Anyway…. the Fujifilm X-E5 is quite successful, and if you want it bundled with the XF23mmF2.8, then good luck in your hunt for one, as it is mostly out of stock.
While working on his latest elephant documentary, Emmy Award–winning cinematographer Bob Poole decided to bring an unexpected camera into his setup: the Fujifilm GFX100 II. Not as a main cinema camera — that role was covered by the ARRI Alexa 35 paired with the massive Fujinon Duvo HK 25–1000mm f/2.8–5— but as a creative tool to capture something different.
The goal was simple: get unusual, ultra-high-quality shots from extremely low angles.
To make that happen, Poole and his team built an elephant-proof cage and placed the GFX100 II directly on the ground — right on paths regularly used by elephants — to capture perspectives that would be impossible with traditional cinema rigs.
Naturally, this should have been a disaster.
After all, if he had asked internet forum experts, they would have confidently explained that the GFX100 II is “not a real video camera” and that creating meaningful cinematic footage with it would be basically impossible.
Luckily, Bob Poole didn’t ask the forums.
And somehow — against all odds and comment sections — the GFX100 II ended up delivering stunning, cinematic footage that blends seamlessly with high-end cinema cameras.
Here’s what Poole had to say about working with the GFX100 II:
GFX100II has been instrumental in this film project, giving us angles we would have never been able to achieve with larger cameras
We made an Elephant proof cage and dropped the GFX100II on a path the Elephants use
when the Elephant pops in front of the camera, all the detail is there on that large sensor, all that information, I think it’s going to blow people away
the idea was always to have massive wide angle shots that show the landscape from a perspective you otherwise you would not see
GFX100II came into play because the wide angle stuff coming out of these lenses in this amazing camera were seamless
the image has the same beautiful soft rolloff of the Arri Alexa 35, shallow DOF, super sharp, beautiful bokeh
the image is fantastic
GFX100II also really valuable for timelapse, counting on that large sense to be able to oversample and then be able to work within the frame which has given our post production so much flexibility, because we can move within the frame we’ve created
GFX100II stills are amazing. We have got so many beautiful images
Well done, Bob — and well done Fujifilm for giving creators tools that don’t just improve image quality, but actually expand what’s creatively possible, opening new ways to work, experiment, and tell stories with more freedom and flexibility.
The 76K expensive Arri Alexa 35 is considered the gold standard when it comes to cinema color science and color quality.
But what if you want to get those awesome colors into a more affordable package? Which brand comes closest to it?
Well, Cinecolor published a color grading demo exploring real-world differences in color science between the Arri Alexa 35 and nearly every major camera brand that shoots in Log format.
How good are colors right off the bat (after simple Rec 709 conversion)
How much editing is needed, to match the Arri Alexa colors
Sometimes colors right out of camera are quite close to Arri (iPhone/DJI) or already very beautiful (Fujifilm) or quite lifeless (Sony), but in any case, the question is how much editing is needed to match as closely as possible the Arri Alexa 35.
The Result in Short
DJI and iPhone (although can have HDR look), have closest Arri colors. Probably because of small sensor and less editing flexibility, it is important for Apple/DJI to get best possible colors in camera.
Fujifilm was tested with the old F-Log file, not with the newer F-Log2 or the newest F-Log2C. F-Log2C has the best skin tones. With that said, F-Log looks great already. Fujifilm has its own and very beautiful look, and it requires just a bit of editing to come close to the Arri Alexa 35 files. He says:
It’s really impressive what Fujifilm can deliver in terms of color science, even with older X-T4 F-Log. That’s not surprising considering their background in creating film stock. Fujifilm shooters won’t be shocked by the results, but hopefully others, who don’t shoot Fujifilm, will understand why so many are drawn to Fujifilm specifically because of colors.
Nikon and Sony are the files that you have to work on most, because Nikon handles colors very different and has uneven saturation and Sony files look lifeless and drab. But it’s important to note that you can edit them to get close to Arri. It just requires more editing time and skills to get there.
Panasonic is far away from the Arri skin tones. Canon also is not quite close to Arri.
Conclusions in Short
Except for DJI and iPhone (and GoPro), which have a small sensors, you have a huge flexibility with all camera brands and you can edit files to make them look closer to Arri Alexa 35. The only difference is how much you need to edit to get those awesome results.
To get the closest results to Arri with less editing, Blackmagic and Fujifilm are best (after DJI and iPhone).
Fujifilm also has very good colors right out of the box, so you can edit colors if you want to match Arri, but colors look great also without editing.
Sony files really need to be edited, but the good thing is files are flexible.
When Fujifilm broke autofocus with last year’s firmware updates, Edvard was one of the YouTubers who delivered the most detailed, methodical, and technically grounded coverage of the issue.
Some people don’t like his tone. Others dislike the sarcasm or the way he presents his findings. That’s fine. None of that matters.
What matters is that his findings were legitimate.
And because they were legitimate, we shared several of his videos here on FujiRumors. And so we will do again today.
It’s a long video, which I will sum up below for you – a short version and a more detailed version.
Certain YouTubers Ignore Reality ;)
But before we get into the test results, I need to address something.
Sometimes, you hear accusations that “FujiRumors is a Fujifilm propaganda machine.”
I mention this now because in Edvard’s video, there’s a YouTuber who was “featured” and who, last year, claimed I deliberately don’t report on Fujifilm AF problems—that I only push propaganda.
There’s just one problem with that narrative.
Beyond the fact that when large YouTubers discredit FujiRumors it obviously hurts the blog’s reputation (you then see angry comments towards me), the real issue is something else:
At the time the YouTuber made those claims, I had already shared on FujiRumors his very own video in which he rants against Fujifilm autofocus—along with many other critical videos and several articles on the same topic.
That’s a textbook example of cognitive bias: ignoring observable facts, blanking out reality, and repeating a story that fits one’s pre-existing beliefs rather than what actually happened.
Facts, however, don’t care about narratives.
And FujiRumors will continue to report both the good and the bad—regardless of who finds that inconvenient.
FujiRumors exists for Fujifilm camera users, not for Fujifilm as a corporation. And that’s why, once again, we have to talk about autofocus.
The Findings in Short
NOTE: extensive summary of the 34+ minutes video below
Edvard noticed that in pre-shot mode – when you half press the shutter button and the camera starts saving images on the camera – the camera has a terrific autofocus.
Focus transitions from far to near (and back) are smooth and confident. Subject tracking is excellent. You can actually hear the lens making constant micro-adjustments, a clear sign that the camera is performing many AF calculations per second. There is no hesitation, no stalling halfway through a focus pull—just continuous, fluid, sold, sticky AF behavior.
In fact, it’s so smooth and fast that at minute 4:52 he literally says:
This is Sony-like autfocus, guys!
And that’s where the real problem emerges.
The moment you fully press the shutter, autofocus behavior changes. The camera appears to perform fewer AF calculations, the lens moves in larger steps, and the result is visible hunting—especially when transitioning between near and far subjects.
Interestingly, fast burst modes help. On his X-T3, shooting at 30fps with a 1/100s, Edvard reports “the smoothest tracking I have ever seen on a Fujifilm camera.”
Which leads to an unavoidable conclusion:
The autofocus performance is already there.
Fujifilm just needs to bring the Pre-Shot AF behavior to all shooting modes.
Conclusions
Rather than seeing Edvard’s video as an attack on Fujifilm, it should be seen as good news: the performance photographers are asking for already exists inside the camera. It just needs to be unlocked more consistently.
If Fujifilm manages to bring that Pre-Shot autofocus behavior to all shooting modes, then this discussion ends overnight—and Fujifilm autofocus suddenly becomes a non-issue for everyone.
And that’s exactly why it’s important to talk about these things.
Photons to Photos has published their dynamic range measurements for the Sony A7V.
As soon as the chart dropped, several Fujifilm GFX shooters in our group started wondering: is it time to ditch the GFX100 series and move to Sony?
Why the sudden doubt?
Because at low ISO values, the Sony A7V appears to match the Fujifilm GFX100II in dynamic range — at least according to the Photons to Photos graph here.
But there’s a trick. 😉
As Bill Claff (the mind behind Photons to Photos) explained over on DPReview here:
Note the triangles point down which indicated Noise Reduction (NR) baked into the raw files.
Also note, no Dual Conversion Gain (DCG) was detected.
Noise Reduction (NR) makes comparisons less reliable. Unfortunately it’s hard to gauge how much of an impact NR has on the results. Note there’s even stronger NR at the very high ISO settings.
That’s why the GFX100II shows simple dots, while the Sony A7V shows downward arrows: those arrows are a warning that NR is being applied to Sony’s RAW data — meaning the “true,” NR-free performance would be worse.
The real question now becomes: how strong is Sony’s NR, and how would the A7V fare against a GFX100II if both had the same amount of noise reduction?
Also a pity there is no dual gain conversion on the Sony A7V, because that helps to improve ISO performance at higher ISO. All modern (and even older) Fujifilm cameras have dual gain. This explains why the GFX100II jumps ahead to the Sony A7V at some point – even if the Sony is agressive with noise reduction – because dual gain kicks in on the GFX100II.
UPDATE: Bill Claff says “There will be ES results shortly at PhotonsToPhotos.net. And it does look like there’s High Conversion Gain (HCG) at ISO 1000 that is obscured by the NR with Mechanical shutter.”
The Fuji Trick
And because here on FujiRumors we take pride in being 100% honest and bias-free, let’s remember something before anyone starts yelling “SONY IS CHEATING!”
Fujifilm has played its own tricks, too.
With the Fujifilm X-Pro3, Fujifilm used a different method to make the camera appear to have better dynamic range than it actually did. And yes — we called it out immediately when the results came out.
So… hopefully this little reminder will help prevent the incoming sh*tstorm from Sony fanboys in the comments. 😉
