Oh boy!
Now that I got you here with my clickbait title (my apologies), hopefully, I can entertain you by spending a little time completely dismantling the Fujifilm X-Pro 3, you know, based on all the talking points most Youtubers and Bloggers are using to dismantle all the cameras they don’t like and upselling you on the cameras they do like.
So this is total satire.
As you guys know, I love my X-Pro2, I’ll probably buy an X-Pro3, but one of my hobbies is to always point out and share how dumb and bias pretty much all online reviews are, except for mine of course! 🙂
So here is my review of the Fujifilm X-Pro 3 based on all the ridiculous talking points mentioned in most online reviews.
So first off, I want to start by saying this camera is total garbage. I can’t believe Fujifilm calls it a Pro camera and it doesn’t even have Pro features!
5 Reasons why the Fujifilm X-Pro 3 Sucks
It doesn’t just suck, it’s not a professional camera and Fujifilm is calling it a professional camera. It has almost no professional features.
1. No Vertical Grip
As a professional high school headshot yearbook photo/weekend wedding photographer I need my vertical grip! I’m a professional! Professionals use vertical grips I need a vertical grip. How is anyone suppose to shoot portrait mode without a vertical grip? What were they thinking? Fujifilm, what were you thinking?!?! And why is the EVF all the way over on the side, this makes shooting portraits without a vertical grip even more awkward!
I mean, what an egotistical too big to fail company. Everything they do should have a vertical grip. Even my GoPro kind of has a vertical grip sort of that I use for my professional GoPro needs.
*I’m not a headshot yearbook photographer or wedding photographer.
2. No Fast FF F1.4 Equiv Lenses!
I am a professional photographer and I need my f1.4 lenses that Sony makes. Sony makes them, I like Sony. Nikon doesn’t have f1.4 mirrorless lenses, and Fujifilm has no f1.4 ff equiv lenses. Their fastest lens is an f1.2 which is a full-frame equivalent to f1.8. Sure their GFX has an F2 lens that’s equivalent to f1.6 but I need faster lenses because I’m a professional. The Medium Format GFX is not a professional system either, because their fastest lens is only a FF equivalent to f1.6 and the X-“Pro” 3 is not a professional camera because pros need f1.4 lenses. I’m switching to Sony! Sony and Canon are the only ones that get it.
Maybe Fujifilm lenses are just behind, maybe they don’t know how to make fast lenses. Every 4 years Fujifilm releases a 4-year-old lens.
3. No IBIS
I need IBIS as a professional. If a camera doesn’t have IBIS count me out! It doesn’t matter that I shoot everything at a minimum of 1/200 shutter speed so I will never see the effects of IBIS and I’ll probably forget to turn it off when mounting the camera to my tripod for landscape shots, ruining the shots. And I know that IBIS typically looks horrible as a stabilization solution for professional video and no pro would ever use IBIS in their camera for video since it makes handheld and panning shots skip around all weird and which is why no Hollywood cinema camera has IBIS. *breath BUT I NEED IBIS!
4. Record Limits on 4K!
I am a professional videographer that uploads my professional 4k films where I review Apple earbuds on Youtube that I edit together on my 1080p monitor that you probably watch on your 1080p monitor or on your cell phone.
But still, I need my X-Pro3 for my professional 4k cinematography needs and I need professional record times in 4k! Not this 10-minute record limit!
Don’t tell me Hollywood movies that are shot with the actual analog film only have 11 minutes of record time per canister, I know this, that’s what I want, at least 11 minutes because I’m a filmmaker! This camera only has 10 minutes, I wanted this camera for Eterna, a film simulation so I want film record times at least 11 minutes so I can better filmmake. I went to film school! I’m a filmmaker!
5. No CFExpress Card Slots!
CFexpress is here, why did Fujifilm using this old outdated UHS-II tech? I want media that is not going to be obsolete in a few years.
UHS-II is slower, it doesn’t offer thermal throttling and it has slower random read and write speeds. I need professional PCIe 3.0 dual-lane CFexpress cards for my professional workflow, and two of them ideally with a close to bottomless buffer. And I need dual because I always shoot back up because that’s what pros do. Redundancy is king!
Wishlist Bonus Features That Are Missing!
Outdated Sensor: What’s the deal with Fujifilm using this over 1-year-old sensor? The sensor from my estimations is about 13-14 months old? Why is Fujifilm using these old outdated sensors in these new cameras? If I wanted that old sensor I would buy an X-T3.
No GPS Logging: What I really need is GPS. Why does this X-Pro3 not have GPS? This is Fujifilm’s flagship rangefinder made in Japan professional camera. The Canon 1DxIII has GPS. Fujifilm What were you thinking!
Poor Battery Life: I know the battery life got better, but it’s not up to the Sony A9 standard. I don’t care if it makes the camera heavier, I don’t care about comfort, I need long battery life for my professional needs. Sure you can just carry around extra batteries easily and it’s not a big deal like back in 2015 when the A7II was released. But that was back then, the A7III is here now and we need more battery life, this is the standard now!
What were they thinking!
No vertical grip, no IBIS, no CFexpress, 4k Record limits! Man the X-Pro 3 is not a professional camera. Fujifilm is going to go out of business. Is Fujifilm dying? Fujifilm, I’m warning you, you need to start listening to your users! Don’t think that you’re too big to fail!
Enjoy, I think I’ll get the dura black. 🙂
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The screen = the end of life as we know it.
I’ve stopped reading most sites/forums due to exactly this.
It’s the ‘I-want’ generation. They want every camera to have everything, specced to the max.
Every model the same almost, weird. If it doesn’t then it’s garbage.
I’ve read multiple posts where the word sharp is mentioned hundreds of times. People are obsessed with the thought that every camera and lens should be eye-bleedingly sharp for their photos to look good.
Also, the pinky. Always the pinky doesn’t fit on the grip. Seriously, just chop it off then. It gets tiring…
Always a good read Alik 😀
Thanks Domi.
I haven’t bought a new body in a few years, so I haven’t researched them til recently. I first read that whole pinky argument, and I’m like “wow, I like not having my pinky on the grip.” If it is under the grip, it is almost impossible to have the camera slip out of your hand. Since I bought an X-T30 and use a Promaster L bracket w/grip, it’s a good thing I feel this way — I have pretty large hands.
It’s usually reviewers attacking Sony for that, but it’s funny, I’ve been shooting Sony since the A7r, and that never once crossed my mind until people started talking about it. I just though, it’s a smaller camera, obviously a smaller camera isn’t going match the physics of a larger camera.
Hey Alik! Been a fan of your site for some time now. I notice you got a lot of great pics on here scattered throughout all your blog posts. You should make a gallery tab that consolidates all those photos so we can all see them without having to click through all the posts. There’s a lot of pics on here you don’t post on instagram and it’s nice to see the full size images on desktop.
I could probably do something like post all the full size images to my SmugMug or to flickr or something. I’ll try to figure out a good way of doing that.
Flickr or Smugmug would be awesome!
Flickr could always use another Pro account.
1. Thanks Alik for putting a good photography website for us. Your insights are always interesting and useful.
2. I am not sure if all the YouTubers and Vloggers out there are fool or not. I suppose some are pretty good and some are really bad. So when I read “Canon EOS R | Just About Everyone Got It Wrong” as well as some of your articles, I am also not sure if everyone in camera review circle is wrong, except you.
3. In terms of X-Pro3, what I don’t understand is the screen, just like some YouTubers and Vloggers comments. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think X-Pro3 cannot to be a professional camera. In fact almost all the cameras today are so capable that can fit many professional use. But my point is, a hidden flip screen would not make a camera more professional or more user-friendly and it is nothing to do with the quality of the photos. Some people (I am trying to avoid the word “everyone”) feel that hidden screen is more professional as it is different from most digital cameras today and more similar to film cameras. It is very similar to some Leica M users ( (I am trying to avoid the word “every”) proud of themselves because the lenses are manual focus and rangefinder is more difficult to use than auto focus most of the time. A man with a different and difficult tools (especially expensive tools) with the general mass easily feel good for himself just because they are different. Of course it is a logical error. Alik must saw many photos taken by M cameras are very suck and some are very good just like all other brands. Manual focusing never ensure professionalism. Manual gearbox doesn’t mean the car is professional. On the contrary, many professional race drivers today prefer automatic.
X-Pro3 screen to me is a gimmick. I drove a Bentley last year with a flip monitor. Is the monitor design different from the other cars? Yes. Is it more professional and makes me faster or let me more concentrate on the road? No. If I don’t like the screen, I better don’t look at it or with a switch to turn it off. If I need to read the map or watch the rear view camera when reversing, I need to wait for the motor to flip the screen first which is meaningless at least to me. When talking about X-Pro3, I am afraid the flip screen even makes the camera less professional in some sense. A flip screen must bring some inconvenience or take a little bit more time in reality when we want to shoot at high angles. Also, I have been working in media and publishing sector for over 20 years and seldom see a professional photographer (I am trying to avoid the word “never”) who care about jpeg (or film simulation sort of thing) too much and dare to send their photos to clients by in-camera jpeg without touching the RAW files. Film simulation is not bad, but if it is so important that Fujifilm needs to tailor made a special monitor to show picture of the film roll packing is questionable.
4. Thanks for your reading and thank you for your wonderful website again!
The EOS R I had like the first week or so that it came out and I couldn’t find anyone really saying anything positive about it, without totally trashing it, except the Canon ambassadors. It’s different today. Back then there was a trend of fear mongering regarding the single card slot and everyone thought IBIS was the most amazing thing ever. That hyperbole has died down and a lot of the good and realistic photographers and bloggers have corrected the negative hype and you can actually see people saying good things about the camera now because it’s really, really good at some things and the RF lenses are really really good. And now today, you basically look like a moron if you say the RF system is bad.
That wasn’t situation when it came out and when I wrote that article over a year ago.
I think everyone forgets that when comparing cameras, and that a camera that excels at a few things might be better than a camera that is just decent (a7III) at all things, for a lot of people. Almost everyone with influence tried to push people into an A7III while ignoring the fact that the EOS R actually was really good at a lot of things, and the camera had a ton of potential to be unlocked via firmware. There was misinformation that spread that the 1080p footage was upscaled 720p footage produced by a bogus camera reviewer and it took months for this false information to go away because the reviewer didn’t understand how to use the video features of the camera he rented before making his review. Every big blog news site published this as news. This same Youtuber also compared cameras IBIS features while on gimbals. So you can see what I have to deal with when trying to fix just straight up bogus and bad information from people that have a lot of influence (more than me), but have no idea what they are doing.
And I do this everyday all day, so I get bombarded with this stuff and and I get a little annoyed and frustrated and end up taking jabs at things which I shouldn’t. This is why I moved over to doing more lens reviews these last few years and will probably just do that going forward. Or just do a straight cut and dry approach to camera reviews, or figure out a friendlier way of dealing with wrong information.
But when I see cameras being attacked I try to hit extra hard back and be as direct as possible in these articles because I get a lot of comments and emails from people blasting me with information that is just wrong. I will say things like the EOS R has 4x the video bitrate of the A7III, then people call me a liar saying I’m misinforming people and then say wrong information the A7III is just as good because it has an XAVC S movie container which means absolutely nothing for image quality. But they heard that some someone, probably a Youtuber. Maybe they thought XAVC S was H.265.
So all this stuff builds up with me then I let off the steam in my articles. Which I know I shouldn’t do, but who knows, maybe people like it.
So this article on the X-Pro 3 was meant to be a total joke by the way. I’m a massive fan of the X-Pro3. I applied all the negative reviews talking points a lot of people are using right now on the Nikon D780 and applied that to a camera clearly designed for a particular audience to create irony and point out that not every camera is designed for everyone and the talking points people are using to attack a certain camera they don’t like, are just dumb. And it makes it really obvious here.
But here is what I think about the X-Pro3.
The screen. I feel like it’s a gimmick too, I agree with you and I am not a fan of this screen and I am disappointed that they did the screen this way. But a lot of people want this and it’s important. I think that going forward it’s going to be more and more difficult to sell cameras since it’s getting harder to show meaningful updates. From 2010-2020 we saw a massive improvement in ISO and dynamic range, video features, memory cards, autofocus and burst frame rates, these things made a different and it was noticeable.
Now that all the cameras have 12.5 stops of dynamic range, can produce usable images at ISO 12,800, and can shoot 10fps, and 4k 30fps and 1080 at 120fps, it’s going to be really hard to convince photographers to upgrade.
So, it’s very smart for Fujifilm to start experimenting with camera bodies and designs, I think anyway.
A lot of people don’t like this flip screen, but maybe convince themselves they do and buy the X-Pro3 anyway. This is actually brilliant, because it’s something new and exciting, then for the X-Pro 4, Fujifilm can do something else unique with the screen (maybe not the flip screen) and it will allow users to actually buy cameras with different features rather than just chasing specs. So maybe people that bought the X-Pro3 will say, “you know I didn’t really like the screen, I think I’ll try the X-Pro 4 with this even newer styles of screen.” That is going to be the future and I have trust that Fujifilm knows what they are doing. I imagine they’ll eventually do a monochrome camera as well.
Anyways, thanks for the comment, I always appreciate these nice opinions and even constructive criticism. Again this article was totally Irony. Nothing makes a camera professional or not professional, it’s all on how you use it.
I sort of like attacking the bad trends that the big camera reviewers and bloggers get caught up in. Of course, I have my bias about gear and I make mistakes too. No reviewer is perfect and it’s very hard to do it right. So many cameras have come out lately it’s hard for anyone to really understand any single camera so I understand why there are so many mistakes. It’s a race.
1. Thanks for your prompt and meaningful reply.
2. “That wasn’t situation when it came out and when I wrote that article over a year ago.”>>>>Thanks for your explanation. Why I raised the question to you as I worries there might be some reviewers could understand the Canon EOS R and your heading was unfair to them. If you could make sure every reviewer misunderstand something at the moment you wrote the article, then I think it is fine, otherwise it would be unfair to someone. No matter what, I really appreciate someone to stand again the wrong trend and fight back hard as long as they had done enough research before saying something.
3. One extra thought about the review circle is: I am sure many reviewers have invited by camera manufacturers to press conferences or at least they have the contacts of their PR or even product engineers. When they doubt something about the products like the 1080p/720p footage as you mentioned, is the most responsible way is to ask the experts and allow them to clarify before making judgement? Doing product review is the same principle as a professional journalist writing news article in newspaper. The most crucial rule is always “don’t make any mistake of the information” and “let the people have the right to say”. Readers could forgive the article is boring or the layout is ugly, but any single mistake of the information is almost forgivable.
4. “That is going to be the future and I have trust that Fujifilm knows what they are doing.”>>>Ha ha, I am sorry to say I never fully trust any company easily. History tells us anyone or any company or even a government could be wrong and get lost sometimes. Fujifilm is a very unique positioning and respectful camera company in my eye. But I am sure you agree it doesn’t mean they are absolute perfect. The screen of the X-Pro3 for me is an example of “thinking too much” especially X-T3 already have a more versatile screen. If they try to keep it simple then a fix screen makes more sense. A complicated screen without too much extra practical function but to remind users which film simulation is applying is more or less a marketing gimmick. The slogan “take pictures without distractions” doesn’t convince me as the screen is still there. Putting my mobile phone in my zipped jacket pocket doesn’t mean “my holiday life without distractions”. It even cause more distractions when I need to use the phone. If I really appreciate quiet life, I better go out without a phone. Maybe they are trying to explore different body design as you say, or might be they try to emphasis their good old day of film making and also have a retro look to draw attention to users who get bored by the modern camera style today. You must understand when we have too much retro, we want modern. When we have too much modern, we want retro. But a flagship camera from Fujifilm should avoid overstate. Tesla or a phone can be playful, but a race car or Fujifilm X-Pro series is better to be professional and practical-centric. Anyway, let us look what next generation would be. For my own personal taste, making the ISO dial as a separate one is good move.
1. Thanks for your prompt and meaningful reply.
2. “That wasn’t situation when it came out and when I wrote that article over a year ago.”>>>>Thanks for your explanation. Why I raised the question to you as I worries there might be some reviewers could understand the Canon EOS R and your heading was unfair to them. If you could make sure every reviewer misunderstand something at the moment you wrote the article, then I think it is fine, otherwise it would be unfair to someone. No matter what, I really appreciate someone to stand again the wrong trend and fight back hard as long as they had done enough research before saying something.
3. One extra thought about the review circle is: I am sure many reviewers have invited by camera manufacturers to press conferences or at least they have the contacts of their PR or even product engineers. When they doubt something about the products like the 1080p/720p footage as you mentioned, is the most responsible way is to ask the experts and allow them to clarify before making judgement? I am not saying all of them didn’t do it. What I want to say is as I am working in media, my observation is some journalists are lazy to verify or ask. There are many details that do not mention in press release and asking is a must. Doing product review is the same principle as a professional journalist writing news article in newspaper. The most crucial rule is always “don’t make any mistake of the information” and “let the people have the right to say”. Readers could forgive the article is boring or the layout is ugly, but any single mistake of the information is almost forgivable.
4. “That is going to be the future and I have trust that Fujifilm knows what they are doing.”>>>Ha ha, I am sorry to say I never fully trust any company easily. History tells us anyone or any company or even a government could be wrong and get lost sometimes. Fujifilm is a very unique positioning and respectful camera company in my eye. But I am sure you agree it doesn’t mean they are absolute perfect. The screen of the X-Pro3 for me is an example of “thinking too much” especially X-T3 already have a more versatile screen. If they try to keep it simple then a fix screen makes more sense. A complicated screen without too much extra practical function but to remind users which film simulation is applying is more or less a marketing gimmick. The slogan “take pictures without distractions” doesn’t convince me as the screen is still there. Putting my mobile phone in my password suitcase doesn’t mean “my holiday life without distractions”. It even cause more distractions when I need to use the phone. If I really appreciate quiet life, I better go out without a phone. Maybe they are trying to explore different body design as you say, or might be they try to emphasis their good old day of film making and also have a retro look to draw attention to users who get bored by the modern camera style today. You must understand when we have too much retro, we want modern. When we have too much modern, we want retro. But a flagship camera from Fujifilm should avoid overstate. Tesla or a phone can be playful, but a race car or Fujifilm X-Pro series is better to be professional and practical-centric. Anyway, let us look what next generation would be. For my own personal taste, making the ISO dial as a separate one is good move to improve practicality. A monochrome…..if it is more or less the same function and spec as the color version except the software is tuned to black and white RAW and film simulations, then it also sounds like a gimmick to me. Yes, I think Leica Monochrome is some kind of gimmick too even though the sensor is different. It is kinda like a B&O makes a black and white TV and Naim produces a mono CD player. Leica is one of the top quality lenses and camera maker, at the same time it is one of the most marketing/gimmick driven camera brand. If Fujifilm is trying to copy the marketing/gimmick side of Leica, I am afraid it is not what I want to see. Alik is living in Japan, right? You know Japan is always good at mimic and modify, cars in post wars era, music, fashion and language are some of the examples. But many Japanese photographers like 森山大道, 荒木經椎, 橫浪修and濱田英明in my point of view are very different from western ones. I really hope the camera makers can keep their own style too.
I appreciate your thoughts on that EOS R review. I’m probably going to try to keep things a little more clean going forward and just focus on more educational stuff, but at the same time, I try to actively battle the misinformation, I think that’s why some people like this site but I have to find the right balance and do it more gracefully.
Regarding the X-Pro 3 screen, it is strange about Fujifilm and the screen, but I still think there was calculated thought about it. The camera seems to be selling well.
I do honestly think that these camera companies are starting to diversify body styles intentionally. It’s happening all over the place. I think these camera companies are scared to death to just put everything in one camera. Even the A7rIV still left out the high end screen and they still lack full touch screen integration with consumer video bitrate, so they have easy things to upgrade into once their users get savvy to those features. Or look at the D780, they omitted a vertical grip, a focus joystick and IBIS and so many people are so mad. So for D750 shooters that wanted that, they have to decide if they go D850, or Z6, or both if they want those features. Which means, if they go Z6, they’ll likely buy new lenses, if they go D850, they have to buy a more expensive body and I bet a D860 is right around the corner.
I’ve worked in advertising for almost 15 years and I’ve seen companies do manipulative little things to maximize profits from their users, then act like it was in good faith or what the customers wanted. Most of the time the smaller companies are just trying to make the best thing possible, but the big companies that have money, A/B test everything with focus groups and everything is super calculated. But they make mistakes because they start developing products 2 years ahead of release so they can only try to guess and time the trends.
So it wouldn’t surprise me if these multi billion dollar camera corporations are doing the same thing. Like that leak on Fujirumors that there would be no X-H2, timed at the end of the year likely to push people into an X-Pro 3 or X-T3 . . . right before coming out with a new X-Tx or X-T4 this Feb with IBIS, was in my opinion 100% planned, and calculated. My friend was waiting for an X-H2, he saw that news so he bought an X-Pro3. He shoots all EVF so the screen doesn’t bother him. If the X-H2 comes out next year, he’ll probably get that too. Where if an X-H2 just came out in feb, and it was leaked, he would have just bought that instead.
There is a thing to Monochrome cameras that makes them not a gimmick. Instead of using an RGB color filter array over the sensor, they let each pixel just capture the full spectrum, so basically you get insane resolution and details with no RGB pixel interpolating. It’s significantly better than RGB sensor converted to black and white with software. Check this out: https://www.red.com/red-101/color-monochrome-camera-sensors So they can either go with insane resolution, Leica did 40MP, or go with 24MP but much better low light and dynamic range.
For Japanese photographers I’ve been loving the work of Tatsuo Suzuki / 鈴木 達朗, Daidō Moriyama is awesome too though. 🙂 Thanks for sharing. Let me know any more cool Japanese guys you know of.
I am not an expert on Japanese photography. Some works of Daidō Moriyama are really powerful by applying ultra high contrast and high ISO grains which show the dark side of humanity. Tatsuo Suzuki is unknown to me and after studying his Instagram, I am afraid I am unable to understand his street style at this moment. Thanks for your recommendation anyway.
From my personal very rough observation about portrait photography trends, it is interesting that Japan is somewhat different from the US. Young generation of Japan portrait photographers usually enjoy over-expose and lower the contrast to create “light and airy” feeling. Some of the pics are more snap shoot like. This trend is even spread to some of the Asia countries. While the mainstream style of US photographers are quite traditional in my eyes, models are asked to pose “artificially” and lean towards walls or fences to create depth.
There are also trends for how they color correct their movies and TV shows and commercials that are also super interesting. Some of the same things you’re talking about also apply. I think it’s because there since there is such a similarity of skin tones and hair color, it’s easier for certain looks to catch on. In the US, there is such a mix of looks so there is no one look that works for everyone. For example if you’re doing lighting for a movie, you have to change things up significantly if you have someone with really light skin standing next to someone with really dark skin.
Haha, the 4K bit you did is amazing 🙂
You and I mike, we are pretty hardcore filmmakers! Captain Milkshake the prequel is coming soon!
For sure, the time has come to bring this Milkshake to the yard!
It oughta be mandated!
You are so PRO! Ahahaha my God…never read before such pointless critics from a guy who writes like a total douchebag. If you are “Pro” you use pro cinema camera such as RED, ALEXA, CANON or SONY high level line of cinema cameras. If you don’t have the money for that gear simply means that you are not gaining like a “Pro”. Youtubers that started from zero such as Potato Jet made the money. You shoot all the time f1.4? well, probably is time to switch on the lights, be smart about composition and start using this depth of field cause we have already seen this bokeh shoots, they are nothing new, neither creative. In any case half of your requirement are satisfied from actual Fuji’s workhorse, the XT3. Which is also cheaper. What you are criticysing is a nitche, street photography oriented camera. But you are a Pro and you know all of this, right? So ask yourself why you have written such a mean review…
This article was a joke. I said so at the beginning. 🙂 But, I appreciate your enthusiasm. The way you feel is exactly how I feel when I see other people saying similar things which is why I wrote this.
I swear I didn’t see that part yesterday cause I did skip the intro to go straight to the main points and after having read them I started to write. 😅😅 Well so I guess now I am the moron 👌👏. Must say your article is very well written. For sure it worked 😂👍
lol, nah it’s fine. A few people read it wrong. But yeah, I learned I shouldn’t write stuff like this, since it serves no meaningful purpose and people just get confused. 🙂
I’ve never even held an X-Pro, but I really think they deserve better than the “reviews” you are ridiculing. The X-Pro3 in particular is very tempting, but by now I own quite a lot of new and vintage manual lenses. It seems you are using manual lenses on Fuji cameras quite a lot — do they play well with the X-Pro, in particular with the OVF, or do you use the EVF/LCD instead? In the latter case, it seems that would be an actual counter-argument against the X-Pro3, wouldn’t it? By the way, nice that you are on YouTube now, too. Any chance for a video on your manual focusing techniques…? 🙂
When I use the manual focus lenses I switch to the EVF in the X-Pro2. You can tell the camera the focal length to give you the proper frame lines, but those frame lines need to move when the subject is close or far, and they become very inaccurate at different distances. So you kind of have to use the EVF. Leica cameras get around this by having little mechanical tabs in the lens that tell the camera where the lens is in its focus position.
I’ll add some manual focus tricks to my list of videos to make. I’m working in LA right now though so I’ll be a little slow getting things out for a few months. I think I’ll go back home at the end of April. But it depends on what happens with the Corona virus in Japan or here in California.
Thanks for the answer (really grateful for your website in general); looking forward to new videos. Good luck during the Corona crisis. There’s quite some action going on here in Germany right now. I guess it would have been wise to cancel Carnival this year…