It has been one of the most anticipated cameras of the last couple of years, but the Fujifilm X-Pro2 has finally arrived, and we have been fortunate enough to use a pre-production version of the camera. Technique Editor, Phil Hall, went out on London’s Southbank to shoot some portrait images with the Fuji X-Pro2 to get a feel for what the new camera is like, and what we can expect from the final image quality of the new camera.

“Having extensively used the Fujifilm X-series cameras for the last couple of years, the Fuji X-Pro2 was very familiar to use. It has all the best bits of the original X-Pro1, but a host of updates and refinements to make it a much more polished and capable camera, that is even nicer to shoot with. The 24-million-pixel sensor promises to enhance the reputation of the X-Trans sensor technology even further”

“The camera I was using was still classed as a pre-production camera, so it would be wrong of me to make any final judgements on the image quality, but from what I have seen , I am very impressed”

Phil Hall, Techniques and Features Editor

Of course the major new feature of the X-Pro2 is the new 24-million-pixel X-Trans sensor, which is a significant increase in resolution from the 16-million-pixel version of the sensor that is found in its predecessor. It inherits the hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder of the X-Pro1, but increases the resolution of the electronic part of the system to an impressive 2.36-million-dots. The hybrid finder allows users to switch between an optical display and an electronic one, which can be useful depending on the subject that you are shooting.

In addition to this, the AF system has also been improved, with the X-Pro2, with some features that will be of benefit to portrait photographers in particular. When in AF tracking mode there are now 273 focus points across the screen, 169 of which are phase detection. This means that you can lock on to portrait subjects quickly and track them as you they, or the camera, move in a scene. A new joystick controller can be used to move the AF point and the X-Pro 2 also inherits the zone and wide/tracking modes first seen on the X-T10.

You can read more about the X-Pro2 in our full First Look of the new Fuji X-Pro2 here.

The price of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 (body only) will be £1349 and it’s expected to be available from February.

We will be reviewing the camera in full in the next few weeks, so keep checking back for more on the camera.