The new Fuji X-Pro1 is a carefully crafted, retro styled
camera delivering exceptionally sharp, low noise images and incorporating an
analogue control philosophy.
I have to admit that having used the Fuji X100 for a year
put me in a somewhat advantageous position in that the layout and many of the
controls are either identical or similar.
The X-Pro1 has excellent intuitive logic in its design. I
had the camera working beautifully within five or six minutes with no reference
to the instruction manual. After a week of shooting and using all the controls
I had still not opened the manual. No matter how good or bad the camera, the
intuitive logic built into the camera is by far one of the basics for
assessment.
Aperture priority; 1/210sec, f1.4 2500 ISO, 35mm lens. Hand held, straight out of camera
X-Pro1 is a mirrorless, high-end compact. Fuji offers
three lenses with the camera body:
- 18mm
f2 wide angle
- 35mm
f1.4 normal
- 60mm
f2.4 telephoto
Make no mistake – these Fuji lenses are beautifully made and
are as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel. I felt more at home with the 18mm lens as
it gives that travel/reportage feel in handling and knowing I will never
‘crowd’ myself for the shot.
Fuji has always produced excellent sensors and the sensor in
the X-Pro1 is no exception. The 16MP APS-C Trans CMOS sensor produces sharp
images with negligible noise at ISO 1000 and above. The cameras low light, high
ISO performance is exemplary. In this area it is a clear leader in its field.
Auto-stitch panorama mode. Approx 10 shots, 1/900 sec, f5.6 640 ISO 60mm, hand-held, straight from camera.
The bracketing system in the X-Pro1 allows the user to
bracket:
- Shutter
speeds
- Apertures
- ISO
- Film
type
In high speed continuous mode you can shot up to 10 frames a
second and there is an auto-stitching setting that allows panoramas to be
seamlessly stitched together even without a tripod.
There are still one or two features that need attention,
which are quite annoying. On one of the lenses the lens cap cannot be removed
without first removing the lens hood. The auto-focus continues to ‘hunt’ for
focus even though the camera is not in active mode and the time taken for a
bracket of RAW images to be saved to memory is far too long. I believe the
‘hunting’ issue has been rectified with a firmware upgrade.
Fuji has just released an M mount adapter to allow Leica
lenses to be fitted to the X-Pro1 with full functionality. I would be surprised
if additional mounts for other lens brands were not available shortly.
In recent years there is a growing shift for travel
photographers to move from bulky DSLRs to high performance compacts. Cameras
like the X-Pro1 are now producing images of as good or better quality than many
mid-range DSLRs. It now becomes more a question of philosophy than technical
comparison. Will high-end compacts replace my DSLR system? And will the
advantage of multiple lens choice outweigh the pure simplicity of a high-end,
fixed lens camera?
Photographers these days are blessed with so many choices.
Camera manufacturers have the added responsibility of being competitive and
adequately testing their cameras before release. In the field of high-end compacts, the X-Pro1 is a clear leader despite a couple of gremlins.
Pic right: Aperture priority, 1/460 sec, f2, 1600 ISO, 35mm lens, hand-held.
Thanks to Camera Electronic and Fuji for supplying the camera.
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