Photography News 87 Web

Big test

AUTOFOCUS PERFORMANCE, POWERED BY THEMODEL’S PHASE/CONTRAST DETECT HYBRIDSENSOR, RATES HIGHLY

IMAGE Shooting high, low or at waist level – in either upright or horizontal formats – is easy with the GFX100S articulating touch monitor. It’s only the forward-facing angle that is unreachable

5x5 and 7x7, and the active zone can be moved around the whole AF area. Meanwhile, wide/tracking mode activates all 117 zones. Finally, selecting the all option in the AF mode menu item enables you to scroll through each option using the focus lever. Face/eye detection is also available. Autofocus performance, powered by the model’s phase/contrast detect hybrid sensor, rates highly, proving quick and responsive in good conditions. In more challenging indoor conditions, where light levels and contrast are lower, AF remains effective, but takes a moment to calibrate sharp focus. Using the same lens and pitting the GFX100S against the GFX50R with its contrast detect only AF, the new camera performed significantly quicker. Any hesitancy was marginal on the GFX100S, while the GFX50R frankly struggled in comparison. The GFX100S face/eye detect also functioned well, even when faces appear small in the frame. Eye detect is sensitive, too. With non-linear motor lenses, such as the 80mm f/1.7, some focus motor noise can crop up – that’s worth remembering on recordings. The linear motor 32-64mm f/4 lens was much quieter, while the 100-200mm f/5.6 was silent.

Overall, I truly enjoyed GFX100S’s handling. As a regular GFX50R user, there’s no doubt this model handles better. It all starts with the ergonomically contoured handgrip. On top of that, I liked having a sub monitor show exactly what I wanted in stills and movie capture. The focus lever is also lovely to use, although I found myself favouring drag AF, which works with your eye up to the EVF. The combination of function options, a customisable Q menu and the touchscreen makes GFX100S fast and intuitive. That means less time messing and more time concentrating on the subject. During this test, I tried out the body with various Fujifilm GF lenses, including the 23mm f/4, 32-64mm f/4, 100-200mm f/5.6 and the new 80mm f/1.7 – the world’s fastest aperture medium format AF lens. We’re testing it fully for the next issue, but as a little taster, this lens is equivalent to a 63mm in the 35mm format. That places it in a grey zone between a slightly long standard and a short telephoto lens. Nonetheless, it combines well with the GFX100S and produces really impressive results. The GFX100S autofocus system consists of 117 zones in a 13x9 grid or 425 zones in a 17x25 grid. This works in single point AF mode, which covers most of the image format. In zone AF, the choice is 3x3,

IMAGES The sub monitor LCD is useful, allowing you to check key camera settings from above. There’s a built-in light and, in the menu, you can choose the information displayed in stills and movie modes, as well as browse histogram or virtual dial options

PERFORMANCE: PIXEL SHIFTMULTI-SHOTMODE If 102-megapixel resolution isn’t enough for you, shooting static subjects in the GFX100S’s Pixel Shift Multi-Shot mode Full-frame

Uncompressed Raw, 16-bit, ISO 100

Uncompressed Raw, 16-bit, ISO 1600

produces incredible 400-megapixel images. Users getting the best out of this mode are likely to include archivists, architecture and still life workers (and let’s not forget camera testers!). This mode is perfect for anyone who truly needs critically big results of static subjects and scenes. In this setting, the camera takes a total of 16 shots. It begins with a base shot, before moving the sensor one pixel respectively to the left, right and down to produce four shots. Subsequently, the process is repeated; this time, the sensor moves by 0.5 pixels in three directions, forming 16 Raw images – in 16-bit or 14-bit lossless only. These are taken using the camera’s electronic shutter. A time gap between each shot can be set to one, two, five or 15 seconds. The available ISO ranges between 100 and 1600 for this feature. The huge amount of data means the process takes some time. With a two-second timer, you’re looking at about 30 seconds – I used a SanDisk Extreme 300MB/s SD card and an exposure time of 1/6sec. It took around 14 seconds for the 16 exposures, even

with a fast shutter speed. I took test shots indoors and outdoors using a Leofoto LS-324C tripod and LH-40 ball head. A Wimberley Arca-Swiss plate was used to attach the camera. To produce a single DNG file, the 16 shots are put through Fujifilm’s Pixel Shift Combiner software. These merged DNGs (right) were processed in Photoshop CS with default sharpening and noise reduction. Typically, a single merged file takes up more than 1GB of space, opening up to an image that’s 23,296x17,472 pixels – at 300ppi, that’s 197x147cm. I have to say, the results are amazing – with incredible detail. If you require huge files of static subjects, this mode is sure to do a great job. It makes me wonder if Fujifilm plans to cascade the feature down to the X-T4 and other IBIS-equipped models.

Pixel Shift Multi-Shot, 16-bit Raw, ISO 100

Pixel Shift Multi-Shot, 16-bit Raw, ISO 1600

IMAGES Using Pixel Shift Multi-Shot mode, you can enjoy images with breathtaking clarity and detail – but this requires a static subject and a really solid tripod. The resulting images are merged externally, using free Fujifilm software

Issue 87 | Photography News 29

photographynews.co.uk

Powered by