44
FUJIFILM GFX 50S ON TRIAL
eye removal, cropping, resizing,
Fujifi lm’s ‘PhotoBook Assist’
feature and direct printing to an
Instax instant print device via WiFi.
It’s hard to see too many GFX
users actually wanting to do this,
although it could be a nice idea at a
party or wedding.
As well as wireless fi le
sharing, WiFi allows for remote
camera operation via Fujifi lm’s
Camera Remote app, but there’s
also provision for tethered
shooting from a PC which is an
application many studio-based
pros will fi nd useful.SPEED AND
PERFORMANCE
With our reference memory card- Lexar’s 128 GB SDXC UHS-II/
U3 (Speed Class 3) Professional - aboard, the GFX 50S (using the
focal plane shutter) captured a
burst of 40 JPEG/large/superfi ne
fi les in 13.289 seconds, giving a
shooting speed of 3.01 fps. This
confi rms Fujifi lm’s quoted spec,
and the burst length is very good
for a digital medium format camera
although it’s understandably much
shorter when shooting RAW. The
buffer emptied very quickly which
is impressive given there was
1.18 GB of data to transfer... the
average test fi le size being 30.5
MB. However, during regular
shooting we regularly captured
best-quality JPEGs sized at 40 MB
or even bigger.
It doesn’t take too long when
looking at the image fi les from the
GFX 50S to be convinced about
why you might want to move up to
a digital medium format camera.
Fujifi lm’s expertise at processing
JPEGs – especially the ‘Film
Simulation’ profi les – is already
well-proven with the X Mount
cameras, but it steps up a notch or
two here when there’s 51.4 million
nicely-sized pixels to play with.
Consequently, we’ve had to dip a
bit deeper into the superlatives bag
when it comes to describing the
detailing, defi nition and dynamic
range. The level of detailing is truly
stunning with the fi nest of edges
beautifully resolved to the extent
that, once you’ve seen what’s
possible, you won’t want to go
back to anything less. The overall
crispness is simply addictive, but
consequently there is the added
pressure to make sure camera
shake is completely eliminated
and you get the focusing right. The
bigger sensor means inherently
again as on the X-T2, is quickly
and easily moved around the
screen via a joystick type control.
The LCD monitor has an info-only
panel which includes a real-time
histogram and a focus point grid
and a bank of various function
indicators... you’re never going to
die wondering with the GFX 50S.
Both the EVF and the monitor
screen can be adjusted for
brightness and colour balance.
The image replay/review
screens include an RGB/brightness
histograms overlay, and thumbnails
accompanied by capture data, a
highlight warning, a brightness
histogram and, very usefully, the
focus point(s) used. Pressing the
rear command dial instantly zooms
in on this point for checking the
focus and you can then scroll
around the image very easily using
the joystick control. Alternatively,
conventional zoom playback
is available at up to 16.7x and
assisted by a navigational pane.
There are pages of nine or 100
thumbnails and here frames can
be selected for viewing by simply
tapping on them. In fact, it’s in the
replay mode that the touchscreen
controls are most extensive –
swipe for browsing, pinch-out to
zoom, pinch-in to make the image
smaller or select the thumbnail
pages or drag to navigate a
magnifi ed image.
The in-camera editing functions
include RAW conversion to
either JPEG or 8-bit TIFF (with
17 adjustable parameters), red-between manually setting
apertures or shutter speeds.
The EVF and monitor screen
can be cycled through various
displays, fi ve for the former and
four for the latter. They share
the main or ‘Standard Indicator’s
screen which can be extensively
customised in terms of status
icons and read-outs plus there’s
the options of a level display,
guide grids (3x3 or 6x4), real-time
histogram, highlight warning,
focusing distance scale, exposure
compensation scale and audio
channel level meters. The level
indicator can be switched between
a simple horizon line or a more
sophisticated dual-axis display for
showing pitch and roll.
You can check up to 28 items in
all and even with them all switched
on the screen doesn’t seem to
be all that cluttered. A nice touch- literally – is that swiping the
monitor screen vertically quickly
switches the display between the
dual-axis level indicator and the
RGB/brightness histograms or back
to the standard layout.
Both the EVF and monitor have
an additional display screen when
manual focusing is selected and,
as on the X-T2, this adds a small
additional image panel which
provides the manual focus assists - a magnifi ed image and a
focus-peaking display (if
preselected) – separately from
the main image frame. It works
off the focusing zone which can
be set to one of six sizes and,
You’ll save a lot of battery power
running this rather than the
main monitor screen which is
presumably the main reason
Fujifi lm has provided it. However,
the handy ‘Quick Menu’ does need
the big screen and provides direct
access to 15 default functions
with the option of confi guring
an additional seven screens so a
wide variety of camera set-ups
are available at the push of a
button. Each QM screen is also
customisable from a total bank
of 27 functions and the function
panes can be selected by touch- as can the subsequent settings –
so, in fact, the GFX 50S has better
touchscreen functionality than
any of the X Mount models with
the feature. It can be also used to
input copyright information via an
on-screen keyboard (albeit with an
ABC layout rather than QWERTY).
Alternatively, there’s the
‘My Menu’ option which allows
the creation of a customised
menu which can contain up to 16
items which covers pretty well
everything you’re likely to need on
a regular basis.
As on the X Mount cameras
there’s also extensive scope for
customising the external controls
and the displays. A total of ten
controls (nine ‘Fn’ buttons – which
include the navigator’s four-way
keys – and the rear input wheel’s
push-in action) can be re-assigned
from a list of 36 operations.
You can also switch the roles of
the front and rear input wheels
With a suitable range of lenses
available at launch, Fujifilm
has slated further lens releases
throughout 2017 with a long
telephoto promised for 2018.CamMayJune17_036-045 Fujifilm.indd 44 13/04/2017 9:59 AM