In the last ‘Gearing-Up’ post, I had recently acquired my latest Wedding Photography toy; a new Fujifilm X-Pro 2. I love these Fujifilm cameras; they’re small, light and really help to capture the weddings in a natural, reportage style. Having used (and adored) the X-T1 previously the X-Pro 2 seemed like a natural progression, with the larger sensor, dual card slots and focus lever I told myself that I’d be silly not to upgrade. Well, it turns out that it was quite a silly decision. Not because it’s a bad camera….because it’s not – quite the opposite in fact. It’s a tremendous camera. But it’s quite a lot better than the X-T1, and here’s why.
Before upgrading to the X-Pro 2 the X-T1 served as an additional body to accompany my Canon 5D MKIII; two completely different cameras, with completely different end-goals. Many people warned me that upgrading to the X-Pro 2 would be an interesting move from the X-T1 given that it’s a completely different style; with the former you’re opting for a camera modelled on the old range-finder system while with the latter you’re looking at a much more SLR-based form factor. It turns out that they were right; they are two very different cameras and are aimed at different photographers. With both cameras, I’m a huge fan of the tactile nature of having physical dials, as opposed to buttons and menus. The less time I have to spend in a menu the better. Some people call them ‘retro’ (ergh, I do hate this term); I call them functional, logical, and the way a camera should be. The reality is, until I shot with the X-Pro 2 there wasn’t anything wrong at all with the X-T1 (and there still isn’t), but after shooting with the new camera everything felt so much faster….so much crisper. And that’s where the issue lies.
Having shot with the X-Pro 2, I was finding it increasingly difficult to go back to the X-T1 with such big functionality improvements. So, yes you guessed it, I bought another X-Pro 2. Last weekend I shot my weddings entirely with Fujifilm. I don’t regret it at all. Next wedding will be entirely Fujifilm, and probably the next after that. I’ve got a few changes to make to my current flash system, which is undeniably weaker than Canon’s at the moment, but another ‘Gearing-Up’ blog post will delve into more detail on that. In addition to that, I’ve also got my hands on a 16mm 1.4 to add to my lens line-up (which will also have it’s own post in the coming weeks). My X-T1 remains a part of my line-up, but mostly as the ‘speciality lens’ option – the X-Pro 2s deal with the bread and butter of the wedding, and it’s going to stay that way for a long time to come.
