High time to catch up with a massive Fujifilm GFX roundup.
We will mostly cover the Fujifilm GFX100S, GFX50SII, GF35-70mm and GF80mmF1.7, but there is also much more, from unfair comparisons APS-C vs Medium Format to technical tests by Jim Kasson and more.
But yeah, I can’t see the future. Nobody can. So Tony’s opinion is just as valid as mine. The future will tell.
Two System, Less Cameras and Lenses for APS-C due to limited R&D
Maybe I am not so much into other brands, but I don’t feel like Fujifilm is releasing less gear than other brands.
The real issue was more that so far not many third party brands released AF lenses for Fujifilm, but that has been solved in the meantime.
But in some way it is true. No GFX system could potentially mean more resources for X mount. But I think this is also why Fujifilm waited so long before offering a second sensor option. They did want to wait that their APS-C lineup is rich in lenses and once well covered, they can free up resources for other projects.
Lack of Fast Lenses
First off, let me say that there are many fast Fujinon XF lenses such as the XF200mmF2, XF8-16mmF2.8, XF50mmF1.0 as well as all the nice f/1.2 and f/1.4 primes.
But what about the f/1.8 zooms he’d wish for the X system? Well, that brings us to the next point.
High ISO
In the past, pushing your digital cameras to high ISO was something we absolutely wanted to avoid, as the performance was so bad. To avoid to go too high with ISO, we did indeed need fast glass for low light photography.
But that was the past. Today, ISO performance on digital cameras is vastly improved, which means you don’t need to try to desperately avoid high ISO with super fast and expensive glass. Nope, you can also push ISO up much higher than you ever could in the past.
What this means is that you can put smaller, lighter and more affordable lenses on your camera, as you can compensate the slower aperture with a higher ISO value.
Down below I will share a video of an extreme low light recovery I made of my wife overlooking the hills of Ronda in Andalusia, Spain (we made our honeymoon there). She basically went from almost invisible black to nicely visible in clean colors (thank you X-Trans for that high color fidelity) and in my eyes also very contained levels of noise, which make the image pleasing and usable.
But what about Bokeh? Let’s talk about it.
Bokeh
Not enough background blur? Well, this one is easy to answer. I’ll just share an image down below. And it’s not even the fastest lens Fujifilm has to offer (you can get even more radical with this one).
Autofocus (and Computational Photography)
True, Sony and Canon have better autofocus. But the point with autofocus is, that once it is near perfect, there is not much to improve anymore. Fujifilm just needs to catch up with Sony and Canon, and then the “autofocus war” will be basically over, since there will be little room for further enhancements.
Where there is much more room for improvement, is computational photography. And this is an area where smaller sensors simply are superior to bigger sensors. In fact, if done wisely, it could be even lead to a Renaissance of the M43 system (as the Panasonic GH6 shows with its terrific high res handheld mode). And certainly APS-C has a potential advantage here over full frame or medium format.
DPRTV published a video with the title: “There’s Nothing Magical About Medium Format Depth Of Field“.
The video could also be perfectly titled “There’s Nothing Magical About Full Frame Depth Of Field“, but given how large their customer base shooting full frame is, I think they made a wise choice to avoid to put “full frame” in the title.
What DPRTV says is basically this: shallow depth of field does not depend on the sensor size, but on how fast your lens is combined with your sensor.
Eureka!!!
This is what we say since many years now here on FujiRumors, and I am happy that DPRTV is finally addressing this, too.
The Nr.1 reason why people think they need Full Frame over APS-C is to get shallower DOF. But by saying that a bigger medium format sensor does not necessarily give you shallower DOF over FF, this implies also that Full Frame does not give you necessarily shallower DOF over APS-C.
Fujifilm has some very fast APS-C glass to offer if you desire shallow DOF. For example you can put the Fujinon XF50mmF1.0 on any Fujifilm APS-C body to get a shallow DOF similar to an f/1.4 lens on full frame. Also the Fujinon XF200mmF2.0 gives you about the shallow DOF of a full frame 300mm f/2.8 lens. And then there is the XF8-16mmF2.8, the XF56mmF1.2 and more.
The reasons to pick APS-C, full frame or Medium Format is not shallow DOF, but others. But we won’t talk about it here today, as we covered this topic already in the past.
In the blind test, all images marked with “A” belong to one camera and all images marked with “B” belong to the other camera.
I did my the test myself, and honestly, right at the very first image comparison (see image below) I thought “oh please let “A” be the the Fujifilm GFX100S“. And lucky me, camera “A” is indeed the Fujifilm GFX100S.
Megapixel had not much to do with my preference. It’s a compressed youtube video, how could that matter. Megapixel matter more when you work with the files in post, or when you print.
My preference had more to do with the output of the Fujinon GF80mmF1.7 lens itself, which is very similar in terms of shallow depth of field to the RF 50mm f/1.2 L, but the bokeh looked just more pleasing in my eyes. Then there are other subjective elements like the colors (Provia in this case) and so forth. Overall, I mostly picked A (GFX100S).
Once again the latest GFX gear enters the ranking at the very high positions. But the GFX system gets its consecration not only in the year-end rankings, but also at the box office, where especially the Fujifilm GFX100S is causing headache to Fujifilm due to a high demand they simply can’t match.
And what about Fuji’s APS-C series? Well, things look good, very good for the X system in 2022. Just keep an eye on the latest X-H2 rumors ;).
Fujifilm GFX100S Not too long ago, the thought of a 100MP camera sounded like very wishful thinking, considering 36MP was high-res and 24MP is still a go-to standard for many cameras today. FUJIFILM’s GFX 100S isn’t the first 100MP camera, it’s not even FUJIFILM’s first, but it represents the first time 100MP has been available sub $10K and in a camera body that’s portable and reasonable for walkaround shooting use. It redefines medium format and breaks down the barrier that’s made medium format, especially high-resolution medium format, so inaccessible for virtually everyone until now. What’s even more impressive about the GFX 100S is that it has also benefitted from full-frame and APS-C mirrorless development, too, and features many of the same imaging assets you’d expect from other current cameras, like IBIS, DCI 4K 30p video, and even phase-detection AF. Unlike medium format cameras of the past, which were notoriously slow and outdated in performance, but you’d suck it up for the amazing image quality, the GFX 100S doesn’t need these excuses anymore as it meshes high-resolution medium format quality with current mirrorless performance.
Fujifilm GFX50SII Accessible and medium format are no longer mutually exclusive terms with the GFX 50S II; the second-gen compact medium format mirrorless with a new integrated design and the same 50MP sensor that put the GFX system on the map. Late summer saw FUJIFILM release the second generation of their first mirrorless medium format camera, the GFX 50S II. Compared to what a conventional second-gen camera is, though, this new GFX trended in a new way, with a focus on becoming even more accessible than the first generation of cameras, meaning medium format is now a realistic consideration for people shopping for full-frame systems. And with that in mind, the GFX 50S II presents a truly interesting choice for photographers who value image quality above all other camera specs. Beyond value alone, the GFX 50S II also saw some physical changes, bringing it in line with its 100MP sibling and featuring a fully integrated viewfinder and forgoing the more modular nature of the first GFX 50S.
I was once on my Dolomites, when I met a professional landscape photographer, who had a rented Phase One (I posted it on my Instagram here).
We had a brief talk before my hike continued, and I just told him that he should enjoy his Phase One, as this might be one of his last trips with it. A few months from now Fujifilm might drop something that will finally allow him to actually own a 100 megapixel camera.
Now, I don’t know how the story ended. Did he get the Fujifilm GFX100? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.
For sure, some did, as you can see from the video down below, where a photographer left Phase One for Fujifilm GFX100. And for good reasons: much lighter, much more compact, much cheaper, much faster, much more versatile, still that medium format look and more.
And if the GFX100 is still a bit too high in price, for about 1/3 of the price, you get 1/2 of the megapixel with the Fujifilm GFX50R.
Fujifilm is slowly but surely building up an impressive and absolutely future proof system. A system, that, I am sure, will gain lots of followers in the years to come.
I was thinking you could perhaps share some of the pics taken on the FB group “Astrophotography with Fujifilm” that you manage. Lots of awesome pictures there! We often hear you need an expensive full frame camera or big telescope, but that’s just wrong, as this group suggests.
That would be great to attract more Fuji shooters to this group, it’s a very nice community where we help each other and learn from our experiences.
Astro can be daunting for the newbie, but it shouldn’t. Also, there aren’t a lot of Fuji shooters in the astro community, so I’m sure it could spread the virus — the good one!
Oh well, here it is.
Have fun and may this post inspire you to try your luck with the stars, too :).
