Notice how that they mostly focus on shooting experience, rather than pixel peeping. And honestly that’s kind of refreshing, as we usually are bombarded with charts, crops and comparisons when a new camera comes out.
Seen from this perspective, the Fujifilm X-Pro3 already achieved what it’s ment for: focus on feel and experience, rather than technical specs.
In case of Gordon (Cameralabs), he says the hidden screen helped him to review images and access menus way less than he normally does. He says:
Previously I always preferred the X-T series over the X-Pro series. But with the X-Pro3 I was surprised just how refreshing and enjoyable I found the experience, how little I worried about settings or features and how much I’d like to shoot with it again.
The Features
With that said, of course the reviewers also go over the new features of this camera.
For example, Gordon from Cameralabs shows samples of the new HDR plus mode, a feature that Gordon says “makes a really good job”. Press the shutter once, and the camera takes three images and combines them into one HDR image (see images below). It works used handheld.
Oh… and Gordon LOVES the new Classic Negative film simulation.
Now let’s cross fingers that all the X-Pro3 firmware goodness on the X-T3, X-T30 and GFX100.
As you know, the optical viewfinder on the “old” X-Pro2 had a build-in 0.36x and 0.60x magnification modes. So, when you use let’s say a 35mm lens, in order for your frame not be too small in the viewfinder, you could switch to the 0.60x magnification.
This is no longer possible with X-Pro3, as it has a fixed OVF magnification of 0.52x.
However, Gordon says that the overall much bigger optical viewfinder on the X-Pro3 helps to compensate for the lack of 0.60x magnification.
For your convenience, down below I have extracted and overlayed both viewfinder frames at 23 and 35 so you get a clear idea how big the difference really is.
With all that said, check out the Fujifilm X-Pro3 review roundup below.
DPReview just published their Fujifilm X-Pro3 review.
The X-Pro3 gets the silver award, but I doubt those, who got an X-Pro3 care anything about it. It is all about getting a different shooting experience that DPR sums up with the sentence “living the moment“. And in this case, the reviewer says:
Personally, although I can recognize the X-Pro3’s appeal, I don’t find that I feel it enough to give it a Gold award.
No review will ever be able to tell you if the Fujifilm X-Pro3 is the camera for you. All you can do, is to get your hands on one, shoot with it for a while, and you will just feel it.
Hardly any other company puts that much effort in creating really beautiful and useful color profiles like Fujifilm.
Fujifilm calls them “film simulations”: inspired by the look of old film stock, they try to bring some of that magic into the digital era.
In fact, Minami-San, the Fujifilm employee responsible for colors back in the film days, is still today working at Fujifilm and in charge of the digital film simulation development. You can see his story here.
One more nice thing: Fujifilm film simulation can be fine tuned ad libitum:
read here – How to Fine Tune Your Fujifilm Film Simulation to Get the Ultimate Vintage Look
read here – This Guy Fine Tuned his Fujifilm Film Simulation Settings Inspired by the Work of Great Film Photographers. See “Chrome Eggleston” & More
read here – Fujifilm X-Pro3 Development Story: Classic Negative Film Simulation – Learning from Film
From what I’ve seen, the new Fuji Classic Negative film simulation is generous on the blue and green level, while remaining somewhat warm and keeping a low contrast.
