Fujifilm GFX100 Round Up: 10 Days Till Shipment - Medium Format is Boss, Beastly, a Monster, Amazing AF, Problems and More

A lot of “influencers” currently have the Fujifilm GFX100 in their hands and their reactions are almost universally positive outside of the few that really do not have any experience at all with Fujifilm cameras. It’s interesting that Fujifilm seems to be taking a very Sony like approach to the GFX100 launch, hopefully, it pays off for them. Below I will have some summaries of videos out there in addition to some video and AF demos.

Fujifilm GFX100 (Preoders): B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

Above B&H Photo Video Summary

This is good, This is good…
Seriously professional camera
Calls removing the dials made for 2019
Awesome customizable mini rear LCD
Love the new look
Thought the Megapixel race was over years ago, but 102MP
You can get a wide/medium/close up all out of one shot with 102MP or fill the frame and make some of the highest quality photos ever
BSI sensor that is just nuts
16-bit color but not in continuous
IBIS on medium format digital for the first time ever
Can’t say enough how great the AF is and calls it X-T3 like
Way different than GFX50S/GFX50R
Must update all your glass for PDAF otherwise uses old CDAF system
Buying the body is a big investment, but the lenses are priced like 35mm glass
Awesome 5.7MP EVF
Can run on a single battery, but takes two
Wishes the portrait grip was rubberized
Aimed at professionals and enthusiasts looking for the finest image quality out there
Fashion, editorials, portraits
If you shoot sports/wildlife there are cameras faster than 5fps
He hit every frame tracking someone on a bike
An exciting tool for video, but future sensors will have higher readouts so not really an A camera yet
Medium format is boss it’s ridiculous to compare to full frame they aren’t the same thing

Above Image Resource Video Summary (A Little More Technical)

First BSI sensor this size
Using copper wiring to increase the readout speed
Slightly better noise performance than GFX50R/GFX50S
14 stops of dynamic range
16-bit and 14-bit RAW mode
Continuous shooting doesn’t work with 16-bit RAW
M mode that records files like the GFX50S/GFX50R
Photoshop/Lightroom read RAW files already
First medium format IBIS
IBIS weighs about twice what a Full Frame IBIS does and 4x what the X-H1 does
IBIS has to be aligned within a tolerance of 20 microns of the lens mount
IBIS is 5-Axis giving 5.5 stops of stabilization and there is no dual IS system so the lens OIS has to be turned off
A future firmware update might add dual IS
Medium format X-T3 for video without 4k60p
Oversample 11,604 x 4,352 or 1090
Uses line skipping vertically
4:2:0 10-bit internal recording and 4:2:2 10-bit external
Internal F-Log
Audio 24-bit 48KHz
Top panel display very programmable and cool
Programmable OLED on the back is very useful
Dual core processor that’s about 4x more powerful than the GFX50S/GFX50R
Dual Card Slots
Surprisingly very light camera
Dual batteries for up to 800 shots on a charge
USB-C with 30-Watts or more will charge both batteries at the same time with a maximum limit of 100-Watts
Anker PowerCore Speed 20000 PD provides 20-Volt 30-Watts 1.5A PowerCore+26800 PD provides 15-Volt 30-Watts 2.0A so the PowerCore+26800 PD is the ideal
Very rugged and the magnesium casting is very light
There is an additional magnesium panel inside the GFX100 that other cameras do not have
Fujifilm has done a couple of things to reduce shutter shock like building in 4 shock absorbers in the shutter assembly along with an internal panel that locks everything together while removing vibration
A ton of sealing points so it should be a well-sealed camera
Certified down to -10C but the one that went up to Everest hit -40C

Above Vistek Video Summary

Wins
- The color tones are amazing and unmatched with all the detail you could need
- There are 65k more colors in a 16-bit file then a 14-bit file which is handy for post-processing
- Great for commercial portrait work
- Skintones unlike any other camera, he has used before
- Operates like a 35mm SLR
- IBIS lets you hand hold below 1/250th a second reliably
- Consistently sharp images at 1/30th a second and Fujifilm claims 1/3-1/8
- More usable than any other medium format camera on the market
- 4k DCI video 10-bit internal so no lost information in the shadows
- Medium format X-T3 when it comes to video
- They line skip in one direction and supersample in another
- Some rolling shutter, but not very obvious
- Pretty close to 35mm for rolling shutter
- AF is great even though he’s not used to shooting AF
- Everyone was blown away by the AF of this camera
- Jaw dropping image quality
- Can work for everything you do
- 5.7MP EVF is the clearest/sharpest EVF he has ever used with close to optical viewfinder performance at 85fps
- $10,000 is a lot but the next stop up is 3x more expensive and not really comparable
- Thinks it should hold it’s value for the next decade
Challenges
- Files are huge with RAW files being over 200MB
- You need fast cards for this camera or you will suffer from serious buffer lag time so get 300MB/s cards
- Shift to large format terminology because of 35mm video market can be confusing since many large format lenses won’t have image circles that are large enough
- The dials missing will be an issue from Fujifilm photographers so the learning curve isn’t great compared to Fujifilm cameras even though the menus are unchanged
- The vertical grip isn’t the most useful because of the different size and texture
- The rear dial is way too small and easy to press by accident
- Heavy but not compared to other medium format cameras
Who is this camera for?
- Archival tool great for long term archiving or academia
- If you’re coming from medium format this camera will blow you away
- If you’re coming from 35mm there is a learning curve
- Can satisfy just about every commercial photographer

Above CameraLab Summary (Not going to repeat things from above here now)

Improved handling and usability since you can take it out of the studio easily
Images are very useable out of the camera
Decent demo shooting IBIS on and off and it makes a huge difference
IBIS makes composition easier especially with a highly magnified view
Not much bigger than GFX50S when fitted with battery grip
Would have wanted a matching grip even if it made the camera bigger
GFX100 best EVF he has ever used
Many of the buttons came from X-Cameras and Gordon felt they were too small on X-Cameras
The camera needs more controls that are larger
SD makes sense because you can get the largest and most affordable cards
Should have included a full-size HDMI
Battery life is abundant and he never had an issue with battery performance even using Bluetooth and wifi
Image quality might get a little better with final firmware
Great images right out of the camera with JPG
Handheld video is very usable
IBIS is even good for walking and recording
He vlog’d with it successfully
AF isn’t great with video yet
Electronic front curtain shutter is fine, but straight up electronic shutter is still slow
Overall features make it more attractive than GFX50S/GFX50R
AF speed about twice as fast as GFX50
Lots of wasted space on the back and should use it with larger buttons
The best image quality of any system