FUJIFILM GFX 100 Hands-On Review

We traveled out to Camera West in Rancho Mirage to be one of the first people to get our hands on the FUJI Film GFX 100!

CLICK HERE to watch the video!

Ben Carpenter and I are going to talk about the camera and go into an extensive review, testing it out in different light and settings.

Now, the camera has similar ergonomics as the GFX 50S but some upgrades inside the camera are:

100MP Medium Format Sensor

It really is an incredible landscape setup. but is bound to go beyond that as it has 3.76 Million Phase Detect Pixels.

It also has internal body stabilization, A-Axis IBIS (5.5 stops) which is something we’ve never seen in this medium format before.

10 bit 4:2:0 Internal

10 bit 4:2:2 External

Up to 17:9 4K, 30FPS, Full Sensor Width

EVF: 5.76 Million Dot OLED

You can exchange the viewfinder!

As we are exploring this camera, we noticed that it has dual batteries!

This camera has internal body stabilization, so that would take a lot more power.

IMAGE QUALITY TEST

The first images we shot with this image quality test were with a strobe. We had a pro photo strobe with an umbrella on a grey background.

100mm Lens at F2

This is a 102 megapixel image and the detail is incredible! This camera is so sharp that when shooting people, you’re going to want to soften it up a bit.

On medium format the depth of field is so shallow, at F2 you really have little depth of field. You’d have to be at F4 or F5 to carry both of her eyes.

It falls off on the side of her face and her ear is way out of focus.

This is beautiful color in camera. I didn’t correct anything; I’ve just adjusted the color balance slightly.

Taking it outside, the light’s not quite as sharp because you don’t get that highlight and shadow, so outside is going to be a little different.

I was having a hard time getting one where I felt like her eye was as sharp as inside with the strobe. The bokah is still beautiful and soft.

Inside the camera you have the ability to emulate any of the FUJI film films if you want to do that, those become your standards for how you want your color, but I just used a normal standard raw image off of the camera.

DYNAMIC RANGE TEST

This camera had a pretty amazing range!

EV 0

When I go normal here it was really easy to hold the highlights with just normal exposure.

EV -1

When I went to- 1, I can’t tell the difference between these 2.

EV -2

EV -3

I was able to recover the highlights at -2 and -3 without any problem.

EV -4

EV -5

The same goes for -4 and 5! I was able to fully recover all the highlights.

EV +1

EV +2

When I go to +1 I am able to hold the highlights on the sidewalk, but at +2 they are gone.

EV 0

EV +3

At this point, the color has shifted a lot and her skin has begun to posterize. There are no details left in the highlights what so ever.

EV +4

She’s basically a ghost.

When you look closely at the Spyder Checkr and under expose by 15, I’m still not seeing any color shift at all. So this camera has incredible dynamic range. This would actually be a great street camera, if you’re in difficult lighting situations.

ISO TEST

100 ISO

Very clean.

200 ISO

There’s a little bit of grain here.

800 ISO

I’m already starting to see a bit of grain build on her eye. It’d be no problem for video whatsoever.

1600 ISO

At 1600 you really start to see the grain pattern as it starts to build in her eye.

3200 ISO

6400 ISO

We’ve got major grain at 6400.

I’d try to stay at 100-200 for still images.

12800 ISO

25600 ISO

The grain is extremely strong.

51200 ISO

If you go back through and just look at the Color Checkr, I’m pretty pleased with how it maintained color. The grain built, but color stayed consistent.

I think the ISO is good for stills on the lower end and maybe gets up into the 1600 for video.

STILL MODE AUTOFOCUS TEST

I was not as impressed with this one as I hoped I would be.

In the first 2 frames it holds on and is still acceptable.

4^th frame. It’s back in and is pretty sharp.

6^th frame was out and 7^th frame was as sharp as can be and it stayed sharp for 8^th and 9^th frame.

VIDEO MODE AUTOFOCUS TEST

It has become a standard for cameras to be able to hold focus well and as she walks towards me, it is not losing it at all, all the way till she’s right up in front of the camera.

I can’t say that this beats the best cameras that are out there right now, but I’d say that it’s in the same category.

So autofocus in still mode was not as impressive as I thought it would be, but autofocus in video mode I feel like is as good as anything on the market right now. It gave me a great image as people walk toward the camera.

IMAGE STABILIZATION TEST

The GFX 100 includes sensor shift stabilization and it compensates for up to 5.5 stops of camera shake. I wanted to test that out and see what it looks like and it did really well. The fame is floating, you can see my steps in it but I thought it was very impressive.

This camera is really going to be incredible if you want to put it on a drone, for handheld work. it really becomes a video camera, rather than just a still camera.

LENSES

Lens wise, we really enjoyed using the FUJI FILM GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR Lens. An F/2 lens on a medium format camera is kinda crazy, because reality is, just about nothing’s in focus. Unless you’re doing head and shoulders, F/2 is just way too shallow. I would choose to be at F/4 most of the time, but that 110mm lens was just beautiful.