For the first time ever, I’m confused about the Fujifilm camera lineup. They have three flagship cameras. The Fujifilm XH2s has speed and a DSLR-style camera body. The Fujifilm XH2 has resolution and a DSLR-style camera body. And the third flagship is the Fujifilm X Pro 3: the camera that Fujifilm more or less forgets about. Next year, the camera will turn four years old, and we’re due for an update. But what will the Fujifilm X Pro 4 get from the XH2? And will Fujifilm give us what we want?
I’m an X Pro 3 and an X Pro 1 owner. I still use both regularly. And only recently did I understand that everyone who complains about the screen on the X Pro 3 never shot film. For street photography, the X Pro 3’s screen is one of the best things you could possibly get on a camera. And for professional work, photographers have been looking down into screens with a prism for years. The X Pro 3 gives you that top-down shooting experience so many of us want. It can surely make things difficult at times, but it also forces you to think in different ways to get better photos.
So yes, the screen will be mentioned here, but let’s go into some other things too.
The 40MP Sensor
The Fujifilm X Pro 4 could get the 40MP sensor from the XH2. The reason is because the XH2s is more designed for content creators. But the XH2 is for proper photography. And honestly, I’d be alright with that as long as the autofocus doesn’t suffer, but we’ll get to that later.
The 40MP sensor will give the X Pro 4 better colors and a whole lot of cropping abilities. If there is anything that street photographers do, they crop. Sometimes they don’t like to admit it, but they’re surely cropping their images.
AI Autofocusing
Fujifilm never intended the X Pro series of cameras to be the workhorse, but it really should be. Photographers who like rangefinder-style cameras should have all the features of other cameras too. With that said, I believe the AI autofocusing should come to the X Pro 4 for great reasons. First off, lots of folks would want to use things like animal detection, bird detection, and vehicle detection. Capturing candid moments with the X Pro 4 would be volumes easier with the AI autofocusing algorithms. The scene detection will help a photographer do their job while also being discrete. And let’s be honest, the X Pro series of cameras are more low profile than the XH series of cameras.
Some photographers really do like just being flies on the wall.
Better Autofocus Algorithms
The Fujifilm XT4 got better autofocus than the X Pro 3 did. And that still stings for a lot of us X Pro 3 owners. Why does a newer camera outdo a flagship? Of course, that was the case with the XH1 for years. But the X Pro 3 shouldn’t skimp on the autofocus overall. I should be able to walk down Broadway, find a subject, lock onto them using face detection, and keep them in focus as we pass one another.
Come on Fujifilm; full-frame cameras can do this with less depth of field.
Keep the Rest the Same, ESPECIALLY THE SCREEN!
The only other thing I’d change about the X Pro 3 is the exposure compensation dial. I’d give it a locking button in the center. Otherwise, the rest of the camera is perfectly fine. I don’t think it needs image stabilization, though I can make an argument that it would help. I love the screen, as I’ve stated before. However, it needs new film simulations like Reala, Natura, Superia, some Tungsten film (simply changing the white balance isn’t the same), and a few other things.
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