Fujifilm GFX100 Development Story with GF Lenses Autofocus Speed Ranking

Fujifilm GFX100

Fujifilm has published a first Fujifilm GFX100 development story article.

They start with discussing the definition of the sensor, medium format or large format.

There is not much point in having a discussion as to how to call the format of 44 x 33mm. We tend to seek for the historical ground from the days of silver halide film; 6 x 4.5 is medium format, and 4 x 5 inch or larger is large format, but the explanation does not have any suggestion other than historical legitimacy.

in terms of resolution, the current 44 x 33mm format surpasses that of the 6 x 4.5 and even the 8 x 10. There still is the unique color reproduction of the silver halide films, but if the medium and the large format is designed for large prints, then there is no point in seeking historical ground to call what format GFX is. Because with the GFX100, we can have the prints even larger.

The core part of the article is the comparison between Fujifilm GFX100 and GFX50 in terms of AF speed.

The major change from X-Pro1 to X-Pro2 was the installation of phase detection AF. The same goes for the GFX100 when compared to the change from GFX 50S / 50R. Furthermore, the AF algorithm of the GFX100 is same as that of the X-T3, meaning not only is it fast, but is now also tougher against in low light conditions, high frequency subjects and low contrast subjects.

To put simply, the GFX100 has the agility like the X-T3 and achieves the descriptive power like the 8×10. There have never been a system like this before. This is a whole new experience.

The lenses, that have the biggest benefit in terms of AF speed thanks to the phase detection AF pixels on the GFX100 are the GF63mm and GF45mm.

GF lenses autofocus speed on GFX100 (with latest GF lens firmware udpate):

  • GF 23mmF4 R LM WR – 0,140 sec
  • GF 45mmF2.8 R WR – 0,183 sec
  • GF 63mmF2.8 R WR – 0,186 sec
  • GF 110mmF2 R LM WR – 0,208 sec
  • GF 120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro – 0,181 sec
  • GF 250mmF4 R LM OIS WR – 0,212 sec
  • GF 32-64mmF4 R LM WR – 0,168 sec

Read the whole story at fujifilm-x.

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Fujifilm GFX 100: B&H Photo, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

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Should Fujifilm Launch a Monochrome Camera? POLL

Fujifilm Monochrome

In the early days of FujiRumors, I asked you guys if you think Fujifilm should make a monochrome Fujifilm X series camera.

And in fact, there was a point in time, when a monochrome camera was an option on Fuji’s table.

So I launched a poll back in 2015, but the results where not in favor of a monochrome option, and I have been told by sources, that Fujifilm dropped monochrome plans after having seen our negative poll results.

But now, 5 years after the original monochrome survey and looking at the market situation now, do you still think that Fujifilm should not make a monochrome camera?

I know, developing a monochrome camera takes away R&D from other projects, because it is not as easy as just removing the color filter array on the sensor, at least not if you want to make thinks properly and good.

There is a lot more development that goes into it!

On the other hand, personally I think Fujifilm should offer something different at some point. A camera that is surely a niche project, but that would undermine one more time, that Fujifilm listens to customer needs, even if those needs are very specific.

Because as Fujifilm super-boss Toshi Ilda said in this interview,

the more we think about photographers, the more different styles of cameras we have to create. Fujifilm always thinks: what can this camera do for this kind of photographer

the center of photography is not the camera or equipment, but the photographer

And I believe, a monochrome camera would fit perfectly into Fuji’s philosophy! And for my taste, it should be an X100 style camera.

But I’d love to hear what you guys think about it.

And especially Fujifilm would like to get feedback, since it’s a known fact, that Fujifilm does watch the FujiRumors community closely, and with a bit of luck, they even take 1:1 our poll results and make them become reality :).

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Fujifilm GFX 100: Everything We Know so Far

Fujifilm GFX100

The Fujifilm GFX100 is coming on May 23 (live blogging on FujiRumors), and I have decided to collect all we know about it in this article.

It’s a mix of rumors and official statements made by Fujifilm managers.

For your convenience, I will link to the source (rumors or manager statement), so that you guys know if you should take something with a grain of salt or not.

Most of it comes from an amazing source, who shared with FujiRumors the official Fujifilm GFX 100 media slides:

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Fujifilm GFX 100 official and rumored specs

Fujifilm Manager: “Full Frame? Users Want Choice, and We Chose APS-C and MF. Smaller IBIS Needed”

Fujifilm Manager Interview

Just yesterday DPReview published their Fujifilm CP+ interview, with lots of interesting topics to discuss. Make sure to check it out here (including the hundreds of comments).

Now the Thai youtube channel กล้องกล้วยกล้วย interviewed Fujifilm manager Mr. Makoto Oishi.

It’s a 49 minutes interview in Thai and constantly translated into English. Too cumbersome and no time? Don’t worry, it’s all summed up down below for you :)

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

These Are the Top Selling Fujifilm X/GFX Deals on FujiRumors – Last Week to Save up to $1,000

Top Selling Fujifilm Deals

So, the huge Fujifilm X / GFX deals will expire very soon, and I have checked what was the favorite gear the FujiRumors community decided to buy.

And to be clear: the results below are only about Fujifilm gear bought by the FujiRumors community and do not represent the overall sales for Fujifilm.

If you want to see which gear won the best-selling ranking overall in 2018, check out this article.

Top Software

A true migration to Capture One Pro 12 is taking place thanks to a huge 50% discount, which will end in March.

Top 5 Lenses

  1. XF 35mm f/2 (save $300 if purchased with X-T30)
  2. XF 50mm f/2 (save $300 if purchased with X-T30)
  3. XF 16mm f/1.4 (save $250)
  4. XF 56mm f/1.2 (save $250)
  5. XF 16-55mm f/2.8 (save $300)

Fujifilm’s f/2 lens line keeps up being your favorite, and you can get them discounted if bundled with X-T30. But the f/2 lenses sell strong also if not included in the bundle.

When it comes to lens deals only, the XF 16mm f/1.4 wins comfortably, followed by Fuji’s currently fastest lens (until the XF33mmF1.0 hits the stores next year) and the XF16-55mmF2.8, which, in combination with the Fuji X-H1 IBIS, is a fantastic combo.

Top Third Party Lenses

  1. Mitakon 35mm f/0.95
  2. Kamlan 50mm f/1.1
  3. 7Artisans 55mm f/1.4

The recent 1-day-deal on the Mitakon 35mm f/0.95 helped to push sales of this lens on the top.

Top 3 Cameras

  1. Fujifilm X-H1 (new retail price and additional $467 savings if purchased with vertical grip)
  2. Fujifilm X-T3 (save up to $200)
  3. Fujifilm X-T30 (save $300 on bundles)

It’s a head to head race between X-H1 and X-T3, with the X-H1 winning by a very small margin. The new low retail price on Fuji X-H1 definitely helped to push sales, making this camera, in my opinion, best value for the money in the current Fuji lineup.

I guess also the recent rumor, that we will not see a Fujifilm X-H2 anytime soon, helped a bit to facilitated X-H1 sales (I confirm this rumor).

The X-T10/20/30 line is notoriously (and undeservedly) a very low selling line here on FujiRumors. It is far behind the X-T3 and X-H1, and in 2018, even the Fujifilm GFX 50R sold better than the Fujifilm X-T20.

However, the recent X-T30 mega-deal on AmazonUS and the current X-T30 bundle deals helped a bit to push it on the 3rd spot.

Top GFX Gear

  1. Fujinon GF100-200 (no deal)
  2. Fujifilm GFX 50R (save up to $1,000 bundle deal)
  3. Fujifilm GFX 50S (new retail price)

Despite the lower new retail price on Fujifilm GFX 50S, the Fujifilm GFX 50R keeps up selling better than the “S”. Fujifilm managers said they were surprised by the 50R demand.

Top Accessories

  1. SanDisk Extreme Pro 128 GB
  2. Anker PowerCore+ 26800 PD
  3. Western Digital 6TB Elements Hard Drive

I also just bought the Anker PowerCore+ 26800 PD to charge all my devices on the road, including my Fujifilm X-E3. I am very satisfied with it. If you want to know which other Fujifilm cameras you can charge with, check out this article.

Fujifilm also recommends the Anker PowerCore Speed 20000 PD.

Last Week Fuji X/GFX and Capture One Deals

Capture One Pro 12 Deal of the Year

50% savings on Capture One Pro 12 in the following versions:

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Fujifilm Managers Q&A: Canon is Wrong, Full Frame only 1/3 of Market, X-T3 sold 40% Better than X-T2, Fast Lenses for GFX and More

Fujifilm Managers Interview

Just yesterday we shared a CP+ interview with Fujifilm managers here. Today it’s already time for another one, this time with Toshihisa Iida (the manager who said Fujifilm will never go full frame) and Makoto Oishi.

It’s again an interesting one, that also becomes very technical when it comes to analyzing the autofocus system and lets imaging-resource conclude that Fujifilm’s PDAF technology is arguably the most advanced on the market.

Down below you can find the key points and some images of the interview. The complete one can be checked out at imaging-resource here.

Market Future & Canon Predictions

  • Fujifilm totally disagrees with Canon’s prediction, that ILC business is going to contract by half over the next two years
  • Market will depend on innovation that will come
  • Fujifilm believes there is room for further grow
  • Some markets will decline, but other markets have still potential to grow (Asian market)

Full Frame

  • Customers should have different options
  • Currently full frame has 1/3 of the market by value
  • 2/3 of market is predominantly APS-C, Micro Four Thirds, and some medium-format
  • other manufacturers focus on full frame, this might open opportunities for Fujifilm as long as they keep up innovating APS-C and MF
  • mainly X-T3 and GFX 50R helped Fujifilm to grow by 10% total volume growth
  • APS-C vs FF is not just about sensor size, but also the lens size, lens weight, overall cost, or the speed, the 4K movies
  • people judge the system more on the overall package

Fujifilm X-T3 vs X-H line

  • sold better than expected
  • Fujifilm X-T3 sold 40% better than X-T2 if you compare to same period since launch
  • X-T3 and X-H1 have cannibalized each other
  • with the new lower X-H1 price tag, X-T3 and X-H1 sit nicely next to each other
  • H-series and T-series will coexist for the future, but we need to clearly differentiate the lineup without confusing customers

Lenses

  • XF200mmF2 is not only for sports, but also for portraits for very creamy bokeh and concerts for example

GFX System

  • Fujifilm GFX 50R sales are above expectation and factory is very busy
  • Fujifilm GFX 100 design is almost final, very early firmware, and IBIS still does not work
  • GFX 100 megapixel autofocus: same sensor structure as the X-T3
  • GFX 100 has almost zero competition, because FF is only at 50MP and other medium format cameras are very expensive
  • Fujifilm thinks at multi-shot high-res shooting mode for GFX100, but has not decided yet
  • designing IBIS is a real challenge for big MF sensor
  • Fujifilm has no idea about how many stops IBIS they will achieve [FujiRumors leaked internal press sheets that show they aim at 5 stops]
  • Fujifilm is still improving image quality via firmware
  • GFX100 launch in first half 2019 for around $10,000
  • Fujifilm GFX 50S most popular lens is the GF 32-64mmF4
  • Fujifilm GFX 50R most popular lens is the GF 45mmF2.8
  • GFX 50S owners have more lenses than GFX 50R owners
  • GFX owners complaint about the lack of more fast lenses for the system and Fujifilm is taking into consideration their feedback
  • Fujifilm listens to customers and tries to make their wishes happen, but sometimes their wishes become reality is very difficult and challenging
  • As bright as possible, as small as possible, as affordable as possible…
  • same team works on GFX and X. One R&D budget and depending on needs they are flexible to shift their focus

Autofocus

  • X-T30 has improved algorithm which will come to X-T3
  • CMOS sensor is always reading by lines. So it isn’t very suitable for horizontal phase-difference […] technically we can make a cross-type system but normally, subjects are more… and horizontally-arranged PDAF pixels support them better
  • Fujifilm could do vertical AF correlation, but hasn’t felt the need to do it
  • 8% of pixels are phase detection pixels (high density), good for low-light and high-frequency subjects
  • signal and phase pixel are read separately
  • we used to have like 60 regions within each AF point, but now 240
  • depending on the light level, the X-T3 can “bin” PDAF pixels together (basically just adding their contents) to get a better signal/noise ratio, and so be able to determine focus even in very dim lighting. Depending on how you do this, you’ll trade-off some ability to see the finest details, but it can really help in very low-light conditions

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Fujifilm GFX100 Pixel Shift Multishot not Available at Launch, but Coming Later via Firmware Update

Fujifilm GFX 100

The deadline is June. Since then, the Fujifilm GFX100 must hit the stores.

Currently Fujifilm is working hard on the firmware and I asked the source, who told us in October 2018, that Fujifilm wants to implement pixel shift multishot in the Fujifilm GFX100, at which stage the development of the pixel shift mutlishot is.

Here is what it told me:

  • sensor/pixel shift multishot is easier to achieve with Bayer sensors than with X-Trans
  • the Fujifilm GFX100 will probably not have pixel shift multishot at launch
  • pixel shift multishot should come later on via firmware update

With pixel shift multishot the camera shoots several images while shifting the image sensor and combines them to generate images with a higher resolution than is possible with regular shooting.

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Fujifilm GFX 100 official and rumored specs

Fuji Guy Billy: No More Kaizen for X-T20, Fujifilm Works with Adobe, X-T30 Great Vlogging Camera, Autofocus Motors Compared and More

FujiLove Podcast

The second episode of the Fujilove podcast with Fuji Guy Billy just went online (episode 1 here).

It’s a one hour talk, and assuming not many of you have this time right now (you are once again reading FujiRumors at work, right? ;) ), I have summed it up all in practical and compact key points for you. Once you have more time, listen to it all here.

Adobe, Worms, X-Trans and Alternatives

  • Adobe’s new enhance detail feature addresses the worm effect, which appears especially in shadow areas zoomed in at 400%
  • worm effect is an Adobe X-Trans interpretation problem
  • other options are: free Fujifilm X RAW Studio, in camera RAW converter, free Capture One Express for Fujifilm
  • Fujifilm tries to work close with Adobe to try to provide best possible understanding of the X-Trans files

Necessary to upgrade from X-T20 to X-T30 for landscape photography?

  • X-T30 has latest technology
  • X-Processor 4 and X-Trans 4 BSI sensor much faster readout. That’s great for video (less rolling shutter for example)
  • on the photo site, X-T20 and X-T30 are comparable
  • if you are happy with X-T20 image quality, Billy does not recommend to upgrade for landscape photography
  • most improvements are for sports autofocus tracking and video
  • X-T20 is at its maximum potential, so you probably won’t see much updates to it anymore for better AF system etc.

by FujiRumors: let’s hope this does not mean the Fujifilm X-H1 is also at its maximum potential, since it uses the same sensor/processor of the X-T20

Should people get the wide aperture lenses f/1.2-f/1.4 or the f/2 series of lenses?

  • depends on needs
  • for low light, professional portraits and for shallower DOF, get the fast aperture lenses
  • f/2 are great for travels, compact and lightweight
  • Newer cameras like X-T3 improve autofocus also on the f/1.2 and f/1.4 lenses

Lenses for Video: Stepping vs Linear Autofocus Motor

  • Fujifilm made big steps in video department
  • when using AF in video, the f/2 lenses are better since they use quiet and fast AF stepping motors. AF moves smoothly
  • downside: stepping motors do not have the strength to move heavier glass fast enough. For faster glass you need the linear motor with higher torque capabilities
  • higher torque is great for stills, but you don’t want such fast AF movements during filming, where you want smooth and gradual focusing
  • Fujinon MKX lenses: manual focus only lenses, hence no focus breathing. They are sharper than XF16-55mmF2.8 and XF50-140mmF2.8
  • for family, friends, vlogging, Billy choses the f/2 lenses

Autofocus Motors Compared: Stepping vs. Linear vs. DC coreless vs ultrasonic

  • Billy says the 56mmf/1.2 is equivalent to 85mmf/1.2 in terms of 35mm field of view. It is very fast and hence has big glass elements the AF needs to move
  • autofocus motor options are:
    – stepping motors
    – linear motors
    – DC coreless motors
    – ultrasonic type of motors
  • Each of these 4 motors has Pros and Cons
  • XF56/1.2 has a DC coreless AF motor, because stepping motor is not strong enough to move big glass quickly, unless a much bigger stepping motor is designed, which would make lens very big
  • DC coreless motor allowed the XF56/1.2 to be smaller and still have enough power to move the glass elements
  • problem with DC coreless motors is that they do not move as smoothly and consistent as stepping motors
  • XF35/2 uses a stepping motor, because lens elements are small and light. Silent and smooth
  • linear motors are bigger than stepping motors, but silent and smooth like stepping motors, so great for video. Some Fujinon lenses have even 4 linear motors inside
  • AF motor choice depends on the prupose on the lens: is it mento for video or stills? Is it a fast aperture lens? Should it be compact?

Camera Corner – Fujifilm X-T30 and X-T3

  • Fujifilm X-T30 has lots of features of X-T3
  • X-T3 was best hybrid camera of 2018 according to many sites
  • X-T30 offers great value feature-wise and takes over lots of features of X-T3
  • 30 fps with no EVF blackout, great video functions like internal F-log
  • X-T30 is a fully featured camera
  • Fujifilm cameras look beautiful, and also design and controls is reason to buy a camera
  • in the Fujifilm system, you don’t sacrifice image quality if you buy a $1,200 or $1,800 camera. Strategy is to use same sensor/processor for same image quality

Lens Corner – XF16mm f/2.8

  • XF16mm f/2.8 falls into the f/2 compact lens lineup. Small, fast AF, weather sealed, excellent IQ with nice detail and a great minimum focus distance
  • 16/28 Is scary good in terms of quality for its price
  • XF16mm f/1.4 is different type of beast. More control over DOF and more flexible in low light, but Billy thinks Fujifilm will sell much more XF16/2.8 lenses than 16/1.4, because it’s great value
  • for small camera bodies like X-T30, the f/2 and f/2.8 lenses are great combo
  • 16/2.8 is also a good lens for vlogging, still some nice shallow DOF

Tip Corner – Movie silent control

  • movie silent control is found in X-H1, X-T3 and X-T30
  • movie silent control gives you independent control from your dials. Just tap on the back of the screen and from there use touch controls to change ISO, f/stop, Shutter Speed
  • even better than touch: use the joystick to change movie silent control settings
  • movie silent control allows for independent video/stills controls
  • on X-T30, you can set one of the function buttons to turn ON/OFF movie silent control

Will X-T and X-H get flip out screen in future? X-T30 for Vlogging?

  • Billy hoped for an X-T30 with flip-out screen and hopes for it to come to X-T/X-H line in future
  • X-T100 with selfie screen has different design, and it’s actually wider camera than X-T20/30, because there needed to be room for the selfie screen hinge
  • with HDMI output you can use external monitor to see yourself
  • It comes down to costs and design. Changing the design raises costs
  • Top concerns of vloggers:
    1 – Am I in the frame? With wide 16mm lens or XF18-55 you don’t have to worry about not being in the frame
    2 – Is the camera still recording? X-T30 has tally light
    3 – Am I in focus? Eye AF on X-T30 is huge improvement.
  • X-T30 is very good vlogging camera. It has also a low rolling shutter
  • Selfie screen can be distracting. Billy used X-T100 for vlogging, and he tends to look at the flip-out screen instead of looking at the lens

Accessories and Software

App Improvement

  • Updated App coming around X-T30 launch date [March 20]

That’s all folks, and don’t forget to follow FujiRumors on Facebook, Instagram, RSS-feed and Twitter :)

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