Dear Fujifilm,
I think you are one of the best manufacturers of cameras and lenses. The quality of the products in one reason, the other is that you listen to the users when you update your products.
So, the question is, dear Fujifilm, will you make me happy with the XPro-3?
Some years ago, after I started using the X-Pro1, I wrote an article saying you were one step away from my dream camera. Partially you satisfied me with the firmware options of the X-Pro2 but still something is missing for me. I am satisfied, I sold all my Canon and I have no regrets but a tilt and shift wide angle. But something is missing from my ideal small format camera, not in the quality of the images produced but in the handling.
So here my hopes for the X-Pro3 to make it the perfect camera for me and I’m sure a lot of other users. The most important is the last, so keep reading.
First of all, keep the hybrid viewfinder. It is the essence of the X-Pro series and I really don’t get why people happy just with the EVF don’t buy the X-E or the X-T…
Second, keep the ISO/Shutter speed dial exactly as it is. A lot of old dinosaurs like me love it. It is what we were used to and what we really like.
Third, find a way to put a lock on the diopters dial. It really sucks when it changes taking the camera out of the bag.
Fourth, when I press MENU I want it only on the back LCD… I hate to have to change the view mode to adjust parameters! On this I have the doubt that is already possible to set somewhere… in case, my fault.
For all the rest I have enough trust in you to improve all the parameters of the image and I’m really happy with what I have. So no suggestions here, I do not need millions of ISO, eventually I would love very low ISO like 12 to use wide apertures in the sun. I do not need to make movies and so on. I need a camera to take images. And I need it simple.
So FIFTH, BUT MOST IMPORTANT, please add a switch so I can turn on the camera on a personalized setting without looking at the menus.
It can be a third option on the on/off switch, as it was on an old Pentax… sorry, I do not remember the model.
The position must be OFF, ON and USER.
On the user settings I dream to be able to choose what buttons and dials to keep active or turn off. Something that can be done now via menus.
For example I would love to make inactive the exposure compensation dial, all the buttons on the back, excluded the play button, and keep active only the front OVF/EVF switch, ISO and Shutterspped.
Nothing else for me personally for 90% of the photographs I take, but I would love to be able to set my preferences with a switch, not having to use a menu every single time.
I want to turn on the camera and know I have not to worry about anything but ISO, Shutter speed and aperture.
I want to be sure I did not forgot other settings hidden in menus from a previous shooting.
I really would love that switch.
For the other 10% of pictures I will use the standard ON mode.
Dear Fujifilm, if you insert an User switch I will really be a very, very, very happy man! Ok… just camera happy… but I do not suppose the reader is a shrink or willing to donate me 10 million dollars so I limit myself to this matter…
I’m tired, with all the digital cameras not only Fuji, I always have to check tons of parameters and go thru menus and sub-menus just to check if I forgot something.
I want a simple camera. I know a lot of people want a camera that will also make coffee, but is not me and not a lot of other people. With a switch to turn on the camera with the user settings we decided, everyone will be happy. They can even set the USER mode just for the coffee if they like it. It will be the perfect personalized camera, also a good starting point for the modular concept you are developing for the GFX.
It will be easy to go back and forth from a personalized setting and a generic one, for that percent of pictures requiring unusual settings. And mostly will be easy to go back and avoid mistakes thanks to forgotten parameters in the previous shooting.
Please, please, please, dear Fujifilm, make me camera happy!
And in case there is, between the readers, a good shrink or a billionaire willing to donate… I do not matter more happiness in my life!
BTW, if you wonder about my mental status when I think about the USER switch, I have found the perfect scene from a movie to describe it. It is from What About Bob?, a very fun movie..