Storms Over Wyoming – Rawlins, WY – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & Meike 35mm

One week ago I published an article explaining the differences between the Fujifilm X100F and the X-Pro2 with the 23mm f/2 lens. There is one important point that I left out that sets the X100F apart (either good or bad, but I believe good), and that is dust on the sensor. Anytime you have an interchangeable-lens camera, you open up the possibilities (probabilities, really) of finding dust spots in your images.

I have owned my X100F for about 10 months now. I have never encountered one single dust speck on any of my pictures captured with that camera. I purchased it second-hand, and the camera is about two-years-old. No dust, no problems. It might never have a dirty sensor!

The X100F is not weather sealed, and there is a small possibility of dust finding its way onto the sensor. It has happened to some people. If it does happen, there’s no dust-removal option built into the camera, and so you are out-of-luck. You either just deal with it, or you send it off somewhere to have it cleaned, which I understand is an expensive option. If dust does manage to land on the sensor, that really stinks! But so far, knock on wood, that has not happened and I’m hopeful that it won’t ever happen.

I’ve had my X-Pro2 for a few weeks now, and I’ve found dust spots on my pictures several times. I’m very careful when I change lenses on this camera. I never do so in an obviously dusty place. I have the lenses prepared so that it is a quick change. I never point the camera up when there is no lens attached. I set the dust-removal to activate at both start-up and shut-down, and I’ll turn the camera on-and-off several times immediately following a lens change. Even with all of these precautions, I still manage to find dust specks sometimes, like on Storms Over Wyoming at the top, which has some obvious specks on the upper-right side.

I hate dust! Dust and photography don’t mix well, and it’s been an ongoing battle since the invention of the camera. Back in the film days dust was a constant problem, and it seemed impossible to win. I would carefully clean the film prior to printing, and I would still find dust spots and lines on my prints. It’s not as bad in the digital photography world, but it is still a significant issue. It’s still an ongoing battle. And it still infuriates me! I’m just as frustrated by it now as I was 20 years ago.

With the X100F dust is no issue whatsoever, and that’s awesome! However, if dust ever does get on the sensor, that would be a big problem. With the X-Pro2, dust is a continuous problem, but most of the time it’s not tough to overcome. It only rears its ugly head occasionally, and it can be dealt with when that happens without a lot of heartache (but some heartache nonetheless). The fact that I’ve not had to deal with dust at all with the X100F is great, and the fact that I’ve already had to deal with dust with the X-Pro2 is not great. For me, that’s a significant contrast.