Image Courtesy of DPReviewDPReview published a lengthy post Photokina interview with Toshihisa Iida, Fujifilm’s General Manager of the Sales and Marketing Group, about the Fujifilm GFX 50S. Many of the details from the interview we have heard before, but there are a few new details.
I suspected the reason they wouldn’t/didn’t use X-Trans on this generation camera was due to processing power concerns and it appears I was right. Maybe we will see X-Trans in a future GFX camera, but for now processing power seems to be the limiting factor.
“The sensor format is large enough that even without X-Trans, the image quality is very good. X-Trans is good, but it’s a complex filter array. Sometimes Bayer is more straightforward, and it makes Raw processing easier.”
A camera like the GFX can be difficult to put into perspective for photographers that have never shot medium format before, some are trying to compare it to full frame, but that’s not the best way to understand the difference medium format makes in your photography.
“By the numbers, depth of field might be similar, but we think that the actual images look different. And it’s not just about depth of field. There’s wider dynamic range, and greater resolution and so on. Overall there’s a lot of benefit from using a medium-format sensor.”
Toshihisa Iida also makes a very bold claim about how he expects the size of the mirrorless market to grow over the next 2-3 years
“Probably, in 2 years time, the size of the mirrorless market will exceed the market for DSLRs, globally. Already in some asian countries the mirrorless market is bigger than DSLR.”
Finally the interview even covers VR, which is an area or interest of mine. I’m curious what Toshihisa Iida considers industrial purposes vs consumer imaging, but it’s definitely a market ripe for high end development.
“I think that VR is mainly for industrial purposes. It can be applied to the consumer market but it’s very niche. So if we’re talking about consumer imaging, I don’t think that 360 cameras have a big audience.”
You can read the rest of the interview with DPReview here.
