Going over to the dark side with the Fuji X-Pro2

More and more I find myself shooting in black and white with the X-Pro2, specifically in one of the Acros modes. The camera is more retro than just its look. The way it handles and image results are take me back to when I photographed almost exclusive in black and white with my Leica's, the M2, and later the M4. What I love best about the results is how beautifully the images go into a darker world while still retaining substantial shadow detail to separate the tones. I've been pushing this feature ever darker as I attempt to use the tones for their deep, mysterious moody effect.

The X-Pro2 also has an improved look in the higher ISO ranges and I find myself going high and higher hand-held  -- sometimes as high as 12,800 -- and leaving the noise untouched in post because it comes so close to mimicking the effect of grainy film.

At the beginning of this month we had day after day of inclement weather, enough to darken anyone's mood. I had ample opportunity to experiment with this dark black and white look. Below are some of the images I took of New York this month. Mostly, I used the three zooms, the 16-55mm f/2.8, 50-140mm f/2.8, and the 100-400mm. They were all done late in the day or just after sundown.