Today my family and I went for a day out. When we normally do this, I pick up the X100VI and try not to ruin the day out for the others by turning the day into one long photo shoot. But today I reached for an old favourite camera that I haven’t used much over the last few years – my venerable old X-Pro 2. It has a bit of paint rubbed off it in places around its edges, and it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the X-T4, X-T5 and X100VI, which are my go-to cameras, but there is something about the X-Pro2 when I pick it up that makes me smile.
I bought the camera new about 8 or 9 months after it came out, and it was my most-used camera for about three years until I got the awesome X-T3. I still used it on and off over the years, but over the last couple or so, it has only been out and about a couple of times.
It has some great characteristics. The X-Pro2’s magnesium body feels like it could survive a hundred-foot drop; it has the brilliant hybrid viewfinder, and ergonomically, it feels like a well-worn piece of clothing – comfortable and a little shabby. The 24 megapixel files it produces are lovely; they have a certain look about them, it has dual card slots, and it is very weather resistant – it has been soaked many times in and around the UK.
True, the autofocus doesn’t match the speed or accuracy of today’s cameras for wildlife or sport, there is no IBIS, and the battery life is pretty poor, but going out with the camera today with the Fujifilm XF35mm F/2.0 lens, Fuji’s “nifty-fifty”, which is a favourite of mine, was an absolute joy. I had so much fun – and that shutter sound -ker-klunk – is fabulous.
I bought the camera for about £1200 nearly ten years ago, and good condition examples are still fetching nearly £1000 on the second-hand market. Mine is a little scuffed, so that it wouldn’t fetch that much, but it’s academic anyway; there is no way I would ever part with it.
Just spending the day shooting anything brought back memories of why I loved (love) this camera so much. So, do your old gear a favour: drag it out, charge the battery, dust it down, and enjoy the simple pleasure of taking photographs with an old, trusted friend.
A Sensored-View 