I am not a Fuji fanboy, my main camera for professional shoots is a Sony a7R III, however I have been shooting with Fujifilm cameras for 5 years.
A great camera that brought me back to photography thanks to the manual dials and retro optics.
I’ve always had my eye on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 as well. Rangefinder was never my thing though. Sure Leica’s and the X-Pro 1 look nice optically, however larger viewfinders and optics with the pentaprism were more important to me.
But then an X-Pro 1 came along at a good price and in good condition, and this opportunity brought me back to the seventh heaven of photography.
Unusual and intuitive at the same time, the X-Pro 1 captivated me with its charm.
It is the feeling with which one photographs that makes the X-Pro 1 what it is.
A manual decelerating creatively energizing camera.
Compared to the Sony a7R III, my main camera, you obviously have to sacrifice some conveniences, such as the continuous boost, the large eye sensor, AF points, autofocus speed, and more.
But still, the X-Pro 1 manages to give everyone who gets their hands on it a certain wow feeling. And it’s this experience that makes the X-Pro 1 the perfect secondary camera for me.
So enough with the gushing, move on to the hard facts.
Megapixels: The 16 MP are perfectly adequate for editorial, travel and street photography. Large photos up to A3 work wonderfully in print. For magazine prints which mostly use A4, the images look great.
Sensor: The X-Trans1 sensor delivers wonderful color reproduction, but this is especially noticeable in JPEG’s SOOC.
Autofocus: Slow. Even with the new Fujicron f2.0 lenses. Acceptable for me though.
ISO:
ISO is not a problem by my standards up to ISO1200. Anything beyond that up to 6400 is still acceptable. After that, though, it stops being good.
EVF/OVF: The EVF is rather poor compared to modern mirrorless cameras, of course. But still good to use.
The OVF is not or hardly used by me.
Battery: I manage about 200-300 pictures with one charge. A bit less than with the X-T2.
Menu: Slow and less intuitive than the more modern Fuji menus. But that can be overlooked.
Conclusion:
Despite the „negative“ facts, compared to more modern cameras, the X-Pro 1 has a magic that captivates me and just won’t let go.
So is the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 still a good camera in 2022? Yes definitely!
How much does the X-Pro 1 cost?
I got a real bargain on eBay.
With patience and three months of searching, I was able to get it for 180€.
The only flaw is the automatic eye sensor detection, which is probably a basic disease of the X-Pro 1 and only works for me in bright daylight around noon.