It’s Christmas time. Time for wishlists and dreams.
And here on FujiRumors this means wishing and dreaming of gear that, if not this year, Santa Claus will hopefully make find us under the Christmas tree for 2024.
So here is a selection of wishes that I have received from FujiRumors community and that I now I am happy to share with all of you. Feel free to let us know if there is something among it that you’d really love to get.
Yesterday a long list of rumored Fujifilm products for 2024 “leaked” on the internet.
It’s a long list packed with inaccurate speculations and random guesses.
And because the internet tends to believe and spread just anything that is written anywhere, I see myself forced to report about it, even thought I would prefer to ignore it.
Hence, even though it feels like Don Quixote fighting the windmills, I’ll keep up fighting wrong information, well knowing that it won’t stop the spread of it anyway.
Aware of that, let’s start with probably the most attention grabbing rumor of all: the Fujifilm GFX25.
The Chinese Weibo account claims:
Several sources claim that GFX 25 exists and believe that it is the main video shooting. I have received this kind of enchantment for more and more 7 times.
GFX25 is coming in Q1 of next year. It’s a 25.44MP 12fps continuous shooting “High-Speed Super Full Frame” camera which using the same body of GFX100. GFX25 records oversampled DCI4K/60p with no crop, less jello effect and the same codec of X-T4. 16-bit-ADC and big-pixel makes it a great camera in low light / high ISO shooting.
Here we are, 3+ years later after that rumor, and still no Fujifilm GFX25 appeared.
It was either a fake, or somebody got a wrong information. In any case, I did not report about it, because I’ve checked it with my trusted sources, who all said it was wrong.
Fujifilm is planning their truly high-speed GFX camera for video worker use, which is expected to be only 25-megapixel class. While it doesn’t use a stacked sensor to reduce manufacturing costs, it has video specs very close to the X-H2S and GFX100 II.
These include Open Gate 5.8K at 30fps, GF full-width 5.8K/60fps at 16:9/17:9/2.35:1, Premista 5.4K/60fps at 17:9, and 4.8K/60fps at 35mm 3:2 or 4.6K/60fps at 35mm 1.38:1 Anamorphic. Oversampling in GF full-width / Premista / 35mm format for DCI 4K / UHD 4K at 60fps.
There is also point-to-point readout DCI 4K / UHD 4K at 120fps recording and 35mm Full Height 8:9 anamorphic mode to recording UHD 4K 120fps by vertical pixel binning. Also, the dynamic range is better than both the GFX100 II and the X-H2S.
I guess given the fact that he was not successful in fooling FujiRumors, he is looking elsewhere for his glory ;).
And yet, on forums and websites this “rumor” is now spreading as if it was reliable stuff.
And some even report that FujiRumors said that the GFX25 will come based on our sources, as for example the German website slashcam here. Well, I actually said the opposite in my original article. I said it “leaked” in China and it was just a “made up speculation”. Please, don’t put rumors in the mouth of our sources that I know are wrong.
And just to be clear, the image above does not show the GFX25, but it shows GFX Omega mock-up shared at DPreview a few years ago and we reported here. And the specs leaked are wrong.
So, let me move on to the next windmill and keep up my lonely fight.
And yes, I know it would bring more traffic and more money if I’d just share all the fake rumors I get or even make up rumors. But I respect you guys too much to fool you for personal profit.
I prefer to have less traffic and make less money, but you can be sure I don’t mislead you with fakes or spam you with tons of anonymous rumors I know are wrong.
IMPORTANT ADDITION: The original GFX25 “rumor” shared by E8M in Chinese said that the information was coming from multiple sources. After we said it was wrong, he told us in the comments that it was a translation error and he never said the GFX25 will come. Then readers, who speak Chinese, pointed out that it’s not a translation error, and E8M clarified that he was just tired and not accurate when he posted it. You can read the discussion here. To be fair, I wanted to report about his correction. More corrections will follow.
One of the questions is how accurate the Fujifilm GFX100II eye autofocus is.
A kind source decided to answer this question, and passed me an internal Fujifilm slide about the Fujifilm GFX100II, which shows that, for portraits and coupled with the Fujinon GF55mm f/1.7, Fujifilm has calculated a 97% autofocus accuracy.
This is of course for portraits. We are not talking about the accuracy when tracking any athlete running at full speed or something like that.
But I guess the most realistic scenario for the combination GFX100II and GF55mmF1.7 is anyway portraits or not really fast moving subjects (people at a wedding etc).
At the end of that article, when I listed the reasons why to get the GFX100II instead of the GFX100S, I wrote the GFX100II has 30% (or 1/3rd of a stop) better dynamic range.
And since I noticed this is another thing that some people struggled with, I decided to elaborate now more in depth.
After testing the dynamic range, Jim Kasson (linked below) agreed that yes, dynamic range is increased, but not by 30%. Jim says:
At ISO 80 those folks at Fujifilm have dropped all the data below the nominal black point, slicing off the left half of the histogram, and cutting the measured read noise in half of what it would normally be. […] You’ll still get slightly improved FWC — but I don’t measure the claimed 30% improvement — and decently low read noise. So it’s an improvement, but not a huge one.
Now, whatever Fujifilm does in terms of software, that has been measured by Jim and I won’t argue that. And it is true that this does make ISO80 dynamic range look crazy good.
But what Fujifilm at the end of the day said, is that there is a 30% dynamic range increase.
What does this mean?
Well, 30% expressed in stops means about 1/3rd of a stop improvement. As a reference, 1 stop increase means doubling the amount of light you let in on the sensor.
So the misunderstand is simple: if the GFX100S has let’s say 14 stops DR, it does not mean that Fujifilm claimed the GFX100II has 18 stops dynamic range (+30%), but 14,3 stops of DR (+1/3). And moreoever, in the X summit the 30% increase is mentioned in the video section of the summit, and Fujifilm has not been clear if it applies also to stills.
What I can say, is that 1/3 DR increase for stills what a Fujifilm rep told me personally during a Fujifilm event. He told me Fujifilm Italy made its own measurements once they got the camera from Japan, and at base ISO they noticed a 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop DR increase.
Now, why did Fujifilm say 30% instead of 1/3rd of a stop, even though they mean the same?
Well, I guess it just sounds better saying 30% rather than 1/3rd of a stop, but of course it can create confusion.
So yes, at base ISO the new Fujifilm GFX100II will give you the better dynamic range over the GFX100S. Also Jim confirms this. But not by a very large margin. Fujifilm says it is 1/3rd of a stop for video, and Fujifilm Italy told me they measured that too for stills.
Over the past few weeks, many have contacted me asking why I don’t talk about the reports that claim:
the Fujifilm GFX100 II sensor is not new
the Fujifilm GFX100 II does not read out at twice the speed and faster readout speed is achieved only with software tricks, meaning dropping down at 12 bit when in 8 fps mode
The answer is simple:
When Fujifilm published their first Fujifilm GFX100II development story episodes, they said they would talk about the GFX100II sensor in future episodes.
This is why I decided to wait, hear Fujifilm’s position, and then write an article that is as comprehensive and complete as possible.
And I am happy I waited, because in the 5th X Lab episode dedicated to the GFX100II, we get some helpful insights in the inner workings of the sensor (full episode with summary below)..
But before we dive into it, let me express my admiration for Jim Kasson’s brilliant work in analyzing the inner workings of the GFX100II and to Petapixel for bringing his findings to the attention of the larger public.
I decided to wait for more details coming from Fujifilm before reporting about it, but maybe they would not have disclosed those in such detail, if Jim would not have done his great work, and Petapixel made a huge buzz out of it.
