I’m Equally Excited For Two Very Different Cameras

There are two brand new cameras that Fujifilm has just announced, and I want both of them. They couldn’t be more different — one compact with a fixed lens, and one massive with an interchangeable lens mount — but I kinda want them both. Can I have them both, please?

Fujifilm’s X100F is the fourth iteration in an increasingly refined series of cameras that started with the beautiful, retro-styled X100 from mid-2011. A new 24.3-megapixel sensor and complementary imaging processor mean the X100F can start up in half a second and focus on its subject in just 0.08s. By all accounts, it’s an incredibly quick and responsive piece of hardware.

The X100F adds an ISO sensitivity dial on top of the shutter speed dial — in case you needed more manual control, alongside the (electronic) manual aperture control and exposure compensation and manual focus ring on the fixed 23mm f/2 lens (35mm equivalent). There’s also a focus lever on the camera’s rear, where the thumb on your right hand usually rests, if you don’t trust autofocus. And it looks sexy in black.

It still looks much the same and uses the same lens, hybrid optical and electronic viewfinder, and it’s mostly built out of lightweight but sturdy magnesium. Updates here are behind the scenes — the EVF refreshes at 60fps, the autofocus sensor’s phase detection pixels now sit at 91 points covering almost half the frame, and so on. I enjoyed shooting with the second-gen X100S, but this looks next level.

The X100F, which will be out in Australia in late February, will set you back $1999 at its recommended retail price. I’m really tempted. Like, really really actually really tempted. Someone stop me.

On the other hand, Fujifilm’s GFX 50S is a very different piece of technology. It’s built around a medium format digital sensor, measuring 43.8mmx32.9mm — a fair bit larger than the 36x24mm sensor in other high-end cameras like Canon’s 5D Mark IV. It’s not as big as other medium format digital sensors, but it’s still big, and that means phenomenal detail.

Big medium format digital cameras like the Phase One can best it for outright megapixels — there’s a 100-megapixel back for the Phase One XF — but are far more at home in a studio than the more versatile potential of the GFX. The GFX 50S will step all the way up to ISO 102,400 (12,800 native) and has a electronic/mechanical shutter setup that’ll switch from up to 60 minutes exposure to 1/16000 sec.

Add on top of that the fact that the three launch lenses for Fuji’s new GF mount are all water resistant — there’s a 63mm f/2.8 prime (50mm equivalent), a 32-64mm constant f/4 zoom, and a 120mm f/4 macro prime with image stabilisation — and you’ve got a top-of-the-line camera system that you can take out of a safe, light-controlled setup and into the real world. As long as you can handle its hefty weight (the body is 825g, the zoom and macro lenses are nearly a kilo each), the GFX 50S looks like an amazing camera for

If you can afford it, too. When it becomes available in Australia in limited quantities, the Fujifilm GFX 50S will set you back $9999 for the body, $2399 for the 63mm f/2.8, $3499 for the 32-64mm f/4, and $4199 for the 120mm f/4 OIS. Yikes. [Fujifilm X100F / Fujifilm GFX 50S]


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