Photography News Issue 67

First look 14

Photography News | Issue 67 | photographynews.co.uk

FujifilmGFX100 PhotographyNews sawan early sample of the GFX100 at TPS. Now, this 102-megapixel camera has been officially unveiled, and is in-store from late June at a body price of £9999.We got to spend the day enjoying its charms

Specs

Prices £9999 body only Resolution

102 megapixels Image sensor 43.8×32.9mmBayer pattern with ultrasonic vibration cleaning, 11,648×8736 pixels File formats 14/16-bit Raws and JPEGs ISO sensitivity 100-12,800, expansion 50-102,400 Lensmount Fujifilm G mount Exposuremodes PASM Exposuremetering TTL 256-zone metering, multi/spot/ average/centre-weighted Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3EV Image stabiliser Built in, sensor shiftmechanismwith 5.5EVbenefit Shutter Mechanical 60mins to 1/4000sec, Bmode to 60mins Electronic 60mins to 1/16,000sec Flash sync 1/125sec Continuous shooting Up to 5fps in continuous highmode, up to 13 uncompressed Raws Autofocus Intelligent hybrid AF (TTL contrast AF / TTL phase detection AF). Single point AF: EVF / LCD: 13×9 / 25×17 (changeable size of AF frame). Zone AF: 3×3 / 5×5 / 7×7 from 117 areas on 13×9 grid, wide/tracking AF: up to 18 area. AF-S: wide / AF-C: tracking, all Storagemedia 2 x SD Card (UHS-I/UHS-II) Viewfinder 0.5in approx 5.76million dots OLED colour EVF Monitor 3.2in, 2.36million dots, tilt in three directions, touchscreen, approx 100% coverage Sub LCDmonitor 1.8in Rear submonitor 2.05in Start-up time 0.4 secs Filmsimulation 16modes, including ETERNA Video format MOV (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265 Movie resolutions DCI4K (4096×2160). 29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p 400Mbps/200Mbps/100Mbps up to 60mins 4K (3840×2160). 29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p 400Mbps/200Mbps/100Mbps up to approx 60mins Power supply 2 x NP-T125, 800-shot capacity Interfaces USB Type-C 3.2, HMDI Micro connector, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Dimensions (wxdxh) 156.2×144×75.1mm excluding EVF Weight 1400g inc EVF, battery, x 2 cards Contact fujifilm.eu/uk

bit 65,536 per colour, which in RGB means you get four trillion colours in 14-bit and 281 trillion in 16-bit. The difference of 277 trillion levels is a lot, but whether you need 16-bit capture is a moot point and the vast majority of us are perfectly happy using 14-bit sensors. I did shoot a few 14-bit and 16-bit comparison images to see if could see any obvious benefit, but as I was using a pre- production sample, a full 14-bit/16- bit comparison needs to wait until I get hold of final production camera. Using a Samsung 128GBMicro SD card (with a write speed of 30Mb/s, not ideal with this the amount of data involved with the GFX100), the capacity was 3069 fine-quality JPEGs, and 598 uncompressed Raws or 1176 lossless compressed Raws. According to the frame counter read- out before shooting, the expected number of 14-bit and 16-bit Raws was the same and, as 16-bit Raws are bigger, I expected fewer shots – this is probably due to the camera not having final firmware. With fine JPEGS and 14-/16-bit compressed Raws, I had capacity for 849 shots. With the Samsung card, each shot took around five seconds to write, so as usual with high-resolution cameras, you need the fastest cards you can manage. There are two SD card slots on the GFX100 with the usual save options. I spent nine hours using the GFX100 pre-production sample, together with a bag of lenses: the 23mm f/4, 32-64mm f/4, 45mm f/2.8 and 100-200mm f/5.6. Of these,

only the latter has any form of image stabiliser – Fujifilm’s OIS with a claimed 5EV benefit – and we’ll get onto the GFX100’s IBIS system later. I am a Fujifilm system owner, so I found the menu intuitive, as the GFX100’s structure is the same as current Fujifilm cameras. That said, there are of course new features, so there are extra items and some are buried fairly deep. The rear sub LCD monitor and the rear sub monitor set-up menus, for example.

Words by Will Cheung

Fujifilm’s was announced in 2016 with the introduction of the 51-megapixel GFX 50S, along with three lenses. When the lenses were launched, Fujifilm stated they were designed to be good enough optically for 100-megapixel cameras – so the ambition was clear from early doors. The GFX100’s sky-high 102-megapixel resolution is the camera’s headline feature on a long list of headline features that includes a hybrid phase/contrast detect AF system, a super-high resolution 5.76 million dot electronic viewfinder and an in-body image stabilisation system offering up to 5.5EV benefit. So, let’s start with the sensor. It is a CMOS, back-side illuminated (BSI) Bayer pattern unit measuring 43.8x32.9mm. The GFX format is 1.7x larger than full-frame 35mm, and while we (along with everyone else) have been calling this image size medium format, Fujifilm is now rebranding it as large format. Whatever you make of that, the GFX100’s sensor has a native speed range of ISO 100 to 12,800, expandable to 50 and 102,400 and, as well as the usual JPEG and Raw format shooting options, in Raw you have the extra option of shooting either in 14- or 16-bit, both recordable as uncompressed lossless and compressed lossless formats. The technical difference is that 14- bit captures 16,384 colours and 16- GFX system

I saw a significant benefit in the GFX100’s system in terms of speed, sensitivity and sure-footedness

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