Fujifilm X-Pro2 - Their Style In Your Own Hands

The X-Pro series of cameras from Fujifilm have been taking pictures long enough for people to have had time to decide whether they like them or not. Of course for the photographers bound to another system or another philosophy of shooting, they may only be of peripheral interest. Nevertheless the features they carry are enough to get debates started, and perhaps to suggest to others that THEIR manufacturer of choice might be lobbied to incorporate them. I don’t know how closely the other large Japanese or German manufacturers monitor feedback from their users, but I suspect Fujifilm do keep a close eye on what is written and an open ear for the photo-talk. Well, away from speculation, here are the things I most enjoy about this new X-Pro 2 camera - remember that I own the previous model of the line: a. Gosh, it looks wonderful. You’ve read the gush two columns back so I needn’t repeat it here. b. The card slots - slots, note - are accessible from the side of the camera. Hooray and up she rises! This is a vast improvement over the business of opening a battery door on the bottom to change over. When you have got a camera mounted on a tripod or studio stand and need to keep it precisely in the same spot, but need to change cards…you need this feature. It is the same on the X-T1 and X-T2 so thank you Mr. Fujifilm. c. Three good things here; the co-ax socket for a microphone and an electronic cable release, the standard PC socket for flash, and the dioptre adjustment on the eyepiece. The first is essential for steady studio and tripod shots. I have come to realise that I’ve missed some extremely good shots through foolish trust in my own steady finger on the trigger. Now I try to use the little cable release every time. The second is vital for studio shooters who might not use a radio trigger system…or who might try to use an extremely OLD trigger system that fails to work about 47% of the time. This socket allows them to put the old system on the studio floor and jump on it, and then just plug in the standard PC cable and fire every time. Don’t ask me why I wrote this…The socket also makes it possible to plug in external flashes when you have a Thumbs Up rest in the hot shoe - very handy*. The diopter adjustment is standard for everyone else, but Fujifilm didn’t put one in the first model of this camera - the X-Pro1. All of us with dodgy eyesight had purchase screw-in lenses to correct the view. This is fine, and it works now, but I can tell you that dodgy eyesight changes from time to time, and the comfort of being able to dial in the cure is wonderful. d. The exposure compensation dial is bigger and more comprehensive, but when I need to apply that much compensation, I reach for the Fujifilm EF-X500 flash. No what I am showing in the feature image is the marvellous joystick to steer the AF points about and the equally marvellous coupling of the ISO setting to the shutter speed. It is the perfect, logical, traditional place for this setting, and they can do it with every model that they make in the future. Never mind a dozen function buttons hidden in plain view - give us that mechanical coupling. *A note to the makers of accessories for this camera - the Thumbs-up style of thumb rest is a dandy idea and I use on on my X-Pro1, but it is a solid piece of metal that occludes the hotshoe slot. Unlike HCB I am not adverse to flash on a camera...and with a new you-beaut Fujifilm EF-X500 flash to play with, the ideal combination would be a thumb rest that passed the contacts up through itself to a second hot shoe. Time to fire up the CAD-CAM and make some more money, guys!