Recent launches and future of the X-Pro series

Threaded wrote:

notchy wrote:

Jeff Biscuits wrote:

...

The only thing that concerns me about the X-Pro’s direction of travel is the viewfinder. The fact that they used the X100V finder at the expense of the earlier OVF functionality means they compromised on the X-Pro’s key feature, which was an odd decision given that they redesigned the screen to send everyone to that viewfinder.

I agree. The flip screen gets most of the attention, but abandoning the dual-magnification OVF seemed to chucking in the towel with regards to the X-Pro's main USP. The view through the OVF at 35mm on the X-Pro3 is not something you'd write home about. With 50mm and longer, the 3's OVF just seems pointless. It's become a bit of curate's egg.

Whether for reasons of cost, availability or even engineering challenges, Fujifilm may have had little choice with the OVF, we don't know. But regardless, the result is a camera that has compromised its stand out feature and (seemingly) replaced it with the dubious aesthetic and practical value of titanium top and bottom plates.

I don’t suppose we’ll ever know how much the viewfinder changes were driven by genuine design choices for the X-Pro, or by the economic advantages of sharing with the X100V. It’s possible it was both. They clearly do have challenges in pleasing customers who on the one hand like the idea of the OVF, but also want and expect a better EVF. As a big OVF user I’m always surprised by how many X-Pro users actually favour the latter almost exclusively.

I suspect it wasn’t possible to retain the dual magnification *and* improve the eye point, so something had to give. In the XP3’s defence though, its optical finder is bigger and brighter to look through, and personally I think the 35mm works well with it (partly because the overall image is bigger than on the XP2) - its only at the more extreme ends of what you’d typically mount on one of these cameras that things suffer.

Interesting point re the eyepoint, and you're of course right about the OVF view itself being larger, which to some extent offsets the fact that the 35mm brightlines now occupy a reduced portion of the viewfinder frame. It still doesn't really work for me though. I'm aware of the often touted "you can see when someone is about to walk in to the frame" advantage of brightline OVFs, but for me, having that much space around the 35mm frame too often presents a confusing, distracting view in dynamic situations. It overly compromises the scene isolating benefits of a viewfinder and I find myself struggling to concentrate on the view within the brightlines. Oh well, I guess this qualifies as a "First World Problem"