The Fujifilm X-T2 (APS-C) and GFX 50S (medium format)
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Reviewed by Stephen Scharf
I rented a Fujifilm GFX 50S and the GF 32-64mm ƒ/4 zoom lens for a few days over a long weekend, including at my last professional motor race of the year, the Go Pro Grand Prix of Sonoma Indy Car race. To get a feel for the camera in a real-world setting, I used the GFX at the race for atmosphere, paddock, and pit lane photos at the race. I also used it for some landscape and architectural photography.
This is the third part of this review and is comprised of final impression and conclusions.
Final impressions
As far as I am concerned, when it comes to photography, it's all about the print. Per many of the comments from TOP readers in Parts I and II, one cannot really get a sense of this capabilities of the Fuji GFX from simply viewing small, low-res images on a computer display. So I spent the last few weeks making, viewing and reflecting on (no pun intended) prints made from the GFX to serve as a context for my final impressions. [Stephen, who I know to be a skilled printmaker, is sending me some prints, and I'll write a separate post giving you my impressions of them. —MJ]
For one thing, most displays have a pretty limited bit depth (most don't even have a 10-bit native LUT) and as such, can't really display all the information present in a printed 16-bit file. For another, it's really only with larger prints that one can start to get a sense of what GFX 50S is really capable of. Given that I have an Epson 3880, the largest prints I could make were 16x20 inches, but it was at least a starting point for reference and represented an improvement over viewing the photographs on a computer screen. Just to put things in perspective, though, it's when you start to print at 24x36 or larger that you really start to see the benefits that a medium format camera brings compared to APS-C or full-frame.
The other points where medium format cameras such as the GFX have advantages are in tonal gradation, acuity, and lens performance. While the Fuji GFX 50S doesn’t have an absolute resolution higher than some FF cameras, with a pixel area of 5.3 μm the area per pixel is approximately 30% larger than, for example, a Canon 5DSR, which means that for a given exposure the Fuji is going to capture more signal relative to noise. And more signal translates to more exposure latitude and a broader tonal range as well as potentially higher color accuracy. As mentioned in Part II, the ability of medium format to capture luminance variation across a broader range means, as Ming Thein has insightfully pointed out, greater control over how the highlights roll off in medium format.
Additionally, lenses designed for larger-format sensors have to make fewer optical compromises than lenses for smaller sensors, and generally suffer from less distortion and field curvature. These lenses also provide a finer degree of control over the range of depth-of-field and greater separation or distinction between the plane of focus and the out-of-focus areas of an image.
This provides us with more editing headroom, more control over the tonal range and depth-of-field, and as such, impacts how "natural" an image looks, particularly in a print. I liken this sense of naturalness to audio reproduction, where a first-class turntable playing a well-mastered and pressed LP or a high-resolution (e.g., 24/192) D/A converter renders a sonic presentation that sounds considerably more natural and musical than most 16/44 Redbook CDs played on a consumer-grade CD player. It can be tough to put into words, but you definitely know it when you hear or see it.
All this adds up to more "information" in an image, as well as more control by the photographer of how that information is edited or displayed, particularly in the print.
I wasn't able to compare prints from a Canon 5DSR or comparable FF cameras to a Fuji GFX, but I've spent quite a bit of time making and examining prints of the photographs presented in Part II. Black-and-white conversions were made using the Fujifilm Acros film preset from the RAW image in Lightroom, and printed on Epson Premium Luster paper using the Epson 3880's Advanced Black and White mode rather an ICC paper profile. "Norris Canyon Road" was the first photograph I took with the GFX that really started to give me a sense of what was medium format was all about. When printed, the tonal range—and, importantly, the camera’s ability to hold subtle gradations of tonality from the whites to the blacks—is impressive. The clouds have a soft, natural, look; the hills, fencing and pasture reveal midtones with highlights, midtones, and detail with subtlety yet clarity, and the quarter-tones and shadow regions of the trees and barn still reveal detail, texture and pattern.
The San Jose City Hall photographs possibly represent even more of a challenge, as the luminosity ranges from specular highlights that print near paper-white to blacks that are close to the Dmax of the printer's inkset. The photographs encompass quite a broad tonal range and, in some areas, a large amount of high-frequency detail, but, in viewing prints, one can see that the camera holds detail from the very brightest non-specular whites to down into the shadows towards the deep blacks. Gradations of tonality, surface, pattern, and texture are finely resolved, and the prints have the "silvery" quality of a silver gelatin print. Areas of windows, walls and doors that upon initial viewing appear to have no detail clearly show shadow detail and texture upon close examination under good lighting. I've sent three of the black-and-white prints to Mike, and hope that he will provide his insights and comments about them for the gang. [I will. —MJ]
The default color profile for the GFX, like the Fuji X-cams, is based on Provia, a film well-known for its accuracy and neutrality. I didn't make many color prints from the Indy Car race, but those I made were very accurate with respect to color, accuracy, saturation, and contrast, with gobs of detail—very Provia-like in color (even though Provia is a slide film).
Conclusions
The Fuji GFX is well-designed, beautifully made, and easy and intuitive to use. Its light weight and excellent ergonomics made it easy to shoot handheld, and, as I mentioned in Part I, the camera just gets out of the way of the photographer and lets you concentrate on your work rather than fiddling with the camera. The camera's operation and functionality just "falls to hand," so to speak, and, for a medium format camera, I found it to be responsive and snappy in use. Any camera that can lock focus and capture a racing car at speed is responsive enough for almost any real-world application in which one would use a medium format camera. The viewfinder and LCD viewing systems are just gorgeous in use, with accurate color and very fast refresh rates. An added plus is that, like the X-Pro2/X-T2, when shooting using the black-and-white film presets, you see your image and exposure in black and white as well. Most importantly, I literally never thought about the fact that I was using an EVF or, more to the point, that I was missing an OVF, when photographing with the GFX. In my opinion, EVFs have advanced to the point where they are more practical and useful than OVFs.
At the end of the day, medium format cameras all about image quality, or the attributes commonly regarded as image quality, and the GFX delivers those attributes in spades, with exceptional resolution, dynamic range, color and white balance accuracy, tonal range and gradation, editing headroom, and the control over distortion and the planes of D-o-F that medium format lenses bring.
An added plus using the GFX is that the metering and white balance is so good, so accurate, and the dynamic range so broad, that very little editing was required. Ninety-five percent of the time, if I had to do any editing, it was simply to tweak the black and white points of the histograms—and that, folks, was pretty much it. Standard sharpening and printing at 240 DPI for these photos yielded prints with very high level of detail without pushing either the image or printer to their full capabilities.
When the GFX 50S was announced at Photokina in 2016, there were a lot of expectations for this camera. Fujifilm was sending a message to the rest of the industry that it was fully committed to mirrorless and that it was "gettin' serious." Since its advent in the market, the GFX system has seen both rapid and widespread adoption by professionals and advanced amateurs as well as support from a surprisingly large number of third-party manufacturers.
Based on the camera's design, functionality, amazing image quality, flexibility and ease of use, and its continual development into a fully-fledged system with new lenses, accessories and recently, lighting systems (e.g. Profoto), I think it's destined to become a reference standard for many photographers as well as for the industry as whole. At a price of $6,499, it's difficult to think of this camera as an excellent value for money, but, if you get what you pay for, a camera with the capabilities of this one is an off-the-charts value proposition. The GFX delivers what it promises.
For me personally, I loved using and shooting with this camera. It immediately felt right at home. It was light, snappy, and fun to use. If you can afford to buy one, or have the opportunity to rent one, do so, and enjoy—but be mindful, as this camera has absolutely ruined me compared to anything else I've shot with when it comes to image quality.
I look forward to using the GFX again, and encourage anyone interested to do so as well.
Stephen
A scientist by profession and a photographer by avocation, Stephen Scharf has been a professionally accredited motorsports photojournalist since 2003. He’s currently one of the track photographers for Sonoma Raceway, covering all their professional motorsports and racing events for photojournalism, PR, and media purposes. His photographs have been published in numerous newspapers in the SF Bay Area, including the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as various motorsports websites and magazines. His work also includes landscape, architectural, urban exploration, fine art and documentary street photography.
©2017 by Stephen Scharf, all rights reserved
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