Late afternoon, early blue hour, I departed to Casco Viejo with a purpose in mind: to play with the X-Pro2 and the XF 23mm 1.4. In previous blogs, I admitted how beautiful it felt using this lens with the X-T2, indeed, I think the feeling in your hands is great, a bulky lens with a DSLR like body, and a tilt screen, the grip feels fantastic. However, with the X-Pro2 is a different experience, it is to me a more purposeful and focused visual making process. And the way the AF works for some reason feels much faster than the X-T2, the shutter sort of springs in and out whenever taking a picture with an awesome low sound.
For some reason, I hold the X-Pro2 differently than any other camera, I use both hands and my arms are slightly close to my chest as if I have to be ready to shoot at anytime. By no means this feels forced, on the contrary, I am very relaxed, aware, and intentional. I noticed this compared to another time a while ago when I tried to hold the XPro2 like other cameras, with my right hand hanging from the grasp of my wrist, if I could put it into words, using the X-Pro2 this way was extremely uncomfortable.
Even though I love the XF 23mm 1.4, for some reason I tend to miss the 50mm field of view. But when using the X-Pro2 at the outset of the day, the extra stop of this lens gives me a boost of confidence that my shots will nail focus where it matters. And indeed it did.
Editing the following pictures, I played a bit with the film look of Kodak Portra 800 using the VSCO presets. It's a bit punchy and contrasty, I kind of like it, sort of. We'll see.
