Fujifilm GFX 50s II or …. GFX 100s?
Sometimes I’ve had occasion to wonder whether I need to take a step up in my equipment (or whether that’s just gear envy) to obtain some of the photographic results I thought I should be getting. Even though the X-T3 has given me consistently better imagery than all previous X-T models, over the past couple of years I’ve occasionally been surprised at how roughly tonal transitions sometimes render in difficult conditions, particularly as Dan and I try to photograph more during daylight conditions. It’s not just about megapixel counts, although for landscape photography, megapixels help to reflect the infinite details of nature. It also has to do with tonal transitions (bit count), dynamic range (sensor and bit count), and how certain images seem to render (lens and sensor size). Thus, even if Fujifilm comes out with a 40+ mp camera sensor, I’m left wondering whether that new sensor could match what we’ve been seeing from medium format sensors.
Fujifilm has a couple of medium format cameras that I’ve been eyeing and it’s hard to choose between them given they’re both built in exactly the same body! On the outside they look identical, except for the 50sII added underneath the GFX label.
Operationally they are near identical, performance wise, they differ a bit. The only questions are, are the differences significant for what I what I do? And, is it worth the extra cost? Those differences involve, most obviously, the fact that the GFX 100s has a 100 mp sensor and the GFX 50sII has a 50 mp sensor. Then there are a few performance issues related to the fact that the 50mp sensor is 5 or so years old, and the 100mp sensor is only a couple of years old and is a generation of sensors newer.
These sensors are the same physical size, and are about 4 times the size of our current APSC sensors. Which makes for bigger bodies and . . . quite obviously bigger lenses. Sometimes it seems almost too big of a lens.
But that is one of the advantages of medium format. It’s much easier to make sharper, better lenses for medium format cameras than for smaller cameras. That, in part, contributes to their better image rendering performance. But they are beefy!
Fujifilm has been on the forefront of making medium format “affordable” (yes, I know, that should be qualified with a “more,” but they’re not the $ 45,000 for a digital back like Phase One). They’ve made huge strides since their first GFX 50s, released half a decade ago. They have many of the features we’ve come to enjoy, like the flip rear screen, while (with these models) abandoning the total reliance on manual controls.
They allow for hand-holding the camera with built-in-image stabilization, and every body and lens is weatherproofed.
A couple of photographer YouTubers we watch use cameras with the same sensor as the GFX 50sII and it renders beautifully. Some say that it renders better than the GFX 100s even though it has less bit depth (14 bit vs 16 bit). And it sure seems that 50 mp should be more than plenty for anything that we would do. So why not just go with the GFX 50sII and save $2,000 on the body.
Well, the focusing on the 50sII isn’t nearly as good or as fast as on the 100s. The 100s can shoot video in 4k (but does that really matter to me). The technology of the sensor on the 100s is newer. And 100 megapixels is 100 megapixels - imagine zooming into that landscape! But then again, I just might have to upgrade my laptop to process those files, and storing all that data would mean I would have to press the shutter less often than I do. Would that hurt my photography?
And, of course, besides the weight, both cameras will suffer from the same narrower depth-of-field for the same “view.” Part of the medium format look/quality is that longer lenses are used to get the same view (the GF 45mm has the same “35mm equivalent” field of view as my XF 23mm lens), which gives you that look, but takes away with the depth of field. I’ll have to be more precise in my focusing and potentially focus stack more images.
Wow! So much to think about! How wonderful for a gear-head like me! Which would you choose?