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It's been barely five years since Fuji plunged into the consumer camera market with the fixed lens X100, and a mere four years since the company's flagship X-Pro1 hit the market. This relatively short time in the market is notable because Fuji's new X-Pro2 may well be one of the most fully realized visions of what a camera should be to hit the market in years.
If Fuji's vision of what a camera should be happens to align with your own, the X-Pro2 can feel, if you'll pardon the over-used word, magical. The understated look -- from the front there's no logo or even camera name -- and rangefinder-style design combine to create something that feels pulled out of an entirely different era of photography. In my case I can say that not since I sold my Nikon F3 have I picked up a camera and headed out the door for the sole purpose of taking photos. This is a camera that demands to be used.
The X-Pro2 is not revolutionary. Fuji is not trying to break fresh ground here. Instead it takes everything that makes the X line appealing and improves all of it.
There's better image quality thanks to the new 24MP X-Trans CMOS III sensor, autofocus is faster, buttons have been moved to better locations, menus have been rearranged and are now easy to customize, and there's a new film simulation mode based on Fujifilm's Neopan ACROS black-and-white film. Even video, which has previously been a weak point in Fuji systems, has been drastically improved in the X-Pro2.
The X-Pro2 is also very deliberate about what it *doesn't* have. There's no articulated screen, no touchscreen and no 4K video. This is an opinionated machine designed for a specific type of photographer.
Judging by comments from Fuji execs, the X-Pro2 sensor is probably capable of 4K video, but it won't be coming, not even via one of the company's famously feature-adding firmware updates. If 4K video is important to you this is not the camera for you -- end of story (the rumored XT-2 will likely have 4K video).
The X-Pro2 is also not a "full frame" sensor, though its output is on par with most full frame systems I've used. The X-Trans III is an impressive new sensor; Fuji has managed to improve the pixel count considerably without sacrificing anything. The infamous waxy skin tone problem at high ISO has also been eliminated. Speaking of high ISO, the X-Trans III can go all the way to 25600, though to my eye anything above 6400 starts to get noisy.
From the front the X-Pro2 is nearly identical to its predecessor. There's a slightly larger grip, but otherwise most of the changes are on the back, specifically the button layout. The buttons themselves are largely unchanged, but new layout means you can access nearly everything with your right thumb without ever taking your eye off the viewfinder.
The one new button is the focus joystick, a little nib that allows you to move the area of focus around. The autofocus system itself has been improved with a total of 273 AF points across the frame. To navigate between points you can use the nib joystick.
As someone who's used to doing a half-press of the shutter to lock focus and then recompose, the genius of the nib was not immediately apparent. Once you have the nib though you start to realize that the half-press and recompose method is really a hack around a shortcoming of most cameras -- the AF lock button is never where you want it. This is true with even the X-Pro2, though you can swap the AE and AF lock buttons, which will put FL right under your thumb. However, by the time I figured this out I'd already become fluent with the nib. And now, having returned the X-Pro2 I am ruined; constantly feeling for a nib on my camera that's not there. Suffice to say, the nib is brilliant -- except for fast moving subjects, in which case I revert to half-pressing the shutter release -- and as an added bonus it frees up the arrow keys to handle other shortcuts.
Other shortcuts abound and Fuji's customization options allow you to more or less create the button layout you want. Just head into the menu and set each button to do whatever you'd like. In the X-Pro2 this customization has been extended to the onscreen menus as well. When you press the menu key, the first menu that comes up is a user customizable screen. Given the number of hardware controls on the X-Pro 2 I could never find more than two things to put on the custom menu -- my custom film simulation presets and the timer function -- but there's plenty more room if you need it.
Any camera system though is only as good as its lenses and Fuji lens are every bit as good as they're hyped to be. The all metal construction makes even some of my nicest Nikon lenses feel like the cheap plastic they are. Fujinon sent the new 35mm f2 (50mm full frame equivalent), which in addition to being an ideal for the optical viewfinder, can take advantage of the X-Pro2's much improved autofocus speed.
Autofocus has been a weak spot in the Fuji X system as a whole, but particularly with the X-Pro1. The X-Pro2 is much faster. Autofocus single shot mode is DSLR fast. Continuous mode, not so much. It's getting there, but if you shoot sports this is still not going to cut it. Again, this camera is designed for specific types of photographers, sport photographers are not one of them.
The hybrid viewfinder in the X-Pro2 gets a welcome update. Alongside the optical and pure EVF modes is a new hybrid mode that uses the optical viewfinder, but adds a tiny thumbnail EVF view in the lower right quarter of the screen. Personally I used the optical viewfinder almost exclusively, though the hybrid mode is useful in manual focus mode since it becomes a zoomed in view of details. The X-Pro2's EVF remains thoroughly okay. It's nowhere near the gorgeously bright EVF of the XT-1, but it works and is useful when you're using lenses that don't work well with the OVF. That said, the whole reason to buy the X-Pro2 over a DSLR-style camera is for the rangefinder feel, of which the OVF is a big part.
Other welcome new features in the X-Pro2 include dual memory card slots. That's welcome news for anyone shooting high stakes gigs like weddings, but there's also an option to use one card for JPG and one for RAW. That means you can take advantage of Fuji's many film simulation modes, but also record an unadulterated RAW file if you change your mind later.
RAW aficionados will be glad to hear that Fuji has introduced an option to use losslessly compressed RAW files. The compression drops file size from approximately 50MB per image uncompressed to approximately 20MB per image, though be sure that your favorite RAW software editor supports the new compression. At the time of writing only [Silkypix](https://silkypix.isl.co.jp/en/) and the latest version of [Lightroom](https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html) support it.
The X-Pro2's weakest point is battery life, which is really bad, especially if pre-focusing is turned on (which it is by default). Battery life is bad enough that you should get at least one spare battery, probably two or three if you're a pro shooting multi-hour events. I typically got about 150-180 shots out of a battery depending on the settings (pre-focus especially kills battery life).
The X-Pro2 is not a perfect camera. There's no such thing, but if there were the X-Pro2 would be damn close. It's not for everyone, but it has a certain Je ne sais qua, that will make it perfect for the right kind of photographer. As I said at the beginning, the X-Pro2 demands to be used and that alone will do more for your photography than faster autofocus or larger sensors. Just remember to grab an extra battery on your way out the door.
rating: 9/10
Wired:
A photographer's camera, the understated X-Pro2 is the most fully realized camera in Fuji's X series. Improved autofocus system and new sensor. Hybrid viewfinder. New Acros film simulation mode.
Tired:
The X-Pro2's weakest point is battery life -- it sucks. Buy two or three extra. The EVF is okay, but not not as vibrant as the XT-1.
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