FUJIFILM GFX100 II
IN THE FRAME The compact GFX100 II (left) works well with a connected Atomos device. Shallow depth- of-field (above) is its stock in trade when used with a fast lens wide open
“This isn’t the sort of camera to lock down on a tripod and use for recording all-day conferences or live events”
every common format covered to every sort of media or recording device, so that gets a big thumbs- up. And beware, you will need a lot of storage space if you intend on using the most data-intensive formats and codecs. We filled up a 64GB CFexpress card in a matter of minutes when doing our tests. You will need to invest in some large cards and even bigger hard drives if you are going to shoot a lot. But this isn’t the sort of camera to lock down on a tripod and use for recording all-day conferences or live events. You’ll burn through lots of media space for that, and there is a chance it could overheat. We certainly didn’t get any overheating issues, but the ambient temperature was less than 20°C and we filled the card in around 20 minutes. Fujifilm offers a bolt-on cooling fan as found on the X-H2S, if you are worried about the temperature. We tried the camera with the tack-sharp Fujifilm 55mm f/1.7, which lets you use all the latest AF technology. Fujifilm says there is improved AF tracking and it did work very well. The face and eye detection was also very accurate, which is important when
But in reality, the sweet spot is using any of the formats that give a 1.01x crop – which is virtually nothing. So that’s 5.8K in 2.35:1 anamorphic, or either 4K or DCI 4K. All these allow frame rates up to 60fps and offer internal recording in Apple ProRes HQ, 422 and LT, H.265 in 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 as well as H.264 in 4:2:0 all in a choice of All-Intra and Long GOP compressions. The Premista setting uses a 1.1x crop and offers similar options in 5.4K anamorphic and 4K/DCI 4K. And if you want to shoot one of the ProRes options, then the camera offers ProRes 422 Proxy for a faster workflow in post. It’s quicker than converting a full ProRes file in your editing software. All the footage can be recorded to a CFexpress Type B card or externally to a fast SSD via the USB-C port. If you want to use a monitor/recorder then the full-sized HDMI allows formats including Raw to be recorded. An Atomos unit converts the footage to 12-bit Apple ProRes Raw at up to 8K/29.97p while a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G saves it in 12- bit Blackmagic Raw. Apart from internal Raw, that’s pretty much
102-megapixel CMOS sensor that measures 43.8x32.9mm. The camera offers a choice of different aspect ratios, including 35mm and Fujifilm’s Premista size as well as anamorphic with different de-squeeze monitoring options. But depending on the formats you choose, you do not end up using quite as much of the sensor as you might think. Shoot in 8K and there is a significant 1.53x crop, so you are using a 29x16mm section of the sensor, which is smaller than full- frame. DCI 8K is marginally bigger with a 1.44x crop. If you absolutely must have the highest-resolution file and can handle a maximum frame rate of 30fps, then go for it.
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