With their larger sensors, higher resolutions, and more accurate colors, medium format cameras are perfect for architectural, commercial, and fine art photography. Of course, having those larger sensors also mean they require bigger, heavier bodies. The Fujifilm GFX100RF looks to redefine portability for the medium-format category.
Designed to let you capture high-res, large-format images in a compact package, the camera, basically, combines the powerful sensor of the GFX line with the portable styling of the mirrorless cameras from the X100 series. Sure, it’s a lot beefier than your typical X100 model, but it’s also significantly smaller than your typical medium-format rig.
The Fujifilm GFX100RF is equipped with a large-format 102-megapixel sensor that’s about 1.7 times larger than a standard 35mm full-frame sensor, as well as the outfit’s latest X-Processor 5 image engine. Unlike your typical medium-format rig, there’s no interchangeable lens system, instead coming with a fixed f/4 lens that’s been developed specifically for this model. According to the outfit, it swaps out the usual focal plane shutter in favor of a leaf shutter system that allowed them to shorten the back focus distance and decrease its overall size. Additionally, the leaf shutter creates much less shake than a focal plane system, which will absolutely come in handy, since this thing doesn’t have in-body stabilization (which is yet another thing they ditched to achieve the compact size).
The lens is made up of 10 elements arranged in eight groups that include a pair of aspherical lenses, a configuration that, the outfit claims, suppresses spherical aberration and field curvature to help achieve its high-resolution performance. A newly-developed nano-GI coating for lenses with large curvature has been applied to the components to suppress internal reflections down to the peripheral sections. According to the outfit, the camera borrows the built-in ND filters of the X100 series, which should be particularly useful for shooting at maximum aperture in bright settings and shooting with slow shutter speeds.
The Fujifilm GFX100RF has a dedicated aspect ratio dial that lets you quickly switch among nine different options that have been derived from both analog and digital cameras the outfit has made through the years. Fujifilm is making a big deal of how it harkens back to the feel of vintage cameras and that’s definitely an aspect of this thing that we absolutely like. There’s also a digital tele-converter selection along the front, so you can easily switch from the native 35mm to 45mm, 63mm, and 80mm, as well as a new Surround View function that displays the area outside the shooting range of the aspect ratio as a semi-transparent or line pattern. For video, it can shoot up to 4K 30 fps in 4:2:2 10-bit format, while being compatible with Frame.io camera-to-cloud technology.
Around the back, it gets a 3.15-inch touchscreen display, as well as an electronic viewfinder with 0.84x magnification and 5.76 million dots. Everything is housed in a precision-crafted aluminum body that’s unmistakably based on the X100 series’ elegant aesthetics.
The Fujifilm GFX100RF comes out in late April in black and silver colors. Price is $4,899.95.
