Continuing the blog serialisation of my popular X-Pro1 lust/hate/love story:
Part Nine: Accessories – just pimping the ride or must haves…?
Last week we took a look (click here) at accessories that are supplied directly from Fujifilm
There are of course accessories available that are NOT made by Fujifilm. But this doesn’t mean that they’re not up to snuff. Two of the most popular items being soft release buttons and thumb grips.
Both of which I now use, and both of which I didn’t initially see the point of, well until I actually used them!
Let’s take a look at what these 2 items can offer us.
I have to be honest here, and say that I initially thought that both thumb grips and soft releases were the camera equivalents of putting fluffy dice in your car…
When I had my X100S, I found that the shutter button was quite recessed; it really forced me to get my finger tip right into the concave part – I didn’t like this at all. So I thought I’d see if a soft release would make things better.
You seem to be able to spend quite a variable amount on soft releases, from a couple of pounds for some alloy generic one, to really far too much for some sort of artisan one, shaped liked a skull and cross or a ladybird or whatever.
I bought the cheapest one that I can find, that was made of brass (about £8 delivered I think)
When the X100S departed me for its new owner, I retained the soft release and added it to the X-Pro1 for no other reason than ‘why not?’
A silver button on a black camera, classy!
It works so much nicer on the X-Pro1 than it did on the X100S and lets me use the technique shown below to fire the shutter.
PERSONALLY, I prefer to fire the shutter using the underside of the first joint of my index finger. Rather than push or stab at the shutter with my fingertip, by resting my finger as shown above, I can trigger the shutter using a fluid motion by tensing the muscles of the finger. I find this to be helpful technique. Maybe you do to? Maybe not. Try it and it see (let me know!) The way we hold and use the camera is very personal and there’s no right or wrong.
Worth you getting one? Hard to say… but for less cost than a round of coffees at any high street coffee house chain it might be worth a punt as if you don’t like it, you won’t have wasted a colossal amount of cash. I’m really happy with mine; a SMALL dab of clear nail varnish has managed to keep it attached for over a year now.
The thumb grip was something I really did NOT see the point of.
Long and not at all relevant story short – Amazon owed me some credit, struggling to think of something to buy, I thought I’d try one of those quite decent, but not stupidly expense thumb grips.
The grip itself was nice enough, not the tightest ever fit in the hot shoe, but it did the job, just about, even though it was a bit wobbly.
BUT, it really, really changed the handling of the camera and I mean in a good way. Suddenly I was holding the camera in a different way, the body more pressed into the heal of my hand; my grip was tighter, yet more comfortable. In short I was really sold on the idea of a thumb grip; I couldn’t believe the difference it made to the handling of the camera.
But the one I’d chosen was just a bit too loose and I was concerned about the longevity of the hotshot. At this time (this was about a week ago incidentally – March2016) someone on one of the forums was selling a Match Technical thumbs up grip for the X-Pro1 and seeing as I’d never heard a bad word about Match Technical, I thought that I’d give it a go.
The EV dial seems to little less prone to getting knocked with this fitted!
I’m sucker for well-made items and the Match Technical exceeded my expectations. In short it’s a beautifully machined, exquisitely designed solution that simply feels perfect. I could not imagine being without it on the camera now.
Made of brass, painted black, with multiple rubber bushes to hold it in place without marking the body and it’s a perfect fit – what’s not to like?!
If this product had been made by Fujifilm, I would not have been surprised (in fact I THINK perhaps Fuji did offer this accessory re-branded as their own)
So, you have your X-Pro1, you have your lenses, you have a grip and you have your case (note that you can’t use the grip and the case at the same time). You’ve fitted a soft release and a thumbs up grip, anything else needed?
Well I’d highly recommend that you buy a SD card as the X-Pro1 comes with no internal storage. Me? I use a 32Gb SanDisk 95Mbs card. You certainly want the fastest UHS-I card that you can get your hands on (which is currently 95Mbs) and a spare battery or two. I’ve got a mixture of aftermarket and genuine batteries. The genuine ones do seem to work slightly better than most aftermarket ones, but the aftermarket ones sure are cheaper!
Both SD cards and batteries seem to gather an awful of discussion on the internet, so I won’t labour the point with my personal choices.
I’d also recommend a screen protector. A cheap one is fine.
And there you have it really… Pimp my ride or must have? Well I’m going to say that if you’re getting a genuine benefit from the case/grip, soft release and the thumbs up, then they become must haves, and that the lenses, SD card and batteries are must haves.
What do you think? Tap me up in the comments, what’s YOUR must have accessory?
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Adam Bonn Fotografia 
I too thought the soft touch shutter button was a gimmick until I tried it. The first joint of the finger technique really helps minimize camera movement when firing the shutter. I didn’t really appreciate how good the soft release button is until I lost it one day while shooting. It was like learning how to use the camera again. The lesson here is to not rely upon the rubber washer to secure the button. The manufacturer recommends Locktite. Now I know why.
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Hi George,
That’s a good tip – thanks very much. I have Loctite in stock as well 🙂 I’ve been using clear nail varnish.
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