A love story with a little hate feeling.

Last year I bought a new Fuji X-Pro 1, it was a great deal a few days before the X-Pro 2 was on the market. I bought it as a camera to keep in my pockets, not really as a serious option. But, I loved it since I started to take the first pictures. I even bought a second one, used and converted it to infrared.

The quality of the RAW file is incredible and so is the quality of the lenses. I really enjoy the OVF and the option to switch to EVF sometimes. Low or high ISO the quality is superb and I started to bring the camera with me always, something that I was not doing with the much bigger and heavier Canon 1DS MkIII I own. Every single time I develop the RAWs I like it a little more.

So I cannot be happier and I hope I will get the X-Pro-2 very soon.

But… I hate absolutely all the buttons and wheels that get pushed and moved anytime I take the camera in my hands from the bag. The macro function seems made only to make me worry that the OVF/EVF switch is broken every time I push it accidentally and I get stuck in EVF. The exposure compensation get always out of the zero and I under or over expose pictures because I do not like to have always the display on to check… all the buttons soon or later get pushed accidentally. It makes me crazy!

So, dear Fuji, why you do not put an option in the firmware to disable the buttons and dials? I know, I’m a dinosaur in the modern photography because I need only shutter speed, aperture and ISO, 90% of the time. But Leica made money with a model without even the display!

Some line of code in the firmware and we will be able to personalize the camera, turning off all the buttons we want and the camera could go back and forth, from normal to limited function, with something simple as pressing one of the annoying buttons for more than 3 seconds or something similar.

Personally I would be happy with all the buttons and dials inactive but play, shutter speed and aperture. Other people can have other needs but I think that can be easy to customize with a menu similar to the menu used to choose what to display in the OVF.

The fun part is that this can be done on all past, present and future models.

Dear Fuji, I already love you, but with that option you will save me a lot of money for couple therapy because I start to curse when I accidentally push the wrong button!

Please, dear Fuji, listen to me… I even have a ring ready for you to make this relationship stable in time!

With love and a little hate.

About the Author

Renowned Italian photographer, artist and author, Luigi Barbano divide his life between Italy and the USA. He started his professional career in 1994 with a specialization in commercial and travel photography.  Author of photographic and technical books, in Italian and English, he can be followed and contacted on his website, Facebook  and LinkedIn.

Luigi likes to promote the good habits of photography and his last publication “Photography: The f Manual” revisits the classical approach to photography, starting from the photographic technique essential basics that are too often forgotten in the digital era. This article was also published here and shared with permission.