PAST AND PRESENT
One of the cameras on test in this issue is Fujifilm’s X-Pro3 and it certainly qualifies as one of the most unusual models on the market at the moment. There certainly isn’t a more interesting balance of traditional camera design elements with contemporary digital imaging technologies.
It all starts with the hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder – which made its debut in 2010 with the original X100 – and is at the heart of Fujifilm’s philosophy of recreating an analog experience in a digital-era camera. The dial-based control layout is part of this too, but Fujifilm has added extra little classical touches such as how the ISO is set… by lifting the rim of the shutter speed dial and turning, just like it was done on my
1976 Fujica ST601 35mm SLR (my first ‘serious’ camera, by the way). It also the philosophy behind the X-Pro3’s most controversial feature – the monitor screen that’s designed not to be seen, at least not when actually shooting. Fujifilm wants you to get back to relying on the viewfinder for all the important stuff, so the X-Pro3’s rear screen is hinged at the base and folds out and down when you need to use it. When it’s folded away, what’s visible is a small “sub monitor” display which essentially serves as the digital equivalent of the old film memo holder. You can use this display to show basic capture data – just like the top read-out panels on higher-end DSLRs – but much more fun is the ‘Classic’ setting which replicates the torn-off end of a film carton. Of course, Fujifilm has very much tied up its in-camera picture processing with its film-era expertise in colour reproduction, so the profiles are even labelled ‘Film Simulation’ and mimic the looks of transparency and colour negative stocks. Consequently, the memo holder displays make sense here, even if it is a bit curious seeing them with weird ISO values… no doubt many Fujichrome Velvia users would have loved an ISO 51,200 version when they were struggling with ISO 50!
A number of reviewers have asked why Fujifilm didn’t just give the X-Pro3 a screen which could be folded inwards normally, but this is really missing the point. The whole idea is that the physical separation forced by the X-Pro3’s arrangement is more akin to using a film camera, but without going down the Leica M10-D route and eliminating the monitor screen altogether. You can still have all the modern-day conveniences – the X-Pro3’s screen even has touch controls – but otherwise the objective is to deliver what Fujifilm terms “pure photography… without distractions”. Leica’s digital Ms are arguably purer photographically (talking in film camera terms), but have fewer digital-era conveniences and, of course, require a much bigger investment.
Fujifilm has made the X-Pro3 experience much more than a button-pushing exercise, promoting greater involvement with the camera and hence with the picture-making process, and even the subject. It is a bold attempt to give a digital camera a film-like soul. But it still may have too many digital safety nets for some purists and, in reality, is a long way off being anything like a film camera to use. So why not go the whole way and start shooting film? Even as a dyed-in-thewool film camera enthusiast, I’d still advocate some caution, especially if you’ve never shot film before. It is, for starters, so fundamentally different to digital capture – requiring a very different mindset – that, for many, it’s more likely to frustrate than delight. You move from a world built on certainty to one based on uncertainty, even if the failure rate is typically low, at least with 35mm equipment. And, of course, it doesn’t finish with the camera unless you take the even greater leap into doing your own processing.
That said, all this can be positives for some – as a quick browse of the growing number of websites devoted to the many and various aspects of film photography attest – so don’t let me put you off. But it is very much ‘slow photography’ in the manner of slow television or even slow food. I’m suggesting you’ll need to be temperamentally suited if you’re going to get anything out of it, which basically means being prepared to put a lot more in, and using a lot more of your skills than the camera’s. There’s certainly reward for effort, but I’m realistic enough to know that film isn’t for everybody even if the camera experience is definitely more involving. And this is why the X-Pro3 works so well as a contemporary concept, but there are other ways of becoming more involved with your digital camera, such as switching everything to manual to discover a whole new world of technical and creative control. Trial and error doesn’t cost a cent either.