GOD IS IN THE DETAIL
There are numerous ‘firsts’ associated with Fujifilm’s 100 megapixels GFX series camera, not the least being that we can talk about it in relation to a potential group of users that extends well beyond a small handful of high-end studio photographers (or well-heeled landscape photographers with a lot of determination and patience).
At $16,499, the GFX 100 body still isn’t cheap, but this is a fraction (and really a fraction) of what you previously had to pay for the same amount of resolution from either Hasselblad or Phase One. And, in both cases, the platform is a medium format D-SLR with all its inherent clunkiness, both audibly and operationally. The GFX 100 exploits the benefits of the mirrorless configuration to the hilt, so Fujifilm has built a 100 megapixels digital medium format camera like no other. Apart from the affordability factor; the GFX 100 is more ergonomic, more efficient, more capable, faster, superior in its key camera control systems such as autofocusing and exposure metering, and equipped with features that have never been seen at this level, most notably in-body image stabilisation and 4K video recording in both the DCI and UHD resolutions. In fact, in a nutshell, pretty much everything you’d expect to find on a competitive full-35mm or ‘APS-C’ mirrorless camera is available on the GFX 100. Consequently, it can boldly go where no other 100 MP digital medium format camera has ever gone before. Consequently, all the output – both stills and video – shown at the international launch in Tokyo and the various supporting events around it, was action-orientated… no portraits or still lifes as has been traditional with medium format cameras, assuming that there was even a product launch at all. That was another significant first too – Fujifilm threw a big party for the GFX 100’s debut, inviting hundreds of guests from around the world, presumably confident that it’s going to sell in sufficient numbers to cover the drinks tab and more.
It’s a reasonable assumption because it’s quite a camera and, arguably, the most significant of the GFX models we’ve seen so far. Why? Well, there’s much more to having 100 megapixels on tap than just a whole lotta resolution. It a whole lotta resolution, of course, and that means detail, detail, detail; but it also means a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to cropping – a 35mm format frame is still 60.8 megapixels in image size
