http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 43
of the Fujifilm range of cameras
for that matter is that they feel as
if they’ve been designed by
photographers for photographers.
While arguably superficial in some
ways the analogue buttons, dials
and knobs are a sheer delight to
use. For me, they are instinctive
and mitigate the need to dig deep
into menus. I loathe menus,
especially as I now need reading
glasses. My approach and style of
photography is pretty
straightforward. For my personal
practice, I don’t tend to dwell on
fancy, complicated techniques and
so having the simple controls of
aperture, shutter speed and ISO
literally at fingertips allows me to
take control of the camera
instinctively without thinking. Like
driving a manual car, I don’t need
to think about it too much and
interrupt the creative flow.
It is true that the autofocus is
clunky. It was described in these
very pages as the GFX 50R’s
Achilles’ heel. I wouldn’t argue with
this, but for me, it doesn’t really
matter. I’m not interested in
making photographs that demand
the speed of on-chip phase
detection. Part of the GFX’s allure
for me was working in a slower,
more considered and deliberate
way. There’s not much that I’m
drawn to photograph that
demands the speed of super-fast
autofocus. I grew up with manualfocus and am still of a mindset that
autofocus, whatever, the speed, is
pretty good. And while the GFX’s
focus might be slow and clunky, it
is very accurate and using the
joystick with my thumb to move
the focus point quickly became
second nature.Image quality
One of the most compelling
reasons for me to switch to
medium format was the attraction
of the medium-format sized
sensor. For someone with petty
aspirations in the fine-art world of
photography the ability to make
large, detailed and highly
descriptive prints was seductive.
The 51.4MP medium-format
sensor, which is 70% larger in
area than full-frame, more than
satisfies this whim and I have
made massive prints that blow me
away. The files are simply sublime.
I was also really drawn to the 4:3
aspect ratio of the medium-format
sensor. For purely aesthetic reasons
I found I was nearly always cropping
my 3:2 files from the D850 to the
more-pleasing-for-me 4:3 ratio. It
might seem a superficial reason,
but it was important to me and it
seemed such a shame to be
wasting the pixels I was cropping
out of the NEFs.
None of the lenses I use has
image stabilisation and
neither does the cameraDog in Alaska, tack
sharp ‘action’ shot
Fujifilm GFX 50R, Fujinon
GF 45mm F2.8 R WR,
1/900sec at f4, ISO 250Julieta in Alaska
Fujifilm GFX 50R, Fujinon
GF 45mm F2.8 R WR,
1/200sec at f4, ISO 250