Fujifilm GF 50mm F3.5: an Easy Lens to Love

On March 29, the huge deal on the Fujinon GF 50mm f/3.5 will end.

Now DPR shared a first impressions article about this lens, and here are some of their remarks:

  • it’s sharp. Very, very sharp. Fujifilm has claimed that all the GF lenses were designed for more than 100MP of resolution
  • I was rather impressed to see essentially perfect sharpness all the way out to the extreme corners and I didn’t notice any practical difference in quality throughout the aperture range
  • I couldn’t find any chromatic aberrations in any images
  • On my GFX 50R, focusing from close to far with the 50mm seems faster than all my other GF prime lenses except the 23mm
  • It locks on almost instantly with hardly any ‘wobble’ and a barely audible ‘zip’ sound
  • Fujifilm made the autofocus of this 50mm medium format lens feel a lot more like one of the better X-mount APS-C lenses than any other medium format lens I’ve used. It’s certainly faster than manual focus on Hasselblad V system lenses, faster than Pentax 645 AF lenses, and faster than Mamiya / Phase One AF lenses I’ve used in the past
  • Close focus could be closer. […] It would be easy to suggest simply cropping into the much higher resolution GFX image
  • I’m actually very impressed by this lens’s flare resistance
  • Overall, the Fujifilm GF 50mm F3.5 lens is easy to love
  • It transforms the GFX 50R into a camera that is actually very easy to carry around and shoot with casually, which is definitely NOT something you can say of most medium format gear
  • I’ve shot with some of the best, most expensive gear in the world… and this 50mm is among the sharpest lenses I’ve ever used

You can read the full article at dpreview.

X Deals

GFX Deals

eBooks

  • RockyNook – save 40% on any book, any version, using coupon code “FUJIRUMORS40
  • RockyNook – save 40% on any e-book, using coupon code “FUJI40

Software

General Deal Pages

All Fujifilm Deals

Used Fujifilm Gear

Official Fujifilm Recommended Accessories

SD-Cards

Power Banks

Five Reasons Fujifilm Won’t Make a Full Frame Fujifilm X100

DPReview published a list of 5 reason, why Fujifilm won’t make a full frame X100 camera.

  1. A larger sensor would add size and weight, mitigating a major X100 selling point
  2. Such a product would cost a lot to develop and manufacture
  3. The result would be a very expensive camera – reducing its potential audience
  4. A move to full-frame would annoy and worry existing loyal Fujifilm APS-C customers. Also, if Fujifilm announces any full frame camera, could look like a massive vote of no confidence in APS-C
  5. The risk of cannibalization within existing lineups is too great

And what about a medium format X100 then? DPR writes:

So might Fujifilm build a medium-format X100? There’s an argument to be made that it makes sense in a way that full-frame just doesn’t. Medium format would offer an increase in potential image quality over full-frame (albeit relatively modest – about 2/3EV), a significant leap in image quality over APS-C, it’s a major part of Fujifilm’s brand identity, and the larger format is a key differentiator for Fujifilm compared to competitive manufacturers.

Well, I won’t enter the argument about the “relatively modest” advantage of the Fujifilm GFX over full frame. This is a thesis DPR started pushing back in 2017, and FujiRumors comprehensively answered it in the article “DPReview Recommends 3 Full Frame Cameras Combined over 1 Fujifilm GFX“. Also, in the meantime something called Fujifilm GFX100 hit the market, with the newest sensor technology.

For the rest, the whole 5 reason list makes sense. Check out the full in-depth article at dpreview.

And one could also add one more ;)

  • full frame offers a “relatively modest” advantage over APS-C, and also has a couple of disadvantages over APS-C, that you can read here

Popular photography industry insiders, claimed that APS-C is the actual sensor size sweet spot. Keep in mind, they said “sweet spot“, not “automatically the best tool for everybody“.

FujiRumors is on Patreon, Facebook, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube, Flipboard and Twitter

Our Owners Groups

Our Facebook Pages

Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Shift Full Frame Lens on Fujifilm GFX – First Sample Images

Venus Optics will soon launch the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 W-Dreamer shift lens for full frame cameras.

Now we have some sample images and we can give a few more details about how this full frame lens works on the Fujifilm GFX medium format system.

According to a beta tester, the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 W-Dreamer shift lens can be used on Fujifilm GFX, but the ability to shift is limited to ± 7.

Here is his the feedback the Chinese beta tester gave so far:

Although the image field of the shift lens is much larger than the ordinary 135 format lens, if the offset is too large (± 7 or more) on the 44×33 format, it will still have a dark angle

@ 老 frog lens 15-axis image field perfectly covers the 4433 sensor, visually there is 5mm up and down, and 3mm left and right shift amount

@ 老 frog lens 15-axis transfer to Fuji GFX 50R, the picture quality looks pretty good, even if it is an ordinary ultra-wide-angle lens, the perspective is very strong. Blessed 4433 users

Join FujiRumors on PatreonFacebook, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube, Flipboard and Twitter

Images and text via weibo.

 

New Fujifilm Financial Results: Instax Declines, Mirrorless Suffers Severe Market Conditions, Solid Fujifilm GFX100 and X-Pro3 Sales

Last week, Fujifilm published their report for the 3rd quarter of the 2020 fiscal year (October to December 2019 – we remind you that the Japanese fiscal year ends on the 31th of March).

This report confirms the trend we saw in the previous report of November 2019: the Instax hype is slowing down, mirrorless is suffering under severe market conditions, and overall revenue and operating incomings decreased.

But Fujifilm is not alone. As we reported here, recently all camera manufacturers reported loss in their imaging division.

The only positive note comes from the Fujifilm GFX100 and Fujifilm X-Pro3, which enjoyed “solid sales“.

The sales were solid for FUJIFILM GFX100, a mirrorless digital camera equipped with a large format sensor with the world’s highest 102 million pixels resolution, and FUJIFILM X-Pro3, a flagship model of the X series launched in November 2019.

In the Imaging Solutions segment, though revenue decreased compared to the previous fiscal year, and operating income also decreased compared to the previous fiscal year due to such factors as a decline in revenue and effect of exchange rate.

Down below you can see the summary of the report as well as screenshots.

Report Summary

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

Holy Crop: Fujifilm GFX100 Pixel Shift Multishot Coming via Firmware Update

GFX100 image in normal mode... imagine what will happen when you quadruple the resoultion ;)
GFX100 image in normal mode… imagine what will happen when you quadruple the resoultion ;)

Back in October 2018, I told you the Fujifilm GFX100 will have pixel shift multishot. However, in March 2019 here, I got an update from a source, that pixel shift multishot won’t be ready for launch.

Some readers were worried, that this could all just be plain wrong rumors, and so I asked trusted sources again, and in July 2019 they confirmed: pixel shift multishot will come for sure, “it’s just a matter of time“.

Finally, Fujifilm officially disclosed plans for Pixel Shift multishot on Fujifilm GFX100 at the latest Fujifilm X summit.

They also showed a sample image during the X Summit live streaming (go to minute 40:20), but those are taken with GFX100 in normal mode (and it’s already impressive).

I thought this deserves to be highlighted in a dedicated article, as this is certainly a significant improvement the Fujifilm GFX100 will get via firmware update.

Holy crop… 400 megapixel.

The GFX Community

Follow FujiRumors: Facebook, Flipboard, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube and Twitter