market with a classically styled model to rival higher-end models. Mat Gallagher takes a first look at the Fujifilm X-Pro1 camera.
FUJI'S X100 has been far more popular than the company ever expected, with the entire sales forecast well exceeded less than nine months into its life. The X10 that followed just a few months ago provided a cheaper and more consumer-friendly alternative, scoring very highly in our testing and is itself likely to enjoy big sales. As we wrote in our ideal camera feature in the Christmas issue, however, what we want is a refined X100 with removable lenses. It seems the designers at Fujifilm were on the same wavelength and just nine days into the New Year the X-Pro 1 was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA, and we were there to see it.
As its name suggests, the X-Pro 1 sits in the new X-range as the flagship for the X10, X-S1 and X100 models and has been in development for at least two years according to Fuji. Rumours mounted when Fuji announced its intention to enter the compact system market, in late 2011, that they may opt to use the smaller format sensor of the X10 for their interchangeable lens camera. Thankfully, this is not the case. The new model features an APS-C-sized sensor that has a 1.5x magnification factor on 35mm. This sensor is a brand-new 16-million-pixel CMOS device that, instead of the traditional Bayer pattern of photo pixels, uses a new colour filter known as X-trans CMOS. The arrangement is designed to act more like film with a random arrangement of colours, though each line will contain red, green, and blue photo sites. This arrangement is designed to eradicate the moiré pattern and eliminates the need for a low-pass filter, though it is not currently clear whether an infrared filter is still in place. The benefit of this new arrangement and lack of low pass filter, Fujifilm claims, is that it allows the sensor to resolve more detail than the Canon EOS-5D Mark II and the Nikon D7000, which is an impressively bold claim. Both the processor and the AF system are brand new for this camera so hopefully we will see some improvement in operation speed compared with the X10 and X100 models. However, the version I tried was still a very early sample and so could not be used to judge these facets.
Though this camera focuses on simple manual exposure modes, it still contains the dynamic range controls of the X100 and Fujifilm's branded colour modes for specific film reproduction. It also features a multi-exposure mode that allows you to superimpose the first image and your composition using the live view screen.
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