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Author Topic: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?  (Read 17914 times)

Waker

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Seems to be a lack of a dedicated user thread for the GFX-100 for this forum. There's a variety of sources around the web with random opinions, and apparently some kind of usergroup on Facebook, which most people will not participate in anymore, including me.  So can we start a thread here?

The tech on these cameras takes a bit of getting up to speed with, so it would be great to have users compare their preferred settings, Fn option choice, Q menu setup, touchscreen on or off? Custom display settings, battery life, accessories, etc. Or please link threads, if I've missed a really useful setup/ or super informative user review.

Am happy to share my positive first impressions, though have to say most of those waxing lyrical about the IQ are clearly people who've never shot 100mp before. (hello DPreview!) Going from Phase One IQ-100 to Fujifilm GFX-100 is really not an IQ step at all, its simply what the camera can do, with its mirrorless IBIS, sensor wide PDAF with face/eye detect, AF tracking, etc.  That is where this is a unique product.

I'm keeping mine, but a bit disappointed with the size and weight of it (this is crop MF after all, and it feels as big and clumsy as a Phase XF). I was expecting the whole thing to be slightly smaller, lighter, and easier to travel with than Phase MF kit, but it doesn't seem to be much different in the end. I feel Canon or Nikon would have packaged it better. Lenses likewise are pretty good, but imho not above anything MF Tech lenses or Phase lenses have already in terms of performance, broadly speaking. The one thing the lenses do is set the bar for is price:performance. $1000-2000 in MF digital is pretty great.

Just want to get the ball rolling. Am on a learning curve with this. Happy to learn...

 
« Last Edit: July 14, 2019, 12:39:57 am by Waker »
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Doug Peterson

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2019, 08:25:10 am »

As a general rule I avoid posting to threads about products I don't sell (we are a Phase One dealer, and don't sell Fuji) but I wanted to make an exception to say...

Welcome to the forum!

Jim Kasson

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« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2019, 10:42:39 am »

I suspect the lack of user-driven information is because the cameras are rather thin on the ground at this point.

I posted this on my blog a couple of weeks ago:

Quote
I’ve gotten some questions about when I’ll be starting the GFX 100 review. Unfortunately, I don’t know.I expected the camera at the end of last week, at the time shipping started at the big dealers like B&H,  but no such luck. I asked my dealer to tell me what was going on, and he said they didn’t receive any GFX 100s at the time of the first shipments to dealers. and has had no communication from Fuji about when they should expect the cameras. Shortly after that, I got an email from a Fuji sales manager saying he is looking into the situation and will let me know what he finds.

I placed my order more than a year ago, so I don't think there is anyone ahead of me in line at my dealer, but that doesn't do me any good if they can't get the camera.  Early product availability is usually an issue, but I can't remember seeing a new camera roll out in trickles like this.

I have not heard from the Fuji sales manager in the intervening two weeks.

Jim

Rand47

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2019, 12:53:10 pm »

Jim,

Same here.  I’ve been sitting #1 at my dealer’s from the beginning.  Dealer, who usually receives at least a few units upon release, saw ZERO.  His Fuji rep only keeps saying “soon” . . .  Dealer is very unhappy with Fuji at the moment.

The demand apparently exceeded supply - no big surprise there these days - but I find it very odd that even “featured dealers” received no product at all upon release.  It adds up to something “odd going on” in my view.  Wonder if we’ll ever get the back-story, once the supply pipeline starts to fill.

Rand
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Rand Scott Adams

Waker

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2019, 02:05:22 pm »

Sorry to hear that for those waiting.

Found these settings options online. Might be useful for some:

change FINE to RAW+SUPER FINE
change UNCOMPRESSED RAW to COMPRESSED RAW
change sRGB to Adobe RGB
enable FOCUS PEAKING
set INSTANT AF SETTING to AF-C (so you have AF-S with single press and AF-C if you keep pressed)
set shutter type to MECHANICAL SHUTTER only
If you work with flash in dark studio, deactivate Preview exp/wb in manual mode
set NATURAL LIVE VIEW to ON
Activate histogram and live view highlight alert
Set Shoot without Card to OFF
set AUTO POWER OFF to 5 minutes (default is 2 minutes)
set high performance mode ON
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Jim Kasson

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2019, 02:08:02 pm »


set shutter type to MECHANICAL SHUTTER only


That sounds crazy for a default case. Why on earth do that?

Jim

Waker

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2019, 02:28:52 pm »

I was a bit surprised too, but suspect there's still some rolling shutter with EF + Mechanical shutter (the default) ?
EF+mechanical is basically ES until 1/1250th, (then switches to mech) That means rolling shutter artifacts for moving objects, e.g. a car crossing through the frame.

If you are not shooting anything moving at all, then leave at default?


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Waker

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2019, 03:46:48 pm »

As a general rule I avoid posting to threads about products I don't sell (we are a Phase One dealer, and don't sell Fuji) but I wanted to make an exception to say...

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you Doug.

Have to say that the DPreview video review of GFX-100 made me laugh. I really like those guys and their videos are well made and super helpful, but their 'wrap up' that this is ultimately a "great landscape camera" was utterly baffling. If you are looking at rocks and trees and sky, why on earth would you need PDAF tracking, face/eye detect, IBIS, etc? Surely a lightweight tech outfit like an Alpa TC with optical finder and Phase IQ back, would be better. Or for that matter an old DF body with M-Up and ES. Or an XF with it's auto focus stacking. Really odd advice!

I think they've never used a Phase back on a regular basis, let alone a hiking tech body (Cambo, Alpa), so they drew some pretty strange conclusions.
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Christopher

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2019, 03:58:09 pm »

Quote
I was a bit surprised too, but suspect there's still some rolling shutter with EF + Mechanical shutter (the default) ?
EF+mechanical is basically ES until 1/1250th, (then switches to mech) That means rolling shutter artifacts for moving objects, e.g. a car crossing through the frame.

If you are not shooting anything moving at all, then leave at default?

That just is not correct. I see no point at all to select MS only.... My EF is NOT ES!

When using EF+MS = NO ES will be used by the camera
When using EF+ES+MS = ES will ony be used aboth 1/40000 between 1/4000 and 1/1250 MS will be used and below that EF.
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Christopher Hauser
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Jim Kasson

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2019, 04:47:51 pm »

I was a bit surprised too, but suspect there's still some rolling shutter with EF + Mechanical shutter (the default) ?
EF+mechanical is basically ES until 1/1250th, (then switches to mech) That means rolling shutter artifacts for moving objects, e.g. a car crossing through the frame.

If you are not shooting anything moving at all, then leave at default?

EFCS and mechanical shutter have the same amount of rolling shutter. They have to, since the second curtain is the same for both. Scan time in the GFX's is a bit more than 5 msec.

"EF+mechanical is basically ES until 1/1250th, (then switches to mech) That means rolling shutter artifacts for moving objects, e.g. a car crossing through the frame."


No way. EF is electronic first curtain shutter, not electronic shutter.

BTW, if it switches at 1/1250, that's a full stop faster than the GFX 50x.


Jim

Waker

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2019, 05:01:33 pm »

That just is not correct. I see no point at all to select MS only.... My EF is NOT ES!

When using EF+MS = NO ES will be used by the camera
When using EF+ES+MS = ES will ony be used aboth 1/40000 between 1/4000 and 1/1250 MS will be used and below that EF.

Ok. I clearly don't understand what is going on with the capture in this mode (and Fuji don't do a great job of explaining)

The camera menu says: 'EF E-FRONT CURTAIN SHUTTER' which to my understanding is an electronic trigger of capture, with no mechanical 'first curtain' (=no 'shutter shock') The sensor readout is made, with a mechanical 'back curtain' to close/end the exposure.

Am I simply misunderstanding what EF (electronic front curtain, right?) is?  It sounds like an ES 'sweep' is initiated, with a mechanical shutter curtain to close it off, but maybe that's wrong?

GFX-100 manual has the following warning:

"When using the electronic front-curtain shutter, note the following:
Faster shutter speeds are more likely to result in uneven exposure and loss of resolution in out-of-focus areas of the frame."


I found this online (not that that means it's correct!)

"Unfortunately, EFCS does have a couple of disadvantages. Because it takes time to read off the whole sensor electronically at the beginning of the exposure, EFCS can be problematic when shooting fast action – you might end up with a blurry subject in your photo, your images might get under or overexposed, you might see distortion in bokeh when using large apertures, and in some cases, you might even have part of the image cut off as a result"



.
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Jim Kasson

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2019, 05:11:32 pm »

The camera menu says: 'EF E-FRONT CURTAIN SHUTTER' which to my understanding is an electronic trigger of capture, with no mechanical 'first curtain' (=no 'shutter shock') The sensor readout is made, with a mechanical 'back curtain' to close/end the exposure.

Am I simply misunderstanding what EF (electronic front curtain, right?) is?  It sounds like an ES 'sweep' is initiated, with a mechanical shutter curtain to close it off, but maybe that's wrong?

That's right. The electronic first curtain (which is actually a reset signal) moves at the same speed as the mechanical first curtain.

GFX-100 manual has the following warning:

"When using the electronic front-curtain shutter, note the following:
Faster shutter speeds are more likely to result in uneven exposure and loss of resolution in out-of-focus areas of the frame."



That can be a problem under some circumstances, but it's rare if you let the camera switch to MS at very high speeds. The GFX 50x cameras do this switching, and won't let you use EFCS at high shutter speeds.


I found this online (not that that means it's correct!)

"Unfortunately, EFCS does have a couple of disadvantages. Because it takes time to read off the whole sensor electronically at the beginning of the exposure, EFCS can be problematic when shooting fast action – you might end up with a blurry subject in your photo, your images might get under or overexposed, you might see distortion in bokeh when using large apertures, and in some cases, you might even have part of the image cut off as a result"

This is completely bogus. With EFCS, the sensor is reset to start the exposure, not read. What would be there to read if the exposure hadn't started yet? The rest is alarmist at best, and blown out of proportion.

Mechanical shutter on a MILC is a source of shutter shock, and is to be avoided by default. The reason for most of the shutter shock is not the first curtain release, but the winding of the shutter immediately prior to the exposure.

Jim
« Last Edit: July 14, 2019, 05:47:21 pm by Jim Kasson »
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Waker

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2019, 04:23:19 pm »

Loving the USB-C in body charging.

My phone is USB-C, so I travel with it's fast charger. Plug the camera in and am done.
No need to open the battery compartment, no need to remember the Fuji charger. No extra hotel room socket needed. Just great!
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2019, 12:02:43 am »

I have finally had the opportunity to use the GFX100 for a bit of tripod based landscape work. This comes on top of my very positive impressions using the camera handheld for generic shooting.

What I liked
- The image quality is very close to what I have been getting from by H6D-100c
- The lenses are great
- The degree of possible customization is impressive, a lot of studying to do though
- Mode showing both zoomed in view and full image view... but I couldn't find a way to zoom to 200% which makes this of little value

What could be improved/questions
- I have not been able to find a way to add the IS settings to the quick menu and had to instead associate it to a physical button. This works but with the risk of accidentally changing the setting
- the vertical release switch click has broken. Because of this the switch drifts into lock mode and becomes unusable without me noticing. Not a major issue for landscape work since I used a flexible release... but this locks control the availability of all the controls in the lower part of the camera. Very frustrating
- Access to live view, in particular access to 200% zoom is a pain, it lacks a setting to always jump to the highest degree of magnification
- I find the UI a bit confusing
- AWB is not that great, at least not quite as accurate as on the Nikons
- there are a few bugs that require the camera to be restarted such as the impossibility to focus the 250mm to infinity in some cases,...

Overall great potential, but I find the UI of Nikon's camera more intuitive and efficient in the field. This could be a matter of not being used to the Fuji yet.

More to come.

Cheers,
Bernard

SrMi

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2019, 01:36:45 am »

I have finally had the opportunity to use the GFX100 for a bit of tripod based landscape work. This comes on top of my very positive impressions using the camera handheld for generic shooting.

What I liked
- The image quality is very close to what I have been getting from by H6D-100c
- The lenses are great
- The degree of possible customization is impressive, a lot of studying to do though
- Mode showing both zoomed in view and full image view... but I couldn't find a way to zoom to 200% which makes this of little value

What could be improved/questions
- I have not been able to find a way to add the IS settings to the quick menu and had to instead associate it to a physical button. This works but with the risk of accidentally changing the setting
- the vertical release switch click has broken. Because of this the switch drifts into lock mode and becomes unusable without me noticing. Not a major issue for landscape work since I used a flexible release... but this locks control the availability of all the controls in the lower part of the camera. Very frustrating
- Access to live view, in particular access to 200% zoom is a pain, it lacks a setting to always jump to the highest degree of magnification
- I find the UI a bit confusing
- AWB is not that great, at least not quite as accurate as on the Nikons
- there are a few bugs that require the camera to be restarted such as the impossibility to focus the 250mm to infinity in some cases,...

Overall great potential, but I find the UI of Nikon's camera more intuitive and efficient in the field. This could be a matter of not being used to the Fuji yet.

More to come.

Cheers,
Bernard

Thank you for the summary, Bernard. Looking forward to more insights.

I have used several Fuji APS-C and MF cameras and they all have the same peculiarity (in case you didn't know): in order to zoom-in fully in review, you must shoot RAW + super-fine JPG.

- Srdjan
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Christopher

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2019, 03:14:42 am »

I have finally had the opportunity to use the GFX100 for a bit of tripod based landscape work. This comes on top of my very positive impressions using the camera handheld for generic shooting.

What I liked
- Mode showing both zoomed in view and full image view... but I couldn't find a way to zoom to 200% which makes this of little value

Yes it's should go further, but as far as I know it doesn't.

What could be improved/questions
- I have not been able to find a way to add the IS settings to the quick menu and had to instead associate it to a physical button. This works but with the risk of accidentally changing the setting.
I hope this will be added in firmware, as it really is missing from the quick menu...
- the vertical release switch click has broken. Because of this the switch drifts into lock mode and becomes unusable without me noticing. Not a major issue for landscape work since I used a flexible release... but this locks control the availability of all the controls in the lower part of the camera. Very frustrating You should get that repaired... It shouldn't happen. There have been a few complaints about this in the GFX group.
- Access to live view, in particular access to 200% zoom is a pain, it lacks a setting to always jump to the highest degree of magnification Here I'm not sure. When I click the rear wheel it jumps to my last zoom setting. So if I'm at full zoom it also always comes back to that. Or what doesn't work for you here?
- I find the UI a bit confusing   Yep...
- AWB is not that great, at least not quite as accurate as on the Nikons
- there are a few bugs that require the camera to be restarted such as the impossibility to focus the 250mm to infinity in some cases,...
Did you do the last lens firmware update? For the 250 there was a hotfix to 1.11

Overall great potential, but I find the UI of Nikon's camera more intuitive and efficient in the field. This could be a matter of not being used to the Fuji yet.

More to come.

Cheers,
Bernard

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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2019, 08:58:04 am »

Thanks for your feedbacks Christopher and Srdjan, much appreciated.

Cheers,
Bernard

nicocornet

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2019, 07:08:50 am »

hi all, current Sony user, quick questions on the GFX 100 :

- the file quality of 16bit can be setup as compressed and lossless, correct ? It is the same "type of 16bit" as with Phase one cameras (not available on Sony) ?

- is the histogram visible on the small OLED screens at the back based on the JPG conversion of the photo and from the RAW file ?

- how you would rate the accuracy of the virtual horizon ? I don’t find the Sony one very accurate (it becomes green even if not perfectly levelled)

- are the film simulation "burned"  in the RAW file or can it be changed in post ? should that be done in lightroom or a special fuji software ?

- have you found any raw files available to download online so that we can play around with it ? I can only find JPG...

thanks in advance!
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TommyWeir

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2019, 10:42:59 am »

Hi Nico, if the setup is anything like the X-T3

- The histogram is based upon the JPEG simulation selected during shooting. So is the image shown on the EVF and the rear screen. Rico Pfirstinger on Fujirumors is quite good on all this - https://www.fujirumors.com/raw-for-jpeg-shooters/

- I've not found the horizon all that precise, at least there seems to be a small range that renders as level when tilting.

- The film simulations are not burned into the RAW file, RAW is RAW.  If you're hoping to get different simulation outcomes, then you have options: in-camera itself, or by various settings/presets in LR or C1, or using software from Fuji to connect your camera and the built-in raw converter to create different simulations.

- There's a bunch of RAW files available online, various X-photographers have uploaded them. Dpreview has some too -https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/8728364975/fujifilm-gfx-100-sample-gallery/7908743694

Dan Wells

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Re: Fujifilm GFX-100 actual *user* experience, tips, setup, please?
« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2019, 12:06:59 pm »

Has anyone printed big yet? How does it compare to the next group down (GFX 50, X1D, 50 MP CMOS backs, D850, Z7, A7r II,III (probably IV), S1r)? It should be a big enough difference to stand out in prints above a certain size - but what size? Is it noticeable in a 24x36" print, which the next group down are already very good at, or are we in only 44" printers need apply territory?
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