Natural Light Portrait, Fuji X-Pro 1

The Fuji X-Pro 1 is an odd beast. Odd in that it’s quirky. Quirky controls and menus. Quirky viewfinder and focus. However, it’s a beast. The files are freakin sweet. That 35mm f/1.4 lens is insanely sharp. Fuji’s sensor for this camera has a fantastic look and the files are hefty. Seems that Fuji and Adobe finally got their sh*t together and the RAW conversions are looking sweet.

Here’s a quick portrait I shot of buddy and ace photographer, Lance Omar Thurman. I fired one frame and am amazed on the image quality. I dig the portrait too. Sure, had this been a portrait session, we’d have run thru quite a bit more, but as far as test shots are concerned, I really dig it.

Seems that Fuji and Adobe finally got their sh*t together and the RAW conversions are looking sweet.

I’m not quite ready to ditch my DSLR. I LOVE my Fuji X100s and Fuji X-Pro 1. They’re both amazing cameras that I love shooting, despite their quirks. There are still jobs for which I need a DSLR. Shooting a really fast frame rate, the buffering of a DSLR cannot be beat. However, I could see over time, abandoning my DSLR for cameras like the Fujis.

Would I recommend you run out and buy and X-Pro 1? Probably not. I would highly recommend the X100s, but only and only if you’re serious about your photography and appreciate that despite it’s form factor, the X100s is a professional photographer’s camera. To really fully enjoy it’s capabilities, you need to get out of Auto mode with that camera and unlock it’s power. Same with the X-Pro 1, however with that camera there’s really only a couple good lenses available. The 35mm f/1.4 is magical. Just a fantastic lens. Super tack-sharp, gorgeous contrast and beautiful bokeh. The 60mm f/2.8 is great when and if you get focus. Otherwise, it’s fairly tedious to shoot with. The 18mm f/2 is decent, but never blew me away. In fact, I’ve only got the 35mm f/1.4 at the moment and am considering either Voigtlander or Leica lenses with adapters. Fuji really needs an amazing portrait lens for that camera. The 35mm f/1.4 is decent, but there needs to be a 90mm equivalent lens that just kicks ass and it’s not there yet.

I’ve waxed poetic about my Nikon D3s. It’s a freakin tank. A workhorse. But I really don’t have that love affair with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic camera. Amazing in a lot of ways, but there’s something about the form factor of the Fujis and the look of those files that takes things to a whole different level.