film shooters too much, it’s every bit as good as film and probably better. You can shoot up to ISO 3200 with hardly any grain. Dynamic range, meaning how much detail it can capture in the highlights and the shadow areas. It’s good, really good – if you read the tests online I think it doesn’t quite match up to the higher spec SLRs but you won’t really notice that too much in real life.
The Raw files are nice, the colours are really great from the start. I use Lightroom 4 to process my images and have a preset for developing my colours with a sort of Kodak Portra feel to them, which is warmer than the raw standard. The raw standard is more like a Fuji Pro film, unsurprisingly.
Software
If you’re new to digital photography or photography generally, you might not realise quite how important software is. To achieve the bests results from a digital camera you need to shoot in Raw format and use software to process your images. There are many sites dedicated to Raw workflow and the importance of the Raw image, but for now just take my word for it, you need to shoot in Raw format. So which software to choose? This is tricky, the camera will come with SilkyPix, Fuji’s own Raw processing software which does a pretty good job but it’s not very easy to work with, especially for processing multiple files. Adobe Lightroom 4.1 now has support for the X-Pro1 which is brilliant news, you would think! Unfortunately they haven’t quite got it right yet, due to the fact that the X-Pro1 has a new type of image sensor and some of the images processed with Lightroom display a strange ‘painterly’ effect, which I think is down to chroma blurring. I fully expect Adobe to sort this problem out with an update and some point, but just to let you know there is no perfect solution at the moment. Of course you could process your Raw file in SilkyPix and output a 16bit TIFF file in to Lightroom and this would solve the issue, certainly to an extent.
Lenses
I have two, the 18mm f/2 (27mm in 35mm/film terms) and the 35mm f/1.4 (52mm in 35mm/film terms).
Both lenses are excellent in my opinion, the 35mm (52mm) lens performs really well throughout the entire range of apertures and the out of focus areas when used wide open are really nice. The 18mm (27mm) is also great and I am using it mainly for a landscape project and getting good results. I’m mainly stopping down to f/8-f/16, but f/2 is really usable when appropriate.
There is also a 60mm macro lens, which I don’t have. I don’t do very much macro work, but I am thinking of getting an older (cheaper) manual focus macro lens to use with an adapter.
Of course Fuji have plans for lots of new lenses. later this year will come the wide angle 14mm f/2.8 (21mm) which should be really nice. Also a 18-55mm zoom lens with image stabilisation.
Then next year will see a 27mm (41mm) f/2.8 pancake lens, which really interests me. The 23mm (35mm) f/1.4 lens is probably the one I am most looking forward to as it’s proved to be my favourite focal length and with an aperture of f/1.4 it’s going to be hot!
The 56mm (84mm) f/1.4 will be a must for me personally as it will be great for weddings and portraits, yes I am shooting weddings with this camera!
There are also two more zooms, a 55-200mm and a wide 10-24mm.
Check out this road map for more info.
http://www.photography-news.com/2012/06/new-fujinon-xf-lenses-for-fujifilm-x.html
Pros
• Image quality
• Size (small ish)
• Weight (light!)
• Good AF lenses and the possibility of using MF lenses with adapter
• Fuji have made the exposure compensation dial tighter than on the X100, apparently it would get knocked and changed easily, the X-Pro1 doesn’t
• You can get adapters to use all manor of manual lenses. I’m looking forward to using my Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 for portraits (75mm in 35mm/film terms)
• The look. Yeah I know it shouldn’t be important and image quality and usability will always come above this, but it does look nice and I like that
Cons
• Lack of perfect software option (at the moment)
• Some minor gripes, some of which can hopefully be rectified with firmware updates (see below)
• Price (expensive, but you do get a lot for your money)
• The on/off switch can get switched on whilst in your bag
• Slightly slow AF sometimes
Minor Gripes
1) When you have a tripod baseplate attached you can’t access the battery or memory card.
I’m looking to get one of the Gariz half leather cases and this actually addresses this issue by attaching the case to the camera via the tripod mount and adding a new tripod mount in a better place (centre) and leaving a hole to access the battery and memory card. I hear also that it may be possible to get custom baseplates that are off centre for certain cameras.
2) When using the dedicated flash, the flash turns itself off when you turn the camera off or when it goes to sleep. It should wake up when the camera is switched back on or is woken up, IMO. I’m hoping this can be fixed with a firmware update.
3) I have sometimes experienced really bad over-exposure when turning on the camera and shooting quickly. You have to wait about a second before shooting. Not a really big deal but it can be a little annoying, I would hope this could be fixed with a firmware update.
4) I will be amongst many others when I say I would really like to see focus peaking when using manual focus. Not sure whether this will ever be added, but it would be a very welcome addition.
EDIT: For those that aren’t familiar, ‘focus peaking’ highlights the focus points across the whole image by outlining them in a colour. Not to be confused with a zoomed-in-view to see detail to focus on, which the X-Pro1 already has and works fine, it’s just a bit of a slow process.
5) AF is a little slow on the 35mm f/1.4 lens, slower than the 18mm. It’s not a big deal for me.
Conclusion
This is a great camera that takes beautiful images that have a sharp film-like look. The camera is small (ish) and very light. The Fuji lenses are lovely, but I suppose you’d expect nothing less with their experience in that field. Of course the wealth of many many manual focus lenses with the various adapters is a definite bonus. The camera is a little quirky to get used to, especially if you’ve come from a DSLR, but when you do you’ll love it. A friend of mine referred to his X100 as being ‘addictive’ to use and I kind of understand where he is coming from with the X-Pro1.
Future
We just need a couple more firmware updates from Fuji to fix a few a little gripes and Adobe to fix the raw processing issue in Lightroom 4.
Add in the new lenses coming later this year and next and you have a really good system here.
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