FUJI GFX100 First Impressions From a Sony User
Over the weekend I attended Fujifilm’s hands on event of their GFX100 to give people a chance to test out the camera in a photoshoot-ready environment featuring model portraiture, private chef cooking & plating, and still life using studio or natural light. We brought our own SD cards to test out the cameras and inspected the photos at home afterwards. The images on this post are all taken with the GFX100 or GFX50R.
USER EXPERIENCE:
As a Sony user who has never used any other digital camera brands. Using the GFX100 felt kind of like driving a manual car since it has so many dials for controls.
With all the dials, I couldn’t find one to change the aperture via the camera body. I noticed that every lens I tried had an aperture ring to set it but I found it extremely easy to bump the ring by accident and have the F stop change on me.
I like the weight and feel of the camera and can pull off very stable video shots with it. I’ve read online the portrait orientation grip is not very good but coming from Sony I’ve never had the habit to change my grip on the camera so I didn’t actually try it.
After going home and reviewing the photos, I noticed the focus was slightly missed on a lot more shots than with my Sony. I don’t know if it’s because the AF from the camera body isn’t as fast, or if the lens can’t keep up.
image quality:
On the left is a shot of the model, and above is a crop in on the face to show how incredible the detail is from this 102MP sensor camera. I didn’t airbrush the skin so you could really see just how much detail it can capture. When you view the source images on your computer at 100% zoom you’ll be amazed by it. The amount of resolution you can capture seems perfect for product, texture, landscape and portrait photography.
PRIVATE CHEF PHOTO STATION:
I was a bit more in my element at the food station photographing food. Kevin Lin was the private chef cooking, and plating the food for us to photograph. He made an appetizer and entree. The appie was a shiso wrapped braised wild mushrooms in xo sauce with caramelized shallots and the entree was a chilled green tea soba in creamy sesame yuzu sauce topped with flame finished spring salmon and ikura. I can remember what type of marinade the salmon rested in but everything was absolutely delicious. If you’re looking for a cook for a house party or catering check him out on Instagram at @whatscookingkev
portrait photo station:
I was totally out of my element when attempting to do portrait photography for the first time but above are some iamges I snapped using the GFX50R. Most of the photographers were lined up at this station so I spent more time at the other locations.
Neat Features:
There is a little screen under the tilting display that looks like a Macbook Pro TouchBar which is useful for displaying information like the histrogram without having it overlayed ontop of the image and cluttering the composition. I actually really liked this. And speaking of the tilting display it can actually tilt 3 ways to have the screen at an easy to view angle when shooting in portrait mode at a low angle. I haven’t seen the extra screen or 3 way tilting in any Sony cameras that I’ve used so I found it pretty cool and wish I had those features too.
Overall impressions of FUJi’s gfx100:
It was such a treat to get the opportunity to test out such a beast of a camera. It has a hefty price tag of $15,000 CAD.
For most people this camera is overkill but it is amazing to see it how much detail is visible. All the clarity comes at a cost with massive files with compressed RAWs over 100 MB and uncompressed RAWs over 400 MB. You’ll need a lot of storage and a powerful computer to handle processing the images.
I work in the VFX & Animation film industry, and this camera is actually really useful for capturing images of textures. For example, pore and wrinkle maps of humans is necessary to create realistic looking digital characters.
This camera is perfect for those who want the upmost resolution and detail possible and the GFX100 delivers.
Do I want one? Yes!
Do I need one? No, not for the type of work I do.
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