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Why do I prefer my x-pro1's images over my x-pro2's?


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I got the x-pro1 a few years back as a kinda last minute purchase (used, mint, really cheap) before going on summer holiday, and I totally fell in love with the camera - actually stating to my girlfriend; this is the best camera I have ever owned!

 

I love the image quality, the image character, the feel of the camera and its simplicity. Love it!

 

So, the x-pro2 was announced and I immediately started to drool. Wow, same feel, better AF, face detection and what not. A sure winner! Well, now I have it (bought used, mint, cheap) and for all its bells and whistles I can't seem to fall in love with it the same way I did my old x-pro1 (which I still own).

 

I see the extra sharpness and details provided by the increase in pixels, and the AF is great. The image quality as a whole is also great. Sharp, contrasty, punchy colors. And actually that is what I don't like about the camera. I kinda feel like it has lost that magic Fujifilm look, and now looks like what every other quality camera produces.

 

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the image quality, I just miss that Fujifilm character of old.

 

I have owned an x-100s and t, still have an x-t1 and the two x-pro incarnations, and it wasn't until the x-pro2 that I started to look for that magic Fujifilm character. Am I the only one who feels like it just isn't there anymore?

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so how would you suggest I setup my x-pro2 to get closer to the more pastel colored, dreamy (not hazy!) images of the x-pro1?

 

I'm afraid that if it were that simple, then software like VSCO simply would not exist. So, the only thing that we can do is to set colour to -2 and lower the cotrast by setting shadows and highlights to -2 as well. Not sure that the images would look dreamy though.

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If you're talking SOOC..? You could try one of the pro neg film sims, and as mdm suggests, play with the highlight/shadow tone values in the minus range, also maybe try the grain setting on weak, as this will defuse the higher res of the later sensor and make a slight texture

 

You're not going to get exactly the same look as the first gen sensor, but you may very well get a look you like more than the base settings

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Pro1 pics has always been "softer" than the Pro2. Pro2's pic is more "dslr" like in nature. If there is such a thing. :lol: 

 

You can get close to Pro1 with your Pro2 is you shoot slightly over exposed or a slight ETTR method, lower contrast and saturation. Lighten shadows one notch. You may try to bump up the sharpness one notch. It gets quite close.

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I agree, I'm preferring the XPro1 files to the XT2 or XT1.......maybe more organic?

 

Perhaps. It was the x100 and Pro1 pictures which wowed photographers. But like some things, people start to want this and that after they've jumped onto the band wagon. That's why the Fujifilm cameras are becoming more and more like "dslr".

 

Can't stop change I suppose. :lol: 

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Did you actually try to dial down sharpness? Maybe increase the noise filter  bit (funny, I have a PRO 1 and I dial the noise reduction way down...)?

I would not really play the contrast card - it does not make the files softer....in my mind.

 

Oh well, maybe you just need to get used to it - like a new car: It accelerates so fast, but hey, I can't see the landscape anymore.... and the consumption is so low, but I love gas stations :-)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would not really play the contrast card - it does not make the files softer....in my mind.

 

 

Contrast is the relationship between light and dark. In image editing when we move the contrast slider up, lights get brighter and darks get blacker

 

Re the X-Pro1: With a sooc jpeg curve that offered a lot of shadow details and less dynamic range than the newer camera, I think contrast is very much the easiest way to describe the difference between X-Trans I and III

 

Different tone curve basically!

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X-Pro2 on the left

 

This is from RAW

 

+1/3 of a stop exposure and minus one notch in SilkyPix's contrast slider and the difference between them isn't so much.

 

Don't ask me how to replicate the SOOC Jpegs though!

 

That said I suspect that Pugsley47's suggestions RE the shadow/highlights won't be far off the mark

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't owned an X-Pro1. I have owend X100T, X-T1, and had borrowed and used an X10 from my friend.

X10 is the camera that made me realize the beauty of Fuji. I was totally shocked by the beautiful color. That's why I then bought the X100T which was my first Fuji body. But they definitely render different color. Both X100T and X-T1 render the color cooler than X10 and produce more contrast.

I set all highlight, shadow, and saturation to +2 on X10 and they worked pretty good. While using X-T1, I had to set highlight and shadow both to -2.

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Hi!

I feel the same about my old X-E1. I moved to Fujifilm from Nikon because I was amazed by image quality. It was so sharp and full of details and colours, those colours... And that nice well made small bodies of Fujifilm cameras and lenses - all made in Japan! I could not help my self! I had to leave Nikon for Fujifilm. My X-E1 had some troubles - it was quite sluggish compared to Nikon D7000, AF was struggling, but image quality was stunning! It had some kind of magical feel I had never experienced before. But one day hot pixels came...after repair I sold my X-E1 for X-E2...with even more hot pixel even after opening box. So I returned X-E2 and changed for X-T1 Graphite Silver. I was missing X-E form factor but got used to DSLR like camera body. The same 16megapixels, but something has changed - better AF, but "magic" was different. Blue skies and sunsets had lost unique X-E1 Fujifilm feel. And after some time, again hot pixels, repair, hot pixel and again repair...I sold it for X-T2 with remapping feature. Problem with hot pixels is solved for now, image quality is far better - superb, but that X-E1(X-Pro1) magic feel is lost somehow. If there was some kind o Kaizen firmware update for these old cameras adding remapping feature I would sell my XT2 immediately and went for some old X-E1... 

 

Sorry for mestakes in my English.

GeorgeF, Czech republic, Europe

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Same with me. I came to Fuji from Canon (5D) and loved X-Pro1/X-E1 files but even more the X-100 ones for natural and analog looking colours. X-E2 and even more X-T2 lost it, they look just ok but more artifical and digital, but all magic has gone. I noticed it with lenses too - first Fuji primes 35/1.4, 18/2 60/2.4 have that beautiful soul I just love but current primes went to sterile side. Now I am struggling if stay with Fuji... If Nikon will bring mirrorless I will probably switch though Fuji will bring X-e3 with bayer cfa or ealier X-A4 with EVF.   

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I got the x-pro1 a few years back as a kinda last minute purchase (used, mint, really cheap) before going on summer holiday, and I totally fell in love with the camera - actually stating to my girlfriend; this is the best camera I have ever owned!

I love the image quality, the image character, the feel of the camera and its simplicity. Love it!..

 

Part of the wonderful 'image character' of X-Pro1 JPEGs is the very particular tonal characteristics of the X-Pro1. The image files have an unusually long tonal range in the shadow region. Here's DP Review's discussion of this, with evidence from tonal curve data:

 

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-pro1/20

 

Look at the tone diagrams under the first graph. Use the selectors above the graph to dispaly the curves for the other Fuji cameras available at the time of the review, and then look again at the tone diagrams below the graph: the X-Pro1 has a very long tail-off in the shadows - longer than the other Fuji cameras. I'm pretty certain this also applies to the newer Fujis.

 

I think this is a major reason for the special X-Pro1 magic that you're missing. I find the 'richness' particularly noticeable in Monochrome images. (Try selecting 'Monochrome R' in the second graph (Film Modes);  this is why the black and white images from the X-Pro1 are so wonderful.)

Edited by darti
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The question for me is; if the difference is in the JPEG engine, why do I see a difference when processing RAW files as well? An external RAW converter should treat the two sensors the same, right? Did Fujifilm change something in the colour filters on the sensor?

 

I agree that the X-Pro1 is a great black and white camera.

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The question for me is; if the difference is in the JPEG engine, why do I see a difference when processing RAW files as well? An external RAW converter should treat the two sensors the same, right? Did Fujifilm change something in the colour filters on the sensor?

I agree that the X-Pro1 is a great black and white camera.

Because the raw converter reads the meta data that Fuji embedded into the RAW

 

RAW is only 'raw' data until you open it with something, then that data becomes that something's interpretation of that data

 

Open the same RAF in LR, C1, RFC, ID, SP, RT, PN (any others lol?) make zero edits and export to jpeg, they will all look different

 

(I'm going to be writing about this quite in depth on my site quite soon)

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This is an interesting thread. I have the x100F having had the x10, x-Pro1 and x-T1 before it. I always kept each camera for at least a couple of years so got used to using them over a period of time. The x-pro 1 remains the camera I have enjoyed the most, but the size and my unsuppressable desire to buy adapted vintage lenses which moved with me to the x-T1 (which I bought for the EVF and faster processing) led me to trade in and get the smaller fixed lens x100f. The camera itself is great, but no camera since the x-pro1 has given me files as filmic, and I find the exposure on the newer sensor to be harder to get the best results straight from the camera, I have to tweak it on almost all my files. Which says more about me than the camera I'm aware, but I do feel it was easier before, everything tends to underexposure and look very flat using matrix so I'm trying to learn how to effectively spot metering using the exposure comp dial to get reliable results.

 

Reading this thread led me to try a very quick and unscientific test. I found lowering the shadow and highlights by the max -2 and the sharpening by -2 gave me the smoother type image I felt like the x-pro1 gave. I find the sharpening engine to be really good in the fuji's, but I don't like hyper sharp images and the even at -2 the jpeg's are looking very sharp. If anyone else has any tips or settings to get the files looking closer to the x-pro1 that would be great, but I guess as it's a completely different set-up, it's not going to be possible.

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