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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