The upcoming X-Pro2 - is Fuji doing the right thing?

You heard the rumors? Something new is coming in January next year. And yes, they are doing the right thing. Consistency is a good road to follow. If there is a successful functional design people are easily get used to you should only change a few bits and some inner values to make it even better.

The X-Pro1 is such a product. When you hold this camera in your hands it feels just right (if you are a rangefinder type person like me). Size, weight are perfect and the usability is simple with the manual controls (still love the reintroduction of the aperture-ring by Fuji). The OVF ist often used by me in conjunction with zone focusing. So it is not as gimmicky as other people said on the web because it gives me that freedom to see more of whats happening around the framelines like you know from other rangefinder cameras. And there is no screen or other distractions (exposure preview, histogram...) between me and the subject. So I am glad that Fuji will continue this great strategy in future. And maybe with some faster auto focus system it will also perform well in OVF mode.

too much information...

There are leaked images circulating the web showing a shift of the buttons on the left side of the screen to the right. I don´t think too much about that and have nothing to say about it. Because there is no perfect tool in the universe. Some will love what Fuji did and other will say it ruins the whole camera. But bear in mind that these minor changes are not important for you to take better photos. There are a lot of quirks and bad concepts in every camera you can buy on the market. I would even miss a real exposure compensation dial on top of every Leica M model. You could do a long list of things you don´t like about your camera. But what is it good for?

There are just a few controls you really need: shutter release, aperture, speed, ISO (Exposure compensation). And these controls should be accessible, sturdy and easy to use.

The rest is not that much important to take a good photo. So don´t put too much attention on this things. Remember how much you desire a new firmware with new features and how less you are using them after the firmware is released.
Try to focus on the raw essence of photography and not on things that are always fare from perfection (because the placement of buttons depends too much on personal taste and other things).

Go out and shoot! Even in 2016!

Have a great new year!

Nils

I also wrote why it is not important to buy the X-Pro2 and some other stuff related to this great camera. Just click here!