Excellent. Answers all my questions. The X-Pro drops to the Maybe Someday
category.
--Bob
On Apr 3, 2012, at 7:20 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> It's got perhaps the best sensor I've ever seen in the most infuriating body
> i've ever used. I wrote a 'how I really feel' review knowing that my editor
> would choke given that Fuji are a major advertiser. He just can't use it so
> now I have to write something softer. But it made me feel better. It is
> below.
> To be fair, after about a week I began to get used to it and after I disabled
> just about everything I find useful it did speed up a bit. It takes around a
> week to learn and I only had it for six days!
> Andrew Fildes
> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.soultheft.com
>
>
>
> On 04/04/2012, at 1:22 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
>
>> So, Andrew, tell us what you _really_ think. <g>
>>
>> How'd the X-Pro do?
>
>
> Fujifilm X-Pro 1
>
> Andrew Fildes
>
> Dear Mr FujiFilm, or may I just call you Fuji?…everyone else seems to.
>
> Thank you for the loan of the new X-Pro. It really is a most unusual camera.
> I can honestly say that it has a remarkably good lenses in front of a
> brilliant sensor encased in one of the most difficult and frustrating bodies
> I’ve ever handled. You didn’t send me a beta version by mistake did you?
>
> I really don’t quite know how to deal with this one, Fuji-san. I mean, I
> really wanted to like this outfit. I use an M9 and I’ve owned an M8 and Epson
> R-D1 as well, the only real digital rangefinders I think. But my eyes and
> reflexes aren’t what they used to be so a camera that was similar but with
> autofocus – what a wonderful idea. Could it be as good as the Contax G2 I
> once owned, a film autofocus rangefinder. Oh yes please!
>
> But it’s not, is it? OK, I’ll be fair and kind and look at the good stuff
> first. Fujinon lenses – always been pretty good haven’t they and these are
> too. Solid build, metal rings and they come with well designed metal lens
> hoods too AND protection filters. Wow. Metal mounts, although aluminium alloy
> rather than chromed brass. And very well priced. I’m impressed. An f1.4
> standard lens for around what I’d pay for an SLR equivalent and the wide and
> tele-macro are a bargain. Great value.
>
> Then there’s the sensor. I did like the sensor you put in the S5-Pro body and
> some of your sensors for compacts are amazing but this is a step beyond. It
> took me a few days but eventually I set it to the Auto 3200iso setting for
> general shooting – that allows the it to set in any ISO up to 3200 to suit
> the circumstances. I was nervous about this because I usually avoid anything
> over 800 but after I realised (by testing) that 3200 was as clean as you
> could wish for almost any shot, it made sense.
>
> I knew this because while walking through a Melbourne camera store
> (Michaels), I noticed that they had one of those portable light boxes set up
> with a plastic bunch of grapes in it – you know, one of those boxes you use
> for shooting small items for selling online. It was rather nifty I thought –
> it folded down to an aluminium briefcase. I must go back and take another
> look at it. So on the spur of the moment, I shot the grapes, hand held, up
> and down the ISO scale. And oh it was good.
>
> Up to 800 I could hardly see any difference. 1600 and 3200 were beginning to
> show some noise but nothing that would bother. 6400 was slightly grainy
> though not as bad as an old 400 ISO film and nothing that couldn’t be
> smoothed up a little in Lightroom with minimal loss of detail. Above that – I
> think ‘useable’ is the best description but I do mean useable, not
> ‘desperate’. I shot a lecturer in a darkened hall where he was having to use
> his pointer’s light notes check his notes because it was too dark to read and
> I got the shot. But 400 ISO as the base level and only 100 L below it? That's
> a bit hard to swallow.
>
> But now can I get to the not so good bits? And there are a lot of them.
> Focussing is simply terrible. This is a frustratingly slow camera and street
> shooting is virtually impossible unless you use manual focus – and I already
> have things that do that well. I also now have a nice collection of shots of
> people half out of the frame. You will not get a decisive moment. Ever. If
> you have image review enabled, and set to hold as I do so that I can check
> the shot, it blocks the viewfinder and takes a while to clear.
>
> To check that it wasn’t just me, I lent it to a friend for an hour, an old
> pro, to take some portraits. He made a simple comment – “If I’d spent
> thousands on this I’d have had to buy insurance with it…because within a
> couple of days I’d wrap it around a tree.” He couldn’t work out why if you
> are taking a portrait and repeating a shot over and over from the same
> distance, the camera insisted on cycling through the focus range almost every
> time. Especially the 60mm lens. And why, in the same circumstances, you’d get
> two shots perfectly exposed and one totally blown out.
>
> He wasn’t wrong. Why does it do that? Shot to shot time is awful because of
> that, and partly because it takes a while to write to card. I was shooting
> JPEG’s so that shouldn’t happen. He also found the Q button problem and this
> is a surprisingly annoying difficulty. There is a Q button that brings up the
> navigable Quick menu screen where you can make all the adjustments you would
> normally need to, like ISO for instance. Where’s the button? On the crest of
> the thumb grip, right under the meat of your thumb. With your hand around the
> grip, what happens? You keep pressing it accidentally. Now remember, this is
> a hybrid optical/electronic finder so as soon as this happens, your view
> through the finder is suddenly replaced by the grey Quick menu screen!
> Aaaargggh! Do the Japanese have differently shaped hands to us – I think not.
> Awful design.
>
> The there’s the exposure compensation dial. Nice big dial projecting over the
> top-back so you can quick adjust. Good. But it has no lock so every time I
> dragged the camera out of my bag, the bag adjusted it for me, usually to +2.
> You have to learn to store the camera nose down. There’s a top button lock
> for Auto on the shutter dial so why not here?
>
> And then there’s the cheap things – the things that should be there in a
> camera of this value. There’s no orientation sensor – portrait images have to
> be rotated manually in playback. Worse, there’s no dioptre adjustment for the
> viewfinder. My eye is slightly off and the only advice in the manual (when
> you finally track the page down) is to use Cosina screw in dioptres. Oh yes,
> and how do I work out which one I need and where can I get them? Your normal
> prescription wont work, I suspect (‘m only +0.5 and it was way off for me).
> And Cosina? – hmmmm, that’s suspicious. Oh and don’t mention the instruction
> manual – it’s hopeless. No index! I need to consult a manual when I hit a
> specific problem, not use it for bedtime reading, so I need a proper look-up
> table. And it’s wrong too – the advice for getting magnification for manual
> focus is incorrect and I never did work it out.Right, Mr Fuji, what do you
> need to do and do quickly.
>
>
> · Firmware upgrade 1 - speed up focussing, especially in 'Zone' mode –
> this is urgent. Really urgent.
>
> · Firmware upgrade 2 – the Q button should be pressed twice to operate.
>
> · Firmware upgrade 3 – improve write times – less urgent but important.
>
> · Firmware upgrade 4 – display image review and Quick menu on the screen
> only.
>
> · Get someone who knows what they’re doing to rewrite the manual.
>
> Do 1, 2 and 4 and I’ll buy one immediately – I like the sensor that much. I
> already had the money put aside but, at the moment, I just can’t.
>
> For the X-Pro 2, fit a dioptre adjustment to the viewfinder and a lock on the
> exposure comp. dial.
>
> Regards and remorses
>
> Andrew Fildes
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