Fujifilm X-Pro2 Review: A Blend of Passion and Perfection

Fujifilm’s X-Series has always been pushing the boundaries for delivering the best performance from a hybrid rangefinder within a compact mirror-less camera. The X-Pro1 gave rise to all the hype with its X-Trans sensor technology and hybrid multi viewfinder. The camera was capable of delivering exceptional image quality while withstanding the demands of day-to-day use.

Now, with the X-Pro2, the company brings out the successor to the stellar camera, while bringing it with features that match the current premium camera standards. While the X-T2 might have gained the maximum attraction in the series, many people still consider the X-Pro2 as the best the X-series has to offer. At a price of $1,499, the camera offers a plethora of features and competes with the best of the best. But does it live up to its hype? Let’s find out as we take a deeper look at the Fujifilm X-Pro2 in our in-depth review:

Fujifilm X-Pro2 Specs

The Fujifilm X-Pro2 is one of the most premium and high-performance mirrorless cameras in the market. Before we get started with the review, let us get the specs out of the way:

What’s In The Box

Fujifilm’s premier camera, the X-Pro2 comes with a lot of accessories in the box. Yes, there is no kit lens provided, but apart from that, the box contains all the necessary items and then some. Here’s the full list of the box contents:

• Fujifilm X-Pro2
• Rechargeable Battery NP-W126
• Battery Charger BC-W126
• Shoulder strap
• Metal strap clip
• Protective cover
• Clip attaching tool

Design and Build Quality

Right off the bat, the X-Pro2 is one of the most premium cameras that I’ve ever held in my hands. The camera comes with a solid metal body with a refined handgrip. Yes, it is not one of the most ergonomic designs when talking about cameras in general, but it certainly is one of the most grippiest mirrorless cameras.

The X-Pro2 is definitely one of the most premium cameras that I’ve ever held in my hands.

Not only the body, but even the buttons on the camera are made of durable metal, that add on to the whole grip and feel of the body. The camera’s body is made up of four aluminum panels and features a dust-proof, splash-proof, and freeze-proof structure.

The biggest key feature of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 is the viewfinder. The hybrid viewfinder lets you switch between an electronic and optical viewfinder with the flick of a lever. The OVF (Optical) shows you exactly what the camera sees through the lens, and is equivalent to what you are able to view with your own eyes. It does so while giving you an indication of your lens’ field of view. The EVF (Electronic), on the other hand, displays how the camera’s sensor is exposing the image, thus giving you a “live” view of the image to be captured. The company has also included a secondary EVF to the bottom-right corner, which lets you confirm accurate framing, focus, and exposure from within the OVF.

The biggest key feature of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 is the viewfinder.

There are multiple dials on the camera for controlling the shutter speeds, exposure, aperture, and more. While everything is almost perfect, the only con in this design language is the rather absurd placement of the ISO dial, which one almost misses at the first glance. The ISO dial is merged with the shutter-speed dial, and you have to lift it up and then turn in order to adjust the sensitivity of the camera sensor, that is, the ISO.

The left side of the camera house all the multimedia ports, which include a mini-HDMI port for output, a micro-USB port for transferring images using a PC, and a 3.5mm jack for connecting your external mics. The port selection is kept to a minimal, and these ports are covered with a lid to protect from external harmful factors.

On the right side, you’ll find the dual SD card slots. Yes, dual SD card slots, with each card having a capacity of up to 256GB. A noteworthy thing here is the fact that only the SD card slot-1 supports the UHS-I/UHS-II formats for high-speed SDXC cards.

Overall, the design and build quality of the X-Pro2 is top-notch, with all the bells and whistles. If you’re someone interested in photography or videography, you’ll be aware of the fact that the grip and feel of a camera is one of the most important factors while finalizing your choice.

The Fujifilm X-Pro2 delivers a fantastic build coupled with supreme grip, all coupled in a lightweight metal body, that gives the user a confident feeling while operating the camera.

Features

While the X-Pro2 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor with some tiny changes to the overall ergonomics of the camera, that’s not where all the fun ends. In fact, there’s a lot more that the camera brings to the table. To start off, the new 24-million-pixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS III sensor that now supports lossless compressed 14-bit raw capture. This new sensor, coupled with Fujifilm’s latest EXR image processor produces stunning results, which we’ll be discussing later on.

Another noteworthy feature of the X-Pro2 is the plethora of custom function buttons. While the X-Pro1 had two custom function buttons, the successor adds an extra 4 buttons for better custom shortcuts. The six custom function buttons are dotted across the body and a total of 32 custom settings can be selected from the quick menu. And to make things simple, you can reassign a function button by holding down the Fn button for longer than three seconds.

Apart from that, the Fujifilm X-Pro2 is that the camera gives you the ability to choose from two different formats of RAW images, uncompressed and lossless compressed. The images are saved in Fuji’s RAW format, that is, .RAF. While the camera’s processing system in itself is absolutely great, the different ways of porting the RAW formats is a nice feature to have at one’s disposal.

Also, it was previously reported that a new firmware update for the camera was on the way. And rightly so, I received the v.4.00, which brought along one of the most highly requested feature – 4K recording. Yes, that’s right, the amazing camera now also has the capability to record video footage in 2160p at 30fps.

User Experience

Yes, the camera boasts of some of the best-in-class features, but how was my user experience with it? In a word – breathtaking. I consider myself to be a decent photographer with a pretty good knowledge of the various factors that aid one in capturing the best clicks. Thankfully, the Fujifilm X-Pro2 has never let me down. Be it low-lit conditions, fast moving objects, or indoor as well as outdoor shots, the camera holds its ground.

The X-Pro2’s user experience has been absolutely breathtaking!

The fast AF speed and the newer focus detection algorithm aids me capturing the fastest moving objects with so much ease. Also, in typical Fujifilm fashion, the X-Pro2 renders beautiful and accurate colors. To some, it may lack the punchy feel of saturation, but as a professional photographer, you’d mostly find yourself looking to capture the unfiltered image with true colors, and that is just what the X-Pro2 gives you.

Also, one of the rather lesser highlighted features is the Fujifilm X-Pro2’s silent mode. As a photographer, you’d often find yourself in situations where candid photography is required, but with an unobtrusive touch. Being a mirror-less camera, the camera features an electronic shutter that’s silent as a grave.

Like I mentioned previously, the biggest talking point of the camera is the hybrid viewfinder. There are a ton of compositional characteristics offered by the camera, and with the option of selecting optical or electronic viewfinder as well as a live view screen, the X-Pro2 has all the options you could ever want. The font is crystal clear and the information is presented accurately in OVF mode than on the X-Pro1, and it’s great to see so many new visual aids being added to the frame.

Another major concern for many users is the expected battery life of the camera. The general rule is that a mirror-less camera offers comparatively lesser battery life when put up against a full-fletched DSLR, which holds true in this case as well. That being said, the plethora of features and the super-portable design of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 make up for it. The camera offers a battery life of merely 350 shots, which, although is right on level with the standard for mirror-less cameras, is quite low when put up against a DSLR. As such, I’d recommend getting a battery grip such as VPB-XT2 ($329) for better battery backup. Also, the X-Pro2 comes preloaded with an NP-W126 Li-Ion Battery which you can replace with the newer NP-W126S battery ($94), for better heat management and a significant battery boost.

Performance

Now that we’ve covered all features that the camera has to offer, let us see how it fares in real-world performance. But before we dive into the specifics, allow me to make one thing clear – the Fujifilm X-Pro2 is not a camera that captures social-media ready images. What that means is that the camera focuses on capturing the scenes with absolute precision, focusing on the accuracy of colors. This does, in fact, make the end results look sort-of dull in most cases, but the upside of this is that the RAW images captured by the camera can be altered to extreme limits without any loss of quality.

I tested the camera with a Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR lens, and I was able to capture some really stellar results. The X-Pro2’s sensor has a lot of AF points, the PDAF region is larger and, just as significantly, each of them is now directly accessible. There are a plethora of post-processing options (or filters) available onboard for users, such as the Vivid mode, which helps to accentuate vibrant colors, especially in landscape scenes.

There’s also a new Arcos filter emulsion mode, which produces black & white images with stunning contrast straight out of the camera. It comes with 4 different modes with the focus on modifying the extents of contrast and richness of the images.

One of the major issues with the X-Pro1 was the sluggish performance while attempting to capture fast-moving objects. It was a great performer, but really struggled when it came to capturing objects moving a fast pace. The X-Pro2 is Fujifilm’s answer to that question. The X-Pro2 offers an improved hybrid phase and contrast detection autofocus system that has 77 focus points laid out across the screen in Single AF mode with 49 of these points being the phase detection type. Furthermore, these 77 points can be swapped for 273 points, which split the same area of the frame into a 13×21 grid of smaller contrast-detect AF points with the central 77 points remaining the phase-detection type.

Apart from that, the camera includes other features that were present in the previous X-series cameras as well, such as zone and the wide/tracking modes, face/eye detection, focus peaking, and Fujifilm’s own color digital split image function. The performance generally has improved a lot as well, thanks to the new EXR image processor. The Fujifilm X-Pro2 starts up in a brisk 0.4sec, has an impressive 0.05sec shutter lag, and the focus speed is rated at 0.06sec. Furthermore, the refresh rate of the electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a maximum of 85fps in the high-performance mode. This reduces the delay that’s often associated with tracking moving subjects using an EVF.

Now, if you fancy the Batman in you and you prefer to capture images in low-light conditions, the X-Pro2 is just the Alfred that you need. The camera can shoot comfortably in the ranges of ISO 100-6,400 without any noise. Also, the image sensitivity can be bumped up to a whopping ISO 51,200 but be ready to acknowledge the presence of luminance noise at such high levels.

Since we’re on the topic of image sensitivity, let us bring forth the idea of dynamic range as well. The camera has a dynamic range bracketing of 100%, 200%, and 400%. It manages to exceed 12EV when it’s set to its lowest sensitivity setting. Even while going to ISO 800, the camera manages to maintain results up to 10EV, which is great. Beyond that, is when noise finally starts to creep in, and the results start to drop. That being said, the dynamic range only starts to drop below 6EV when the expanded ISO settings are used.

On the whole, the Fujifilm X-Pro2 manages to capture amazing stills with crystal clear details. That being said, if the above images weren’t enough for you, make sure to check out our entire gallery of images captured by the X-Pro2:

Should You Buy The Fujifilm X-Pro2?

At a price point of $1,499, the Fujifilm X-Pro2 is one of the best mirror-less options on the market. The newly-developed 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III APS-C sensor delivers stunning image quality and amazing clarity. The solid metal body combined with an enhanced grip and a plethora of metal dials and buttons make it a pleasure to hold and shoot with. The camera has a lot of added features such as dual card slots, revised menu system and improved weather resistance. Furthermore, with the latest firmware update, you get 4K recording capabilities as well.

With such great hardware and superb software, the Fujifilm X-Pro2 should easily last you more than a couple of years.

Pros:

• Unmatched Viewfinder Quality
• Excellent image and video quality
• Solid Metal Build

Cons:

• ISO Slider is awkwardly placed
• No tilt or touchscreen
• Average battery backup

Buy from Amazon: ($1,499, Body Only)

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Fujifilm X-Pro2: A Blend of Passion and Perfection

The Fujifilm X-Pro2 excels in almost every aspect. It is in many ways, the perfect camera for every type of photographer. The user interface is easy to use, and the camera offers best-in-class features, with plenty of icing on the top. The image quality is excellent and the hardware under-the-hood should last you easily for the next couple of years. That being said, the camera is designed for photographers who are willing to spend their time on their images, with the proper amount of manual post-processing. The X-Pro2 captures realistic color frames that will certainly not appeal to users wishing to post images as it is.