Fujifilm X-Pro2 review: the best camera

Fujifilm’s new X-Pro2 is a tough camera to review by any ordinary metric — it’s an exotic tool that defies rational purchasing decisions. There are cameras in its price range that will give you better image quality, and there are cheaper cameras — even from Fujifilm — that offer more features.

But I love the X-Pro2, and I can’t really say why without spilling my subjective opinion. That’s because the X-Pro2 itself is an opinionated camera — and I happen to agree with it about a great many things.

The $1699.95 X-Pro2 is, as you might expect, a follow-up to the X-Pro1. That camera came out four years ago, and was Fujifilm’s first mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The X-Pro2 doesn’t change the outer body too much, although there are a few tweaks we’ll get into later that do make a meaningful difference to the shooting experience. It’s still a convincing, chunky facsimile of a rangefinder camera, with shutter speed and exposure compensation dials designed to be used with lenses with aperture rings. It’s also now weather-resistant and feels more solidly built in general.

Every Fujifilm X-Series mirrorless camera since the X-Pro1 used essentially the same sensor and had near-identical image quality; the X-Trans II sensor simply added phase-detection autofocus points. But with the X-Pro2, Fujifilm’s third-generation sensor has finally seen daylight, bumping resolution from 16 to 24 megapixels and maximum native ISO from 6400 to 12800. There’s a new chip to match, too, the X-Processor Pro, and the autofocus system has been upgraded to 273 points, of which 77 are phase-detect. The camera can shoot at eight frames per second with continuous phase AF, and is the first X-series camera to have dual SD card slots. It also has slightly better video quality than its forebears, though I don't think anyone will buy it for that.

THE X-PRO2'S BIGGEST SELLING POINT IS ITS VIEWFINDER

The biggest selling point for the X-Pro2, however, is its viewfinder. Like the X-Pro1 and X100 series of fixed-lens cameras, the "hybrid" unit lets you switch between an electronic and optical viewfinder with the flick of a lever. The EVF displays what’s coming through the lens and how the sensor is exposing it, making it the more useful option for critical work. The OVF, meanwhile, is a little offset from the angle of the lens, so you don’t quite see exactly what the camera will capture; instead, the viewfinder superimposes bright frame lines to give an indication of your lens’ field of view.

Why would you use the optical viewfinder? Well, it can be easier to use in bright light, many street photographers in particular like being able to see what’s outside their frame before composing, and it’s just straight-up more pleasant to look at the world than to peer through a tunnel at a screen. And with the X-Pro2, it’s easier than ever to prioritize the optical view, because you can get the best of both worlds — Fujifilm has added a tiny secondary EVF to the bottom-right corner, letting you confirm accurate framing, focus, and exposure from within the OVF. It’s a feature taken from the X100T, but unlike that camera you can use the secondary display to see the whole frame, rather than just a zoomed-in view of your focus point.

To be clear, this is completely unique in the world of cameras. Leica is the only company that sells digital rangefinders with optical viewfinders, and those are all manual-focus models without any electronic elements in the OVF — you can’t confirm that you got the right shot without reviewing images on the rear-mounted LCD. The same goes for DSLRs, which do have autofocus and a through-the-lens view but still don’t let you check exposure in the viewfinder. With the X-Pro2, Fujifilm has developed a viewfinder that offers what people love about rangefinders and what they need from a professional camera's all-in-one package. It’s business and pleasure.

THE X-PRO2 ISN’T ALWAYS FUJIFILM’S BEST PRO CAMERA

The reason I’m talking about the viewfinder so much is that you really, really have to want it if the X-Pro2 is going to be your next camera. Fujifilm’s two-year-old flagship model, the X-T1, has an SLR-style design that houses a single electronic viewfinder — no optical option, but the EVF blows the X-Pro2’s out of the water. Its magnification is much higher, so it’s both a lot more immersive and far easier to use; confirming critical focus, for example, is more reliable on the X-T1 for this reason. Lenses longer than 35mm — like my beloved 56mm f/1.2 — are also kind of useless on the X-Pro2’s OVF, because the framelines are so small. And I have to be honest — I’ve been using the X-Pro2 as my primary camera for a couple of months, and although I feel better about using the OVF more for fun than ever before, when it comes to work I just don’t trust it as much as the EVF. And that’s a big reason why, despite the name, the X-Pro2 isn’t always Fujifilm’s best pro camera.

There are other reasons. The X-Pro2 is a step back in control density, integrating the X-T1’s ISO dial into its shutter speed dial in a fiddly retro way that I never really got the hang of. I missed the dedicated switches for drive and metering modes. I really missed the tilting screen. And the X-T1’s grip feels more balanced when using bigger lenses like the 56mm f/1.2.

These issues were hard to ignore when, for example, I was taking portraits and scrambling in the photo pit while covering the AlphaGo match in Seoul last month. But for every snag that made me want to go back to the X-T1, the X-Pro2 takes a step forward that makes me never want to use anything else. Image quality, for example, is just phenomenal with the new 24-megapixel image sensor. Yes, I know megapixels don’t count for a lot alone, but the fact that Fujifilm waited four years to increase resolution means it’s been able to do so without running into the usual trade-offs. I found high-ISO performance and noise to be at least as good as the X-T1’s, which is already excellent, and the increase in detail is often dramatic; it feels like the sensor the X-Series Fujinon lenses have been waiting for. JPEG rendition is better than ever, and the new Acros monochrome film simulation turns in gorgeous results right out of the camera.

Another gigantic advance is found with the "focus stick" on the rear of the camera. This little joystick has one purpose and one purpose only — to help you select specific autofocus points quickly and accurately, which has sometimes been awkward on previous Fujifilm cameras. It works fantastically well, with tight, solid dampening that makes honing in on a subject’s eye as fun as pulling off a dragon punch in Street Fighter. On the subject of autofocus, the X-Pro2 still isn’t up to DSLR-level speed, but its performance is the best in any Fujifilm camera to date — it’s the first X-Series camera that really almost never frustrates me in that regard, depending on the lens attached.

And this may sound silly, but the X-Pro2’s shutter makes the most satisfying thk-thk-thk of any camera I’ve ever heard. It helps that this is inexplicably the first X-Series model to let you take multiple shots by keeping the shutter half-pressed — previous cameras forced you to refocus or use the continuous AF mode, unlike basically every other mirrorless camera or DSLR on the planet. With its distinct physical and auditory feedback and its more intuitive performance, the X-Pro2 is by far the most responsive Fujifilm camera to date.

It’s the little things like that, along with its incomparable viewfinder, that make me love the X-Pro2. But that doesn’t mean I’m telling you to buy it. In a lot of "pro" situations, the X-T1 proves to be the more usable camera, and it’s hard to imagine that we won’t see an X-T2 with the focus stick and 24-megapixel sensor soon enough. And if you’re happy to step outside the Fujifilm world, you can get full-frame Sony mirrorless models for not a whole lot more.

But what those Sony cameras don’t have is an unapologetic focus on the shooting experience. The X-Pro2 is a camera that you’re meant to enjoy using — a camera that blends into whatever situation in which you bring it along for the ride. So I don’t think "X-Pro" is a misnomer; while it may not be best suited for a sports stadium or a war zone, it’s likely to appeal to a different sort of pro. The street shooters, the documentarians, the artists — anyone for whom the process of taking the photo can be as important as the result. That’s why the X-Pro2 exists, and that’s why it’s my favorite digital camera in the world today.