The GFX 100s is the best camera that I have ever used. For the last year and a half, I have been using the GFX 100s at weddings, engagements, family portrait sessions, and most of my personal life.
👇There are sample images at the bottom👇
Why Use the GFX 100s 📸
I use the GFX for the compressed perspective and color profiles or film simulations.
I can use 80mm which gives me the perspective of a 63mm lens. So more compression with a wider field of view. And the 45mm gives me a 35mm perspective. With these two lenses, I can take portraits almost anywhere. If the 80mm or 45mm is wide enough, then I just make a panoramic with it.
I use one film simulation as my base, which is ASTIA/soft. I find this base to have an amazing dynamic range accompanied by some beautiful natural tones. Skin looks soft and colors are vibrant. The blues in the shadows really pop. In some cases, I just use a tone curve and in others, I put on the lite variation of my preset. Below you can see some photos of my wife and daughter that are edited with ASTIA/soft and are some of my favorite photos of all time.
When not to use the GFX 100s
I generally have an R5 with a 28-70 on one side and my GFX with 80mm on the other. My R5 is the workhorse and is dedicated to capturing anything that requires a decent autofocus system. When it comes to autofocus the GFX is slow. Although it is slow it is much more accurate the most other medium format bodies, due to it having contrast and phase detection. The GFX also suffers from a short buffer. It’s rare that I’ll photograph multiple frames in a row, but it is short-lived.
File Size @ 102 Megapixles
When photographing in Compressed Lossless RAW most of my images come out to be less than 70GB. Which is very manageable. With a maxed-out 16” MacBook pro I have no problem. When I was using the oriental 13th M1 Macbook I did have to wait quite a bit to render smart previews and when exporting. Programs like Narrative Select fly through the images with no problem. In most cases, I will put the images on an external SSD, make smart previews, and then unplug the drive. The only time this really becomes necessary is when I am zooming into images to check focus or retouch in Lightroom. Even if you set LR to default to smart previews when in edit mode it will still try to render the whole image when you zoom. Unplugging the SSD helps me fly through images with no lag. It has become common practice for me with any camera larger than 24 megapixels.
Auto Focus
The Autofocus on the GFX 100s is way better than that of the 50s and horrible when compared to a sony or canon mirrorless. 95% of the time I have the shutter focus off and use an alternate button to set focus so that I don’t find the camera hunting for focus. This method has worked pretty well and I get way more keepers.
High ISO
The high ISO capabilities of this camera are next level. Shooting up to 10,000 ISO is no problem at all. Coupled with the 80mm F/1.7 you can take portraits almost anywhere. This also makes the 45mm F/2.8 much more usable without any added light.
Ergonomics
This camera might be bigger than an R5 or A7IV, but it is small considering the sensor inside. It fits my hand great and the lenses are generally lighter than the body, which makes it a comfortable system. The dials on the camera all feel great, I love lenses with aperture rings. The buttons could be a little more tactile and larger, but I have gotten used to them.
EVF and Screen
I do feel that a higher-resolution viewfinder would help me know when photos are in focus or not. A lot of times I focus and take a photo and find out later that it wasn’t actually in focus. So I do make 3 attempts to focus and take a few photos each time, which takes me back to my DSLR days.
The rear screen is great and I love the three-way tilt.
Summary
This camera has allowed me to push my photos to the next level. Every time I hear that big old shutter go clunk, I know that there’s an amazing image on the other end. I can’t wait to see what successor Fuji has in store for the GFX 100s. I’m hoping to try more GF lenses as well as see what type of EF lenses I adapt.
Here is a random assortment of my favorite photos from the last year and a half.
