Photography News Issue 44

Photography News | Issue 44 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 41

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a magnified viewing image for critical focus. The camera offers the choice of 117 or 425 zones – in zone and Wide/ Tracking AF you only get the 117 zones option. I concentrated on zone (3x3, 5x5, 7x7) and single point AF, mostly the latter because I like to choose what’s sharp and this worked very well. When the smallest single zone AF point is used the 425 zone option does make navigating the point around slightly laborious even with the focus lever but the very frame wide coverage means you can be very specific. The option of not having the AF reappearing on the other side of image would be nice. Generally, in good light, the single AF setting zipped into focus even in its normal mode – rapidAF is amenu option although there seems little speed benefit. Continuous AF was much slower than single AF, could be uncertain even when the camera and subject were both static and didn’t cope especially well with tracking moving subjects. Exposure and white-balance systems worked impressively and consistently well. I shot mostly in aperture-priority and manual exposure modes using the multizone metering option, and rarely was I troubled by poor exposures. On a shoot in London with full sun reflecting from glass and metal skyscrapers the camera still gave perfectly good exposures even when the bright highlight was in the frame.

The good exposure latitude of the Raws helped to get fully toned images even when the exposures needed a helping hand in editing. I’ve been fortunate enough to handle and shoot with the GFX 50S on several occasions and it has grownonme each time. It’s not overly complex to use yet there is plenty of control and potential when you start digging around in the menus, so ample customisation potential. And it is so good to use. From the on/ off switch being in the best possible position,ie.aroundtheshutterbutton, to the locking control knobs and nine function buttons and touch screen swipe and pinch playback, there is so much so right with the GFX 50S. That would be impressive in a third generation camera, but here we’re talking about Fujifilm’s first effort and for that it deserves the highest praise. I’ve been fortunate enough to handle and shoot with the GFX 50S on several occasions and it has grown on me each time

Performance: ISO

Original image

The GFX 50S has an extensive ISO range. The native ISO range is 100 to 12,800 with expanded settings down to ISO 50 and up to 102,400 with both JPEG and Raw format shooting available throughout. The ISO knob has settings from ISO 100 to 12,800 and should you want to exploit the expansion settings you need to set the dial to C and then use the front command dial – here the ISO is changed in 0.3EV steps and then in 1EV steps with the expanded settings. ISO performance is impressive. Images in the ISO 100-800 range

are very similar in terms of noise levels and even a side by side comparison of the ISO 100 and ISO 1600 shows barely any noise increase. By ISO 3200 there is some coarseness in midtones and there’s very minor detail loss but you have to look hard. It is difficult not to be impressed, Get to ISO 6400 and noise is more evident, but again detail isn’t too badly affected, and some noise reduction in software restores images to much lower ISO levels. Image quality finally takes a hit at the top 12,800 native ISO

and while noise is clearly evident it’s not horrible by any means and certainly can be used for big prints with some noise reduction in software. Venture into the arena of the expansion settings and quality takes a serious dip with heightened noise levels, desaturated shots and detail loss, but that is no surprise. There is no doubt that the GFX 50S is a very high class performer in the ISO arena and if you need to use ISO 3200 or even 6400, the results are remarkable. Truly remarkable.

ISO 100

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 12,800

ISO 25,600

ISO 51,200

ISO 102,400

Images Excellent high ISO performance is something we are beginning to take for granted but it is still impressive to see a camera live up to its potential. The GFX 50S’s top ISO speed is 12,800 and, remarkably, I got shots I’d happily make very big prints from even with minimal noise reduction in software. Go slower and the picture, literally, gets even better. A very, very capable ISO performance from this machine.