Preaching some sense out there.
UPDATE: Holy! This post is getting so much attention that the headquarter in Japan is looking at it! Here’s a letter for Fuji corporation based in Tokyo. Quick note: Release the Classic Neg to the X-Pro2 – there’s no need to withhold that other than greediness.
UPDATE #2: Here’s the Fuji X-Pro2.5 ladies and gentlemen. Been working on that.
UPDATE #2: Fuji color science EXPOSED. Get the exclusive Classic Neg film simulation for your X-Pro2 and X-T2 with this one trick – it is free.
Fuji X-Pro2 vs X-Pro3
A tool of status
“If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.”
“Let others enjoy it, if they like it.”
“We use to not have a screen at the back, so what’s the problem now!?”.
“The X-Pro3 is like a Rolex: it’s a tool of status, not the purer expression of time.”
Disclaimer: I don’t have a problem with the X-Pro3 per se. I have a problem with the community praising it. I have a problem with the marketing surrounding it. It isn’t true that you need this X-Pro3 to experience a “true, genuine, raw street photography experience.”.
For some reason, the photographer’s community lost their mind over what makes sense, a point cleary proved by the praise that the X-Pro3 received on the interwebs.
The problem is not the price point, or even the fact that they removed the conventional screen: the problem is the community forgetting that the X-Pro3 is not targetting the pro anymore, but an amateur market. Which is fine.
It’s just not a pro body anymore. They removed features (front wheel click, an awesome feature that pro use on their X-Pro2, the much better 24mp sensor for the worst 26mp sensor, the reduction of magnification of the optical viewfinder, the d-pad for quick access to menu).
Most photographers don’t know what they want.
So when the pros and the old guys praise the X-Pro3 has something magical, I got a problem. The newcomers, the hobbyist, the average joe would be MUCH better with the X-Pro2, for 2/3 of even 4/7 of the cost.
It is not a better product than the X-Pro2, it is simply different. They should be seen as two different products. And I got no problem with that.
The X-Pro3 does not replace the X-Pro2.
Fuji used to market the X-Pro series to wedding photographers and professionals (thus the “pro” in the name). The X-Pro3 is for the amateur. That’s fine. But that’s a different target market, and no, I don’t think that your average photographer wants the X-Pro3 over the X-Pro2.
Cause.
You know.
You know what people want in a camera, don’t you?
Yes.
Simplicity. Ease of use.
They want to power on, touch the screen to make the autofocus and take a picture. That’s why Olympus nailed it with their Pen series. Blazing fast autofocus by simply touching the screen.
I dealt with thousands of people in my life. Most human beings have not experimented with cameras, and they want an easy way to take great pictures.
This is why the Nikon Z6 is selling so much, or, even, duh, terrible Canon mirrorless cameras (who would ever spend 2 grand on a Canon R?).
Just power up the camera, look at the screen, focus, voila. My mom wants that. My nephew wants that. Every 20-something that I met in the last 42 countries I’ve been wants that: they want great video ability, ease of use, and great price point. The X-Pro3 isn’t for the travel photographer, influencers, street photographers or anything like that. It’s for the retired man that bought the X-Pro1, X-Pro2 and now has some spare change for a titanium X-Pro3 to impress the guests.
Anyone that had to work hard for their money and shot professionally cannot take the X-Pro3 seriously. It’s not for pro anymore. Just like the richest man I know wears a Timex because it’s functional, the smart and pro photographer will use a beat-up X-Pro2 because it does everything and anything under the sun.
The real street photographer has a Ricoh, or a Leica M3 or M6, or a Fuji X100F, or a X-Pro1 with a 35mm 1.4, or something like that. He has money in his bank account, and does not want to blow it on a piece of gimmicky electronic. No – the real street photographer is busy travelling to new places. He is used to seeing suffering to – he rather gives the extra cash he has to someone on the street than to Fujifilm Corporation. He stepped over dead bodies in Rio de Janeiro and he is caught in between two worlds. A world of luxury that is his home in a G8 country, and the world of the street where the name of the game is survival of the wisest.
You’ve seen depravity when you can’t bring up your camera to your eyes.
They are moments in life that cannot be photographed, not because they shouldn’t, but because it shocks you to the core of your existence.
Unless you went there, to this placelessness that exists in this world, unless you’ve gone to hell to cast spells of hope – spells to augur a new chapter, a new way of thinking, a new source of light – unless you went to dance on the welt made by the sum of your experiences walking under the sun and brought some poor brothers and sisters with you, yes unless you went there and –somehow– made it back and took the time to pause to inchoate some thoughts and to define the new firmware of your thoughts, then don’t bother thinking that a camera will make you a better street photography. You still got places to go.
The real street photographer does not care about a new camera, cause he’s already shooting with the original X-Pro1 or X-Pro2: That’s enough camera for him.
Fuji wants you to believe that the Fuji X-Pro3 will make you a better street photographer by not chimping (looking at the rear screen). If you think that the reason you don’t have great shots is because of the rear screen, you’ve got a problem.
Now. I love the concept! I know, I go off on it, but I think it is brilliant…from a marketing standpoint. Make people believe that chimping is bad. Sell a camera without a direct access to the screen for $2k. Watch people fighting between them over that. It is brilliant.
No, I will tell you want. The real street photographer has a Ricoh GR II bought on eBay for $600 or a X100T. Or a Leica QL, which has the best lens ever made in a mirrorless, so they can ask whatever price for it.
No sane photographer would ever recommend a Leica M to a newcomer, or even preach that it is better than a DSLR or anything else. It’s such a niche product: people that want a Leica get a Leica and there’s no discussion.
The value of a Leica is poor when it comes down to money, but it was always marketed as a niche product for wealthy people. That’s fine.
Not so much for the X-Pro series. It was targeted for guys like me, travelling the world and doing shots professionally here and there. I can do videos with a gimbal and a X-Pro2 (there’s a rear screen). I can do weddings. I can do street photographer. The camera is sexy as hell and can do anything under the sun.
The X-Pro3 removes the possibility to shoot video professionally (the flip screen do not fit on most gimbals…). Suddenly, I need another Fuji body to shoot video. And maybe that’s what they wanted. Of course, that’s what they wish you do.
The X-Pro3 would be annoying for your average 10 years old to 85 years old human beings to use. At events, parties, ceremonies… the X-Pro2 is just so much more fun and easy to use: you can simply power-up the camera and see the result on your screen. Whooaa. I know. Revolutionary concept.
The autofocus of the X-Pro2 was always good enough for weddings. The OVF is great and the EVF was never a problem. Fuji wants you to believe that the X-Pro3 will make you a super street photographer because you can’t chimp instantly…but this is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
Nobody points a gun at you asking that you turn on the screen on your X-Pro2. There’s a function to turn off the rear screen, and just shoot with the EVF or OVF.
Listen to a popular camera reviewer on the webs (Kevin Mullins)
”The fact you can’t see the LCD when it’s closed is both interesting and understandable. It’s understandable given Fujifilm are truly trying to give photographers something that allows us to go back to raw photography.”
Notice the “raw photography” part. What does that even mean? What is “raw photography”? Shooting on black and white film on a Leica M3 probably. Oh, wait. No…not that. Shooting vintage lens on a X-Pro1? No…
So what is raw photography and are you sure Fuji is trying to give back purity of work to the community or is it not rather a trick to make, I don’t know, money. Fuji could not care less about you having a raw photography experience haha. They want your money. And apparently, I’m insane for pointing this out.
Let’s explore further the comments of the reviewers:
“I feel that people who buy the X-Pro3 will be getting a camera that may be passed down to your kids and grandkids – like so many of us have old cameras from our folks.
This was in reference to the titanium upper and lower plate. What? The technology will be so different in 30 years from now, heck even in 10 years, that your X-Pro3 will be lost in memories. The lithium battery won’t be lasting two decades. This is not an analog camera: this is a computer with a sensor and batteries that have a limited shelf life.
How many of you still use a computer from 2001? Or a camera from 2002? Nobody. Ever. This is such a weak argument. If you want a camera to outlast you, get this one.
”Ergonomically it’s very similar to the X-Pro2 but the grip is slightly larger which is something that a lot of us had hoped for.”
– No. Nobody ever. Seriously. Nobody I know ever wished to have a larger grip… That’s the point of the X-Pro2. The X-T-series exist for a reason.
He goes on: “The sensor is, of course, the new 26-megapixel X-Trans 4 which gives us 425 focus points of which I presume are all phase-detection points too. That’s actually very useful for reportage shooters who are used to shifting the focus point around the screen a lot.”
No! No no no. The lesser the point, the better for weddings and reportage photographer! I set my Nikon to 11 points, and my 1D Mk IV Canon… We don’t have time to switch from one side of the screen to the other.
Anyone shooting for a living does not want more than 11-25 points that can be selected.
See the problems? The modern reviewer on the web is not a professional photographer anymore. He might have been, but now he is paid by someone to write insane things, such as the above. Everyone seems to suck everyone’s dick for no apparent reason other than financial gain. I’ll rather be poor and give sound advice than selling my words, selling my dignity to a corporation so they can make gain.
I went hard 8 months ago on Olympus. They produced a terrible camera (Pen-F) but if you would listen to the web, it’s the next best thing out there. No. The Pen-F is a terrible camera, all around. The Fuji X-Pro2 blows it out of the water, at every point, every time.
I’m not here to bash on Fuji.
I’m just here to preach some sense.
The X-Pro3 is for the rich businessman that likes to pretend he is a street photographer. He goes off to a rare part of Portugal once a year and he brings the X-Pro3 as part of the image he wants to project on himself and people around here.
I got no problem with that. But we got to stop saying it is something else than that: it is not for “a pure raw photography experience”, nor for "serious street photographer”, nor for “traveller and wedding photographer.” (Fujifilm says it on their website: “The X-Pro3 is the definition of pure photography.”)
Just like no one is saying that a Rolex is for people “serious about the notion of time”, the X-Pro3 is not for those “serious about street photography".
It is a tool, just like the Rolex, a tool of status, and nothing more. I’m fine with that, but can we stop pretending it’s something else?
Cheers,
JP
The OG of street cameras…the Nikon F5 (reviewed here).
Don’t buy more gear. Give your money to this awesome charity founded by a girl from the Yukon Territory. She has an awesome life story. Learn to be content with the gear you have (says JP – don’t point out the irony please ;).