Fuji X Pro 2 review - a Leica killer. Also a surprisingly capable Super 35mm cinema machine? Let's find out...

[fuzzynormal]

58 minutes ago, Steve M. said:

I'd be interested to hear more on how this camera works out for you! I've seen a couple of hands on reviews, all of which breeze over the video capability, which makes sense, but what isn't mentioned that I'm wondering is can you punch in on the image to set a critical focus? Can you do this during recording? Does the split image focus work in video mode?

Not that I know of yet. Yes, punch in focus would be great.

However, I will attest that I'm able to pull focus using the EVF.  Oddly, the peaking only works before you start rolling.  Once you're in filming mode it shuts off. (needs firmware fix)  But, again, grabbing focus is possible just by eyeballing the EVF image.

If I get any worthwhile images from the track tomorrow morning I'll post the source files for pixel peeping.

 

[The Chris]

1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

Not that I know of yet. Yes, punch in focus would be great.

However, I will attest that I'm able to pull focus using the EVF.  Oddly, the peaking only works before you start rolling.  Once you're in filming mode it shuts off. (needs firmware fix)  But, again, grabbing focus is possible just by eyeballing the EVF image.

If I get any worthwhile images from the track tomorrow morning I'll post the source files for pixel peeping.

 

Any chance you can post something through the ISO range to judge noise? Any overheating? Also any chance you could post something showing focus tracking? I'm so close to getting one and just attaching a Z-finder to it like I did with the 5d2/3. Thanks in advance. 

[fuzzynormal]

41 minutes ago, The Chris said:

Any chance you can post something through the ISO range to judge noise? Any overheating? Also any chance you could post something showing focus tracking? I'm so close to getting one and just attaching a Z-finder to it like I did with the 5d2/3. Thanks in advance. 

Well, I can post a few shots from my upcoming gig, but it'll be basic work stuff, not test stuff.  

I don't do focus tracking, however.  It doesn't seem like something a manual-focus-guy like me is going to mess around with.  I don't trust it.

We'll see if it overheats.  Haven't tried to stress it yet.  Shooting only 1080, it doesn't seem likely, but we'll find out.

[The Chris]

11 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Well, I can post a few shots from my upcoming gig, but it'll be basic work stuff, not test stuff.  

I don't do focus tracking, however.  It doesn't seem like something a manual-focus-guy like me is going to mess around with.  I don't trust it.

We'll see if it overheats.  Haven't tried to stress it yet.  Shooting only 1080, it doesn't seem likely, but we'll find out.

Thanks, even just frame grabs would be cool. The Cinema 5d review says it gets messy above ISO 1000. I haven't been able to find higher ISO demos. 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Shooting a race track is NO fun with Rolling Shutter cameras!

We had 5 cameras lined up on the track (an international coastal road with lots of pretty sea scenery), one c300 (original), 3 5D MKIIIs, and a 600D. 

Fortunately it's also a real road so we could kind of rehearse the system & plan, I was back at stage seeing the live HDMI feed of all operators, 4 of the screens produced absolutely, completely useless images and one looked fine & stable (though not ''great''), the guys freaked out and I just went ahead and changed all three OPs positions ON the track using wide lenses to minimize RS and kept the dynamic long shots for one op, and one covering the track vertically so the cars pass onto the top-down the sensor, just a terrible, terrible day. It worked, it looks fine but I learnt shooting a fast moving subject with a RS camera is a bad idea. I really wished I'd used the 2'3'' CCD broadcast cameras for it or rented Black magics but they were still in the ugly days of FPN on the GS version. 

Anyway watch out for rolling shutter and moving the camera laterally, keep on the wide end AS MUCH AS humanely possible along with trying to get spots where the track moves towards/away from the camera. No cool 250mm panning with a driver. 

 

[fuzzynormal]

8 hours ago, The Chris said:

Thanks, even just frame grabs would be cool. The Cinema 5d review says it gets messy above ISO 1000. I haven't been able to find higher ISO demos. 

It does, but I'm making a simple video for a guy's personal project --and it'll be web delivery.  864x486.  The down-res minimizes the grain.  

Since the first bit of the shoot was in the morning darkness, much of it was over 1000 iso.  It's kind of rough footage, as the shooter is getting used to the camera and lens, but we took it along to see what it could do with video.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wvddndv1y1nkhzn/AABMu380redCknSoktKDuoosa?dl=0

Straight from the card.  Standard color profile.  60p, to be conformed to 24p. the Fuji f1.4 35mm.  Most stuff under exposed a half stop.

[Steve M.]

58 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

It does, but I'm making a simple video for a guy's personal project --and it'll be web delivery.  864x486.  The down-res minimizes the grain.  

Since the first bit of the shoot was in the morning darkness, much of it was over 1000 iso.  It's kind of rough footage, as the shooter is getting used to the camera and lens, but we took it along to see what it could do with video.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wvddndv1y1nkhzn/AABMu380redCknSoktKDuoosa?dl=0

Straight from the card.  Standard color profile.  60p, to be conformed to 24p. the Fuji f1.4 35mm.  Most stuff under exposed a half stop.

Thank you for posting these images! They look pretty decent, they are extremely punchy, but that no doubt can be adjusted in the standard color profile prior to shooting. I can't tell if the camera Op is doing all that iris adjusting on the inside paddock shots or if this was shot in an auto mode? If this was shot mostly above 1000-ISO, I'm not seeing terrible noise in these images. I like the image, I would like to peek at some images that were shot with the saturation, and contrast lowered for a little more flatter image. Thanks again, Fuzz, very nice!

[fuzzynormal]

51 minutes ago, Steve M. said:

Thank you for posting these images! They look pretty decent, they are extremely punchy, but that no doubt can be adjusted in the standard color profile prior to shooting. I can't tell if the camera Op is doing all that iris adjusting on the inside paddock shots or if this was shot in an auto mode? If this was shot mostly above 1000-ISO, I'm not seeing terrible noise in these images. I like the image, I would like to peek at some images that were shot with the saturation, and contrast lowered for a little more flatter image. Thanks again, Fuzz, very nice!

Yes, it's auto ISO.  

I told the shooter to underexpose a touch (set the exposure compensation to -1/2) and just roll on stuff; wanted to see what the camera would deliver in that environment.  We didn't want to do anything fancy as of yet.  Just shoot images pretty much as the camera delivers coming out of the box.  Yes, the blacks are deep, but they seem to pull up pretty good during grading.  

Download a clip and give it a go. Andrew Reid has mentioned a process here that helps pull out the darker details.

"However there are some tricks you need to know in the grade with this camera…

Firstly, straight off the card the files have a bit of a scratchy low-fi look to them, with hugely crushed blacks and dynamic range appears limited at first glance. The files really seem to clip the blacks like nothing else when played back on my Mac direct from the card. Turns out it’s some kind of bug. Remapping to 16-255 in Premiere’s Fast Color Corrector tool brings amazing amounts of detail out in the blacks. Then applying Film Convert’s Kodak emulation under the Arri Alexa DCIP3 profile gives you an absolutely stunning image in terms of colour and a film-like grain. It cleans up incredibly well and the Fuji’s colour & white balance is spot on to begin with so it doesn’t need hours of tinkering with LUTs."

I'd lean towards getting a speed booster and a f1.2 for low light scenes rather than push beyond 800iso.  The grain isn't horrible, but it is prominent.  As it is, I think it's a good low-light shooter.  We could have stolen a bit more light and decreased the ISO if we were shooting 24p instead of 60p.

I haven't experienced much with color profiles, but "ASTIA/soft" may be a good bet.

[Steve M.]

1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

Yes, it's auto ISO.  

Ah, not auto iris, I was thinking to myself man she adjusts that iris fast! I know myself, I've always liked Fuji Velvia, so that may look pretty cool. It's to bad the grain isn't active in the video mode. So, Fuzz, it sounds like you're in the video production business, if I may ask, what made you go with this Fuji camera? What other cameras are you matching it to if any? Thank you!

[fuzzynormal]

38 minutes ago, Steve M. said:

what made you go with this Fuji camera? What other cameras are you matching it to if any? Thank you!

We wanted a new photo camera, first and foremost.  We've shot stills with Fuji cameras in the past and liked it a lot.  The fact that it can handle video is just a bonus.

Today we played around with a bunch of cameras.  5DII, Olympus EM5II, and Panasonic GX7.  Personally, I like shooting with the EM5II the most, but the 5DII and GX7 have better IQ.  

[Steve M.]

20 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

Today we played around with a bunch of cameras.  5DII, Olympus EM5II, and Panasonic GX7.  Personally, I like shooting with the EM5II the most, but the 5DII and GX7 have better IQ.  

I owned two 5DM2 cameras at one point and sold them both. I still edit tons of 5DM2 footage from a client, and I never get tired of looking at it's image. I did play around with your Fuji images in FCPX and that is bizarre how much that camera is crushing the blacks, and mids. You're right though, a little adjustment and it looks fantastic! This camera sure has me thinking, I personally wouldn't touch a Sony, just my own opinions, Nikon a possibility, but I'm liking this Fuji over all of them. I guess I've always gravitated towards the underdog of cameras as my Samsung NX1 is my workhorse. I'll wait till after NAB and probably buy this Fuji and see where it takes me! Appreciate your insight!

P.S. I'm certain Andrew will come up with a Fuji Xpro2 shooting guide! Hint hint!!

[fuzzynormal]

1 minute ago, Steve M. said:

I did play around with your Fuji images in FCPX and that is bizarre how much that camera is crushing the blacks, and mids. You're right though, a little adjustment and it looks fantastic

Yeah, something is certainly off with the blacks.  I'm hopeful that a little digging with settings and/or a firmware update will bring things more in line with "normal."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/co1kumkhdfgjrnt/TEST.mov?dl=0

[Steve M.]

26 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

Yeah, something is certainly off with the blacks.  I'm hopeful that a little digging with settings and/or a firmware update will bring things more in line with "normal."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/co1kumkhdfgjrnt/TEST.mov?dl=0

Definitely, but that can't be a big deal, I'm sure Fuji's aware of it and in a firmware update. 

[Steve M.]

21 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Yeah, something is certainly off with the blacks.

Fuzz, I'm curious, if you shoot something NOT using auto ISO, if that doesn't remedy that camera shooting crushed blacks? I'm thinking it could be an auto-ISO issue?

[fuzzynormal]

13 hours ago, Steve M. said:

Fuzz, I'm curious, if you shoot something NOT using auto ISO, if that doesn't remedy that camera shooting crushed blacks? I'm thinking it could be an auto-ISO issue?

From what I can tell, no.  The luminance space is definitely off a bit.  

[JFKa]

I don't see in your video anywhere the supposed color quality you are claiming. Anywhere. I see the same videoish bullshit.

[Don Kotlos]

14 minutes ago, JFKa said:

I don't see in your video anywhere the supposed color quality you are claiming. Anywhere. I see the same videoish bullshit.

I tend to agree. Other than the aliasing, I see bad highlight control & plastic skin tones. I love Fuji for stills, but for using it for video ? No way. I could live with the sub-par quality of E-M1 because of the class leading IBIS, but for me Fuji offers nothing in the video department. Is it AWB that is so important? I cannot see the pleasing colors that Fuji stills have. And if it is the filters that are nice, I already made LUTs that get you there if you want to.  

Its nice that they improved the video over previous Fuji cameras but they still have long way to go. 

Anyway, to each his own.

[Steve M.]

6 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

From what I can tell, no.  The luminance space is definitely off a bit.  

I wonder on a couple of things, Pg.44 "Zoom can be adjusted while recording" Meaning, you can punch in on your subject while in a record mode? Pg. 153 restrictions, this luminance thing may be because that gamma range is set to auto by default, I'd hope Fuji would allow for the other two settings in video. All the MF-Assists, Digital split image, and the rest are defeated in video. It would be cool if they release a lot of that list to the video mode as well.

3 hours ago, Don Kotlos said:

I tend to agree. Other than the aliasing, I see bad highlight control & plastic skin tones. I love Fuji for stills, but for using it for video ? No way. I could live with the sub-par quality of E-M1 because of the class leading IBIS, but for me Fuji offers nothing in the video department. Is it AWB that is so important? I cannot see the pleasing colors that Fuji stills have. And if it is the filters that are nice, I already made LUTs that get you there if you want to.  

Its nice that they improved the video over previous Fuji cameras but they still have long way to go. 

Anyway, to each his own.

If you're viewing his raw files from the race track, you'll need to re-set the luminance levels, as this camera, for whatever reason, has a bug that crushes the blacks something fierce. I've tweaked these files in FCPX with Color Finale, and I'm seeing a very nice image. Sure, it isn't perfect, Yes, they have a ways to go, but it's still a pretty decent image none-the-less!

[fuzzynormal]

4 hours ago, Steve M. said:

If you're viewing his raw files from the race track, you'll need to re-set the luminance levels

They may be referencing the musicians in the studio footage?  Not sure.

As it is, the stuff we shot at the horse race track is 60p.  So, if anyone is using that footage to analyze, keep in mind that it's a high frame rate and will certainly look like video in that regard.

[Steve M.]

32 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

They may be referencing the musicians in the studio footage?  Not sure.

As it is, the stuff we shot at the horse race track is 60p.  So, if anyone is using that footage to analyze, keep in mind that it's a high frame rate and will certainly look like video in that regard.

I think you're right they must be talking about Andrew's post. Speaking of frame rate, since there is no 1/50th shutter on that dial, is there a way of getting to that particular shutter speed? I know you're probably getting sick of all my questions about the camera, and I'm sorry for that, but I do appreciate the information!