Well, we saw it.
Samm Blake and the Fuji representatives - and Camera Electronic - put on a demonstration night at the Kulcha Multicultural Center in Fremantle on Monday of this week. It proved to be an excellent choice of venue - there was food and drink - and it was just the right size for the crowd that attended. Note: there was an additional exhibition of photographs mounted upon the center walls done by Alma Sarhan that was well worth examining.
But back to the main event - Samm Blake is a wedding and event photographer from Melbourne who gets to work all over the world. She said she works with two big DSLR cameras during the weddings and admits that the weight and bulk of them can be daunting by the end of the event. Hear, hear, Ms. Blake - that is absolutely true. She has just had a chance to experiment with the Fuji X100 and the Fuji X-Pro1 cameras on these jobs - and to take a Fuji camera off to Japan on a business trip - and is delighted with the results. Professional, paying, artistic results.
No wonder she's happy - she showed some of her wedding work and it was magic. She characterizes her wedding style as " rainbows, butterflies, and unicorns" and works with natural light. She found the Fuji X-Pro1 camera to be silent, secure, and extremely sharp in focusing. This was demonstrated on the screen with a dive into the image file through the editing program and she wasn't mislead - it was pin sharp and that in a quick-focus situation.
The Fuji chaps had several of the cameras there for the audience to play with - the body of the X-Pro1 has been based upon the shape of the X100 with a few changes to the control placement and a subsequent streamlining of the feel. Of course the X-Pro1 is an interchangeable-lens camera; that is the point of it. They put on the 18mm and the 35mm so we had a wide and a normal to look through - the viewfinder lines and view changes to suit the glass. We boosted the ISO up with the menu to the level of crazy and blazed away in the darkness.
The camera feel is excellent - very solid indeed. The viewfinder as well - one small unique feature is the setting that gives you a momentary repeat of an image that you have just snapped up in that viewfinder - sort of a quick check before you go onto the next one. You don't have to chimp down to the screen between shots.
Lens results? Well even with the ISO up to the rafters the images on the screen were world-class sharp and clean. It is not surprising that Samm found them capable of professional results. Quite simply they are. Currently there is an 18, a 35, and a 60. When this system reaches its full potential who knows what great glass Fuji will introduce. I bet - personally - on a 50 macro and a big long old 180 or maybe a fisheye.
Price of the complete camera and a lens is comparable to a medium enthusiast's DSLR body alone.
One final thought - Samm mentioned that one of her trips was to Burma, and that use of her big DSLR cameras there sometimes attracted unwanted attention from security forces ( ! ) but that the X-Pro1 was never challenged. I suppose it looks like an amateur's camera and the militia don't realize that the lady operating it is a thoroughgoing professional - Score one for Samm and her Fuji.
When are we getting them? Saul sez some arrive this next week. Come in and see.
