Thoughts on my first big shoot with the X-Pro2

[deva]

From May 12th through the 15th I was up in Anacortes WA covering a conference/protest event called Break Free (from Fossil Fuels). It was the first time I have use my X-Pro2 in a busy, constant action situation. I was shooting all day long and in the night. It was a good variety of fast changing situations.

 

Overall, the X-Pro2 did well. I was using the X-T1 as a second body and the X-Pro2 performed distinctly better than the X-T1 because of the faster EVF refresh rate and much shorter blackout times. The X-Pro2 also focused faster/more consistently when the light became low.

 

I did have the 'turn the camera off and on' message for the first time. That is unnerving, but it only happened once and not at a critical moment. I do hope that is fixed/fixable in firmware. It is rather annoying to have an error like that in a high-end camera.

 

I also had another thing happen that was a problem. I was in a crowd and often holding the camera overhead or down low or out at arms length to reach around people. I must have accidentally hit the drive button because the camera ended up in "advanced filter" mode. What that led me to discover is that in the advanced filter mode, the camera does not save RAW files. I had the X-Pro2 set to record RAW to card#1 and JPG to card#2. Once the camera accidentally ended up in "advanced filter" mode, it saved JPG's to both cards. That meant those images were useless. So I lost some important shots because of this.

 

The ability to disable the advanced filter mode would be welcome. I will never ever use it (except by accident apparently)

 

I also hit the drive button by mistake one other time and ended up in bracketing mode. That I realized after a few seconds and it was not a problem. When holding the camera in odd ways (reaching around a fence for example) it is easy to hit various buttons such as the Q button by mistake. Made me think I might like some fast way to just turn off all the buttons in situations like that. Of course more experience with the camera and my hands may find ways to avoid the inadvertent button pushing. There sure are a lot of them though when I end up hold the camera in a different way.

 

I also had opportunity to shoot a bit of Video with the X-Pro2. I was using the 100-400 lens (on a tripod obviously) and I was very happy with the results. 

 

Overall, the camera performed well. With all the journalistic work I do, I missed the articulating screen. Shooting at night is great with the EVF. I do not miss how hard it was to see/compose/focus in the dark with my DSLR's. I take it for granted now. Most of my shooting was with the 16-55 and 50-140. Both lenses are fast and I never felt like focusing was slow or that I missed shots. A very high percentage of shots were sharp (easily 90+%). I also used the 10-24 and at night the 16 and 56 both wide open. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jkundi]

Hi Deva, any pics from the shoot you are willing to share? 

[Servaas]

Hi Deva,

 

When you press and hold the MENU/OK button for a few seconds, the camera will lock some buttons on the back side of the camera so you cannot accidentally press them. It will not lock the focus point joystick.

Press and hold MENU/OK again to unlock the buttons.  

[mdm]

Once the camera accidentally ended up in "advanced filter" mode, it saved JPG's to both cards. That meant those images were useless.

 

What do you mean saying ...useless... I don't think you are unable correctly expose the pics while shooting, so what's wrong with jpeg files in your case?

[kimballistic]

What do you mean saying ...useless... I don't think you are unable correctly expose the pics while shooting, so what's wrong with jpeg files in your case?

 

I imagine it's the effect from those silly filters that made the JPGs useless, not his chosen exposure.  If he had the RAWs he could have hit Q and simply reprocessed them on camera without the filter applied.  (That should be a thing).

[deva]

Hi Deva,

 

When you press and hold the MENU/OK button for a few seconds, the camera will lock some buttons on the back side of the camera so you cannot accidentally press them. It will not lock the focus point joystick.

Press and hold MENU/OK again to unlock the buttons.  

 

 

Thanks for that tip! I'll try that and see how it works.

[deva]

What do you mean saying ...useless... I don't think you are unable correctly expose the pics while shooting, so what's wrong with jpeg files in your case?

 

As Kimballistic said... the JPG's have the cartoonish filters applied. If there were a RAW file without the filter, I could still have used the images... which is sort of the point of having the RAW + JPG option. I wonder if this is a bug or intended behavior?

Edited May 18, 2016 by deva