New addition to the family !
I remember back in 2024, I was shooting with my X100S (which is now my girlfriend's) and I was thinking to myself : this is the most fun I have ever had with a camera. Like the process, the corner OVF, the size, the controls etc. I was no stranger to Fujifilm as I had been shooting with mostly Fujifilm cameras up to this point (I even used several of their bodies for paid gigs, like my X-T2 or X-H1), but I was way more invested using this little thing than I ever was shooting, say, my X-H1 that has a high quality EVF, ergonomic grip and much better specs.
There was a little problem however : I'm not that much a fan of 35mm equivalent lenses. It's in that weird middle ground where it's not wide enough for wide shots and not tight enough if you're not trying to get a wide shot to begin with. It's great as a general purpose lens, but I'm definitely a 50mm + guy. So I thought to myself : the X-Pro series is basically the same thing as the X100, but with interchangeable lenses, so why not get one, use a 35mm lens on it (which I already owned) and be done with it?
I initially looked at the X-Pro1 but a few things irked me about this camera :
first was the lack of a diopter correction dial on the viewfinder. I wear glasses, but hate shooting with glasses, so I remove them when bringing the camera to my eye most of the time, and if the viewfinder of the X-Pro1 was corrected just like the viewfinder of ny Nikon FE, then I wouldn't be able to see anything. This was a pretty big turn-off.
second thing was the lack of PDAF. Before the X100S, I had an X100, which also lacked PDAF, and the number of back or front focused shots was actually unbeliveable. The move the the PDAF equipped X100S didn't improve things when it came to speed, but the back/front focused images were pretty much gone, so I feared the same thing would happen on the X-Pro1.
third and probably biggest thing, was the price. This camera has a cult following, and despite being from 2012, and being basically the absolute worst X mount camera you can get (even the X-E1 has better specs on paper) it still fetched upwards of 500 euros, which I wasn't prepared to pay (especially considering that my X100S cost me about 300... and it includes a lens !).
So I didn't do anything until the holiday season when I caved in and got an X-Pro2 instead. Known sensor (which I knew was excellent), diopter correction dial, PDAF, and even an healthy amount of upgrades over the X-Pro1's body (like dual card slots, weather sealing, higher resolution EVF etc). But the X-Pro2 turned out to be much more than just an X100 camera with interchangeable lenses, as the "electronic rangefinder" really put it in another category for me (as I wrote in this post, but there is also the fact that it was the most expensive camera that I had ever purchased and I wasn't confident in carrying it around me all day as an EDC at all).
So while the X-Pro2 has been an incredible camera and probably is my favorite camera ever made, it didn't exactly do the thing that I initially bought it for, which was every day carry and simplistic fun using AF lenses (as I ended up using manual lenses 95% of the time on my XP2...)
Fast forward to last week : I was browsing MPB, looking at Fujifilm cameras out of curiosity. I checked X-Pro1s, and sure enough, the cheapest ones are almost 400€, with f-ed up screens and really worn bodies. I do a page refresh and there is is : an X-Pro1 for 280€ with a clean screen and no obvious defects. G.A.S got the better of me and I added it to the cart.
Long story short : it's awesome ! I loaded in some JPEG profiles in and I didn't really get the need to edit those files at all for the moment. The viewfinder correction ended up being much closer to my vision than anticipated, and so far I didn't notice any of the back focusing issues that I was dreading.
Colors are great, handing is fine (few nitpicks here and there coming from an X-Pro2, but it's good enough).
I've always been kinda intrigued by the X-Pro1, and the X-Pro2, while amazing, felt a like a bit more than I bargained for. This is striking the right balance between usability, value and enjoyment while in use. I didn't expect a ton, and I'm extremely satisfied with this camera so far. It's an awesome second body to the X-Pro2 when travelling as well and I'm already planning on bringing it with me, alongside the X-Pro2 and a few lenses for my upcoming summer vacations. I was expecting to carry the X-T1 in its stead, but the X-Pro1 makes so much more sense now !
Yet another Fujifilm camera joins the others I guess. Maybe one day I'll get bored lol.
All the shots I shared are straight out of camera JPEGs.
