The X-Pro 1 and 2 Images Compared: Part Three

Continuing the blog serialisation of my popular X-Pro Series lust/hate/love story:

Part 108: The X-Pro 1 and 2 Images Compared: Part Three

Last week (click here) I wrote about modifying X-Pro2 images to appear to come from an X-Pro1 and using the changes that the raw software made to each file to guide our understanding of the differences between the look of the images from each X-Pro camera.

Quite understandably a few of you have asked about this or commented about this.

I completely get your points and queries, and I agree with them!

It’s true – it’s NOT the subtle little nuances of tone and colour that determine whether or not a photograph is any good

Yes, this all does seem like a bit of a convoluted way to go about making changes to an image

(Although the fact that Iridient X Transformer offers a way of making your Fujifilm cameras appear to be any other make or model does suggest I’m not alone in thinking there’s some mileage to this game 🙂 )

The simple fact is, this website (or blog if you’re reading this from the blog) is dedicated to the X-Pro1 and X-Pro2 cameras.

You won’t read about the X-T range here, I also own a couple of none Fujifilm cameras, I don’t blog about them either

Sure, I write up lenses that I’ve used on the X-Pros and I write about things that I’ve used the X-Pros to shoot.

But I always envisaged this little corner of the internet to be all about the X-Pros, and their respective IQs and the subtle little nuances of tone and colour between each is part of that narrative

I was also asked by the ever charming Elliot Stern

so to sum it up Adam, with less than 25 words, what is it that you find striking about an X pro 1 look vs. an X pro 2 look

Well firstly Elliot, sorry mate – 25 words? Ha! This is adambonn.com we don’t do 25 words or less 😀 😀

As I’ve mentioned earlier in these X-Pro 1 and 2 Images Compared articles, I asked as many people as I could what was it they liked about X-Pro1 vs later sensor variants and for sure there’s no obvious clearly definable answer

For me… the phrase that springs to mind, is “willing suspension of disbelief”

What does this mean?

In short it means that the viewer is happy to disregard their innate sense of reason in order to enjoy what’s presented before them.

Think of the movie Jaws – a single, stupidly large shark becomes predatory against humans, continuously revisiting the same beach to eat people, before sinking Quint’s boat and being exploded by a shot to a scuba tank.

I don’t think you need to be a marine biologist or an explosives expert to see that those events would never really play out like that.

(The occasional shark attack happens, sure. Piece a scuba tank and the force of the air escaping might well propel the tank into the shark and kill it, sure. But a great white shark pretending it’s a serial killer before exploding like it’s filled with petrol? Erm no, just no)

So why is Jaws a highly regarded movie? Because you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the story

Likewise, a photograph isn’t reality. It’s an approximation. Every black and white photograph in existence is a suspension of disbelief.

We look to the picture, not to see reality, but to be entertained and/or enthralled

And just like at the movies, with photography it can be fine line between awesome and awful (for example too much HDR in a photo)

I find the X-Pro1 look a little less realistic than the X-Pro2, but because of this, I want to believe in it more (YMMV)

So why not just shoot the X-Pro1 the whole time?

Well… as great and as unfairly maligned as the X-Pro1 is (and it is) let’s be honest, the X-Pro2 is by and large, a far superior product, offering a great many performance improvements over the original.

I want what I love about each X-Pro, but in one camera.

Perhaps you do too?

So with that in mind… and forget for a moment the X-Pro1 look

Here’s another two images. Again both exactly the same RAF. Again shot with X-Pro2, and again one has been modified to indicate that it was shot with the X-Pro1 (it wasn’t really) to the RAW software.

This image has been edited to my tastes in SilkyPix Pro V8. Each file has had the same edits

Above is the edited image, and the software (correctly) believes that the camera was an X-Pro2

Above is the edited image, and the software (incorrectly) believes that the camera was an X-Pro1

I would imagine that no matter what device you’re using to view this on, you can see quite a clear difference between them?

And you know what? The edited as a X-Pro2 image is truer to life, it was grey and dull that day.

But you know what else?

FOR MY OPINION (so YMMV, but it is my image) the warmer, brighter edited as a X-Pro1 image is more pleasing to my eye.

Would this look the same as if I’d shot it with a real X-Pro1?

I doubt that very much 🙂

But in a similar vein to an X-Pro1 image, I’m more inclined to willingly suspend my disbelief for the fake X-Pro1 shot than I am the real X-Pro2 one.

And that’s a good thing in my book.

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