I have had the Fuji GFX 50s for a few days, together with the 120mm macro and the 32-64 zoom lenses. Unfortunately, in Chicago, we are now into a second week of fog, gray skies, and rain, so contrast is hard to come by, as are eye popping colors like pink, red, yellow, and the other colors that someone who was in New Orleans was able to experience. I have shot a little bit in the fog, and today I decided to test some flowers in my studio. Here are my observations.
A. Style. A lot has been written about how the GFX is downright ugly. It is not stylish (like my Arca Swiss RMd3i), but it isn't hideous. It looks better than most black DSLRs to my eyes.
B. Build Quality. It is a well built camera. I am always worried about card slot and battery doors breaking (often pretty flimsy). The doors are sturdy and the camera is solid.
C. Design Flaws. I have already informed Fuji that when the next body comes out they need to change the strap lug position. Unless it is perfectly positioned, it prevents the card slot door from being opened. Once you see the problem, it is easy enough to watch where the lug is, but it is a sloppy design feature. Also there are safety locks for the strap. At the place of insertion, the strap is too thick, which makes it difficult to insert them.
D. Menus. I am new to Fuji, and I have a preference for simple menus, like those on Leica M digital cameras or the Leaf back. I don't use most of the features offered in the menus. Having said that, I got the hang of the menus pretty quickly. They are well organized by category groups. Additionally, the menu system has a MYMenu group. It took about 5 minutes to put the odd ball features that I would be using in that menu. My dream is menu software that allows me to design the menus on a computer, leaving everything I will never use out, but nobody seems to do that.
F. Focus. I like the joy stick focus and it is well positioned on the back of the camera. Normally, even after using a camera for awhile, I have to look at the camera to find the button for moving the focus point. For me, that is not the case with the Fuji. Overall, I find the focus a bit slow, but adequate. I don't intend to shoot sports. I pretty much wanted to try medium format in a portable camera that I could travel with. I like shooting city architecture and landscapes, so fast focus was not a priority in this camera. My one concern is that the focus point is very large, so you can be over a spot that has one object in the distance, overlapped by an object in the foreground. It isn't always clear to me what is in focus. I am still trying to figure out whether I can make the focus point smaller.
G. ISO. I don't normally go above 3200. My first day out, I went out at around 6PM and it was cloudy, so I set the ISO to 5,000, so I could hand hold the camera. The results were pretty bad by my standards, but again, this is not the camera that I would normally pick up for that sort of shooting. I should say, I am loathe to use noise reduction because I don't like the way it softens edges, but others may not have a problem with that, particularly if they are not printing large.
H. Raw Files. I had read a number of comments that raised questions about the color in the raw file profiles. I processed the photographs in Adobe Camera Raw. I would say the color that shows up in the files before I have touched them is pretty spot on. Now, if you are shooting clothing for a catalog, you may come to a different conclusion, but I didn't see any problems for my purposes. I did find that the files needed sharpening. The converter did not include a default setting, as is sometimes the case. I sharpened at 25.
I. Lens Size. The zoom came first, and I thought it was huge. After receiving the 120, the zoom looked small. Both lenses are well balanced.
J. Technical Support. The 120 made a lot of noise out of the box, so I called Fuji. They assured me that was normal. Today, when I was actually using the lens, I could hear it, but it was not a big deal. Much quieter, so maybe the lens needed a little bit of use to settle in. I found the support technician extremely knowledgable and he really was invested with making the camera work to my satisfaction. We talked briefly about the Fuji Pro program, which provides cleaning and repair benefits. I may opt for that.
K. Tripod. I plan to shoot this camera off a tripod most of the time, which has been a little frustrating. I use Arca Swiss tripod mounts, and I don't have a foot that works with this camera properly. I called Really Right Stuff. The L plate is under design and should be available in 6 to 8 weeks according to the person I spoke with.
L. Wifi. Setting up the Wifi connection with my iPad was easy. I really like that feature. I can use the iPad or a iPhone as a trigger. I told the technician that they needed to make several improvements. First, it would be nice if the iPad version could display gridlines. Also, you can change ISO and shutter speed from the iPad, but not aperture, which makes sense to me. But when you change it on the lens, it does not update on the iPad. To update it, you need to disconnect and then reconnect the wifi.
M. Flash. I set up strobe to take the macro photographs. My pocketwizard worked the first time I tried it, and it worked consistently. I was using the manual shutter. It did not work when I put the camera in electronic shutter mode. i will have to see whether there is a fix for that.
N. Fujifilm EVF-TL1 EVF Tilt Adapter. I purchased this, and it will be useful, but it is not something you are going to want to leave on the camera all the time. Tilted it works fine, but it creates an awkward feel when it is just an extension of the viewfinder.
O. Blackout. I forget whether people were complaining about the X1D or the GFX when they were referring to momentary blackout when taking a photograph. I have been using Sandisk 80mb per second cards, and have not noticed any significant blackout. There is a rolling blackout when you use the WIFI on the iPad. I assume that is the WIFI transfer/handoff taking place. Using Wifi, you can't take a second photograph for about 8 or 9 seconds, again I assume that is because the transfer is taking place.
P. Hand Held. I did find that I could handhold the camera with decent results, but I haven't adequately tested that aspect of the camera yet. The two attached photographs were handheld, but the flash means that this is not a good test. The 120 has image stabilization, but I turned that off when I put it on the tripod. I forgot to turn it back on when handholding.
Overall I am very satisfied, but I need more time with the camera to really make that determination. Over the last three years, I have been using a tech camera, and I must admit, I still prefer it because of the movements. Yet, I don't find it practical to travel with.
I will post my macros separately later since this post didn't post the first time I posted it.
