5 years ago Fujifilm’s decision became obvious to all of us: unlike everybody else, we are going to skip full frame, build up the best APS-C system in the known universe and offer as an alternative to full frame a medium format mirrorless system. The result: the Fujifilm GFX system.
And well, the Fujifilm GFX series turns 5 years old today.
It all started with the launch of the original Fujifilm GFX50S on January 19 and the slogan “The Game has Changed”.
I remember at that time lots of skeptical comments, especially by influencers who believe that only full frame matters.
But looking back, I guess much of that skepticism has dissipated by now, given that Fujifilm is now offering medium format mirrorless cameras (GFX100S) that are smaller than some full frame mirrorless cameras (Panasonic S1 series) and offer more megapixel at a more affordable price than some full frame mirrorless cameras (Sony A1).
Sure, all the cameras we mentioned above have other strengths, such as video or speed, but all I want to say is that the Fujifilm GFX series is finding a solid ground on which to flourish.
So here we are, 5 years, 5 GFX cameras and 13 lenses later (with more to come) to celebrate a wonderful system that has a terrific potential for the future, as I explained here.
My Instax Love story started in Chiang Mai, my favorite city in Thailand.
Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand, far away from the wonderful islands of the South, which are stunning, sure, but also way more crowded than the North of Thailand.
My original plan, after traveling all the way from Cambodia through Laos (by local bus and motorbike, no plane) was to turn right to get to Vietnam after visiting Luang Prabang. But as every solo traveler might have experienced, plans are made just to be changed. And at the end I didn’t turn right to Vietnam, but I took a 2 days slow boat along the Mekong river – which claimed the life of my X-E2 as I briefly told here – to reach Northern Thailand.
I ended up in Chiang Mai, the most beautiful South East Asian city I have been to along with Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
I was alone and did what I love most to do: taking pictures. Mostly with my X-T1 and XF35mmF1.4 (as it survived my survival swim in the Mekong, whereas my XF18-55 and X-E2 died).
But this was also my first travel with an Instax Printer.
So here is what I did: I took pictures of the people celebrating New Year (without them noticing me taking pictures), and after I took the images, I printed one for them. Without saying anything, I just gave it to them as soon as the printer spit it out and walked away.
From the distance, I could see their faces looking at the film developing, and then being surprised and happy to see themselves in the image. I will share one of the images I took (and gave away) on that evening below for you guys.
So this is it.
This is where my love story with Instax started. And it never stopped. Giving away some little prints is one of the things I enjoy to do most.
Recently I bought the Instax Mini Wide, but I will also get the Instax Mini EVO once available here in Italy. Because it’s true that it’s nice to make a present to others with a little print, but it is also nice to enjoy the process of taking images and printing, and from everything I have seen so far, the Instax Mini EVO, with its vintage look and retro operation (push the lever to print, turn the lens ring to change settings etc), is what suits my taste best.
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).
20th Century Studios has published the first official photos of one of the most anticipated movies of 2022: Avatar 2.
Well, if you give a look at the EXIF data, you can see that the images have been taken by Mark Fellman (IG: markfellman) with Fujifilm X series gear (found via the German website n-tv.de)
In the images where the EXIF data is available, the gear used is:
