Rekindling with my trusted XPro3
Been a while since I posted and been a while since I meant to do it !
To make this enticing for me, I’d like to introduce my favourite toy/tool/camera, my Fujifilm XPro3. I got this camera in late November 2020. A year before that my head was spinning like crazy, catching few late nights, missing some sleeps over which next Fujifilm camera to buy… latest Fujifilm X100V or not so old Fujifilm XPro3.
Since I had just sold my X100F, I felt that the improvements brought by Fujifilm on the latest X100V were hard to resist : new sensor, new lens, tilting screen etc… I spare you the specs, we all know them… I loved the F so was easily sold …and eventually decided to put my hand on the latest iteration of the X100 series. A week after the announcement a shiny new X100V was delivered at my doorstep. Excitement !
3 months later, the excitement waned down! Many reasons for it but all down to the very fact that this camera had become bloated…. bloated screen, bloated functionalities, bloated specs. Some day I’ll dive into this but not today on this post. At that time I knew I had made the wrong choice and what I wanted (needed?) was something simpler, something easier something down to “Pure Photography”.
Fujifilm Xpro3 - Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F1.4 II
Here came the Xpro3…I picked it in Dura Black because it looks the sexiest of all 3 colors! Aside from Leica’s it is simply the stunniest camera… and for me I won’t lie it matters! I love glancing at it. I am a sucker for it. I like to grab, I like to hold, I like to feel. There is a sense of sensuality, there is a sense of physical attractiveness.
The Xpro 3 Dura Black with his dark robe, with his cold metal finish, with the muffled and yet mechanical shutter noise, with the stiffness of the shutter speed dials, with the neat click of the screen makes when it retreats, with the texture of the side of the exposure compensation dial where the thumb rests....all of this participate to an enhanced experience, something I had missed with the X100V. Not the X100V was poorly finished mind you, it is a beautiful camera too. The Xpro 3 is just another league , it doesn’t feel as much as an electronic device with all the hustle & bustle crammed in, it is a real and physical tool made for Photographer by Photographer (cliché?).
And for me that what matters. On this blog you won’t hear about resolution, sharpness, chromatic aberration, resistance to flare, Distortion, Light falloff, AF speed, Eye AF and all that malarkey! Its not even because other websites do that already (which it is true) it is because, to put it simply, I do not care about Image Quality! Plain and Simple. Image Quality does’t not interest me. Some day i will deep dive on this. But to make a long story short, to me all camera/lens perform plenty well and more than I will ever need. So when i choose a camera, the last think I care for is IQ.
The first thing I will consider though, is user experience, or even better, ‘MY’ user experience. I want something neat, small, dense, made of metal and with character…or let me rephrase that with a LOT OF CHARACTER !! Taking an image is a stimulating experience. I need to get some pleasure from it. This all come down to this and it is where the Xpro3 enters.
Fujifilm Xpro3 - Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F1.4 II
So Why the Xpro3? Well to give the beginning of an explanation i need to bring an other camera. And not any one! My all time favourite one , the one that i believe was the source of inspiration for the Fujifilm engineers, the super niche Leica M10-D. This Leica is to me the pinacle of all cameras i could ever dream of, pure photography experience, slimmed down to the max, no screen, no faffing around, no bloated menus, 3 dials, 1 (quirky) thumb rest and that’s it ! The Xpro-3 is the Fuji version of that Leica M10-D and the reason why I chose it to replace the X100V.
In a nutshell, here what sold me in :
Rangefinder Style
Compact form
All Metal (Titanium even…)
Physical shutter
Physical dials
Hidden screen
M-Mount compatible (via adaptor)
EVF+OVF
Waist level friendly
Film Simulations (yeah I admit i still look at the output of the images)
and of course…its gorgeous aesthetic !
But there is more than this list of specs! There is the tactile experience, the enjoyment of looking, holding, grabbing, framing, triggering, smelling!
Associated with a Manual lens with a buttery super smooth manual lens with focusing tab, a gratifying click aperture ring, a neat DOF scale, all in a super compact yet hefty package, the Voigtlander is the right tool for what this camera is meant to be : a camera that make you slow down and enjoy the experience!
…and worry not about what comes next : the image you are making! The Xpro3 is that kind of camera. A unique camera for photographers who enjoy more the act of making a photographe rather than the outcome itself.
