Fuji X-Pro2

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Guest Post By Rick Birt of Romeo Bravo Photo

I have now had my Fuji X-Pro2 for a few months, and I’ve used my wife’s Fuji X-T2 at a few events. I wanted to share my thoughts so far, and give some insight on why I ditched my Sony Super-Camera for Fuji.

Fuji X-T2

After I retired, my wife asked what I wanted to be now that I could do whatever I wanted. Her question made no sense to me since I had just retired from my dream job. I had never thought about what I wanted to do next. In my mind I had done everything I had set out to do. What does one do after flying jets in the Marine Corps?

Chippendales dancer maybe? I’ve got some moves, but I’m no Chris Farley. I’m more of a karaoke to “I Touch Myself” kinda guy.

So, I started assisting my wife Kelly in her photography business. I eventually picked up the camera and shot a couple of our model friends. I loved it! More importantly – the models loved the images, and so did their agents. Back then I was using my wife’s old Canon 1Ds mk III with whatever lenses she wasn’t using. I liked it, but it was a real beast to lug around. I’m also a real tech/gadget geek and I wasn’t really impressed with Canon’s lack of features (even in their new cameras). Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate well made vintage stuff too, but the 1Ds3 is hardly a classic. So, I began researching and learned that Sony was about to unleash the amazing a7R II. On paper it was the perfect camera. For me personally…not so much. Let me list my pros and cons:

Sony a7R II

Pros:

• 42 Megapixels with no AA filter
• 4k Video
• SHARP!!!! – especially with Zeiss (even Sony/Zeiss) lenses
• Ability to adapt virtually any lens ever made
• The Eye-AF was game-changing
• Tilt-screen

Cons:

• Skin tones were pretty bad
• Buffer was terrible. After taking about 15 shots the camera would refuse to do anything until it finished writing to the SD card. Want to view a photo you just shot? Sorry! #unionbreak
• Start-up time wasn’t very fast, but sometimes it was plain SLOW (for no real reason)
• Menus are horribly unintuitive – try finding the ‘format card’ function…I’ll wait
• Auto White Balance did not work well. I even had trouble with custom WB at times
• Harsher bokeh and out-of-focus highlights than I liked
• Too Sharp? I know that sounds ridiculous, but show any woman a razor-sharp, 42mp, cold-toned, close-up of herself and let me know what she says. Hell even I didn’t like seeing images of myself straight out of the Sony #wearmoresunscreen
• The amazing quality lenses were being made as big or bigger than their DSLR counterparts. This virtually eliminated the size/weight advantage of buying a mirrorless camera. The lenses were also more expensive than similar Canon offerings.

I know there are people that will claim that sharper is better, and that Canon has inaccurate (magenta) colors. Those people have a great point – especially if they are shooting architecture or landscapes. However, when you shoot people, I think you actually have to take on a different opinion of what is ‘better.’ The best example I can think of to illustrate this is a Youtube video created by Sony photographer Gary Fong. In the video he shows pictures of a model to compare the quality of the Sony G Master 85mm lens (on a Sony a7R II), vs the highly-regarded Canon 85mm L. In the end most viewers concluded that the Sony portrait was better because of the detail vs the Canon. However, I bet if we asked the model she’d prefer the Canon shot. My wife thought the Canon portrait was better because it was “prettier,” and she is a professional photographer with 25 years of experience!

Fashion and portrait photography are very much about image. It’s not about accuracy, it’s about aesthetics. Photoshop exists because people prefer to look at re-touched images.

Trust me, I did a lot of experimenting with the Sony, and a ton of gnashing my teeth in Lightroom, Capture One, DXO, and Photoshop to try and find the right formula. But after I had a model tell me that she thought her skin looked a little ‘dead,’ I finally decided to look elsewhere. I read a great post by Bill Palmer (a long time Leica user) entitled “Fuji is the Leica of the new Millenium.” As a long time Leica luster, I was intrigued. I decided to rent a Fuji (and an Olympus) for a comparison. I took about 1500 shots of my wife that day, and when we both looked at the images, Fuji was the OVERWHELMING winner. It wasn’t even close. I think the ratio was like 50:30:20. In fact, my wife liked the Fuji files so much that she pre-ordered the Fuji X-T2. Bye Felicia!

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