Fujifilm GFX 100
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Fujifilm GFX 100on: July 11, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Last night, I photographed the Courtney Barnett concert in Grant Park. I did not have access to the press pit, which is too bad. I knew that without access, the images would be problematic at that venue, so I decided to experiment with the GFX 100. I sat about 25 rows back from the stage, to take advantage of the very slight pitch (trying to keep standing people out of the images). I used the 100-200mm Fuji lens, with the 1.4 extender. Here are my observations:
The Extender: I would not photograph a concert again with the extender unless it were at high noon with summer sun. For those who don’t photograph musicians in clubs and concert halls, the base settings tend to be 1/250th, F2.8, and ISO 1600 to 3200. Of course that varies, but if you had to pick your settings beforehand and could not change them, I suspect many music photographers would be in that range. The extender means F8 is as open as you can get. You might want motion blur for some shots, but if you are looking for blur-free images, you are looking at 1/200<sup>th</sup>or faster for a rock concert. As a consequence, you need to raise the ISO above what I find to be tolerable levels. For me, too much noise. In the extender’s defense, it creates a really physically long lens., but the image stabilization seems to do a great job eliminating shake.
The Buffer: As I said in my earlier post, I have been using two 128 SD cards with a 300mb transfer rate. Toward the end of the concert, I experimented with the hi-multi shot drive mode. The buffer never filled. I kept holding the shutter button down, and the camera kept taking images.
Auto Focus: I used both non-continuous auto focus and autofocus set to continuous and wide. I am not a fan of the continuous/wide setting. Those green squares jumping around drive me crazy, plus I am not confident that the focus is on the face. Mid way through I used face recognition without the eyes. I am skeptical that 25 rows back on a poorly lit stage that the system is going to detect the eyes. In any event, I was very impressed with autofocus-wide-continuous (the camera was set to the default (first) tracking mode). More experimentation is necessary, but the system is much improved over the GFX 50s. I suspect those who use continuous wide tracking or one of the other options regularly on other cameras will be impressed with the system.
ISO: I am having trouble judging ISO. When I examine focus at 100%, everything on the GFX 100 is bigger relative to my screen than it is on the GFX 50s, which includes the grain pattern. When you get to 2000 ISO, things get ugly. On the other hand, if I were making small prints, I don’t there would be a huge problem, because once you drop the screen size down to 66% or 50%, the image looks pretty good.
100MP: I still had heads in the shots because people were standing. Not that I am not guilty, but having a young hipster slacker shredding her guitar ala Jimi Hendrix or Pete Townsend style doesn’t work as an image with two 55-year old males with male pattern baldness just under the guitar. Sort of destroys the illusion. So I shot so the lower end of the guitar was above the heads, and then cropped. I still am not fond of the image composition—too plain—but that’s where the 100mp comes in handy.
Battery Life: I started the day with two fully charged batteries. Those ran out of steam very quickly—I was photographing elsewhere earlier in the day. I put two replacements in and those were still going strong after 800 or so images. My hypothesis. Older batteries seem to show their age more in the GFX 100 than the GFX 50. When I used the GFX in the weeks before I received the GFX 100, I had no battery issues.
Multi-Exposure. There is an option to create a digital double exposure. Sony provides this through an app, but I have had trouble downloading it. I decided to try it last night. It is a lot of fun. It takes the first image, asks if it is OK, then lets you take the second image while framing with the first image visible. Aesthetically, I have two contradictory thoughts about this feature. It is fun, but it could quickly become a gimmick if overused. On the other hand, someone who is thoughtful and chooses the right subject matter could create an interesting series or project with the feature. It outputs the final image as a jpeg. I am going to take a closer look at how it works.
Going Forward. Sometimes I do get press access. I will continue to use the Sony with the 100-200mm lens, but I will bring the GFX 100 and probably use it with the 100mm lens because of the F2 capabilities. With in-camera image stabilization, that lens is now viable at slower shutter speeds.
Now back out today with the camera.
Jack B. Siegel
Photographer, Attorney, and WriterRe: Fujifilm GFX 100Reply #1 on: July 11, 2019 at 9:19 pm
GFX100 – 300 mp handheld pano stitch ISO3200 – Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore
Cheers,
BernardRe: Fujifilm GFX 100Reply #5 on: July 12, 2019 at 12:34 amVery impressive – especially hand-held at this high resolution. Not only the camera and capture technique, but steady hands and excellent post-capture processing. Would be great to see a write-up on them.
Thanks but this in fact very easy. I was probably at 1/50s on the 110mm f2.0 at f2.0. The IBIS works great. The individual frames are sharp but a bit noisy. Shooting from a tripod at ISO100 and f5.6 would of course have been better but it wasn’t that kind of trip. The image is still more than ok as is for a 60inch wide print.
I just applied basic image corrections in C1 Pro and exported the 6 tiff files. Total processing time, including export, was less than 5 mins.
With the distance there was a low risk of parallax issues and PTgui generated the multilayer 11 GB tiff file in less than a minute. I had spent less than 5 mins on the stitching before that.
What took the longest was perhaps to save the tiff from PS. 😉
Not that this is a speed contest, but I expect that I’d be able to do the whole thing E2E in less than 10 mins on a recent fast Mac.
cheers,
Bernard
Re: Fujifilm GFX 100Reply #7 on: July 13, 2019 at 5:09 amI had an opportunity to play with a GFX100 at a Fuji event this week.
It’s been compared to the Canon D series in size. I’ve shot with a 1D and found it a beast to handle. I’m used to a Fuji X-H1 with no battery grip, and what was interesting with the GFX100 was that as soon as I started using it the camera became invisible. No searching for buttons, or grip or other handling issues.
I don’t have the fasted sd card, and the buffer started to slow after about 18 shots on high speed, saving as raw plus jpeg. Considering the file sizes that’s pretty good.
Here is a file and crop from the event.
1/3 second at f7.1, iso 100 and the 32-64mm lens, hand held.
I’d be happy with that.
DavidRe: Fujifilm GFX 100Reply #11 on: July 23, 2019 at 9:50 am
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