FUJIFILM GFX 50S VS NIKON D850

IN THE past, full-frame DSLRs and medium-format digital cameras were separated by a huge gulf. Medium-format cameras were huge and unwieldy and ruinously expensive, but delivered a level of resolution completely beyond the reach of full-frame DSLRs.

But two things have happened. First, full-frame DSLR resolution has leapt up to match that of many medium-format cameras; and then the slimmed-down Fujifilm GFX 50S and Hasselblad X1D arrived at a size and price much closer to those of a full-frame DSLR.

We’ve lined up the brand new Nikon D850 to represent the latest state-ofthe- art tech in full-frame DSLRs, and the mirrorless Fujifilm GFX 50S, the medium-format camera which perhaps gives the most recognisable shooting experience for those upgrading from a smaller format.

Both cameras capture more or less 50 million pixels, so the image quality comparisons will prove very interesting, but in practically every other respect they are completely different to use. ‘Chalk and cheese’ hardly covers it!

The cameras’ sensors also take very different approaches. The GFX has 51.4 megapixels versus the 45.7 megapixels of the D850, but that’s not as significant as the size difference. The GFX’s sensor measures 43.8 x 32.9mm compared with the D850’s 35.9 x 23.9mm.

There’s a difference in the aspect ratios, too. The D850 has the 3:2 aspect ratio of other full-frame DSLRs (and cameras with APS-C sensors), but the GFX has a squarer 4:3 ratio. Horizontalformat shots will look a little less wide, but vertical shots tend to look a little more natural at this ratio.

We tend to think of medium-format as being much larger than 35mm fullframe, but digital medium-format sensors come in two main sizes, and the GFX 50S’s is the smaller size – you could say it’s the APS-C equivalent of the medium-format world.

So although it is larger than the