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Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 R WR Review

Dustin Abbott

October 24th, 2023

Those who are accustomed to smaller sensors are unlikely to be impressed with a maximum aperture of F1.7, but when you are talking larger medium format(ish) sensors like Fujifilm’s GFX line, this is a HUGE maximum aperture.  This is only the second lens on the platform from Fuji with a maximum aperture this large, and in many ways it is an improvement on the 80mm F1.7 that I reviewed a few years ago.  The new Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 R WR is released alongside the very impressive Fujifilm GFX100 II flagship camera, and I had the opportunity to review them both at the same time (you can catch my review of the GFX100 II here).  The new GF 55mm is an interesting focal length (roughly the full frame equivalent of 44mm), which provides a very flexible “normal” angle of view that I particularly enjoy.  You can get my full thoughts on the lens in my video review below…or keep reading.

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Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GFX100 II and the new GF 55mm F1.7 WR.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

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I love this focal length for its versatility and very natural framing.  It’s great for landscapes…

…for portraits…

…and, thanks to its reasonably close focus abilities and large aperture, the ability to beautifully blur out backgrounds in closer shots.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the main new features of the GF 55mm:

  • Medium Format 
  • 44mm (Full-Frame Equivalent)
  • F1.7 aperture is the brightest on the system
  • DC Motor with GMR Sensor AF System
  • Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm
  • 2 x Aspherical, 2 x ED Elements
  • Weather-Sealed Design & Fluorine Coating

This is an excellent pairing for Fuji’s medium format bodies, providing great image quality, a solid build, and better autofocus than what we saw on the 80mm F1.7 lens.  At $2300 USD, it isn’t cheap (the same price as the 80mm), but medium format in general is more about optical excellence than financial bargains.   Despite the price I think this is one of the better options on the GFX platform…read on to find out why.

 

Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 Build, Handling, and Features

The massive lens mount size of the GFX system really sets the tone for the girth of these GF lenses.  The Fuji X-mount (APS-C) is 44mm is diameter; the GF mount is a whopping 76.5mm in diameter.  The Canon full frame RF mount is 54mm in diameter by comparison, closer to the APS-C size than the massive medium format dimensions.  The front opening of lenses changes according to the focal length and aperture combination, but the rear diameter at the mount is consistent.  The GF 55mm F1.7 is nearly identical in size to the 80mm F1.7:  94.7mm (3.7″) in diameter and 99.3mm (3.9″) in length.  The 55mm is ever-so-slightly lighter at 780g (1.7lb) compared to 795g for the 80mm.  That results in a squat look where the lens is nearly as wide as it s long:

That’s obviously not a small or light lens, and, as such, is a departure from the two existing lenses closest in focal length in the 50mm F3.5 and 63mm F2.8.  Both of those lenses have a considerably smaller maximum aperture and are smaller, lighter, less expensive lenses.   Here’s a quick spec comparison across all four lenses.

 

The industry standard for focal lengths is the full frame/35mm standard, where the 55mm MF lens has a 44mm focal length equivalent.  While F1.7 doesn’t sound very impressive as a maximum aperture if you’re accustomed to full frame or APS-C lenses, this is (according to Fuji) the “brightest” (widest aperture) lens available for medium format.  Aperture is a somewhat tricky subject, as there is no simple “equivalency” like there is for focal length.  An F2.8 aperture, for example, is a constant measurement of the physical opening of a lens’ iris whether on APS-C, full frame, or medium format.  So, for light gathering purposes, an F2.8 aperture will produce the same exposure on all three systems. 

So, that’s one answer.  F1.7 on medium format is the same as F1.7 on full frame when it comes to how much light can pass through it.

But that’s not the whole picture, as depth of field varies radically depending on the sensor size.  Medium format lenses often have relatively small maximum aperture sizes but yet can produce amazingly shallow depth of field results with lovely, creamy bokeh.  The “crop factor” relative to the 35mm sensor size of Fuji’s GFX mount is 0.79, which means that the GF 55mm will perform similarly to a full frame 44mm F1.3 lens for framing and depth of field, though the light gathering potential of the lens is only F1.7.  Confused yet?

Up front we have a fairly common 77mm filter size that is shared by the 80mm lens.

The included hood is petal shaped and made of plastic and has a smooth satin finish that hopefully won’t be too susceptible to marking (a frequent problem with a smooth rather than flocked finish).  It does have a lock to make sure that it doesn’t get inadvertently bumped loose.

The GF 55mm has a rubber gasket at the lens mount, internal seals, and a fluorine coating on the front element to give it a professional grade of weather resistance.  This is what the WR in the name stands for.

One departure from the 80mm in design is that Fuji has moved up to an 11 bladed aperture iris, as the high blade count lens itself to rounder bokeh highlights as the lens is stopped down.

This is a positive change, in my opinion.  As we will see in a bit, the quality of the bokeh is one of the highlights of the lens.

Minimum focus distance is 50cm (1.6 feet), and the lens produces a a decent 0.17x maximum magnification.  

That’s not going to set any records, but it is high enough to be useful in shooting up close…and lens performance stays high there.  Pair this lens with one of Fuji’s high resolution MF bodies, and you can easily crop in tight to make things look a lot more macro-ish.

 

The lens design and features on the lens is going to be instantly familiar to anyone who spent any time with Fuji lenses.  There is a dual approach to aperture with both a manual aperture ring along with an “A” mode (automatic) that allows aperture to be controlled within camera.  On GF lenses there is also a “C” mode, which stands for command, giving you yet another way (command dial) to control aperture.  The “R” in the lens name refers to this aperture ring.

The focus ring is wide and rubberized, and that section of the lens is the largest in diameter.  Your hand will fall naturally to that area.  The damping and precision is fairly good, though, as per usual on Fuji cameras, it will take a lot of rotations on the focus ring to make any major focus changes.  It is better used to fine tune focus if you want a slightly different focus point than what AF selects.

There are no switches on the lens barrel.  AF/MF will be handled by on camera controls, and there is no focus limiter.  There is also no lens-based stabilization, though in camera stabilization has been a constant feature of Fuji’s GFX cameras, so it pretty much a moot point.  I was able to handhold very low shutter speeds with the lens/camera combination…like this shot at 1/3rd second.

The lens looks good mounted Fuji’s very handsome looking new GFX100 II.  It has a nice profile and looks like it belongs.

There are no surprises here in the build and handling.  Fuji has a formula that they are sticking to for now.  With the advances in video features on the GFX100 II, however, it would be useful to see an option to declick the aperture and perhaps to have a few more on lens controls.

Autofocus Performance

While there are some Fuji GFX lenses with a linear focus motor (LM), Fuji has elected to go with the older DC motor technology in both of these large aperture lenses.   I’m not sure that I fully understand the reasons why, though I will also note that the largest aperture lens on the XF platform (the XF 50mm F1.0 which I reviewed here) also didn’t use an LM motor even though they are even more common with XF lenses.  Clearly Fuji has a challenge in implementing linear motors in some of these more demanding lenses.  Sony is the best example of how to do with right now, with their 50mm F1.2 G Master employing 4!!! equivalent type motors to make sure that autofocus is effortless even with the very large maximum aperture.  I think that learning to design with multiple linear motors is the way forward for autofocus on premium lenses like the GF 55mm F1.7.

 

But that’s not what we have.  We have a DC motor instead, and what that means is that focus is definitely not silent.  You hear some scratchy motor sounds whenever larger focus changes are made, and those will definitely be picked up by the on board mics during video capture even though Fuji has done a good job in damping focus changes (and thus noise) during video capture.

Fuji’s goal has been to make a previously inaccessible format more “populist” by giving its medium format cameras autofocus performance that is close to what’s achievable on smaller formats.  Every generation is to be “the one” where autofocus truly catches up, but there is of course the reality that this is a moving target.  Autofocus development on the mirrorless front in smaller sensors has rapidly advanced over the past five years, and while the new GFX100 II that I used to test the lens on is definitely the most advanced autofocusing medium format camera that Fujifilm has produced to date, it is still far removed from the top 35mm cameras.  I’ve seen one reviewer claim that autofocus is as good as the Sony a7R5 (a camera that I own), but I suspect this person doesn’t have much experience with the a7R5.  I ran some head to head tests, and even using an inexpensive Viltrox AF 28mm F1.8 that I happened to be testing at the same time, autofocus performance was faster, more confident, and more accurate for both stills and video with the Sony combination despite the lens costing more than 6x less.  But let us lay aside these comparisons outside the system, as a more accurate snapshot of what is going on is a comparison with what has been happening on Fuji’s own smaller sensor cameras.  

I saw focus results with the 55mm and GFX100 II combination that is fairly similar to what I’m seeing with my X-H2, with AI tracking doing a good job of identifying subjects and following them, though the very narrow depth of field at close focus distances will often show one shortcoming:  focus is typically on the eyelash or lid rather than the iris.  That was true with an animal subject:

…and also with a human subject.

This comparison of a few shots of Nala shows the difference between that front focused result and a (unfortunately) rare accurately focused result:

My experience is that the slightly front focused result is the more typical result.

With a little more depth of field, however, I found Eye AF to be very accurate at a variety of focus distances.  I had excellent portrait results with the GF 55mm F1.7 at a variety of focus distances and angles, and even when I put obstructions like branches, leaves, or pine needles in between myself and the subject.

I also saw mostly good results in backlit situations.  I shot a photo of a golfing buddy teeing off with the strong autumn afternoon directional sun coming right at me, but you can see that the end result is well focused.

This shot is the only one that I had to resort to manual focus for, and it was largely because I was shooting a narrow backlit subject.  Autofocus didn’t want to come close (kept focusing on the background), so I used manual focus to nail the shot.

This shot was arguably more difficult, and, while I got a few pulses, autofocus really nailed the shot.

 

Autofocus also locked on accurately even when shooting in extremely dim conditions – like this bookshelf basically in the dark.  I got a 1/40th of second shutter speed shooting at ISO 12,800 and using an F1.7 lens (the fastest maximum aperture currently available on the system).

Autofocus slows down, obviously, but not in an extreme way.

Autofocus also worked well for landscape shots or shots with larger depth of field:

So, by and large, I had very good focus results with still subjects. 

So how about if subjects are in motion?  I had a mixed bag of results in those scenarios.  Trying to grab photos of Nala walking towards me (Bengal cats don’t want to stay still when the camera comes out!) was an exercise in frustration.  I didn’t get one well focused results as the camera/lens tried to grab focus quickly.

But things were much better when I had my son shoot some layups for me.  Tracking immediately picked up his face and followed it successfully throughout the movement and follow through.  Not every frame is perfectly focused (most misses come about 3-4 shots into the sequence for some reason), but I also didn’t see any big swings to front or back focus.  I would estimate about 80% of the shots were well focused.

So no, that’s not Sony a7RV level of performance, but it is pretty fantastic for medium format…and when you consider that each file is 102MP!

I also saw a bit of a mixed bag when testing video autofocus.  Focus pulls were relatively fast and smooth for medium format.  I also saw less obvious stepping.  But what I also saw was a frequent lack of confidence in locking focus.  There were a few focus pulses and sometimes focus never transitioned properly to the new subject.  In real world shooting I also saw some hunting and pulsing in landscape scenes, though most were okay.

My hand test was fairly successful, and while focus transitions were slow enough that sometimes I had started the next movement before it arrived there, a few of the cycles were accurate and smooth.  My experience with Fuji’s current state of autofocus across its cameras is that the AF system works best when a trackable subject is in the frame.

Autofocus is still probably the weakest part of this lens, though I found that for the most part autofocus got the job done without a lot of drama.  I didn’t love it for shooting video, but for stills the autofocus was generally pain free.

Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 Image Quality Breakdown

The GF 55mm F1.7 features an optical design with 14 elements in 10 groups, which includes 2 aspherical and 2 ED elements.  This is a bit more complex than what we saw with the 80mm F1.7.

This is a great optical design which does a nice job of balancing the tensions between sharpness and a quality of rendering.

So let’s dive into the details.  First up is vignette and distortion.  There is a little more distortion (and much more vignette) than the 80mm, unfortunately.

There is a mild amount of pincushion distortion that corrects in a fairly linear fashion (a +5 gave me the best results).  Vignette was quite heavy without correction, needing a +86 to brighten up the corners, which is over 3 stops.

Fortunately Fuji’s RAW correction profiles are very good, so the results I saw in post already looked good and I had to “uncover” the flaws by turning off corrections.  JPEG and HEIF files will receive autocorrection in camera if enabled, as will video.

What is better handled here on the GF 55mm F1.7 is longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA), of which I saw very little.

I see very little fringing even on this real world shot of a high contrast camera against a white background.

Neither did I see issues with lateral CA, which shows up along the edges of the frame.  Results looks clear in either my test chart or real world results.

That’s really a pretty good result considering that this is a faster aperture than most medium format lenses and it is being examined on a punishing 102MP sensor.

So let’s see how that plays out for resolution and contrast.  Here’s a look at my test chart that we will take the crops from:

And here are the high magnification crops from across the frame (center | midframe | corner):

That’s obviously a really fantastic result.  Sharpness and contrast look great all across the frame.  Nothing looks weak.  Even the corners look strong.

That’s incredible.

While the 80mm was a very strong lens, the 55mm is sharper still, and that is most obvious in the corners.

The amount of detail at F1.7 and 102MP is extremely impressive.  

This makes shooting full length portraits effortless, as you can shoot a F1.7 and get a nice subject separation along with an amazing amount of detail on your subject.

Stopping down to F2 gives a bit of a contrast boost across the frame…not that anything was lacking before!

Stopping down to F2.8 makes no change in the middle and tiny improvements elsewhere.   Stopping down further makes no difference in the center and midframe but will give you slightly sharper corners.  Landscape apertures will give you stunning amounts of detail all across the frame.

I showed a photo of this old bridge earlier.  Look what happens if we zoom right into the bolts on the side of the bridge.  There is amazing detail there.

Minimum aperture is F22, but diffraction starts setting in after F8, so by F22 the image is quite soft by comparison to F1.7:

I would stay at F11 or larger and avoid F16 and F22 because of diffraction.

This is an incredibly amount of resolution.  You can easily create images from within images on a sensor and with a lens like this.  I can take this shot, which looks fair wide angle:

…and deeply crop to make an image that looks like a telephoto look at the same scene.

Equally nice is the bokeh quality, though.  Here’s a couple of examples taken at, surprisingly, ISO 12,800 (which just goes to show the potential of this platform).  Up close the background just blurs away…

But if I move back a bit, I also find very nice and natural falloff to defocus.

In a fairly distant portrait setting when nothing is completely blurred out, there is a nice transition to focus on the subject and then a nice defocus away.  The subject has very good 3D pop.

Here’s a look at foreground bokeh, which is also nice and smooth and transitions well to the focus on the mums.

Flare resistance was mostly good.  There’s a few bits of stray ghosting blobs here and there, but for the most part I felt like contrast held up well.

Color rendition is often a strength for Fuji glass, and that’s true here.  I was really happy with the colors I captured in my images and how easy they were to edit.

I also tested for coma by shooting the night sky.  I found that start points looked great in the center of the frame, but they definitely “grow wings” towards the edges of the frame.  It’s not terrible, but not great, either.

There is far more to praise here than there is to criticize, however.  The GF 55mm F1.7 WR strikes me as being one of the better GFX lenses that I’ve tested thus far.  Feel free to check out more photos in the image gallery here to get an even greater sense of lens performance.  This is a lens that can produce some stunning images.

Conclusion

The Fujinon GF 55mm F1.8 R WR is going to be a very welcome addition to the GFX lineup, as it does hit what I feel is a very interesting focal length and does it a maximum aperture size that equals the largest that Fuji has ever attempted.  This allows you to get great looking images with wonderfully shallow depth of field.

While we don’t have linear motor autofocus here, it is at least improved over what I saw with the GF 80mm F1.7.  Focus is quick enough for some action photography, though I still feel like portraits, weddings, landscapes, architecture, and other slower moving subjects are your best targets with the GFX system.

At $2300 USD, the lens is not cheap, but neither is it more expensive than the premium prime lenses on full frame platforms.  Most importantly, it is a great pairing for Fuji’s extremely high resolution medium format camera bodies, and this particular focal length is just so useful for so many different types of photography.  This is a lens that could stay glued on your camera most of the time.  The GF 55mm F1.7 R WR is destined to become a favorite to a lot of Fujifilm’s GFX shooters, and I’m very glad to have it added to the catalog.  It would definitely be on my personal shortlist should I ever invest in the GFX system.

 

Pros:

  • Well built lens with quality weathersealing
  • Extremely useful focal length
  • Currently the largest maximum aperture on MF
  • Good autofocus accuracy
  • Fairly quick autofocus speed
  • Amazing sharpness even at F1.7
  • Next to no chromatic aberrations
  • Strong contrast
  • Nice bokeh
  • Good flare resistance

Cons:

  • Strong vignette
  • Noise during autofocus
  • Some pulsing during video autofocus at times

 

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the GF 55mm F1.7 R WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 80mm F1.7 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the GFX100 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada  

Purchase the GFX100S @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

 

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Keywords: Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 W RW, GF, 55mm, F1.7, R, WR, 55mm F1.7 Review, Fuji 55mm Review, Fuji GFX 100 II, Fujifilm GFX100 II, GFX100 II, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fuji,  Medium Format, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA, #fujifilm, #fuji, #GFX

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Fujifilm GFX100 II Medium Format Camera Review

Dustin Abbott

October 2nd, 2023

I reviewed the first Fujifilm GFX100 body back in 2021, and it was almost ridiculously extreme as a first look at the Fujifilm’s medium format entries.  It was absolutely huge, even for a person with medium large hands.  It was a vertical grip integrated style body, and while I absolutely loved the performance of the sensor, I was less thrilled by both the ergonomics and autofocus capabilities of that camera.  Add to this that the price tag was nearly $10,000, and you definitely had a niche item .  The Fujifilm GFX100S was much closer to hitting the sweet spot for me, incorporating the big 100+ MP sensor of the GFX100 into the more traditional body style of the GFX50S II.  But Fuji is back with a new take on their flagship model in the form of the Fujifilm GFX100 II.  Like the GFX100S, it uses a traditional body style without the integrated vertical grip (a battery grip is available for an additional $500) but with a new 102MP sensor, a faster processor, and better autofocus.  It also has a new BISHAMON-TEX™ texture to the grip and the body which is instantly my favorite grip material ever.  It looks modern, sleek, and sophisticated, and feels great in the hands.  The price point is better, too, at $7500 USD, though that’s still prohibitively expensive for most people.  You can get my full thoughts on the camera in my video review below…or keep reading.

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Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GFX100 II and the new GF 55mm F1.7 WR.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

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Here’s a quick rundown of some of the main new features of the GFX100 II:

  • 102MP 43.8 x 32.9mm BSI CMOS Sensor
  • X-Processor 5 Image Processor
  • 9.44m-Dot EVF
  • 8K30 Video
  • 4K60 Video; 10-Bit Out
  • 5-Axis Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization rated at 8 Stops
  • 3.2″ 2.36m-Dot Tilting Touchscreen LCD
  • ISO 80-12800, Up to 8 fps Shooting
  • Multi Aspect Ratios

Before we dive in to the good stuff, let’s get a few relevant details out of the way.  Purists will point out that Fujifilm’s GFX sensor is not actually true medium format.  It’s true that the sensor size (43.8 x 32mm) is about halfway between a full frame sensor (35.9 x 24mm) and Hasselblad’s 53 x 40mm sensor size.  You can see a comparison of sensor size below:

While Fuji’s sensor is smaller than the larger Hasselbad/Phase One sensor, it is worth noting that it is also nearly 70% bigger than the full frame standard!  But the GFX 100S has even more accessible resolution due to having IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), as stabilization is really important to getting excellent results where so much resolution is on tap.  That makes each individual pixel about 30% bigger, which has the advantage of smoother gradations of color and light.  There’s something very special about the rendering from medium format.  I definitely think that Fuji’s higher resolution point (the 102MP 43.8 x 32.9mm BSI CMOS Sensor found in this camera) is by far the preferred option largely because the 50MP resolution point has a lot of full frame competitors, and, in my opinion, the current limitations of using medium format cameras are not outweighed by the sensor advantages in the 50MP sensor.  This 102MP sensor has a clear advantage over anything currently available on full frame, making it unique and special.  The ability to deeply crop images is like nothing else out there.  You truly have the ability to create a variety of images from one frame:

You’ll note that the chart in the opening section also shows the various crop factors associated with the size of the relative sensors. A full frame sensor has a 1.0x crop factor, and the industry standard for focal lengths is in the full frame/35mm standard because of this.  A 100mm lens, then, will behave like 100mm on the 35mm/full frame sensor, while the same lens mounted on a Fuji APS-C sensor (1.5x crop factor), will behave like a 150mm lens (full frame equivalent) in terms of focal length.  Mount that same focal length on Fuji’s medium format (0.79x crop factor), and it will behave like a 79mm focal length.  This helps explain why many of the focal lengths of Fuji’s GF lenses are atypical.  The 55mm F1.7 I used in this review has a full frame equivalent of 44mm.

There is no question that the image quality from the GFX100 II is exceptional, but is Fuji succeeding in making its larger format a legitimate competitor to full frame cameras?  Let’s dive into the details and find out.

Fujifilm GFX100 II Build, Handling, and Features

Everything about medium format is chunky if you’re accustomed to smaller formats.  I was doing a concurrent lens review on my Sony a7RV body, and it felt like a toy when I went back and forth to it from the GFX100 II.  

If you are unfamiliar with medium format and know Fuji more for X-mount, prepare to be shocked by how huge the mount size actually is.  That opening to the sensor is massive – look at how much bigger it is than the APS-C sensor on the X-H2:

The inner mount diameter is 65mm, which is significantly larger than Fuji’s own APS-C X-mount (44mm), Sony E-mount (46.1mm), Canon’s RF (54mm), or Nikon’s Z mount (55mm). The front opening of lenses changes according to the focal length and aperture combination, but the rear diameter at the mount is consistent.  This means that medium format lenses are going to be bigger than comparative Sony full frame lenses as a matter of course, because they start at nearly a 66% larger diameter. I used the GF 55mm F1.7 WR for this review, and it (like many shorter lenses for the system) is actually larger in diameter than it is in length…and noticeably more chunky at the lens mount.

What I found interesting, however, is when I put the camera in my wife’s hands.  She has quite small hands, and I asked her how the camera felt.  “It’s huge, isn’t it?”, I asked.  She responded yes, but that it felt really good in the hands.  That really sums up this body well.  It is chunky and heavy (with typical setup – memory cards, battery, and viewfinder) it outweighs my Fujifilm X-H2 by over 400g, but the grip is so well executed that the camera feels good in the hands even if it is bigger than what most of us are accustomed to.

That new BISHAMON-TEX™ texture doesn’t just look great; it feels great in the hands, too.  There’s a lot of grip to it, and Fuji has done a great job of implementing the curves and angles of the grips so it really just naturally fits in the hand. I personally didn’t love the body of the GFX100, as I found it unnecessarily large. It had the chunkiest grip of any camera I’ve used (the camera is 102.9mm/4.05″ deep), and while I have medium large hands, it felt just slightly uncomfortable – like I was having to stretch a bit.  The depth of grip here isn’t radically different (98.6mm or 3.9″), but that little change along with the better executed contours of the grip add up to a much more comfortable grip.    The body is roughly 152mm wide and 117.4mm tall (6 x 4.6″) and weighs a manageable 1030g with memory cards and battery inserted.  This makes it visibly larger than the “S” bodies, but not radically so.  The biggest difference is the height of the camera.

I would say the size is slightly larger than is my preference, but the great feel of the camera does help to offset that. The GFX100 II feels slightly more robust and professional grade than my other cameras (which include the aforementioned X-H2, Canon R5, and Sony Alpha 1 and a7RV bodies).  The body is made of magnesium alloy, the preferred material for tough, professional grade cameras, and previous bodies have had 60-100 seal points in the body to make it highly weather resistant (I would expect this new flagship to be just slightly under the larger figure due to not having an integrated battery grip).  Fuji utilizes the 2200Mah NP-W235 battery pack that is rated for 540 shots here or roughly an hour of 8K or 4K60 video recording.  Getting a spare is always a good idea.  You have different charging options including charging in camera.

On the right side there is a battery  compartment where we find our first upgrade:  in addition to the SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) card slot behind the door there is also a CFExpress Type B card.  This is a very welcome upgrade, and is almost certainly in part responsible for the faster burst rate along with the much more robust video specs the GFX100 II sports.

The left side of the camera has the other ports, with the top section housing an ethernet port while the bottom compartment houses a USB-C port, full size HDMI jack (another improvement), along with a dual purpose 3.5mm headphone monitoring jack or remote release. The compartment doors feel good, though the ports on this side dangle instead of being hinged, making them a little fiddly to pop back into place.

Fuji cameras are typically known by their plethora of physical controls (particularly dials), so it is more than a little ironic that their flagship cameras (with so much large bodies) offer far fewer controls.  Still, I found that there are some key improvements here that helped the camera work more ergonomically for me – though I had to get familiar with how the camera worked before appreciating that.  The top plate along with the front section with the shutter have received a unique look that is very functional.  Both sections are angled (the top plate with the LCD is tilted 11° to make it more visually accessible). 

It’s a subtle change that you start to appreciate when you realize that the information on the top plate LCD is much easier to see.  The “Sub-LCD” is bright and clear and retains a passive display when the camera is powered off.  You have three options for the top display that you can cycle through by pushing the small button on the lower right.  One imitates two dials, which shift depending on what mode you are in, a second simply shows histogram, and the third reorganizes the information and shows you a bit more on screen.  Most changes are made via the front or rear dials.  A button to the left of the screen will light up the top LCD if you are working in a dimly lit environment.  The screen seems a bit bit larger and also has a new look that displays information more clearly.

Another positive addition is the inclusion of three custom buttons on the section that tilts forward towards the shutter.  The two outer buttons are thicker on the outer angle, making them easy to distinguish from the flatter and flusher center button.  One of these natively allows you to use the rear wheel to work for exposure compensation, as there is no dedicated exposure compensation wheel. 

I would still like to see a third wheel on the back of the camera (Canon/Sony style) that could be assigned a function without having to use a button.  Case in point:  by default the front control wheel beneath the shutter button needs to be clicked in to switch between aperture control and ISO control in my typical mode (AV).  It’s a little clunky when I just rotate the rear wheel on my Sony or Canon cameras to interact with ISO.

On the left side of the viewfinder are two other control points.  One is a traditional mode dial though with a whopping 6 custom modes.  I like both the many custom modes and also the mode dial; it remains an easy, logical way to navigate different camera modes.  There is a locking button in the middle.  There’s also a switch that allows you to go from stills to movie function (allowing you to have a custom setup for both modes).

The main LCD screen is a 3.2″ 2.36 million dot touchscreen that can tilt on two axis – this allows you to get some function even when shooting at odd angles and in portrait orientation.  I still prefer a fully articulating screen, but Fuji has resisted the use of fully articulating screens in their medium format bodies.  I was frustrated to find that the touch function has still not improved one bit from the day that I started testing Fuji cameras.  Touch will allow for touch to focus and shoot, but menu navigation is limited to the Q (quick) menu; you cannot navigate the main menu via touch.  There’s also a bit more lag than recent Canon or Sony bodies when you touch.  I do find Fuji’s quick menus a little frustrating, too, as what intuitively feels like a click to select (on the joystick) saves the selection and closes the menu, which often necessitates my opening it again to make other selections.

This is the first implementation I’ve seen of a camera without a fully articulating screen that is also compatible with Fuji’s FAN-001 accessory.  I did a quick video on the FAN-001 a few months ago, and the premise is that it clicks into the back of the camera via electric contacts and runs to actively cool the chassis of the camera.  This allows for longer format recording at high bitrates without the camera overheating.  It works a little better with a fully articulating screen for the simple reason that the screen can fully rotate out of the way (to the side), leaving the back of the camera free for the fan to attach.  In this case the screen can only tilt, so if you move it all the way down, you can attach the fan, but you won’t be left with a very effective monitor. 

It’s good that the fan is an option, obviously, but I don’t see this being a popular accessory on the GFX100 II because the somewhat odd implementation.

The back of the camera has the typical collection of buttons and the mini-joystick common to Fuji’s designs.  The joystick feels nice and has a good texture.  The control wheels on the front and back can also be clicked in for an additional function.  I like the mode selector near the viewfinder that allows you to quickly move between Single Shot, Continuous AF, and Manual Focus along with the great implementation of the Q button.

The front of the camera sports dual programmable buttons, a flash sync port (don’t lose that little cover!) and the front control wheel.  That texture continues to look awesome!

The removable 0.64″ viewfinder is a standout.  You don’t have to attach it if you aren’t really a viewfinder person, but it would be a mistake to not use it.  The viewfinder is MUCH more special than the LCD screen.  It has a massive 9.44 million dots of resolution along with an amazing 1.0x magnification.  It looks like a movie screen in there, and is more engaging than any viewfinder I’ve ever used.  My Sony Alpha 1 has an identical resolution spec, but the two viewfinders just don’t compare.  The viewfinder on the GFX100 II is just special.  You can also utilize the ridiculously priced EVF-TL1 tilt adapter that allows you to use the viewfinder in an upright vertical position or even from side to side.  You need to be $570 USD desperate for that privilege, though, so I suspect that this will only appeal to those who have gotten accustomed to shooting in this position in the past.

The bottom of the camera has the battery door along with the contact points for the optional VG-GFX100 battery grip.

The GFX100 II body has truly impressive in-camera stabilization that is CIPA rated up to 8 stops. I was able to get very effective stability for handholding stills and video.  I could really feel the camera stabilizing at low shutter speeds, and that led to nice steadiness and clean results.  That is so incredibly useful on a uber high resolution body.  This shot is at 1/3rd of a second (55mm):

I definitely preferred the physical design of the GFX100 II over the GFX100.  The grip material is beautiful, the body feels very robust and well made, and there’s a few new ergonomic decisions that make it an easier camera to use than any of Fuji’s previous MF bodies.  I still want that third wheel in the back, though, as I think it would help to making changes on the fly much more intuitive.  All told, however, there are a lot of positive steps in the right direction here.

Autofocus Performance

Fuji’s goal has been to make a previously inaccessible format more “populist” by giving its medium format cameras autofocus performance that is close to what’s achievable on smaller formats.  Every generation is to be “the one” where autofocus truly catches up, but there is of course the reality that this is a moving target.  Autofocus development on the mirrorless front in smaller sensors has rapidly advanced over the past five years, and while this is easily the most accessible MF camera that Fujifilm has produced to date, it is still far removed from the top 35mm cameras.  I’ve seen one reviewer claim that autofocus is as good as the Sony a7R5 (a camera that I own), but I suspect this person doesn’t have much experience with the a7R5.  I ran some head to head tests, and even using an inexpensive Viltrox AF 28mm F1.8 that I happened to be testing at the same time, autofocus performance was faster, more confident, and more accurate for both stills and video than the GFX100 II.  But let us lay aside these comparisons outside the system, as a more accurate snapshot of what is going on is a comparison with what has been happening on Fuji’s own smaller sensor cameras.  

While we have a similar autofocus system to what we’ve had before (a hybrid contrast/phase detect system with 425 selectable AF points that are accessed in a manner very similar Fuji’s APS-C cameras), the core improvement here is through the processor.  The X-Processor 5 adds AI tracking of a wide variety of subjects and a faster, more intuitive focus process.  Autofocus performance isn’t quite at the level of my X-H2, but it isn’t far off.  That’s huge, particularly when you consider that many medium format systems of the past had painfully slow autofocus systems that could have as few as 1 autofocus point!  This shot of Nala (processed with the ETERNA film simulation) shows the beautiful precision of the autofocus, though I will note that focus is on the eyelid rather than the iris (something I’ve regularly observed in the past on these cameras as well).

Autofocus is generally fairly bulletproof for grabbing the eye area now, but if depth of field is very thin (as in the shot below), you’ll see that the focus is almost always on the eyelash or lid rather than the iris.

This comparison of a few shots of Nala shows the difference between that front focused result and a (unfortunately) rare accurately focused result:

My experience is that the slightly front focused result is the more typical result.

With a little more depth of field, however, I found Eye AF to be very accurate at a variety of focus distances.  I shot through obstructions and at varying angles, and autofocus was quick and accurate with the 55mm F1.7.

What’s more, autofocus seems to be improved in the margins as well.

This photo of a golfing buddy shows how that focus accurately focused on his eye though shooting in a strongly backlit situation.

Autofocus also locked on accurately even when shooting in extremely dim conditions – like this bookshelf basically in the dark.  I got a 1/40th of second shutter speed shooting at ISO 12,800 and using an F1.7 lens (the fastest maximum aperture currently available on the system).

Autofocus slows down, obviously, but not in an extreme way.

This shot is the only one that I had to resort to manual focus for, and it was largely because I was shooting a narrow backlit subject.  Autofocus didn’t want to come close (kept focusing on the background), so I used manual focus to nail the shot.

This shot was arguably more difficult, and, while I got a few pulses, autofocus really nailed the shot.

Autofocus also worked well for landscape shots or shots with larger depth of field:

So, by and large, I had very good focus results with still subjects. 

Fuji is touting the GFX100 II as being a more capable action camera, too. This remains a work in progress in some ways, and a genuine improvement in others. I also had zero success with trying to get shots of Nala even slowly walking around.  If she was moving towards the camera my results were invariably back-focused.  It takes both a responsive camera and responsive lens to thrive in that kind of environment.

But things were much better when I had my son shoot some layups for me.  Tracking immediately picked up his face and followed it successfully throughout the movement and follow through.  Not every frame is perfectly focused (most misses come about 3-4 shots into the sequence for some reason), but I also didn’t see any big swings to front or back focus.  I would estimate about 80% of the shots were well focused.

So no, that’s not Sony a7RV level of performance, but it is pretty fantastic for medium format…and when you consider that each file is 102MP!

And, on that note, another core improvement is to the burst rate and buffer depth.  The original GFX100 would allow for up to 5 frames per second of burst, but the buffer depth was only 14 RAW images or 41 frames of JPEGS.  The GFX100 II can shoot up to 8 FPS with the mechanical shutter, and, depending on your file choice, you can have near unlimited buffer depth.  The absolute worst figure with uncompressed RAW is 76 frame, but if you switch even to a lossless compressed RAW (my personal format of choice), that figure jumps to 302 frames.  JPEGs are unlimited.  If you switch to the 35mm mode and shoot with a crop and the electronic shutter, you can get as high as 8.7 FPS and have unlimited buffer depth other than uncompressed RAWs (260 frames).  Here’s a detailed breakdown of the various choices:

That’s unprecedented in a camera like this.  I’m not sure who would be choosing medium format for high speed recording, but it also is a logical step towards make Fuji’s medium format a credible alternative to full frame.

There is definitely some blackout between shots, though you can choose a 5.3FPS blackout free option (using the electronic shutter is required) and you can also get faster blackout free bursts when using the 35mm (full frame) modes.  This is definitely an improvement for action work, though I doubt we’ll see medium format cameras replacing full frame bodies on the sidelines of sporting events anytime soon!

The GFX100 II is a bit of a video powerhouse (more on that in a moment), but I saw a bit of a mixed bag when testing video autofocus.  Focus pulls were relatively fast and smooth for medium format.  I also saw less obvious stepping.  But what I also saw was a frequent lack of confidence in locking focus.  There were a few focus pulses and sometimes focus never transitioned properly to the new subject.  In real world shooting I also saw some hunting and pulsing in landscape scenes, though most were okay.

My hand test was fairly successful, and while focus transitions were slow enough that sometimes I had started the next movement before it arrived there, a few of the cycles were accurate and smooth.  My experience with Fuji’s current state of autofocus across its cameras is that the AF system works best when a trackable subject is in the frame.

I wouldn’t characterize the AF as quite as good as the X-H2 or X-H2S, but it’s close.  There isn’t much of a gap between the AF in Fuji’s large and small sensor cameras now, and that’s huge progress.

Video Performance

I’ve never included a dedicated video section in a GFX review before as it wasn’t really warranted, but Fuji has really gone all in on the video side of things with the GFX100 II.  The improvements include autofocus improvements (that same AI tracking is available in both video and stills), formats and resolutions (up to 8K30 or 4K60), a new film simulation (REALA ACE), and even a wide variety of framing options.  Worth noting is that now a baseline ISO of 100 can be used for video recording.  Since we’ve already discussed the pros and cons of video autofocus, let’s move on to the formats and resolutions.  Here’s a look at the many options available here:

That’s a long list of formats and bitrate options.  We’ve got 8K options in either 17:9, 16:9, or 2.76:1 framing with bitrates as high as 720Mbps or as little as 50Mbps, though the framerate is limited to 24P in the 17:9 or 2.76:1 framing. Note that the 8K options come at a significant 1.53 crop factor:

There are some varied formats in between 8K and 4K, but 4K arrives with fully featured 17:9 and 16:9 framing – up to 60P and with the full sensor recording.

We’ve also got some internal options for Apple ProRes codecs along with H.265 and H.624 options, though the ProRes codec will require the use of the CFexpress Type B card for recording.

Internal recording is limited to 10 bit, but the GFX100 II also has the ability to output 12 bit options via HDMI.  Fuji says, “Combined with a compatible ATOMOS HDMI device, RAW video output from GFX100 II can be recorded as 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW at resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 29.97fps. With Blackmagic Design Video Assist 12G HDRs, RAW video output from the camera can be recorded as Blackmagic RAW at resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 29.97fps.”

Another interesting addition is the ability to record directly to an external SSD via the USB-C port.  You can record both still and video directly to that external drive, which is a feature I’ve not really seen implemented elsewhere.

Very interesting is that the GFX100 II is purpose designed around the use of lenses other than GF mount for video recording.   There is the GF format, Fuji’s “Premista” cine lens crop, 35mm crop mode, and even a squeezed anamorphic mode.  There are different crop options available for each of these formats:

The various squeeze ratios supported by the camera are: 2x, 1.8x, 1.5x, 1.33x and 1.3x.  It is very interesting to have the option of using so many different types of lenses (though obviously with adapters) for video work.

Also included is Fuji’s F-Log2 option for advanced editing capabilities.  Fuji claims more than 14 stops of dynamic range is potentially available with F-Log2.  Fuji has also included waveforms and vectorscopes for more advanced monitoring of colors and exposure during video capture.

Don’t forget the up to 8 stops of stabilization through the very effective IBIS system in camera.  In short, there is a lot here for video recording.  I’m left to wonder if there was a lot of clamoring for this on medium format, as traditionally this has been more the domain of portrait and landscape photographers.  But “hybrid” is the name of the game these days, and Fuji is once again out to prove that their larger format can do everything that 35mm (full frame) can.  Time will tell if there is actually a market for this side of things.  I’m sure Fuji hopes that there is in fact a whole new market that will open up because of the video side of things.

GFX100 II Image Quality Breakdown

On paper the sensor looks to be the same as previous 102MPM models, but Fuji assures us that the 43.8mm×32.9mm GFX 102MP CMOS II HS sensor here is all new. 

We’ve got a massive 11648 x 8736 pixels in 4:3 crop mode, and Fuji provides a variety of other framing options in camera (though it’s worth noting that RAW images will still show up as the full resolution 4:3 files).  The amount of detail that a camera like this can generate is just staggering, and the extremely high resolution means that you have near unlimited potential for cropping, be it a portrait:

…or a landscape scene:

Files are going to be big, obviously, though you have considerable control over that that.  You can choose Uncompressed RAW files in either 16 or 14 bit (around 200MB, with 16 bit only slightly larger), Lossless Compressed RAW in 16 bit (near 120MB) or 14 bit (92MB), or Compressed RAW at 69MB (16 bit) or 60MB (14 bit).  JPEGs are around 43MB or slightly smaller depending upon the quality you choose.  You also have the ability to choose DCF, HEIF, or TIFF formats.

The sweet spot for me is the Lossless RAW files, which are indistinguishable from the Uncompressed RAW files.  It’s called “Lossless” for a reason.  I dare you to spot the difference between the two here:

I also saw only a very minor difference in contrast when comparing 16 bit lossless (left side) with 14 bit lossless (right side):

You can save a little more file space by choosing the Lossless 14 bit option and still get very near maximum performance.

I’ve always preferred Fuji’s 100MP sensors to the 50MP sensors, as the huge resolution numbers match the larger format better in my mind.  The end results (which are the real reason to choose medium format) just feel more special.  In my photographer career to this point these sensors are the pinnacle of what I’ve personally used in terms of image quality.  Images are just…special.

A larger sensor area means that pixels themselves are larger, which, in theory, allows for less noise, better dynamic range, and smoother transitions.  I’ve always favored full frame sensors over APS-C for that reason, and Fuji’s “medium-format-lite” sensor takes that further still, though the difference between full frame and the 0.79x crop of Fuji’s medium format isn’t as pronounced as the difference in sensor size between full frame and APS-C.  But consider this:  Fuji’s medium format sensor size is roughly 4x larger than the surface area of their APS-C sensor, so there is a huge difference between those two extremes.  What we will find is that this adds up to better ISO performance, better dynamic range, and also better colors and overall tonality to images.

ISO Performance

A major change here is that the base ISO is now 80 rather than 100 with the new sensor.  That’s interesting to me, as it not only allows for lower noise and even higher dynamic range, but it also opens up Fuji’s DR200 and DR400 modes faster as well (IS0 160/320 rather than 200/400), meaning that there will be less noise in the shadows when using those modes.   Fuji tends to be a little overly conservative with their native ISO ranges in their cameras according to my tests.  What we will find is that the GFX100 II is completely usable at the end of the native ISO range of 12,800 (which is actually a little higher than typical due to the ISO range starting lower).  I think this monochrome looks awesome – clean and bright despite being shot in natural light at ISO 12,800:

The pixel pitch of the GFX-100 II is 3.76 microns, identical to the pixel pitch/density of the 62 MP Sony a7RV full frame sensor and the 26Mp APS-C sensors on Fuji’s 26MP APS-C sensors.  A high number of pixels creates more visible noise, which on the Canon EOS 5DsR meant that by its ISO limit of 6400 it was a noisy mess.  That’s clearly not the case here.

Here’s a look at the “still life” setup that I use for these tests and that crops will be displayed from:

There is only a minor uptick in visible noise and minimal loss of contrast at ISO 1250 (5 stops) when compared to base ISO.

Moving up several more stops brings us to ISO 5000, and you can see that while there is very slightly more pattern noise, the results look largely the same:

There’s some very mild inconsistency of pixel luminosity in the shadow areas, so contrast isn’t quite as high, but as you can 

Going up another stop and a third to the native maximum value of 12,800 results in slightly rougher noise, but nothing significant.  

You can see the shadows are raised a bit more, but things continue to look pretty clean overall.  I actually really like the look of ISO 12,800 images in one of Fuji’s monochrome simulations.  Images have a very film-like feel to them.

While I haven’t shown examples here, the expanded ISO range goes as low as ISO40 and as high as ISO 102400.  Within the native range (80-12,800) there isn’t a value that I would personally hesitate to use, which is very impressive considering this is a 102MP camera!  This is a camera that performs even in very low light conditions.

Dynamic Range

As of the date of my review, photonstophotos.com has not yet tested the GFX100 II’s sensor for dynamic range, but previous GFX100 models (including the GFX100S) the GFX-100 typically run about a half stop better than the best full frame sensors for dynamic range (right under 12.5 stops).   As with all Fuji cameras, you can actually improve this by using their DR200 and DR400 settings, which we’ll detail in just a moment.

Good dynamic range gives you tremendous flexibility for processing images.  In the case below, a very strong backlighting meant that I had to choose between exposing for my subject or for the background.  I chose the background, and then used the AI masking feature in Lightroom to grab my subject and increase the exposure and shadow recovery on him.  The end result is nice and clean.

In this second example, you can see that I’ve both raised the shadows to uncover information there along with reducing highlights too allow the colors and details of the sky to emerge.  I’m sure you can agree that the end result looks extremely nice.

Fujifilm has given us a lower base ISO in this new camera, so there should be just a little extra dynamic range available at ISO 80 vs the base ISO 0f 100 for previous cameras.  In my particular tests, I establish a base line exposure at ISO 80 (1/9th of a second here), and then test in both directions by over or underexposing and then recovering the image in post.  Eventually you reach a limit of how far the camera can go and still successfully recover the image.

When it comes to the shadows, that limit extends pretty far.  I underexposed until my test subjects pretty much disappeared, but when I added that light back in post, the image popped right back out (recovered image on right):

Even zooming in 100% we can see that everything remains perfectly clean.  The shadows are deep, the colors are neutral, and there is good contrast in the recovered textures.  Very impressive.

You couldn’t ask for more than that.  That means that you’ll have very few practical limits for recovering shadow information.  Here’s another image where I’ve gotten a lot of information back from some shadowed areas in this image:

Definitely useful.

How about highlights?  I find the overexposure limit is between 2 and 3 stops.  In the comparison below you can see that the 2 stop recovery on the left is nice and clean, but if you look at the right side (3 stops) you’ll find that color information has been lost from the swatches and that some of the texture information has been blown out and is unrecoverable.  

The image on the right is typically not going to be usable, so you’ll want to avoid that degree of overexposure.  If you want more latitude in the highlights you can either underexpose a bit (shadows are easy to recover), or you can utilize Fuji’s DR200 and DR400 modes.  If you shoot at a slightly higher ISO value (160), you can choose the DR200 mode, or at ISO 320 you can choose the DR400 mode.  In DR200, camera will use electronic trickery to sample the shadow and midtone data from the current ISO setting (160+) while using the base ISO’s highlights, giving you an additional stop of DR.  In DR400 the process is further exaggerated as the camera can then sample the highlights from two stops down, giving you two additional stops of DR. Using the DR200 technique, that same 3 stop shadow recovery that was unusable before looks considerably better:

Moving on to ISO 320 unlocks the DR400 mode.  While the DR200 and DR400 results look similar on a global level, punching in to 100% shows that some of the texture information that was blown out in the DR200 result is visible in the DR400 result.  

It also means that you could push into the 4 stop of overexposure range and get a similar result to our 2-stop overexposure at base DR results.

I always note that more dynamic range doesn’t always equal better images.  Sometimes leaving a little mystery in the shadows adds a lot to an image, and often a blown out light coming through a window is preferable to seeing what’s outside.  

Color

Fuji’s medium format cameras have long been a great platform for gorgeous colors, and that’s definitely true here.  The larger pixels result in more gradations and subtleties in images, and images are just special.

Portrait colors are just so rich:

Pair that big sensor with a large aperture lens like the 55mm F1.7 lens that I used for this review and background will just melt away:

Medium format comes with tradeoffs (gear is large and expensive), but when you are processing and reviewing images taken with a camera like the GFX100 II, you can’t help but wonder, “What if?”  It’s special.  Check out more images in the image gallery for the 55mm F1.7 to see more examples.

Conclusion

The Fujifilm GFX100 II goes a long way towards fulfilling Fuji’s goal of making medium format as accessible as their smaller format cameras.  The GFX100 II is a beautiful camera with a truly gorgeous grip/wrap that makes me instantly wish all of my cameras had it.  There are still places where the ergonomics and autofocus don’t measure up to the best full frame cameras, but that is counterbalanced by image quality that those same cameras can’t measure up to.

The GFX100 II is also designed to be a video powerhouse, which is an interesting twist.  Time will tell if Fuji read the room accurately and that this is what the market was looking for.  This is certainly the best hybrid larger sensor camera that we have seen with an arguably more robust feature set for video that what it boasts for stills.  

Medium format remains out of reach for many photographers, but the GFX100 II does something rare in that the newer model at $7500 is considerably cheaper than the model it replaces ($10,000).  Yes, the former camera has an integrated vertical grip, but you could spend the $500 for the grip from the GFX100 II and still pocket $2000.  It’s hard to call a $7500 camera a bargain, but everything is relative, and I appreciate that Fuji is doing what they can to make medium format more approachable…and affordable.  The GFX100 II is easily the best medium format camera that Fuji has produced…is that enough to convince you to take the plunge?

 

*Final image processed with the new REALA ACE film simulation.

Pros:

  • The best image quality that I’ve ever seen
  • Incredible resolution
  • Excellent dynamic range
  • Strong high ISO performance despite all those pixels
  • Strong, durable body with good weather sealing
  • The highest rated IBIS system I’ve ever seen
  • Improved autofocus
  • Much deeper buffer depth
  • Improved burst rate
  • Excellent top screen
  • Viewfinder is fantastic
  • LOVE the new grip texture
  • Huge improvements to video

Cons:

  • Autofocus remains the weakest area…though improved.
  • I miss a rear wheel/control dial
  • Can we please improve the touchscreens, Fuji?
  • Requires deep pockets

 

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the GFX100 II @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada  

Purchase the VG-GFX100  II Grip @ B&H Photo | Adorama  | Amazon 

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Purchase the GFX100S @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GF 20-35mm F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 80mm F1.7 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

 

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Keywords: Fuji GFX 100 II, Fujifilm GFX100 II, GFX100 II, GFX 100 II, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fujinon, Fuji, GF, Medium Format, Fuji GFX100 II, GFX, 100 II, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA, #fujifilm, #fuji, #GFX

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Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 W WR Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

October 2nd, 2023

Those who are accustomed to smaller sensors are unlikely to be impressed with a maximum aperture of F1.7, but when you are talking larger medium format(ish) sensors like Fujifilm’s GFX line, this is a HUGE maximum aperture.  This is only the second lens on the platform from Fuji with a maximum aperture this large, and in many ways it is an improvement on the 80mm F1.7 that I reviewed a few years ago.  The new Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 R WR is released alongside the very impressive Fujifilm GFX100 II flagship camera, and I had the opportunity to review them both at the same time (you can catch my review of the GFX100 II here).  The new GF 55mm is an interesting focal length (roughly the full frame equivalent of 44mm), which provides a very flexible “normal” angle of view that I particularly enjoy.  You can get my full thoughts on the lens in my video review below or by reading my text review.

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Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GFX100 II and the new GF 55mm F1.7 WR.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

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I love this focal length for its versatility and very natural framing.  It’s great for landscapes…

…for portraits…

…and, thanks to its reasonably close focus abilities and large aperture, the ability to beautifully blur out backgrounds in closer shots.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the main new features of the GF 55mm:

  • Medium Format 
  • 44mm (Full-Frame Equivalent)
  • F1.7 aperture is the brightest on the system
  • DC Motor with GMR Sensor AF System
  • Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm
  • 2 x Aspherical, 2 x ED Elements
  • Weather-Sealed Design & Fluorine Coating

This is an excellent pairing for Fuji’s medium format bodies, providing great image quality, a solid build, and better autofocus than what we saw on the 80mm F1.7 lens.  At $2300 USD, it isn’t cheap (the same price as the 80mm), but medium format in general is more about optical excellence than financial bargains.   Despite the price I think this is one of the better options on the GFX platform and a great pairing for the GFX100 II (my review below):

 

Enjoy the photos below!

Images of the Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 

Images taken with the Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 

 

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Keywords: Fujinon GF 55mm F1.7 W RW, GF, 55mm, F1.7, R, WR, 55mm F1.7 Review, Fuji 55mm Review, Fuji GFX 100 II, Fujifilm GFX100 II, GFX100 II, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fuji,  Medium Format, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA, #fujifilm, #fuji, #GFX

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FUJIFILM GFX100S Medium Format Camera Review

Dustin Abbott

December 5th, 2022

The Fujifilm GFX 100S is the third of Fuji’s medium format camera bodies that I have reviewed, and this is definitely my favorite of the bunch.  I’ve reviewed their extremely high resolution and extremely high-priced Fujfilm GFX 100 camera body ($10,000 USD) and its incredible 102 megapixels of resolution along with the bargain-end Fujifilm GFX 50S II ($4000 USD) with a more traditional body type.  The GFX100S is (to me) the current sweet spot in Fuji’s medium format lineup, utilizing the more compact body and ergonomics of the GFX50S II with the high-end sensor and better (relatively) autofocus system of the GFX100. It isn’t cheap in an absolute sense, but at $6000 USD, it is much closer in price to the GFX 50S II than it is the hugely expensive GFX 100.  I personally prefer this body style (without the integrated grip), so if I was buying a Fujifilm medium format body right now, the GFX 100S is the one I’d get.

I tested the GFX 100S as a part of my review of the new Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR, a wide angle zoom that is a very nice pairing for this camera, capable of producing some stunning landscape results:

Purists will point out that Fujifilm’s GFX sensor is not actually true medium format.  It’s true that the sensor size (43.8 x 32mm) is about halfway between a full frame sensor (35.9 x 24mm) and Hasselblad’s 53 x 40mm sensor size.  You can see a comparison of sensor size below:

While Fuji’s sensor is smaller than the larger Hasselbad/Phase One sensor, it is worth noting that it is also nearly 70% bigger than the full frame standard!  But the GFX 100S has even more accessible resolution due to having IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), as stabilization is really important to getting excellent results where so much resolution is on tap.  That makes each individual pixel about 30% bigger, which has the advantage of smoother gradations of color and light.  There’s something very special about the rendering from medium format.

I definitely think that Fuji’s higher resolution sensor (the 102MP 43.8 x 32.9mm BSI CMOS Sensor found in this camera) is by far the preferred option largely because the 50MP resolution point has a lot of full frame competitors, and, in my opinion, the current limitations of using medium format cameras are not outweighed by the sensor advantages in the 50MP sensor.  This 102MP sensor has a clear advantage over anything currently available on full frame, making it unique and special.  I think more photographers might be willing to overlook the MF limitations in order to unlock that amazing image quality.  Look how deeply you can crop into this image and still get crystal clear results of this mother and child underneath the towering trees:

Are you a candidate for Fuji’s medium format alternative to the traditional full frame route?   Join me as we explore this rather complicated topic.  You can watch my video review or just keep reading…

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Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GF 20-35mm along with the GFX100S body to test it on.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

Fujifilm GFX 100S Build, Handling, and Features

Here’s a breakdown of the basic features of the camera::

  • 102MP 43.8 x 32.9mm BSI CMOS Sensor
  • X-Processor 4 Image Processor
  • 4K30 Video; F-Log Gamma, 12-Bit Raw Out
  • 69m-Dot OLED EVF
  • 2″ 2.36m-Dot Tilting Touchscreen LCD
  • 5-Axis Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization
  • 425-Point Phase-Detection Autofocus
  • ISO 100-12800, up to 5 fps Shooting
  • 400MP Pixel Shift Multi-Shot
  • 19 Film Simulation Modes

If you are unfamiliar with medium format and know Fuji more for X-mount, prepare to be shocked by how huge the mount size actually is.  That opening to the sensor is massive!

The inner mount diameter is 65mm, which is significantly larger than Fuji’s own APS-C X-mount (44mm), Sony E-mount (46.1mm), Canon’s RF (54mm), or Nikon’s Z mount (55mm). The front opening of lenses changes according to the focal length and aperture combination, but the rear diameter at the mount is consistent.  This means that medium format lenses are going to be bigger than comparative Sony full frame lenses as a matter of course, because they start at nearly a 66% larger diameter. While the image circle is smaller than the Hasselblad 53.4 x 40mm sensor, it is still considerably bigger than any full frame image circle, and the lens mount diameter reflects that. 

You’ll note that the chart in the opening section also shows the various crop factors associated with the size of the relative sensors. A full frame sensor has a 1.0x crop factor, and the industry standard for focal lengths is in the full frame/35mm standard because of this.  A 100mm lens, then, will behave like 100mm on the 35mm/full frame sensor, while the same lens mounted on a Fuji APS-C sensor (1.5x crop factor), will behave like a 150mm lens (full frame equivalent) in terms of focal length.  Mount that same focal length on Fuji’s medium format (0.79x crop factor), and it will behave like a 79mm focal length.  This helps explain why many of the focal lengths of Fuji’s GF lenses are atypical.  I’ve previous reviewed the Fujinon GF 110mm F2 lens from Fuji, and if you do the math, it roughly corresponds an 85mm F1.4 lens (Fuji says it has an 87mm full frame equivalent focal length).  You can see that the framing and depth of field from the GF 110mm is about the same as the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN lens I had mounted on the Sony Alpha 1.

I personally didn’t love the body of the GFX100, as I found it unnecessarily large. It had the chunkiest grip of any camera I’ve used (the camera is 102.9mm/4.05″ deep), and while I have medium large hands, I can feel a slight stretch in my grip.  The GFX100S, while large, was an immediate fit to my hands and felt very much like a professional full frame camera (Canon 5D series, for example) in my hands.  The grip depth was a much more reasonable 87.2mm (3.4″), which is nearly 16mm more shallow.  The body is roughly 150mm wide and 104mm tall and weighs a manageable 900g with memory cards and battery inserted.  

When I used it and the new 20-35mm F4 it felt pretty much like using a slightly large full frame camera.

I love this physical size, and I also loved the general feel of the camera in hand.  For some reason it feels slightly more robust and professional grade than my other cameras.  The body is made of magnesium alloy, the preferred material for tough, professional grade cameras, and Fuji notes 60 different seal points in the body to make it highly weather resistant.  Fuji utilizes the 2200Mah NP-W235 battery pack that is rated for a rather average 460 shots here.  Getting a spare is always a good idea.  You have different charging options including charging in camera.

On the right side we have dual SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) card slots behind a door, with a smaller flap above that covers a remote shutter release port.

The left side of the camera has the other ports, with the top section housing a microphone input along with a headphone monitoring jack and the bottom compartment housing a USB-C port, micro-HDMI, and a flash sync port. The compartment doors feel precisely engineered.

This is essentially the exact same body as what I tested in the GFX50S II, and it shares similar controls.  I’ve found it a little surprising that these higher end cameras have fewer physical controls than many of their lower end APS-C cameras.  Fuji cameras are typically known by their plethora of physical controls (particularly dials), so it is more than a little ironic that their flagship cameras almost entirely abandon those physical dials for virtual ones accessible through the top LCD.  ISO, shutter speed, mode, and exposure compensation are typically handled via dials on the X-T3 or X-T4; none of these are handled by physical dials here.  I miss the dedicated exposure compensation dial, for example.  It is handled instead by pressing the button to the right of the On/OFF dial and then using one of the two control wheels.  It’s not nearly as intuitive to me.  I found, in fact, that the out of the box setup of the camera left a lot of common functions (changing ISO, for example) a little difficult to access.  Fortunately almost everything on the camera is customizable, and I enjoyed using the camera much more after I spent some time setting up everything to what I found more logical.  

I love the LCD screen on the top plate, however.  It is bright and clear and retains a passive display when the camera is powered off.  You have three options for the top display that you can cycle through by pushing the small button on the lower right.  One imitates two dials, which shift depending on what mode you are in, a second simply shows histogram, and the third reorganizes the information and shows you a bit more on screen.  Most changes are made via the front or rear dials.  A button to the left of the screen will light up the top LCD if you are working in a dimly lit environment.

On the left side of the viewfinder are two other control points.  One is a traditional mode dial though with more custom modes than I’ve typically seen (6!).  I like both the many custom modes and also the mode dial; it remains an easy, logical way to navigate different camera modes.  There is a locking button in the middle.  There’s also a switch that allows you to go from stills to movie function (allowing you to have a custom setup for both modes).

The main LCD screen is a 3.2″ 2.36 million dot touchscreen that can tilt on two axis – this allows you to get some function even when shooting at odd angles and in portrait orientation.  I still prefer a fully articulating screen, but this is more functional than some of Sony’s tilt screen.  The touch function is typical for Fuji cameras at this point, allowing for touch to focus and shoot, but menu navigation is limited to the Q (quick) menu; you cannot navigate the main menu via touch.  There’s also a bit more lag than recent Canon or Sony bodies when you touch.  I do find Fuji’s quick menus a little frustrating, too, as what intuitively feels like a click to select (on the joystick) saves the selection and closes the menu, which often necessitates my opening it again to make other selections.

The back of the camera has the typical collection of buttons and the mini-joystick common to Fuji’s designs.  The joystick is the improved design first seen on the GFX100S; larger and easier to use.  The control wheels on the front and back can also be clicked in for an additional function.  I like the mode selector near the viewfinder that allows you to quickly move between Single Shot, Continuous AF, and Manual Focus.

The front of the camera is fairly simple with a single programmable button and the front control wheel.

The viewfinder here is okay but unexceptional.  It is a 3.69m dot viewfinder with 0.77x magnification; a spec outdone by many cameras these days.

 

The GFX100S body has excellent in-camera stabilization (rated up to 6 stops) and I was able to get very effective stability for handholding results.  That’s good news, as a maximum aperture of F4 means in dimmer lighting conditions you might want to choose a lower shutter speed over boosting the ISO.  I had completely stability in this 1/8th of a second shoot at 35mm even on a very high resolution body:

I feel like Fuji does IBIS really well, and that helps makes an extremely high resolution camera like the GFX 100S more manageable.

I definitely preferred the physical design of the GFX50S II over the GFX100.  It’s still not as intuitive as what I would like in terms of the setup (I would vastly prefer an X-T4 type configuration), but I feel the body size is much more accessible to all who don’t have extra large hands…unlike the GFX100.  I really missed have a rear wheel, however, as it always felt like I was about one control point short and I had to dive into the menus more often than what I would have liked.

Autofocus Performance

Fuji has had a reputation for advancing what is possible in medium format autofocus, and I have personally noticed some forward progress over the past couple of years that I’ve been reviewing their medium format gear.  But it is very much a gradual evolution rather than evolution, and I would say it is still more comparable to what we say in, say, the Sony a7RII (with slightly better Eye AF) as opposed to what we’ve seen over the subsequent three generations of that camera.    Medium format cameras are specialist tools and need to be used accordingly.  Medium format is most often used by the fashion industry, high end portrait photographers, product photography, and for landscapes.  The autofocus system in the GFX 100S is mostly suitable for those applications.

I didn’t have any portrait type lenses on hand for this review, so I’ve borrowed some from my GFX 100 review which utilizes the same focus system along with some fresh insights from my more recent GFX 100S focus tests.  Fujifilm moved from a purely contrast AF system in older cameras to the hybrid Phase Detect approach that will feel familiar to users of a number of recent Fuji X-bodies.  Fuji touts a ludicrous 3.76 million autofocus points in the system, which is more marketing than anything.  More practically, there are 425 selectable AF points that are accessed in a manner very similar to the X-T3 and X-T4.  The little nub of a joystick will allow you to navigate different points or you can override with a thumb on the LCD screen (provided your hands are big enough to navigate the big body).  The rear wheel can be used to expand or contract the focus area.  Shooting in AF-C will result in the familiar dancing green boxes over the area that the system is focusing on.  And, in certain situations, you can even start to forget you are using a medium format camera.

As noted, there are elements like typical focus on a smaller format Fuji body.  Eye AF tracking, for example, is quite similar.  I would even say I had more consistent focus results in terms of identifying an eye and tracking it at a variety of focus distances, whether it be up close:

…or further away:

One thing I noted, though, is that where depth of field is very shallow, the eyelashes are more likely to be in focus than the actual iris of the eye, which is actually a bit of front focus.

It is the utterly ridiculous amount of resolution available on the 102MP GFX 100S that allows me to note and complain about this.  I did find that prioritizing one particular eye in the menu actually helped eye detection.  There is probably less processing power on board than what is optimal, so simplifying this task made for more effective and reliable tracking.  Still, I do want to note that autofocus performs in what is its most important task – delivering accurate focus for portrait work.  I had very consistent, repeatable results in my portrait sessions even if the focus process left a little to be desired in some other areas.

One thing I have noted with all of the GFX bodies is more shutter lag than what I’m accustomed to.  The whole focus process feels a bit more deliberate than the near instantaneous focus action of the best new full frame cameras.

My recent tests were done with the new GF 20-35mm F4, which had a STM (stepping motor) that while not as powerful as Fuji’s Linear Motor was smoother and quieter than some other applications I’ve seen.  Focus speed for general photography was relatively snappy, particularly when shooting landscape type scenes. 

The slowdowns came at the extremes.  When trying to isolate a subject, for example, I saw some hunting and a lack of confidence.  It was not uncommon for me to not be to get the lens to focus on a close subject and to stubbornly stay focused on the background.  I had to manually focus for this shot before autofocus would lock onto the desired subject.

I also had zero success with trying to get shots of Nala even slowly walking around.  If she was moving towards the camera my results were invariably back-focused.

I also saw a bit of a mixed bag when testing video autofocus.  Focus pulls were relatively fast and smooth for medium format.  That’s progress!

What I also saw, however, was some visible stepping and a tendency for focus to move past the subject and then pop back to the proper place.  That was particularly true in my test when I held my hand up in front of the lens and then allowed it snap back to my face.

This remains a less than ideal format for video work, though I do feel like I’m seeing gradual improvements in the GFX system.  The better focus system in the GFX 100S relative to the GFX50S II certainly helps.  When shooting static video shots focus wasn’t pulsing or hunting, and that in itself allowed me to get some excellent looking footage.

As I noted, I feel like firmware updates have steadily improved the autofocus system in the GFX cameras (particularly those equipped with the Hybrid Phase Detect AF system), though autofocus still feels like the weak link in the system.  

GFX 100S Image Quality Breakdown

And here is where the good stuff begins.  I said of the GFX-100 that it has (hands down) not only the best sensor I’ve seen from a Fuji camera, but I’ll go beyond that and say that I like image quality better from this camera than ANY I’ve previously used.  The GFX 100S utilizes the same 102MP 43.8 x 32.9mm BSI CMOS sensor…and it is stunningly good.  Rather than reinvent the wheel here, I’m going to share my tests from the sensor of the GFX-100 augmented by some fresh photos that I’ve taken with the GFX 100S.

Fuji has elected to not include an anti-aliasing filter here, which means that detail is very crisp (though at the risk of increased moiré).   That staggering amount of detail means that I can take this massive portrait oriented landscape shot:

…and deeply crop this from it.

I should note that the cropped resolution is similar to that of the 24MP full frame cameras that I’ve used over the years.

I ran a lot of different comparisons with the Canon EOS R5, which has one of the best sensors in any current full frame camera.  I had the Canon EF 35mm F1.4L II on the Canon for this comparison and the Fujinon GF 45mm F2.8 WR on the GFX-100.  I would argue that the Canon lens is definitely the superior one of the two, but there’s no question which sensor is better.  I cropped the ratio and downsampled the Fuji image to the same dimensions as the Canon for a more direct comparison.  Here’s a look at the full images:

The superior lens on the Canon allows for the detail and contrast to be fairly similar, but where I noticed the biggest difference was in the subtlety of the gradations of tonality in the ice.  There is just more diversity of the light captured there…which is due to the excellent sensor.

It has an incredible ability to resolve fine detail, and although I have tested dozens of lenses on my test chart previously at a 200% magnification level, this is the first time I’ve even noticed that the prime minister on the Canadian $5 bill actually has squiggly, uneven eyebrows.  It’s like getting macro performance from 2 meters away!

102 MP is a massive amount of detail, delivering files that are an incredible 11648 x 8736 pixels, meaning that even the short end is bigger than the long end of my 45 MP Canon EOS R5 (8192 x 5464).  The native ratio of the camera is the squarer 4:3, though you can choose other ratios like 1:1, 65:24, 5:4, 7:6, 3:2, and 16:9.  These are all going to be in camera crops of the native dimensions, however. 

Files are going to be big, obviously, though you have considerable control over that that.  You can choose Uncompressed RAW files in either 16 or 14 bit (around 200MB, with 16 bit only slightly larger), Lossless Compressed RAW in 16 bit (near 120MB) or 14 bit (92MB), or Compressed RAW at 69MB (16 bit) or 60MB (14 bit).  JPEGs are around 43MB or slightly smaller depending upon the quality you choose.  I was unable to spot any appreciable difference between 16 and 14 bit uncompressed results, though since the file sizes are roughly the same, you might as well shoot 16 bit.

The sweet spot for me is the Lossless RAW files, which are indistinguishable from the Uncompressed RAW files.  It’s called “Lossless” for a reason.  I dare you to spot the difference between the two here:

I also saw only a very minor difference in contrast when comparing 16 bit lossless (left side) with 14 bit lossless (right side):

You can save a little more file space by choosing the Lossless 14 bit option and still get very near maximum performance.

Before jumping into ISO and Dynamic Range, let’s take a look at the medium format advantages for portraits.  The newest full frame sensors have, I believe, closed the gap, though I do see some minor advantages here.  I used the new GF 80mm F1.7 WR on the Fuji and the Samyang RF 85mm F1.4 on the Canon as it was the closest match I had (a 65mm lens would be the better comparison), so the compression on the shot slightly favors the Canon combination.  I’ve cropped and scaled the two images to be as even a match as possible.  Here’s a look at the global images:

I don’t see a radical difference in sharpness even at 200% in this comparison; both look fantastic:

As before, though, I think the advantage for the medium format camera is in the tonality.  Looking closely (175%) at the lips and hair reveal that there is more life in the lips, with more different degrees of luminosity.  The hair allows shows more variation of contrast.

These are subtle, yes, but it the combination of little things that sets one’s work apart from the competition.  I loved the nuance in the many different light elements on this layered portrait.  It’s handled beautifully, and I think the end result is very special even though the field of view (63mm) is not a particularly dramatic one.

Fuji sensors always give you a wide range of film emulations to choose from, and that’s true here as well.  I also like the ability to tweak monochrome presets and get the colors you like.  I found the color from the GFX-100 tended to be a little cooler than either my Canon or Sony bodies head to head, with a slight magenta boost.  There’s so much latitude in the RAW files to process to taste…and some scenes were meant to look cool:

A larger sensor area means that pixels themselves are larger, which, in theory, allows for less noise, better dynamic range, and smoother transitions.  I’ve always favored full frame sensors over APS-C for that reason, and Fuji’s “medium-format-lite” sensor takes that further still, though the difference between full frame and the 0.79x crop of Fuji’s medium format isn’t as pronounced as the difference in sensor size between full frame and APS-C.  But consider this:  Fuji’s medium format sensor size is roughly 4x larger than the surface area of their APS-C sensor, so there is a huge difference between those two extremes.  Let’s see if the larger pixels add up to improved ISO performance and dynamic range.

ISO Performance

Fuji tends to be a little overly conservative with their native ISO ranges in their cameras according to my tests.  While most cameras have an upper limit that is at least one stop of pure “marketing” (not really useable), I’ve often felt that many Fuji cameras still have a little left in the tank in their native ISO ranges, and that’s doubly true here.  The native ISO range on the GFX-100 is 100-12,800, which is at least a stop (and maybe two) shy of what the camera is capable of.  The expanded range is ISO 50-102,400, which is maybe a stop higher than useful, but definitely ISO 25,600 and 51,200 are useable.  One more note before we look at some images:  the GFX-100 has the advantage of larger pixels due to a larger sensor but the disadvantage of a LOT of pixels packed onto that sensor.  The pixel pitch of the GFX-100 is 3.76 microns, identical to the pixel pitch/density of the 62 MP Sony a7RIV full frame sensor and the 26Mp APS-C sensor on the Fuji X-T4.  A high number of pixels creates more visible noise, which on the Canon EOS 5DsR meant that by its ISO limit of 6400 it was a noisy mess.  The a7RIV and X-T4 fair better, and that proves true of the GFX-100 as well despite its incredibly high pixel count.

There is only a minor uptick in visible noise and minimal loss of contrast at ISO 1600 when compared to base ISO.

While visible noise increases at ISO 6400, the end results are perfectly usable with only a fine noise like film grain visible.

If I choose the noisiest spot on my test area, this is as bad as it gets.

Going up another stop to 12,800 results in slightly rougher noise, but nothing significant.

 

Noise levels are more obvious at 51,200, but the image when viewed globally still looks excellent, with good black levels and accurate colors.

There’s no question that you can get excellent results from this camera in low light conditions, which is useful since most medium format lenses have smaller maximum apertures than equivalent full frame lenses.  I consider the Canon EOS R5 to be an excellent high ISO performer, but when I compared the two with settings and resolution equalized, the GFX-100 is better still.

Dynamic Range

According to photonstophotos.com, the GFX-100 has about one half stop better dynamic range than the Canon EOS R5, which is itself a hair better than the Sony a7RIV and A1.  I personally found comparing the EOS R5 and GFX-100 a little difficult for the simple reason that the sensor on the EOS R5 has higher sensitivity and meters about a half stop brighter when identical settings are used, making it hard to find a true equivalency.  Comparisons aside, though, I did find processing images from the GFX-100 to be pretty much a joy with a lot of latitude for manipulating shadows and highlights.  Shadow recovery eclipses highlight recovery as per usual, so if you want bias your results in any way to increase dynamic range, underexpose a bit.

Case in point, I shot this bridge facing into the very bright sun.  When I got home, I realized that I had strongly underexposed the bridge itself.  No problem, a quick pulling up of shadows and the detail in the bridge was restored, and I had room to bring more detail back into the highlights, too.

If we look in close, we can see that the details in the stonework on the bridge support are nice and clean after recovery.

I would probably leave shadows crushed a bit if I were processing to taste (this image has less contrast than what I would like), but it does illustrate a real world point about dynamic range on this camera.

Here’s a shot that I have processed more to taste that has a huge dynamic range.

We have both deep shadows along with intensely bright highlights here, but I’ve been able to process the image without almost any clipping of shadows or highlights.  Impressive.

In my formal series, my base ISO was 1/10th of a second.  I underexposed five stops from that baseline (1/320th second) and then added five stops of exposure back in post.  Here’s what the two images look like side by side:

Yes, you can be forgiven if you don’t see much of a difference.  The colors have lost the tiniest bit of saturation, but that’s about it.  And have we added a lot of noise in the shadows?  Let’s look at 100%:

There’s a little additional noise, but not much.  And just for perspective, here’s how underexposed everything was before recovery:

Yeah, that’s impressive!

How about highlights?  I find the overexposure limit is between 2 and 3 stops.  You can see at the 3 stop overexposure recovery that there are a few hotspots where information has been lost that is unrecoverable. 

If you want more latitude in the highlights you can either underexpose a bit (shadows are easy to recover), or you can utilize Fuji’s DR200 and DR400 modes.  If you shoot at a slightly higher ISO value (200), you can choose the DR200 mode, or at ISO 400 you can choose the DR400 mode.  In DR200, camera will use electronic trickery to sample the shadow and midtone data from the current ISO setting (200) while using the base ISO’s highlights, giving you an additional stop of DR.  In DR400 the process is further exaggerated as the camera can then sample the highlights from two stops down, giving you two additional stops of DR.  I’ve utilized this setting fairly frequently when shooting Fuji cameras, and it works well if you want more latitude in the highlights (extra information in the sky, for example).  This image shows a huge amount of dynamic range from this technique with a perfectly exposed sky along with excellent exposure in the forest alongside the path.

More dynamic range doesn’t always equal better images.  Sometimes leaving a little mystery in the shadows adds a lot to an image, and often a blown out light coming through a window is preferable to seeing what’s outside.  I liked the image on the left better even though you can see more details in the image on the right.  

Sometimes less is more…but I would rather have the latitude to process to taste, and more dynamic range gives you options.  There’s a lot to love on that front with the GFX 100S, though not anything significantly better than what you can find on the current crop of full frame cameras.

I was reminded in this review of how much I enjoy processing the colors and tonality from this sensor.  I saw such beautiful gradations and subtleties in images, and I got some stunning results like this:

or like this:

Though autofocus has never been a medium format strength, image quality most certainly has been.  This is an amazing sensor, and I enjoyed it even more in the more accessible camera body style of the GFX 100S (much easier to pack along to take those photos!)  Check out more images in the image gallery from my 20-35mm F4 review to see more beautiful images.

Conclusion

The Fujifilm GFX 100S is my current favorite of Fujifilm’s GFX cameras.  It combines the better sensor and autofocus performance of the GFX 100 with the more accessible body style of the GFX 50 lineup.  It also improves the IBIS and costs a whopping $4000 less than the GFX 100.  If you are going to buy into Fujifilm’s GFX system, this is the sweet spot.  The camera  is capable of delivering incredible landscape images, like this one that ended up at position #34 on Flickr’s Explore charts.

Autofocus remains the weak link for the GFX system, but I do see some gradual improvements.  Here’s hoping the next generation will be able to take that big leap forward.

At nearly $6000, the GFX 100S isn’t an inexpensive camera.  It is cheaper than my full frame Sony Alpha 1, however, and when you look at the historical pricing of medium format cameras, it is a relative bargain.  At the end of the day I see little reason to consider the much larger and more expensive GFX 100 unless desperately prefer the integrated battery grip design.  The Fujifilm GFX 100S is very possibly the most compelling entry in the medium format space at the moment, and that’s great news for Fuji.

 

Pros:

  • The best image quality that I’ve ever seen
  • Incredible resolution
  • Excellent dynamic range
  • Strong high ISO performance despite all those pixels
  • Strong, durable body with good weather sealing
  • Good IBIS system helps maximize resolution results
  • Cheaper than other high resolution medium format options
  • Eye AF performance is fairly strong
  • Much more compelling price point than the GFX 100
  • Excellent top screen

Cons:

  • Autofocus still has obvious limitations
  • I miss a rear wheel/control dial
  • Burst rate and tracking capabilities lag far behind smaller sensor rivals 
  • Viewfinder unimpressive for a $6000 camera

 

Gear Used:

Purchase the GFX100S @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GF 20-35mm F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GFX50S II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Camera Canada  | Ebay 

Purchase the GF 35-70mm F4.5-5.6 WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GF 110mm F2 LM WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada  

Purchase the Fujfilm GFX 100 camera @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 80mm F1.7 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 45mm F2.8 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay 

 

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Peak Design Leash Strap:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

B&H Logo

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product:  Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

 


 

Keywords: Fuji GFX 100S, Fujifilm GFX100S, GFX100S, GFX 100S, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX50S II, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fujinon, Fuji, GF, Medium Format, Fuji GFX50S II, GFX, 50S II, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR Review

Dustin Abbott

November 24th, 2022

New lens releases for Fujifilm’s unique GFX medium format cameras don’t come often, so when one arrives, it is worth taking a look.  Their newest lens is the Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR, a wide angle zoom that proves to be a great match even to their extremely high resolution Fujifilm GFX100S (102MP!) that I used for this review.  As Fuji’s Medium Format has a unique crop factor of 0.79x (as compared to 1.0x of standard full frame), the equivalent focal length of this zoom is 16-28mm, making this the widest angle of view available on the GFX platform.  At 20mm the angle of view is 108°, which gives you a very wide view of the world.

You can zoom into a 76° angle of view at 35mm, which gives you quite a different framing:

While the GF 20-35mm doesn’t sport all of Fuji’s bells and whistles, it does come with a weather sealed design (WR) and aperture control ring (R).  The weather sealing is robust, sporting 12 seal points along with a fluorine coating on the front element.

Fuji calls this lens extremely compact, and, while that’s true in medium format terms, it is still a fairly large lens by the standard of smaller sensors.  But what is equally true is that Fuji has managed to create a wide angle zoom that has relatively few optical flaws and is thus a great tool for maximizing the performance of those incredible medium format sensors.

The MSRP of the lens is $2499 USD, which is fairly reasonable for this type of lens.  There are plenty of Full Frame 15/16-35mm F2.8 lenses that are within a few hundred dollars of that price point, and you certainly wouldn’t find any equivalent medium format lens anywhere close to that price point.  If you are invested in Fujifilm’s GFX system, you have done so because of its relative value, not because it is cheap.  So is the GF 20-35mm F4 worthy of adding to your kit?  You can either watch my video review or read on to find out!

Follow Me @  Patreon  |  My Newsletter |  Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | 500px

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GF 20-35mm along with the GFX100S body to test it on.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 Build and Handling

The GF 20-35mm sports the familiar design language of most all GF lenses that I’ve tested.  If you are primarily familiar with smaller sensor sizes, it is the girth of medium format lenses that stands out.  The mount diameter is 65mm, which is significantly larger than Fuji’s own APS-C X-mount (44mm), Sony E-mount (46.1mm), Canon’s RF (54mm), or Nikon’s Z mount (55mm).  That mount size means that all lenses are going to have a minimum diameter of 70mm or so just to accommodate having a flange around the lens mount.  GF lenses always seem a little “chunky” for this reason. 

The GF 20-35mm follows this trend, and it is a fairly wide 88.5mm in diameter (3.5”) and an even longer 112.5mm (4.42”) in length.  It has a large but reasonably common 82mm front filter thread, which means that traditional screw-in filters can be used.  That’s important, as it isn’t uncommon for wide angle lenses to have a curved front element to accommodate the wide angle of view, making filtering difficult.

The lens weighs in at 725g or 25.6oz, which makes it heavy but not particularly so.  I’ve used plenty of wide angle zooms for smaller sensors that were heavier.

The “R” in the name refers to aperture ring.  There is a dual approach to aperture with a manual aperture ring along with an “A” mode (automatic) that allows aperture to be controlled within camera.  On GF lenses there is also a “C” mode, which stands for command, giving you yet another way (command dial) to control aperture.

The aperture diaphragm has nine rounded blades to help maintain a circular shape when the lens is stopped down.

There are two other rings on the lens.  The largest is the zoom ring which dominates the center portion of the lens.  It has a high quality rubberized texture with deep ribbing.  This is an internally zooming lens, and the zoom action is perfectly damped and smooth.  It is rare that an externally zooming lens can compete with the smoothness of this action.  The zoom ring has roughly 75° of rotation and allows for nice precision.

The focus ring is narrower and occupies the space nearest the front of the lens.  It has a similar texture and moves smoothly, though the nature of the focus feels a little disconnected. 

A wide but shallow petal-shaped lens hood is included.  It does include a locking mechanism to make sure it doesn’t get inadvertently shifted.

The minimum focus distance is 35cm (13.8”), and the resulting magnification level is only 0.14x.  Here’s what MFD looks like from my test chart.

Close up performance is reasonably good, though contrast isn’t as high I found at further focus distances.  One advantage of the MFD not being particularly close is the plane of focus is fairly flat (not a lot of field curvature), though I didn’t find this a particularly compelling lens for up-close subject isolation.

We don’t have Fuji’s in-lens stabilization system (OIS) here, though fortunately the GFX100S body that I tested the lens on has excellent in-camera stabilization and I was able to get very effective stability for handholding results.  That’s good news, as a maximum aperture of F4 means in dimmer lighting conditions you might want to choose a lower shutter speed over boosting the ISO.  I had completely stability in this 1/8th of a second shoot at 35mm even on a very high resolution body:

The GF 20-35mm handles well in the field and the build quality is pretty much exactly what I’ve come to expect for the Fujinon GF lenses.

Autofocus Performance

While Fuji’s autofocus performance in its medium format space is generally better than their direct competitors, autofocus performance remains a good way behind what’s available in the smaller sensor space.  You may have spotted that there isn’t “LM” in the lens title, which in Fuji-land tells you that the GF 20-35mm is not equipped with Fuji’s premium Linear Motor focus system.  We’ve got a STM (stepping motor) focus system instead, but the end results were not bad in my medium format experience.

Focus speed for general photography was relatively snappy, particularly when shooting landscape type scenes. 

The slowdowns came at the extremes.  When trying to isolate a subject, for example, I saw some hunting and a lack of confidence.  It was not uncommon for me to not be to get the lens to focus on a close subject and to stubbornly stay focused on the background.  I had to manually focus for this shot before autofocus would lock onto the desired subject.

 

I also had zero success with trying to get shots of Nala even slowly walking around.  If she was moving towards the camera my results were invariably back-focused.

I also saw a bit of a mixed bag when testing video autofocus.  Focus pulls were relatively fast and smooth for medium format, and I heard little sound from the STM focus motor.  That’s progress!

What I also saw, however, was some visible stepping and a tendency for focus to move past the subject and then pop back to the proper place.  That was particularly true in my test when I held my hand up in front of the lens and then allowed it snap back to my face.

This remains a less than ideal format for video work, though I do feel like I’m seeing gradual improvements in the GFX system.  The better focus system in the GFX100S relative to the GFX50S II certainly helps.  When shooting static video shots focus wasn’t pulsing or hunting, and that in itself allowed me to get some excellent looking footage.

In general, autofocus was better than what I’ve seen in some other GF situations, so I think that the autofocus performance is generally good despite not having the premium AF system.  You just have to be realistic about the current limitations of medium format, though I do think that Fuji is moving in the right direction.

Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 Image Quality

Though autofocus has never been a medium format strength, image quality most certainly has been.  The sensor in the GFX100S is one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen, and I feel like the GF 20-35mm is a lens that can optically take advantage of it.  We have an optical formula of 14 elements in 10 groups, and this includes 3 aspherical,1 aspherical ED and 3 ED elements, meaning that half of the elements are “exotic” elements.  That leads to a very impressive MTF chart.

Even if we use the most demanding results (on the right), we see that the lens is insanely sharp in the center of the frame at both the wide and telephoto ends.  Mid-frame performance is also exceptionally sharp, and, while there is a dip at the corners, they remain quite sharp even wide open.  We’ll break that performance down in detail, but I can attest from real world results that the GF 20-35mm is impressively sharp.  Take this 35mm, F4 result.

In the original image, the mother and son in the distance are so tiny that you don’t even hardly see them.  But the deep crop (about 100%) shows they are perfectly rendered along with the trees around them.  That’s pretty fantastic, and gives us a hint of what we’ll find in the more standardized tests.

A couple of brief notes about the tests.  First of all, there isn’t a way that I’m aware of for turning off the in-camera corrections (though I could disable the profile in Lightroom).  If you are shooting JPEGs, it seems like they will always be corrected.  That’s mostly a good thing, though in some cases profiles can overcorrect, and sometimes a bit of vignette or pincushion distortion can be a flattering look (in portraits, for example). In this case I think the profiles generally do a good job of correction. Secondly, my test chart is set up 3:2 ratio that we find on full frame and APS-C cameras, while the native ratio of this medium format sensor is 4:3, which makes the “short side” longer.  That means that I can’t frame my test chart perfectly, which also means that the extreme corners aren’t actually reflected in my testing (they are literally “of the chart”!)

We’ll start by taking a look at vignette and distortion at 20mm, and then at 35mm:

At 20mm we can see a fairly significant amount of barrel distortion if I turn off the corrections.  I had to use a +18 to correct, but we can see a bit of a mustache style pattern left behind.  Vignette is also very heavy, requiring me to nearly max out the sliders to correct.  There’s a good 4+ stops of vignette in the far corners.  This is a pretty typical performance for a wide angle zoom and the distortion and vignette is probably the compromise required to give us a smaller size and the ability to use traditional filters.  I framed my test chart tightly on the sides in the viewfinder, so this means that Fuji designed the lens to be slightly wider than stated to allow room to correct back to 20mm.

At 35mm the distortion has changed to a pincushion style.  It’s less extreme and more linear in nature, but still required a fairly substantial -13 to correct for it.  Vignette was only slightly less heavy, requiring a +79 to correct it.

Not an amazing performance, but also not bad for a relatively compact wide angle zoom lens that goes wider than the platform has ever seen before.

I did see some Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations (LoCA) when doing my formal tests.  It showed up primarily as bluish-green fringing after the plane of focus.

I did see it in one or two real-world photos, but the truth of the matter is that there are few real-world situations where it will be seen for the simple reason that won’t be many shallow depth-of-field scenarios with this lens (wide angle plus low magnification). 

More important in a wide angle lens is the control of Lateral Chromatic Aberrations (LaCA) that show up near the edges of the frame on either side of contrast transitions. These are very well corrected for, and I saw little to no fringing in either my tests or real world photos.

As noted, I used the ultra-high resolution GFX100s for these tests (102MP), which is a very demanding test for any lens.  Crops are shown at roughly 200% magnification as is my norm.  Here’s a look at the test chart the crops will be taken from:

Here are 20mm F4 crops from the center, mid-frame, and corner:

We can see that the center results are exceptional even wide open, as is the mid-frame.  As the MTF suggested, the results in the corners aren’t quite as crisp.

Stopping down to F5.6 makes little difference in the center of the frame, but there is a little bump in the midframe and a more obvious one in the corners.

There’s even more contrast and resolution on tap at F8 in the midframe and corners, and without a hit to the center, so I would use F8 as the go-to landscape aperture.  Real world landscapes have a lot of detail:

Landscapes at either F5.6 or F8 are stunningly detailed, and colors are deep and rich (particularly on a gorgeous late autumn morning at sunrise!)

Minimum aperture is F22, but diffraction hits high resolution sensors particularly bad, so the image is much softer and lower contrast by that point.

At 25mm the image quality in the center and mid-frame is a tiny bit better than at 20mm while the corners feel very slightly softer.  Real world results are still excellent…just not as exceptional in the corners.

Stopping down to F8 doesn’t quite bring the corners up to the excellent levels that we saw at 20mm.

30mm has a slightly better corner performance and a sharpness profile more similar to 20mm across the frame, which is to say excellent.  Stopping down to F8 produces levels similar to what saw at 20mm as well.  Here’s a mid-frame example at F8:

At 35mm we see a continued excellent result. This real world landscape at F8 shows exquisite detail across the frame:

 

Put simply, this is a great partner to the high resolution GFX bodies for getting detailed landscape or cityscape images.

As noted previously, this isn’t really a great lens for producing bokeh.  What I can see doesn’t look bad, but there won’t be a lot of opportunities for creating it.

Colors tend to be a Fuji strength, and that’s particularly true of their medium format cameras.  I really liked what I was able to capture with the lens, as I saw some very nice gradations of color that just look fantastic.

Flare resistance looks quite good in real world use.  I saw next to no ghosting or veiling artifacts, and shots into the sun retained good contrast.

I was likewise impressed with the coma performance of the lens.  You can shoot the night sky with confidence using the GF 20-35mm, as star points are extremely crisp in the middle of the image but also mostly retain their shape even at the edges.

All told, this is a strong optical performance.  There are some optical flaws, but considering that this lens goes wider than any previous lens on the system, I’m quite impressed with the consistency of performance from it.  Check out more images in the image gallery to see it show off some more.

Conclusion

I haven’t always been blown away by the GF lenses in the way that I’ve been impressed with the GFX sensors, but it seems to me that the Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR is the kind of lens that a lot of GFX shooters should be interested in.  Landscape work should most certainly join portraiture as a top application for a medium format camera, and it seems to me that you could certainly do some of both with this lens.  It is capable of delivering incredible landscape images, like this one that ended up at position #34 on Flickr’s Explore charts.

The list of optical flaws here is pretty brief, and I also felt positive about the autofocus…so long as you don’t expect it to keep up with even moderate action.  That’s just not yet a part of the strengths of this format, though perhaps someday it will be.

If you’ve been looking for a competent wide angle zoom for your GFX camera, the wait is over.  At $2499 USD this is not an inexpensive lens, but it is also not exorbitantly expensive, particularly when you consider how unique a lens it really is.  You can create some incredible images with this lens, and I see no reason why the GF 20-35mm F4 should not become a staple in many Fujifilm medium format kits. 

 

Pros:

  • Moderate size and weight
  • Thorough weather sealing
  • Internally zooming with beautiful zoom action
  • Goes wider than any previous GF lens
  • Produces excellent sharpness in the center and mid-frame wide open.
  • Excellent sharpness across the frame at smaller apertures
  • Consistent sharpness across zoom range
  • Good control of lateral chromatic aberrations
  • Good flare resistance
  • Good coma performance
  • Beautiful color
  • Can use traditional filters

Cons:

  • Some autofocus hunting 
  • Fairly strong distortion and vignette
  • Magnification level fairly low

 

Gear Used:

Purchase the GF 20-35mm F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GFX100S @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GFX50S II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Camera Canada  | Ebay 

Purchase the GF 35-70mm F4.5-5.6 WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GF 110mm F2 LM WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada  

Purchase the Fujfilm GFX 100 camera @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 80mm F1.7 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 45mm F2.8 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay 

 

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Peak Design Leash Strap:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

B&H Logo

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product:  Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

 


 

Keywords: Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR, Fuji 20-35, Fuji 20-35mm, 20-35mm, F4, WR, R, Fujifilm GFX100S, GFX100S, GFX 100S, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX50S II, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fujinon, Fuji, GF, Medium Format, Fuji GFX50S II, GFX, 50S II, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

November 19th, 2022

New lens releases for Fujifilm’s unique GFX medium format cameras don’t come often, so when one arrives, it is worth taking a look.  Their newest lens is the Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR, a wide angle zoom that proves to be a great match even to their extremely high resolution Fujifilm GFX100S (102MP!) that I used for this review.  As Fuji’s Medium Format has a unique crop factor of 0.79x (as compared to 1.0x of standard full frame), the equivalent focal length of this zoom is 16-28mm, making this the widest angle of view available on the GFX platform.  At 20mm the angle of view is 108°, which gives you a very wide view of the world.

You can zoom into a 76° angle of view at 35mm, which gives you quite a different framing:

While the GF 20-35mm doesn’t sport all of Fuji’s bells and whistles, it does come with a weather sealed design (WR) and aperture control ring (R).  The weather sealing is robust, sporting 12 seal points along with a fluorine coating on the front element.

Fuji calls this lens extremely compact, and, while that’s true in medium format terms, it is still a fairly large lens by the standard of smaller sensors.  But what is equally true is that Fuji has managed to create a wide angle zoom that has relatively few optical flaws and is thus a great tool for maximizing the performance of those incredible medium format sensors.

The MSRP of the lens is $2499 USD, which is fairly reasonable for this type of lens.  There are plenty of Full Frame 15/16-35mm F2.8 lenses that are within a few hundred dollars of that price point, and you certainly wouldn’t find any equivalent medium format lens anywhere close to that price point.  If you are invested in Fujifilm’s GFX system, you have done so because of its relative value, not because it is cheap.  So is the GF 20-35mm F4 worthy of adding to your kit?  You can watch my video review, read my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.

 

Follow Me @  Patreon  |  My Newsletter |  Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | 500px

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for providing me a review loaner of the GF 20-35mm along with the GFX100S body to test it on.  As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own.

Photos of the Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 

Photos Taken with the Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4

 

Gear Used:

Purchase the GF 20-35mm F4 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GFX100S @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GFX50S II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Camera Canada  | Ebay 

Purchase the GF 35-70mm F4.5-5.6 WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK 

Purchase the GF 110mm F2 LM WR @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada  

Purchase the Fujfilm GFX 100 camera @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 80mm F1.7 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Ebay 

Purchase the Fujinon GF 45mm F2.8 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay 

 

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | | Camera Canada | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Peak Design Leash Strap:  Peak Design StoreB&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada  | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Get a discount off all Skylum Editing Software (Luminar, Aurora HDR, AirMagic) by using code DUSTINHDR at checkout:
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like.  Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

B&H Logo

Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product:  Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

 


 

Keywords: Fujinon GF 20-35mm F4 WR, Fuji 20-35, Fuji 20-35mm, 20-35mm, F4, WR, R, Fujifilm GFX100S, GFX100S, GFX 100S, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Fujifilm GFX50S II, Fujifilm GFX-50S II, Review, Fujinon, Fuji, GF, Medium Format, Fuji GFX50S II, GFX, 50S II, MF, Portrait, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, Comparison, review, Dustin Abbott, dustinabbott, letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.