Big test
eight pages of options. The four directional swipes of the touchscreen are changeable, too – and here, there are seven pages of choices. So, referring back to my thoughts on the default AF ON and Q buttons, I made the front function button an extra AF ON to give me the choice. And I switched the AEL button to a Q menu, so I could call this up without having to adjust my right hand. The Q menu itself can be tailored, and you can have four, eight, 12 or 16 “OPERATINGTHE GFX 50S II WITH THE 35-70MM PROVEDA JOY, WITH INTUITIVE HANDLING”
icons on show, with different menus for still and movie shooting. Apart from the top-left icon, the others can be set to engage a wide range of functions, accessible with the joystick, front input wheel, or by the touch monitor. I had four lenses on hand to try with the camera. I majored on the new GF35-70mm f/4.5-5.6, but also enjoyed the company of the GF63mm f/2.8, GF32-64mm f/4 and GF100- 200mm f/5.6. Operating the GFX 50S II in combination with the 35-70mm proved a joy, with intuitive handling. The lens gives an equivalent of a 28-55mm lens in the 35mm format, so despite its modest maximum aperture and fatter body, it made for a lovely, general-purpose walkaround lens – and it’s lightweight, too. I spent time with the pair held in my right hand, with a wrist strap fitted for security. The contoured grip is
PERFORMANCE: EXPOSURE LATITUDE
-3EV
-2EV
ON THE DIM STREETS Shot with the GFX 50S II fitted with the GF63mm f/2.8, this evening urban scene was exposed at 1/35sec at f/2.8 and ISO 8000. The Raw was processed through Lightroom with no noise reduction applied
-1EV
0EV
+1EV
+2EV
Exposure brackets in 0.3EV and 1EV steps were shot for this test, in a variety of scenes. Raws recorded by the GFX 50S II were 14-bit, and files were corrected in Adobe Lightroom. This set of pictures was taken with the GF35-70mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. The correct exposure was 1/70sec at f/8 and ISO 100. Exposure latitude of the Raws was impressive with underexposure, but less so with overexposure. Any more than +2EV resulted in a colour cast and stark highlights, so this was about the limit for successful recovery – although it depended on the lighting. Some scenes had a more obvious colour cast than others, and thus needed more editing. With underexposure, frames at -3EV and even -4EV looked great when corrected. This included bright scenes like this one, but low-light environments could
+3EV
ROUND BACK I would prefer a more prominent AF ON button, and the Q button needs a handgrip adjustment to access, but both can be assigned to other function buttons. The eight-way focus joystick makes positioning of the focus zone – and changing focus area – a breeze
see a gain in digital noise – although noise reduction in software could easily deal with it. The -2EV and -1EV shots looked identical to accurately exposed frames when corrected.
46 Photography News | Issue 94
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