NEW FUJI GFX 50S. Medium Format WOW.

45 Comments

1. How much better than the a7rII could it be? Seems like a bad move for Fuji, they’re skipping an entire demographic. If the trend is going smaller with bigger results why produce a product like this? Just wait a few years, if the GFX 50 follows the Haselbald H series you’ll be able to pick them up on EBay at a great discount. I’d rather buy an older H1 and upgrade the digital back. I could be wrong but I don’t think it’ll take off with the average joe photographer. Just my opinion and I love Fuji but shot Sony thanks to Steve.

2. From what I have seen the viewfinder is removable, not an accessory. You can see the catalog for the camera here;

   http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/pdf/gfx_catalogue_01.pdf?_ga=1.194266221.1704692549.1454724518

   As for the pricing, the “well below $10,000” is what is being said by Fuji. Who knows what that means. They tend to march to the beat of their own drum and thank goodness for that. That’s all the camera world needs is another Nikon/Canon/Sony/Olympus/Panasonic clone company. Whether the bodies work for any one individual or not is a personal preference. What can’t be argued is their good sense when it comes to lenses or their quality of the lenses. Heck, even Hasselblad uses them for lens manufacturing. You might even want to pick up one of these;

   http://www.fujifilm.com/products/optical_devices/tv_cine/cine/

   If I had to hazard a guess it will be priced to compete with the Pentax 645 body and will include the 63mm lens to boot. So $7000-$7500. Will they sell a lot of them. No probably not. Will they make money on them probably.

   Here is something else really interesting no one is talking about but will probably be a huge cash cow for them:

   http://instax.com/square/

   I think the thing most people don’t think about with Fuji when comparing them with other camera companies is they are also a film company. Canon/Nikon/Sony/et al don’t make film. They are really an unusual player in a pretty conformist industry.

   • Think of the removable EVF just like a removable Photomic finder on Nikons of old – it comes mounted to the camera and is removable / interchangeable; not an “add on” accessory.

     I would guesstimate the Fuji’s price will be a little bit less WITH a lens than the X1D without a lens; maybe $7500- $8500 or so. Again, just a guess.

   • I recently got the Fuji GFX50s together with the Fuji GF 23mm f/4. After 3 weeks I decided to sell my SonyA7R2 and all the lenses with it. The Fuji GFX50s is out of a different world. It’s more than just the 51MP. I value the Sony A7R2 but this camera makes no stand against the Fuji GFX50s. From IQ, overall handling and Fuji support. I also added the Fuji X-T2 as 2nd camera together with the Fuji 16-55mm 2.8 and Fuji 50-150mm 2.8. Best Combo I ever used.

3. Can you read? They say the price will be well under $ 10.000 with the standard lens, so the price is well under the Hasselbald’s price!

4. One thing to remember – Fuji has a long standing relationship with Hasselblad (going back at least to the late 90s when the Fuji TX1 was sold as the Xpan outside Japan) and Fuji already makes the lenses for the Blad H system, so they have good pedigree there and probably are also making the new Blad XCD system lense, so the R&D savings there could mean the Fuji GFX lenses could end up being relatively cheap. However you would think they might undercut Blad a little on this new system but perhaps not as much as we would like. It wouldn’t be in Fuji’s interest to totally kill off the Blad H system with a knock-down price alternative.

   • I’m sure I read somewhere recently that Fuji were not making the XCD lenses and that they were being made by a Korean or Chinese (can’t remember which, Korean if I had to pick one) company.

     • They’re made by Nittoh in Japan.

5. I believe they omitted the EVF because they wanted to at least offer some folks the option of having an ultra-lightweight medium format sensor option. Fuji knows two things:

   1.) the megapixel craze is alive and well, as fortunate or unfortunate as we may deem that…

   2.) The mirrorless craze was originally founded on the myth (now practically de-bunked by Sony FE lenses, lol) that a mirrorless system is much lighter and smaller than a mirrored one.

   Either way, it’s an interesting camera that I think will sell very well if it comes in at $7-8K, which I bet it will. The quote from the press release in some places is “well under $10K” whatever that means…

   • They haven’t omitted the EVF. It’s just detachable / interchangeable.

   • @Matthew Saville – “2.) The mirrorless craze was originally founded on the myth (now practically de-bunked by Sony FE lenses, lol) that a mirrorless system is much lighter and smaller than a mirrored one.”

     What has been de-bunked? Sony showed that they could make full-frame camera bodies the size of micro four-third bodies while beating all DSLRs with their mirror boxes in terms of quality.

     The lens for any full-frame system has nothing to do with it since it is about the size of the image circle. Similarly, you can’t be expecting Fujifilm to do much about the size of their lenses for the GFX?!

6. I think Steve has missed the mark with his negative comments on the EVF. To start with it appears to be a standard item not an optional extra but the removable EVF gives the possibility of it being upgraded later on as higher def panels become available or as Fuji themselves say gives photographers the option of removing the EVF completely for an even smaller package (keep in mind that this camera is about the size of a Nikon D750) or when they are using external monitors plus the big thing the EVF assembly tilts AND swivels which makes it much more useful in situations where the camera is at a strange angle for some reason. If you look at the press release photos there is a shot of the camera in portrait mode with the EVF tilted up at 45 degrees. How handy would that be for portrait origination shots with the camera below the user’s eyeline? I see this device as being a huge plus for the camera rather than a negative.

   • Exactly my thinking! I think this is the next frontier for improvement in mirrorless cameras and Fuji has shown through their firmware upgrades that they want to keep their photographers happy AFTER the purchase and even more so on a big ticket item like this. All the EVFs I’ve looked at in the 2.3M range have given me the ‘almost there’ feeling. I’d also like to improve the experience of viewing with the EVF with more controls such as contrast and maybe overscan.

   • This camera is a game changer, regardless. Even if it comes in at 8-9k with a lens, it still trumps the Hasselblad and Pentax (bodies only). More importantly, it means that ‘medium format’ no longer necessarily implies ‘out of reach’ technology. Think about it – in just a few years, photography professionals and enthusiasts alike could be shooting medium format (with a lens) for around $5,000 – a remarkable shift in price. As a photographer, I currently shoot Leica (simply amazing glass) and own an XT-1 with several lenses, but have shot both Nikon and Canon in the past. Of all the companies out there, Fuji has impressed me the most over the past several years with their ability to advance technology, while still making it affordable.

7. Fuji goes PRO..

   Sony, wake up!

8. I just saw it and I’m buying it 😛
   Fuji’s got me covered and I couldn’t be happier.

9. It’s just a wee-bit premature to say the GFX 50s will fail if it’s priced like a Hasselblad, don’t you think? IF it is, and NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE YET, perhaps the features it brings would make it a better VALUE for the ‘ possible’close to Hassey price.
   Maybe it’s a BETTER camera? Is easier to use, is more reliable, has better support, has better glass, etc. “It will fail if……” Maybe the fact that it’s hitting the ground running with a more extensive lens line is pretty good start. Leica is announcing a lens-line-up that won’t be completely available until 2018, and the Hasseblad line-up isn’t as complete out of the box either.
   Either way, maybe give it a chance before you throw it in the IF ‘fail bin’.

   • Just a prediction, nothing more or less. I said if the BODY comes in at $10k, it would be a huge fail, and it most certainly would. Luckily it appears the body will be MUCH MUCH less than $10k.

     • $3995…? Probably a little bit more than that. But still less than the Hasselblad. I would estimate the body will come in around the $5000-$5500 mark, meaning that with a lens it will be probably about $1000-$2000 less than the H1D WITHOUT a lens.

       That’s not inside info, btw, just a best guess based on what I’m hearing.

     • I hope both cameras make it: innovation keeps the business healthy, and, competitive. AND hopefully brings better products! 🙂

10. X-Trans sensor?

11. Looks like it has Nikon DNA–body from the front. Too fat for me, but I love the lenses and I’m sure the sensor combined with those Lenses will rock an image. I prefer the Hassey X1D–especially the black one, for my type of work.

12. DP Review says: Fujifilm says its target price for the GFX 50S with 63mm standard prime will be ‘well under $10,000.’

    I hope they are right!

13. Wil it have a leave shutter lenses?That will be the point for me between the Fuji and the Hasselblad

    • No. Focal plane shutter.

14. The EVF as a well integrated add on, like the Canon F-1 prisms might be a great way of future proofing the body. EVF’s today are good but under going rapid improvement.

    • Good point!

    • Also, if Fuji leaves the EVF off camera as an option, it helps them keep the price of the basic body cheaper.

15. Fuji has yet to make an announcement with price. The “Under 10k with 63mm lens” that’s floating around seems to be a consensus/hope and not actually stated by Fuji.

16. Pricing is $10k for this body. Already stated by Fujifilm.

    • Wow. Well, IMO, at that price it will fail. I’d buy the Hasselblad over this for less.

      • That’s with the 63mm lens. Body could be $4k and lens $4k… ?

        • Well could be $5k body…guess we will wait for the legit price from Fuji.

      • Not true – the quote is that it will be “well under 10k”.

    • Every other blog has reported that Fuji stated that their target price will be “way under $10,000” for a body and 63mm lens (seems like a statement made in the press release judging by multiple sources quoting the above statement verbatim). It wouldn’t make any sense for them to release this camera for anything but a significantly cheaper price than the Hasselblad system. Fuji has been doing a great job of balancing features, desirability, and pricing with their XF line—offering a range of APS-C products that are arguably competing with more heavy/large FX systems for much cheaper, building a market niche by offering a thoughtfully designed product, attractiveness to old film shooters, etc. I would assume they will be aiming to do the same with MF—punch well above their price class, and build their own niche.

      I would guess they will actually be trying to market to studio/portrait/wedding/macro/anything-other-than-sports photographers who are using Nikon and Canon FX DSLRs (e.g. Nikon D810/Canon 5DS R). Of course this is all merely speculation, but I suspect they will try to be in the ~$5000 body price range. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to put out a $10,000+ body, and frankly Fuji hasn’t been doing “stupid” in a design or marketing sense for a while.

    • I thought they said less than 10K (which may very well be 9999.99) for the body, viewfinder AND the 63mm Lens, which would not be as bad.

17. Fuji is on fire this year. I’ve never owned a Fuji camera, but I really admire what they’ve done lately. The XT2 look like a fine camera, and this new medium format model will probably yield incredible image quality. Still well beyond me as a non-wealthy hobbyist, but pros and well-off photos will undoubtedly make amazing images with it.

    Why is it that smaller companies (compared to Canon or Nikon) like Olympus, Fuji, Sony, Leica etc. seem to do the most innovative and exciting things?

18. Another famous photography blog claims 10k for body with 63mm lens, and the standard EVF is in the package.

    • Fuji has not released any official pricing yet through their official channels. Everything out there right now is speculation, whether from Fuji themselves, or others. But I would expect the GFX 50S to be less expensive WITH a lens than the H1D body is by itself. But I wouldn’t expect it to be massively less, either.

      As to the viewfinder, it’s not so much that it doesn’t have one, and one has to add one, it’s more like it comes with the viewfinder, and that finder can be detached for convenience sake to allow for adding external monitors, etc. Think of it as the EVF version of the Nikon F2 Photomic, or F3 (for those who can remember that far back). In other words, comes with it, but can be removed to expand flexibility, and, as someone above pointed out, to allow for EVF upgrades and other accessories in the future. It’s very much a modular design concept.

19. My first DSLR back in ’03 was Fujifilm’s S1 Pro, and in those simpler times the S1 Pro captured great colors, no one pixel peeped, DxOMark was not even around, and it was either JPG or TIFF. Loved the damn thing to death.

    Glad to see Fujifilm making a strong comeback in the recent few years, first with their X system, then now this.

    For those who says it should have included a leaf shutter, with modern HSS flash technology the relevance of a leaf shutter is reduced.

    • My bad, meant till 2003.

    • HHS reduces the flash by 50% for every stop over the focal plane flash sync speed, its isn’t at all the same as a leaf shutter. You can close a shutter to 1600 with minimal flash power loss. with decent powerful flash units at 10k each, this is a big deal.

      paul

      • Profoto has already announced that it will be offering Air TTL support with HSS for Fujifilm X-Series cameras using the B1s. At 500ws, those are powerful, but don’t cost anywhere near $10K.

    • Nonsense. Leaf shutters are near silent, while focal plane shutters, especially medium format ones, sound off like a canon in comparison.

      You dont know much about leaf shutters.

      • Still have an old hassy 503cw. And this is mirrorless, the sound is extremely silent compared to slrs with mirrors. The mirror slap contributes to most of the sound.

        We work with lots of studios, last time no one will ever thought of using hss due to flash power reduction, but now studios are routinely shooting at ISO1600 and using flash systems like Profoto B1 and PCB Einstein 640s.

        To each his or her own though, there’s always the option of the hassy x1d if you want leaf shutters.

Comments are closed.