And yes, Kaizen, that’s something the X-Pro1 got lots of. But on the contrary of what many think, still today Fujifilm leads the pack when it comes to updating their cameras. I elaborated it more in depth here.
But most importantly, the joy to use a Fujifilm camera is still the same, also after 10 years. In fact, Chris seems to have loved to shoot the X-Pro1 even more now as opposed to when it came out 10 years ago.
So, with all that said, here is are DPRTV’s impressions after shooting the X-Pro1 again 10 years later.
he enjoys using the optical viewfinder (the X-Pro1 has a hybrid viewfinder
great vintage look
aimed to work best with smaller primes
great for street shooters
compact camera with compact primes
the X-T1 opened the system to lots more people. The whole Fujifilm system grew from there
X-Pro1 was the first camera using an X-Trans sensor
thanks to X-Trans Fujifilm could get rid of the aliasing filter, which would have removed some sharpness to the images
now it is much easier to edit X-Trans files
X-Trans avoided a lot of the problems with moire for photos
but at that time, it was hard to work with X-Trans files. Adobe struggled with X-Trans files and 10 years later people still complain about this
Fujifilm started its reputation for great colors in JPEGs and great details
the X-Pro1 did not have many film simulations
in 10 years we have gained so many more film simulations. The latest Fujifilm cameras have even more vintage film simulations like Nostalgic Negative and Classic Chrome, etc
Chris is impressed but how accurate the optical overlay still is with its frame lines (compensating for parallax)
not great AF controls. Best solution: single AF with focus and recompose. It’s pretty snappy used this way
terrible camera for video
it’s incredible that just 10 years ago Fuji was so bad in video, but now for Jordan Fujifilm cameras are among his favorite cameras to shoot video
Chris had a lot of fun shooting the X-Pro1 again
even if it is 10 years old, it still felt quite current in a lot of ways
X-Pro1 got tons of Kaizen firmware updates
maybe Fujifilm does not do Kaizen so much anymore [admin note: I disagree, and I elaborated why here]
Fujifilm has come a long way and now dominates APS-C and MF market
Fujifilm still holds on on that vintage feel and heritage build up 10 years ago
Chris didn’t appreciate the X-Pro1 when it came out, but for some reason he now enjoyed it shooting again
X-Trans files of X-Pro1 still have very interesting character
if you don’t use the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 as your main lens, then it is definitely good enough
there is some barrel distortion that you have to fix in post (Fujinon lenses correct internally) and it’s not perfectly sharp from corner to corner but for Mattias needs it is certainly sharp enough
My Instax Love story started in Chiang Mai, my favorite city in Thailand.
Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand, far away from the wonderful islands of the South, which are stunning, sure, but also way more crowded than the North of Thailand.
My original plan, after traveling all the way from Cambodia through Laos (by local bus and motorbike, no plane) was to turn right to get to Vietnam after visiting Luang Prabang. But as every solo traveler might have experienced, plans are made just to be changed. And at the end I didn’t turn right to Vietnam, but I took a 2 days slow boat along the Mekong river – which claimed the life of my X-E2 as I briefly told here – to reach Northern Thailand.
I ended up in Chiang Mai, the most beautiful South East Asian city I have been to along with Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
I was alone and did what I love most to do: taking pictures. Mostly with my X-T1 and XF35mmF1.4 (as it survived my survival swim in the Mekong, whereas my XF18-55 and X-E2 died).
But this was also my first travel with an Instax Printer.
So here is what I did: I took pictures of the people celebrating New Year (without them noticing me taking pictures), and after I took the images, I printed one for them. Without saying anything, I just gave it to them as soon as the printer spit it out and walked away.
From the distance, I could see their faces looking at the film developing, and then being surprised and happy to see themselves in the image. I will share one of the images I took (and gave away) on that evening below for you guys.
So this is it.
This is where my love story with Instax started. And it never stopped. Giving away some little prints is one of the things I enjoy to do most.
Recently I bought the Instax Mini Wide, but I will also get the Instax Mini EVO once available here in Italy. Because it’s true that it’s nice to make a present to others with a little print, but it is also nice to enjoy the process of taking images and printing, and from everything I have seen so far, the Instax Mini EVO, with its vintage look and retro operation (push the lever to print, turn the lens ring to change settings etc), is what suits my taste best.