A strong and enjoyable digital camera that is removed from good

After watching its fixed-lens X100 VI camera do stratospheric gross sales numbers, Fujifilm determined to construct a much bigger and badder model that might go up in opposition to Leica’s full-frame Q3. The result’s the $4,899 GFX100RF, the first-ever 100-megapixel medium format compact digital camera.

The GFX100RF has some novel options, like a crop dial that allows you to select facet ratios starting from vertical 3:4 to a panoramic 65:24. It may digitally zoom by way of a devoted toggle and presents all of the social media-friendly advantages of the X100 VI, together with movie simulations. You possibly can even shoot medium-format 4K video.

Nonetheless, the GFX100RF has some flaws. The place Leica’s Q3 has a quick 28mm f/1.7 lens and optical stabilization, Fujifilm’s 35mm lens (28mm equal) right here is proscribed to f4 and lacks any shake discount, hurting the digital camera in low gentle. I’ve used the digital camera for almost two weeks now and loved it, however given the excessive worth and quirks, it’s positively not for everybody.

Design and dealing with

Although it’s Fujifilm’s smallest medium-format digital camera, the GFX100RF continues to be a hefty unit at 735 grams. That’s greater than many full-frame mirrorless cameras and across the identical weight because the Q3. The management structure is much like the X100 VI with management dials on the back and front, together with publicity compensation, shutter velocity and ISO controls on prime.

What’s new is the facet ratio dial that gives modes for 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 17:6, 3:4, 1:1, 7:6, 5:4 and 65:24 (the latter pays tribute to Fujifilm’s TX-1 panoramic camera). The GFX100RF additionally has a toggle up entrance to pick out 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 63mm (full-frame equal) zoom ranges. These regularly lose decision attributable to cropping, from 100MP at 28mm right down to 20MP at 63mm. Bokeh can be diminished because the sensor dimension shrinks.

The rear 2.1-million-dot, 3.15-inch show solely tilts up and down, however that’s superb for the digital camera’s main avenue photograph function. Although sharp and detailed, the 5.76-million-dot digital viewfinder sadly lacks the X100 VI’s signature hybrid show that allows you to change between optical and digital views. Nonetheless, it does provide three modes to assist the facet ratio dial and make composition simpler. One solely exhibits the chosen crop, one other exhibits the complete scene with a field across the crop and the third shows every part outdoors the crop at 50 % opacity.

Battery life on the GFX100RF is excellent with as much as 820 photographs on a cost or about 100 minutes of 4K 30 fps video capturing. For me, that amounted to just about two days of use, which is healthier than almost each different (non-DSLR) digital camera I’ve examined. The digital camera additionally consists of twin UHS-II reminiscence card slots plus mic, headphone, microHDMI and USB-C ports. The latter permits not solely information transfers and charging, but in addition SSD video recording.

Efficiency

The GFX100RF is basically a GFX100S II squeezed right into a compact physique, so efficiency is comparable with as much as 6 fps burst capturing speeds. Nonetheless, every RAW file is as much as 150MB in dimension and JPEGs are 70MB, so even at these slower speeds, you possibly can fill your reminiscence playing cards very shortly. That mentioned, this digital camera positively isn’t designed for sports activities or wildlife, so I didn’t use burst capturing usually.

The autofocus is dependable when capturing single photographs, nevertheless it’s a bit laggy for bursts. Utilizing the face and eye detect AI modes helps nail eye focus reliably, nevertheless it’s not as quick as Sony and Canon’s methods. It additionally helps animal, fowl and car monitoring, which helped me seize sharp photographs of geese floating on the Seine river in Paris.

The GFX100RF has each mechanical and silent digital shutter modes. Rolling shutter skew is a giant concern with this sensor in silent mode with fast-paced topics, although. Fortunately, the mechanical shutter eliminates that and is almost inaudible.

The built-in ND filter can cut back gentle as much as 4 stops, letting you shoot on sunny days whereas retaining some bokeh. Nonetheless, the primary drawback is when there’s not sufficient gentle. The minimal f4 aperture is just insufficient and the dearth of stabilization exacerbates the difficulty as you danger blurry photographs at sluggish shutter speeds. In dim gentle it’s possible you’ll have to pack a tripod, which isn’t perfect for a compact digital camera.

Picture high quality

The facet ratio and zoom choices on the GFX100RF are helpful and enjoyable. Some curmudgeons could favor to shoot full sensor 100MP photographs after which simply crop later in put up manufacturing. However the GFX100RF lets you could have your cake and eat it, too. You possibly can apply all of the crops, zooms and movie simulations you need and save them as JPEGs for straightforward sharing. Then, if you might want to return and alter one thing, you even have the complete 100MP RAW picture as a backup (although clearly, capturing each will fill your reminiscence card extra shortly).

65:24 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/640th
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Sq. facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/five hundredth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 3200, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>4:3 facet ratio, ISO 8000, f/4, 1/thirty fifth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet, ISO 80, 1/640th, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet, ISO 2500, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot 4:3 facet at ISO 80, 1/250th, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 80, 1/420th, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 800, 1/2 hundredth, f/8
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>4:3 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/850th
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>No crop, 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/8, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>10x crop, ISO 80, f/8, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 800, 1/2 hundredth, f/8
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>7:6 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/five hundredth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 400, 1/a hundredth, f/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>16:9 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/750th
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Sq. facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/ninetieth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>3:4 facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/950th
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Sq. facet ratio, ISO 80, f/4, 1/950th
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>4:3 facet ratio, ISO 160, f/22, 1/4
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>Sq. facet ratio, ISO 2500, f/4, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>4:3 facet ratio, ISO 3200, f/4, 1/a hundred and twenty fifth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>4:3 facet ratio, ISO 6400, f/4, 1/fiftieth
” fashion=padding-bottom:68%>

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Fujifilm GFX100RF assessment

Shot at 4:3 facet ratio, ISO 1600, 1/2 hundredth, f/10

As with the GFX100S II, the GFX100RF is a prime performer on the subject of element and sharpness. Colours are pleasing and RAW information retain excessive quantities of dynamic vary, permitting for straightforward adjustment in Lightroom. And naturally, Fujifilm’s movie simulations provide you with colourful, nostalgic choices — like Reala Ace or the dramatic black and white look of Acros — straight out of the digital camera.

The GFX100RF additionally delivers stunning bokeh, with the f4 aperture equal to round f3 for a full-frame digital camera when it comes to depth of subject (however not gentle gathering). Like different GFX fashions, the big sensor produces extra dramatic photographs than full body for portraits, landscapes or avenue photographs.

Like I discussed, issues crumble when the sunshine dims, although. With no possibility under f4 and no stabilization, I relied on excessive ISOs to spice up publicity. The GFX100RF isn’t unhealthy on this space, with controllable noise as much as about ISO 8000, however that’s not excessive sufficient contemplating the opposite elements. For these causes, the GFX100RF is much less versatile than it might be.

Video

The GFX100RF can deal with 4K and widescreen DCI 4K at as much as 30 fps with pretty excessive bit charges, so long as you could have a quick UHS-II SD card. It may even shoot ProRes with at a lot increased information speeds, however for these, you’ll have to report on to an SSD by way of the USB Kind-C port.

Autofocus for video is first rate however not extremely quick, so ideally your topics don’t transfer an excessive amount of. The AI-powered face and eye detection helps nail focus when filming folks, however once more, can fail if topics dart round.

Video has a dreamy high quality and bokeh that solely a big sensor can provide. Just like the GFX100S II, the GFX100RF captures video utilizing the complete width of the sensor in most modes, albeit with pixel binning that reduces high quality. The sharpest video comes with a 1.32x crop, however that reduces the picture high quality advantages of a giant sensor.

Video on the GFX100RF has one factor going for it that the photograph facet lacks: digital stabilization. This smooths out shakiness for handheld photographs, however the extreme rolling shutter limits your capacity to maneuver the digital camera shortly.

Colours are pleasing and straightforward to regulate, significantly when utilizing Fujifilim’s F-Log or F-Log2 10-bit modes to spice up dynamic vary. And naturally, Reala Ace, Acros and different movie simulations can be found in video modes to create nice seems straight out of the digital camera.

Wrap-up

Fujifilm’s $4,899 GFX100RF is a strong digital camera with unbelievable picture high quality that’s hampered by a scarcity of low-light efficiency. It’s additionally a distinct segment and costly product that, in contrast to Fujifilm’s widespread X100 VI, solely appeals to a small group of photographers.

Its main rival on this house is Leica’s Q3, which has a smaller 60MP full-frame sensor and better $6,735 price ticket. Nonetheless, the Q3 has a a lot quicker 28mm f/1.7 lens, much less rolling shutter, a single SD UHS-II card slot and as much as 8K video. It additionally has the Leica model cachet, which does imply one thing to folks spending this sort of cash.

The GFX100RF is enjoyable to make use of, although, and introduces a number of improvements just like the facet ratio dial. Although it could by no means have an enormous market, I feel merchandise like this push the trade in new instructions and create conversations that draw new folks into pictures. So although I’d by no means purchase one, I’m glad the GFX100RF exists for these causes.