The king of medium-format mirrorless cameras

You possibly can’s say Fujifilm is boring. It caught to APS-C sensors as a substitute of going full-frame like everybody else, whereas releasing cool and bizarre fashions just like the X100 VI. That technique has been refreshing in a conservative trade and undeniably profitable.

It additionally went huge by introducing its first medium-format digicam seven years in the past, the GFX50S. After eight fashions, they’ve confirmed to be well-liked amongst professional portrait and scenic photographers, a market Fujifilm by no means actually had earlier than. Every has turn out to be more and more extra subtle, with higher picture high quality, quicker taking pictures speeds and improved video.

Now that the corporate’s flagship $7,500 100-megapixel GFX 100 II, has been out for awhile and had a number of firmware updates, I used to be eager to check the brand new AF speeds and extra. So I went to London to attempt it out alongside two professional photographer pals who’re considering of shopping for one.

Physique

The unique GFX 100 is a huge digicam, weighing over three kilos with the viewfinder. The GFX 100 II is extra manageable at 2.27 kilos, the identical as Panasonic’s full-frame S1. Photographers are nonetheless prone to be carrying a heavy bag, although, as medium-format GFX lenses are usually larger and heavier than full-frame glass.

The GFX 100 II additionally feels extra like a full-frame digicam than an old-school top-down viewfinder medium format mannequin. It has an up to date, fashionable management structure, with a pair of management dials, a mode dial, a joystick, 14 buttons and a film/photograph change.

The rear show tilts up, down and to the facet, however doesn’t flip out — not an enormous deal, as it will by no means be a vlogging digicam. It shines the place it counts, although, with a excessive 2.36 million dot decision and sufficient brightness to make use of in daylight. The viewfinder, in the meantime, is without doubt one of the greatest on any digicam, with an especially sharp 9.36-million dot decision and 100% magnification.

It’s straightforward to deal with, because of the well-placed controls and huge grip. The highest show, which stays on even when the digicam is switched off, reveals all the principle settings at a look. I’m not an enormous fan of Fujifilm’s overly sophisticated menu system, nevertheless it’s fantastic when you get used to it.

As with different current high-end cameras, you get each an SD UHS II card slot and a a lot quicker CFexpress B choice. The latter is required for quick burst taking pictures, as I’ll focus on quickly. Battery life is strong, with as much as 540 pictures on a cost, or about an hour of 8K or 4K 60p recording.

Efficiency

The GFX 100 II is the quickest medium-format digicam up to now. You possibly can hearth bursts at as much as 8 fps with the mechanical shutter enabled and seize about 300 lossless RAW frames earlier than the buffer fills. That’s about 36GB of information, so it requires a quick CFexpress card.

Autofocus wasn’t a robust level on the GFX, nevertheless it’s a giant step up on this mannequin. The vast majority of pictures in our burst testing had been in focus, although it turns into much less correct when the topic is near the digicam. This isn’t a sports activities digicam, clearly, nevertheless it nonetheless has one of the best AF I’ve seen on any medium format digicam.

Face and eye detection have additionally improved, often locking onto the attention and never, say the eyebrow because the older mannequin did. Fujifilm additionally launched AI topic detection from current fashions, so it now has settings for animals, birds, cars, bikes, bikes, airplanes and trains.

The GFX 100 II has a brand new 5-axis stabilization system with as much as eight stops of shake discount, in comparison with 5.5 stops earlier than. That is helpful for portraits and scenics, letting you shoot all the way down to 1 / 4 second or slower and blur water or folks, whereas preserving the background sharp.

Rolling shutter was fairly abysmal on the unique mannequin, and isn’t so much higher right here. Should you’re taking road images and wish to stay silent, it’s fantastic if the topic doesn’t transfer a lot. For anything, use the mechanical shutter to keep away from some unhealthy skewing.

Picture high quality

Picture high quality is that this digicam’s forte. Naturally, images are pin sharp because of the 102-megapixel sensor. And with 16 bits of coloration depth in RAW mode, dynamic vary is excellent, proper up there with Sony and Nikon. All of that makes it ideally suited for portraits and landscapes, on high of duties that profit from high-resolution, like artwork preservation.

The GFX 100 II now goes all the way down to ISO 80 as a substitute of 100 to additional enhance dynamic vary. All of that enables photographers to get artistic with RAW images, or tease element out of highlights and shadows.

It’s not unhealthy at excessive ISOs both, because of the sensor’s bottom illumination and dual-gain design. There’s little or no noise seen at ISO 6400, and images are usable as much as ISO 12800 if publicity is right.

The medium format sensor presents extremely shallow depth of discipline when you want that for portrait taking pictures. Mixed with a quick lens just like the 80 mm f/1.7, it permits for unbelievable bokeh and topic separation.

For individuals who favor to make use of JPEGs straight out of the digicam, it delivers color-accurate photographs with the proper quantity of in-camera sharpening. That’s ideally suited for previews or for people who wish to use Fujifilm’s spectacular movie simulation modes. For the GFX 100 II, Fujifilm launched a brand new one referred to as Reala Ace that’s primarily based instantly on certainly one of its outdated adverse movies. With a punchy, saturated and barely nostalgic really feel, it has turn out to be certainly one of my new favorites.

There may be one high quality difficulty — the GFX 100 II drops from 16- to successfully lower than 14-bits when taking pictures 8fps bursts as a way to cut back throughput. That in itself isn’t an enormous drawback, however Fujifilm has been cagey about the way it markets this, which has rubbed quite a lot of professional photographers the fallacious method.

Video

I’m beginning to sound like a damaged file, however the X100 II can be Fuji’s greatest medium format digicam for video. It has a bunch of recent modes, most notably 8K. It additionally presents 6K, 4K/60p and 1080p at 240fps. All these codecs might be captured in 12-bit ProRes, together with 10-bit H.265 codecs. You additionally get entry to Fujifilm’s wonderful F-Log2 seize that reinforces dynamic vary.

There are some appreciable compromises, although. 8K is captured with a 1.53 instances crop, lowering the efficient sensor dimension to lower than full body — which negates one of many predominant medium-format benefits: shallow depth of discipline. Different resolutions use the complete sensor width, however pixel binning reduces sharpness.

Rolling shutter can be a problem at 8K, so be certain to not transfer the digicam a lot at that decision. It’s much less bothersome at 4K resolutions, probably as a result of pixel binning.

All that apart, video from the GFX100 II has a distinct high quality than I’ve seen from most mirrorless cameras. The bigger sensor makes it cinematic, particularly with a few of Fujifilm’s prime lenses. And the 8K video is extraordinarily sharp when downsampled to 4K in DaVinci Resolve.

Realistically although, video is extra of a nice-to-have characteristic for infrequent use, as nearly all of patrons will definitely be utilizing it for images.

Wrap-up

The $7,500 GFX100 II is a powerful medium format digicam with enhancements in each space in comparison with the earlier mannequin. Extra importantly, what did my professional photographer pals suppose and can they purchase one? “What’s most noticeable is the evolution of the autofocus in comparison with the GFX100,” stated Nathanael Charpentier. “In our studio we often work with Sony, and the GFX100 II autofocus remains to be removed from Sony’s degree, nevertheless it’s a giant enchancment.

“It’s not a sports activities digicam, it doesn’t have super-fast burst speeds. It’s extra for studio portrait work. For sure kinds of ‘reportage’ like candid marriage ceremony shoots, if we actually want the additional dynamic vary provided by a medium-format digicam, I may see utilizing it.” At this level, they’re not planning on shopping for one as a result of excessive value (and the truth that they simply laid down 6,000 euros for an A9 III), nevertheless it’s excessive on their listing of future gear purchases.

Its predominant competitor is the $8,200 Hasselblad X2D 100C, which has maybe barely higher coloration science and picture high quality — whereas additionally bringing a sure status with the Hasselblad title. Nevertheless, the GFX100 II is superior in most different methods, together with speeds, autofocus and video. If you actually need to nail autofocus in busy or tough conditions, although, full-frame remains to be greatest: Sony’s 45-megapixel $6,500 A1 or Nikon’s $3,800 Z8 or $5,500 Z9 (each 45MP as effectively) are higher selections.

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