Fuji GFX100 Review – the ‘mini Alexa 65’ goes to a Formula One test session

[Andrew Reid]

It's Monza next so we may be hearing more swearing in a Northern accent. Northern Italian that is.

[Andrew Reid]

16 hours ago, MicahMahaffey said:

its also really cool to know some full frame lenses work! 

So many work wonders on it, I have been writing stuff down and keeping track of what's good.

Would still be great if Fuji put a full frame crop mode in there for 4K as well.

[BTM_Pix]

16 minutes ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

Binotto?

(considering their performance on Spa...)

No, it was Vettel.

[Andrew Reid]

Vettel's season getting off to a good start... could only get better from then on?? 🙂

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

Very good teardown of the GFX100 by Roger: https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2020/08/the-fujifilm-gfx-100-vs-salt-water-teardown/

Bullet points for me:

- The weather sealing is not so good - be careful with water;
- The internal structure of the camera is tank-like (specially in the sensor area);
- LOOK HOW IT IS DONE, CANON - you take the back plate of the camera off, HUGE heatsink attached to the back plate, processor with thermal pad in direct contact with the processor.

[PannySVHS]

All of my favorite of Andrews videos offer beautiful colour. Digital Bolex, GH4 in amazing glory, Samsung NX1, of course GH1 and GH2 with legendary quality, and so on- all showcase colour and milk the last bit of image quality, not even talking about the beautiful compositions, atmosphere and aesthetic pleasure. In my eyes the GFX video looks blank colour wise. I don´t know if it is the incarnation of FLog or the season of the year but I am a bit surprised. Colour has not that Fuji Eterna magic which we know from the XT series.

Coupling this beast of a camera with the Zeiss zoom is an awesome move. Good thing there are not so many GFX owners out there to rise prices for the Zeiss zoom into the four digit region.:) Would be lovely to see some lucious nature and impressive faces with this camera.

[HockeyFan12]

Have you tried any of the FD primes other than the 85mm FD L? 50mm FD L is rumored to cover Alexa65 I think. I assume the 24mm FD L wouldn't cover, but wouldn't know. I have read many Nikkors cover Alexa65, too and that is an even larger image circle.

I wouldn't be surprised if most 135 glass covers 2.35:1 on Fuji. The image circle is only 3-4mm larger than they're designed for.

Some madman should try E mount speed boosters on full frame and see what kind of coverage they get with 135 glass. Wish there were more L mount speed boosters out there.

[jagnje]

Andrew, I have been visiting this forum for years now, and It's my go to place to check whats new when buying a new camera or just to see whats up in the dslr industry. I think you are a great reviewer, but stick to that, because filmmmaker you are not.  Please do not take this personaly. 

[Andrew Reid]

On 9/1/2020 at 2:00 AM, HockeyFan12 said:

Have you tried any of the FD primes other than the 85mm FD L? 50mm FD L is rumored to cover Alexa65 I think. I assume the 24mm FD L wouldn't cover, but wouldn't know. I have read many Nikkors cover Alexa65, too and that is an even larger image circle.

I wouldn't be surprised if most 135 glass covers 2.35:1 on Fuji. The image circle is only 3-4mm larger than they're designed for.

Some madman should try E mount speed boosters on full frame and see what kind of coverage they get with 135 glass. Wish there were more L mount speed boosters out there.

The 85mm F1.2L is a work of art on the GFX 100. A thing of beauty. The 55mm F1.2 FD Aspherical as well - it covers. The 50mm F1.2L FD isn't quite there. Too much vignetting and doesn't stand out against other similar fast old SLR 50mm lenses on it. Actually some of the surprising fits are with the Minolta and Voigtlander glass. Some pancake, smaller stuff works surprisingly well. Voigtlander 40mm F2.0 Ultron in EF mount for example. Pentax 43mm F1.9 Limited is nice as well. Gives you the fast 35mm wide angle look on medium format for cheap. Just don't expect the corner sharpness to be as good as Fuji's own GFX lenses for landscapes. You can stop down but there's still a bit of a drop off in the far corners in 4:3. But in 16:9 for 4K filming, it's fine.

85mm and 135mm do tend to go well. Wider than 40mm and you tend to struggle with vignetting. The 24mm F1.4L FD I did try and no luck with that! This is why I think it'd be really nice to have a full frame crop mode in 4K video by firmware update, for the gems like that, and also even a 4:3 anamorphic mode that uses the medium format 16:9 height of the sensor equivalent to how tall the active imaging area is in 3:2 for full frame, but crop the wide sides of the sensor to 4:3 in that mode.

[Nikkor]

How does the nikkor 28 1.4 look on the fuji? I remember putting it infront of a groundglass and beeing suprised over the coverage.

[Andrew Reid]

2 hours ago, Nikkor said:

How does the nikkor 28 1.4 look on the fuji? I remember putting it infront of a groundglass and beeing suprised over the coverage.

The 28mm F1.4 AF-D (old legend) ?

I tried that.

I seem to remember it didn't quite cover but can check again and memory is a bit fuzzy.

[HockeyFan12]

10 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The 85mm F1.2L is a work of art on the GFX 100. A thing of beauty. The 55mm F1.2 FD Aspherical as well - it covers. The 50mm F1.2L FD isn't quite there. Too much vignetting and doesn't stand out against other similar fast old SLR 50mm lenses on it. Actually some of the surprising fits are with the Minolta and Voigtlander glass. Some pancake, smaller stuff works surprisingly well. Voigtlander 40mm F2.0 Ultron in EF mount for example. Pentax 43mm F1.9 Limited is nice as well. Gives you the fast 35mm wide angle look on medium format for cheap. Just don't expect the corner sharpness to be as good as Fuji's own GFX lenses for landscapes. You can stop down but there's still a bit of a drop off in the far corners in 4:3. But in 16:9 for 4K filming, it's fine.

85mm and 135mm do tend to go well. Wider than 40mm and you tend to struggle with vignetting. The 24mm F1.4L FD I did try and no luck with that! This is why I think it'd be really nice to have a full frame crop mode in 4K video by firmware update, for the gems like that, and also even a 4:3 anamorphic mode that uses the medium format 16:9 height of the sensor equivalent to how tall the active imaging area is in 3:2 for full frame, but crop the wide sides of the sensor to 4:3 in that mode.

Very interesting..... I have tried the 55mm Aspherical on the S1H and it's stellar. Can't imagine how great it looks on medium format.

Not a big fan of corner sharpness. More into lenses with a lot of curvature of field (soft corners and swirl bokeh).

S1 and S1H have a great hidden anamorphic mode but it's only 30p. 6k photo mode set to 4:3 is 4992X3744, 95% of the full sensor height. Not sure how 4992 is 6K but the image is excellent. 75mm Lomo anamorphic should cover.

Leica Summitar and Kodak Ektar (47mm) are also interesting if you like swirl bokeh. No idea if they cover more than 135. I suspect the 47mm Ektar is what Arri is rehousing in DNA.

[wallpaperviking]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:55 PM, Andrew Reid said:

So many work wonders on it, I have been writing stuff down and keeping track of what's good.

Would still be great if Fuji put a full frame crop mode in there for 4K as well.

Does the Sigma 70-200mm cover the 4:3 sensor at all zoom ranges?  Are you using it in Eos mount with a smart adapter?  Is the autofocus o.k?  Thanks! 

[Nikkor]

20 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The 28mm F1.4 AF-D (old legend) ?

I tried that.

I seem to remember it didn't quite cover but can check again and memory is a bit fuzzy.

Yes the legend, I remember seeing a post of you with a picture of it on the gfx.

[Andrew Reid]

On 9/1/2020 at 8:09 PM, jagnje said:

I think you are a great reviewer, but stick to that, because filmmmaker you are not.  Please do not take this personaly. 

That's right. I am a Dp!

Also I think you are a great forum member, but also a complete TWAT. Please don't take it personally!