The X-Pro3: Niche? Yes, a Wonderful niche.
It’s September 20, 2019. I’ve just watched the live stream of X-Summit and the unveiling of the X-Pro3, with my buddy Bert sitting on stage throughout the entire hour. Boy, that must’ve been intense. I’m sipping my morning coffee, reading the comments as they come pouring in:”this sucks...where’s the D-Pad?...stupid screen...”. Yeah. You’d think this was the only camera ever made, that everything else was suddenly being discontinued and we were all forced to purchase this one and only camera under penalty of death. Humans are intense creatures sometimes.
I get off my chair and pick up the prototype X-Pro3 I’ve been shooting for the last month or so. I have to return it soon. F%$# me...I still love this thing.
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When the X-T1 was released, the X-Pro line lost some of its lustre. Fact of life. There was a new workhorse in town, one with a vastly improved EVF, a tilting LCD, focus tracking, a more familiar form factor and on and on and on. It's successor—the X-T2—drew an all but final line in the sand: even though the company had released the X-Pro2 to great fanfare (essentially creating two flagships with parity in terms of specs) users flocked to the admittedly more versatile X-T line. But me? I fell in love with that X-Pro2—an almost philosophical choice, based entirely on the camera’s form factor and ethos. Something about it felt like it...belonged. A heart thing, not a head thing. Niche? Sure.The new X-Pro3 is even more polarizing—anything different always is. Hiding away the LCD isn’t something that will appeal to every shooter out there. Even if it’s waayyy better. Even if it tilts now, as so many had wished. Same deal with removing the D-Pad. I get it, believe me. In fact, before using this camera I echoed all those sentiments: it’s a tool damnit, not jewelry; function has to take priority; I need as many assignable buttons as possible otherwise I won’t be able to work as quickly; hiding the screen is a Leicaesque gimmick, like snakeskin on fake distressed bodies (big fan of Lenny here but...). And every internal whisper I’d heard along the way had made me increasingly sceptical—fearful even—of the direction the line was going to take. Until I held it in my hands.
Now, I know some will probably say that my opinion is biased and ultimately, irrelevant. After all I’m part of the camera’s promotional campaign and yes, I did get paid to produce a video about it. AND I’m an X-Photographer; can’t dispute any of those facts. But all I can tell you is this: despite any misgivings or apprehensions, and regardless of my involvement in the process, I’ll be purchasing the X-Pro3 as soon as it becomes available. Because I do F%$# love this thing.
Let me attempt to explain why.
“Our craft has never been about more buttons.”
Realities change over time. I’ve always been a two-body shooter when I’m working and these days this usually means the GFX 50S and the X-T3. If I pack another camera it’s likely to be the X100F, because it’s a versatile 35mm equivalent and it’s small. If I’m not shooting medium-format and need a stealthier kit, then it’ll be the X-T3 and the X100F—because it’s a versatile 35mm equivalent and it’s small. I’m nothing if not consistent.
Before getting the X-T3, I used the X-Pro2 the exact same way. And before this the X-T1, the X-Pro1...because while every model brought its own particular set of changes along the way, their basics always remained: buttons, dials and a screen on the back. So the X-Pro3 is kind of a tectonic shift: hiding away the LCD alters a fundamental function we’ve accepted as part and parcel of the digital age. At its most basic—as others have pointed out—if we place the camera on a tripod we can no longer shoot using the screen; at least not as easily. If we constantly assign the same functions on the same D-Pad buttons on every body we work with, then again, the X-Pro3 comes up short: there IS no D-Pad (1).
But while writing this piece I picked up my old X100, just for fun: no D-Pad. It had an LCD but it wasn’t very good. And the EVF...well, the EVF was bloody terrible. And I remember the Kelbys of the world deriding it as an unusable toy. And I remember people saying the camera couldn’t even focus...and I remember how I couldn’t stop picking it up. How profoundly it altered my photography.
Our craft has never been about more buttons.
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Hardware isn’t the entire story however: the firmware in the X-Pro 3 is—I believe—the most wide ranging overhaul the X-series have seen in a long time. There are literally dozens of checkboxes that have been ticked, as if the engineers went down a list of everything shooters had asked over the years—and more. Something as simple as making the Q menu button assignable for instance. Or a new AF limiter. Or Clarity control. Or a Curve UI (2). And right now I’m forgetting a ton of small changes because I don’t have the camera handy anymore but bottom line: during the month or so that I had a pre-production unit, I was constantly surprised by detail after detail in its (evolving) software.
Which leads me to what I consider a watershed event with this release: Classic Neg.
In my very humble opinion, what the introduction of Acros did for black and white files, Classic Neg does for colour images. The simulation is based on Superia 100 and honestly, I simply couldn’t get enough of it. Now, I know some of you may dismiss film simulations because you prefer shooting raw exclusively and that’s fine. But give this one a try if you get a chance: I’ve never seen colour images that felt this right SOOC—to my taste anyway. It’s stylized (it even adds an orange-magenta cast) but wow, the engineers have outdone themselves with this one IMHO. My X-Pro3 stayed set to Classic Neg the entire time.
I still processed images in C1, but—just like Classic Chrome did a few years back—this provided an entirely new baseline to work with. The image immediately below is a JPEG, straight out of camera. This is Classic Neg with -2 on both shadows and highlights—which became my default setup with this camera. I have a very slightly processed version as well but I wanted to post this unedited file so you could see what I mean: I can’t get over these tones.
Superia…Classic Neg…Superia…and what the hell IS this tree btw?
I imagine this simulation will probably make its way to other X-series cameras; unless it’s tied to new hardware (it could), this is usually how Fujifilm operates right? Kaizen. But even if it does, there’s something about the whole package at work here: the combination of Classic Neg with the design of this particular camera creates a different beast entirely (3). It’s a rationale that makes complete sense to me.
At some point in the promotional video, I mention how shooting the X-Pro3 is “the most film like experience I’ve ever had with a digital camera”. Let me clarify this, because I’m not sure it comes through: I’m talking about all those individual elements coming together—the mechanics, the simplified UX, the LCD + submonitor, the film simulation. Everything that may appear innocuous on its own (or odd if you’re in that camp), results in a tool that doesn’t make me focus on tech, or specs, or number of shots in burst mode...it just makes me want to shoot.
And that is as much explanation as I can give you.
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The X-Pro3 will be the camera that I grab...when I feel that intense almost-lust to grab a camera (4). I may even stick a 35mm lens on it and never take it off. The way I see it, this is Fujifilm embracing the niche factor of the line and pushing it further, taking the concept towards its natural evolution. This is not a rangefinder X-T—it’s an X-Pro.
Those who don’t get it, won’t.
Those who do, will.
P.S I’m not posting tons of images in this “review”: I’ll be publishing several posts instead, as I often do.
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1 Could I still use the X-Pro3 for work? Of course I could. It’s a camera with fantastic tech under the hood. I’d likely need to compromise on certain things but as far as I’m concerned, compromise means adaptation, it never means impossibility. Incidentally, I didn’t miss the D-Pad. I also never had a problem with the LCD. In fact, I found myself using it WAY more than I ever did on the X-Pro2 (tilting is indeed useful).
2 New UI for the same UX at the moment. But we now see points on a curve...could we see a couple MORE points eventually? Let us dream.
3 Let’s go back in time...
4 I’m kind of hoping the X100 goes in the same direction too. No insight btw...just a wish.
