DPRTV posted a video today about Medium Format vs Full Frame vs APS-C, but it seems they conflated a lot of medium format secret sauce arguments into a pretty good equivalent FOV/DOF comparison. Arguing about the look of medium format is much like arguing about the Leica look, you either see it or you don’t, but for those that see it, there is a whole world of micro-contrast arguments to be made, which I’m not going to go into at this time.
For those that do not see the difference equivalency is often discussed and they aren’t necessarily wrong. You can get an equivalent FOV and DOF across Medium Format, Full Frame, and APS-C right up until you can’t because the aperture gets too wide. At the moment the Fujinon GF80mm f/1.7 is Fujifilm’s fastest lens for GFX, but TTArtisan makes the excellent TTArtisan 90mm f/1.25 or there is the Mitakon 85mm f/1.2 for G-mount. When taking third-party glass into consideration there is no easy way to match the FOV and DOF that the GFX can produce with a Full Frame or APS-C camera. It’s also possible to adapt f/0.95 glass that can almost fully cover the GFX sensor if you want a photo with a really extreme looking depth of field.
According to DPRTV depth of field comes down to focal length, aperture, and distance from a subject which is accurate. So they decided to compare the GF110mm f/2, Sigma 85mm f/1.4, and XF56mm f/1.2 for their telephoto comparison and GF30mm f/3.5, Sony 24mm f/1.4, and XF16mm f/1.4 or their wide comparison to make the lenses as close to equivalent as possible. When adjusted for equivalency the image DOF is very comparable across the sensors, but APS-C struggles to match the GFX since the GFX has to be stopped down some to be compared accurately with APS-C while Full Frame can keep up.
If you’re going to stick to first-party autofocus lenses on the market at this time Full Frame can match the depth of field of the GFX, but if you use manual focus third-party glass GFX cannot be matched. Below you can see a test photo I took of my dog with my Mitakon 85mm f/1.2 and the only lens I have ever used that comes close to its thin depth of field is the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/0.95, which is substantially more expensive and a different FOV. If things ever get better and safer around where I live I will try to shoot some models with the TTArtisan 90mm f/1.25 and Mitakon 85mm f/1.2, but until then I am stuck trying to get my GSD to sit still long enough to focus on his eyes.
Fujifilm GFX100S:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX100:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX50SII:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX50R:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujifilm GFX 50S:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
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