The Fuji X-Pro3 is a huge disaster!

The Fuji X-Pro3 is a crop-sensor camera Fujifilm launched 3 months ago (in December 2019) and ever since one issue after another has been reported with this camera. Here I want to break down all the problems this camera has had so far in order to warn you from potential waste of money.

1. It's overpriced

The Fujifilm X-Pro3 comes in 3 different versions and two prices: Black (1800 USD), Dura Black (2000 USD) and Dura Silver (2000 USD). The latter two are basically the same camera, just the outer frame is made of titanium instead of magnesium-alloy, so that they can rip off their customers for additional 200 USD. There's no way this camera is priced reasonably. Here are the prices of some full frame cameras that are way better than this camera as of today (prices from B&H): Sony A7iii (1800 USD), Nikon Z6 (1800 USD), and Canon EOS R (1800 USD). There are tons of cheaper crop-sensor cameras that offer the same or more than the X-Pro3. The X-Pro3 is a major rip-off in my opinion. Somehow Fuji tricked their fans that they have a cheaper Leica, and priced these cameras twice as much as their actual value.

2. The hidden flip-down screen is terrible

The hidden flip-down screen is not only a gimmick, it's a major issue. First of all, why adding a rear LCD screen at all, if you make it nearly unusable? Did Fuji think nobody will use this camera with a tripod or a gimbal? A simple Google search of the X-Pro3 on a tripod exposes this issue very well:

It's obvious that this is a purposely crippled design that makes tripod and gimbal use nearly impossible, and I have no idea for what reason. If someone wants 'pure photography', they need to shoot film not digital. The benefit of digital is to be able to preview your image on the rear screen. Here's a link to the review by Imaging Resource.

3. The freezing issue

This is a very common issue with Fuji X cameras: Freezing up. It happened in the past with several models, and even after all these years and trying to be a premium brand, Fuji still hasn't fixed this issue. It's incredible, really. I did a brief Google search and kept getting tons of results from various forums. How can Fuji sell cameras that don't work properly? I don't get it.


Speaking from my own experience of using the Fuji X100T (here is my longterm review of the camera), I have my personal experience with freezing up. It did not happen that often, but it did happen, and what I did was take out the battery and then put back again to make it work. But the worst part was when I had a common hardware failure of the aperture ring that cost me a lot of money for repair. This is what I wrote in my review:

After slightly over a year of usage, I had issues with the flickering LCD screen. It turned out that the focusing was totally wrecked, and made camera virtually unusable. It was a known issue, and the camera had to be sent to Japan (it was out of warranty). I had to pay 7500 NTD (nearly 250 USD), they had to replace the whole front part (the lens and the aperture ring). It was pretty shocking to me.

I was very disappointed by the quality of this camera, and I still see so many users getting duped into Fuji because of the hype and then basically wasting money. I had to sell my X100T for cheap and I never considered Fuji again. I shoot Nikon for 6 years now, never had a single tiny issue with the cameras I owned.

4. The titanium version is a dirt magnet

For some reason the Dura Silver version of the camera tends to get extremely dirty and has to be cleaned a lot. Look at this image from the Verge's review, it's a fingerprint zoo up there:

Now imagine that you paid 200 USD more for this version, and it actually looks worse. Don't be fooled by the marketing images, this is how this camera will actually look like after you use it a little bit. This is just terrible.

5. Overexposed EVF issue

Several photography blogs and websites, such as Digital Camera World and Peta Pixel have reported on a major EVF issue where the screen basically lights up like a Christmas tree and you can't really expose your pictures. Fuji says it affected a small % of users, but I do really wonder how small that actually is.



6. Dura Silver plate separation issue

Several users on DP Review forum have reported that their Dura Silver plates are separated. It's a big quality control issue, and it affects the more expensive cameras rather than the basic version. Imagine paying 2000 USD and getting a camera with such a terrible finishing:



Apparently the issue was so bad, that the camera was recalled in Australia! Here's a screen grab from the Fuji X Group on Facebook by a user who reported it (screen grab taken from the video "Serious Fujifilm X-Pro 3 bugs - bent titanium, glowing EVFs" by the channel Fauxtaku Launge):



Fuji is just very lucky that they're an insignificant brand like Pentax. If this happened to Nikon or Canon, they would be grilled by the online photography community day in day out for weeks.

Don't overpay for bad quality

I burned my fingers on Fuji, but I told myself I will never do that again. And because of my bad experience I want others to prevent that from happening and save their money. If you're really into photography and don't follow the hype and trends, stick with one of the real photography brands like Nikon, Canon and Leica. These are companies that value their customers. Even if you feel their products are not as exciting as they mainly iterate, they generally don't launch half baked cameras with tons of reliability and hardware issues. They would not be able to survive. Fuji is a film rolls and Instax camera company. They don't make their own sensors, and they usually just repackage one sensor in every camera and sell you the "experience" at a very high cost. You get much more bang for your buck if you go with one of the big established brands. Don't waste money on these fashion cameras like the X-Pro3, because once they launch a new camera, you will regret buying this one, and then you won't be able to resell it, because the secondary market will be flooded with these cameras, since nobody will want them.

Related: Fujifilm's disastrous year>>