GFX 100RF OOBE

[JimKasson]

The Fuji GFX 100RF arrived from LenRentals today for a three-week stay chez Kasson. From the setup menus, it appears to be brand new. I’ll get to the testing soon enough, but I have a few thoughts on the design.

• It’s small. It weighs about the same as a Z7 and a small 35mm Nikkor, and it’s not all that much bigger.
• The on/off switch is too easy to move. I’ll bet some folks are going to have trouble accidentally turning the camera on when they put it into the bag.
• The Q switch is flush. This should reduce the accidental activation of the Q switch, which has happened to me with other GFX cameras.
• Leaving the crop wheel aside for the time being, I love the way the controls work. The aperture ring on the switch has an A position which allows the exposure system to change it, which is perfect. The shutter speed dial has a similar A position. There’s an ISO adjust embedded in the shutter speed wheel that is so much better for me than the thumbwheel ISO adjustment of a lot of the other GFX cameras. And there’s huge exposure compensation dial that falls readily to thumb.
• It looks like the lens has two knurled rings, but the front one doesn’t move. Pity.
• The menu structure will be familiar to anyone who has used another GFX camera.
• The focus mode selection dial is flush with the body except for the part you use to adjust it.
• The joystick is not great. Fuji could do some work on the haptics. But the joystick has never been the GFX’s strong suit.
• The front knurled dial is mushy. It needs some crisp detents. Same with the back knurled dial.
• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.
• The lens hood is small, and that’s nice. It’s probably less effective than a petal hood, though.
• Now for the most controversial part of the camera, the crop dial. I’m a raw shooter, so I view the crop dial as a compositional aid, and nothing else. If you look at it like I do, it is way more prominent than it should be, and it needs a lock button.
• The LCD tilts but doesn’t swivel. That’s fine with me.
• The latch for the battery door is not self-engaging. Oops.
• There are no detents on the SIO dial. Oops again.
• Access to the ISO dial by lifting a collar is brilliant.
• I’m not fond of the way the flash card access door works. Fuji could take a lesson from Nikon on how to do this right.
• No IBIS, but then you probably already knew that.

To me, this is a modern digital embodiment of the Plaubel Makina 67 with a shorter lens. I would have preferred the lens be around 45mm instead of 35mm, but nobody asked me.

Questions? Comments?

--
https://blog.kasson.com

 

[LesCordes]

well done, jim !

 

[NewCameraUser1]

Jim,
Does your on/off switch have lateral (side-to-side) play?
Mine started exhibiting a tiny amount of play, and when I reached out to Fujifilm, they told me it's completely normal. But my on/off switch is quite firm in its rotation.

Can you clarify whether 'The on/off switch is too easy to move' refers to the switch being physically loose, requiring very little force to turn on, or being positioned in a way that makes it easy to bump into the 'ON' setting?

 

[JimKasson]

Jim,
Does your on/off switch have lateral (side-to-side) play?

No.

Mine started exhibiting a tiny amount of play, and when I reached out to Fujifilm, they told me it's completely normal. But my on/off switch is quite firm in its rotation.

Can you clarify whether 'The on/off switch is too easy to move' refers to the switch being physically loose, requiring very little force to turn on,

Yes.

or being positioned in a way that makes it easy to bump into the 'ON' setting?

That, too. I've already turned the camera on by accident three or four times in two hours.

 

[ThomasNorway]

• It’s small. It weighs about the same as a Z7 and a small 35mm Nikkor, and it’s not all that much bigger.

My initial impression before I bought it was "huge", compared to earlier X100 cameras I owned and my current Leica Q2.

After buying it and using it a lot, I suggest it's comparable in size (even if it's larger).
It won't fit in a pocket (with filter/hood attached), but neither does my Q2.

• The on/off switch is too easy to move. I’ll bet some folks are going to have trouble accidentally turning the camera on when they put it into the bag.

It's too loose, only a problem when I put the camera in my small bag.
I have similar problems with both Leica Q2 and Sony A7IV

• Leaving the crop wheel aside for the time being, I love the way the controls work. The aperture ring on the switch has an A position which allows the exposure system to change it, which is perfect. The shutter speed dial has a similar A position. There’s an ISO adjust embedded in the shutter speed wheel that is so much better for me than the thumbwheel ISO adjustment of a lot of the other GFX cameras. And there’s huge exposure compensation dial that falls readily to thumb.

The exposure compensation is also too loose and prone to be moved when carrying/handing the camera.

• The joystick is not great. Fuji could do some work on the haptics. But the joystick has never been the GFX’s strong suit.

It's worse than the X100V.

• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.

They are plenty fast, allow for backups or manually copying.

CFExpress Type B card slots are huge, that's why Sony went with Type A and a dual slot design. I see no obvious benefit of CFExpress on the GFX100RF.

What is XCD? Not XD I presume

• The lens hood is small, and that’s nice. It’s probably less effective than a petal hood, though.

The hood is reasonable, the cap is a joke (useless).
I do manage to get a finger in there and rotate a pola-filter, so it's marginally better than a petal hood.

• Now for the most controversial part of the camera, the crop dial. I’m a raw shooter, so I view the crop dial as a compositional aid, and nothing else. If you look at it like I do, it is way more prominent than it should be, and it needs a lock button.

It's too loose, and a positioned a few mm. to low so you'll have to adjust your hand positioning.

• The LCD tilts but doesn’t swivel. That’s fine with me.

I've cursed it a few times shooting low vertically. Maybe Fuji believe the 3:4 mode is an alternative???

• Access to the ISO dial by lifting a collar is brilliant.

I find it less presise than old SLR's from the 90s

• I’m not fond of the way the flash card access door works. Fuji could take a lesson from Nikon on how to do this right.

At least it stays shut during normal operations, so I'm good

 

[bokesan]

• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.

They are plenty fast, allow for backups or manually copying.

CFExpress Type B card slots are huge, that's why Sony went with Type A and a dual slot design. I see no obvious benefit of CFExpress on the GFX100RF.

What is XCD? Not XD I presume

Obvious: An XCD slot means you can add a Hasselblad lens to get acceptable image quality. A much-needed feature for Fuji ;-)

- Chris

 

[emdundronald]

Comment:
The ISO lift-up was standard on film slr shutter wheels.
Build quality is excellent but this camera might be vulnerable to knocks and general wear and tear. It needs a leather wraparound case like the iphone needs a case. Companies should give a “droppability” score.

I’m afraid objective testing isn’t going to find much new to say here, the IQ is basically known, this camera is all about form factor, sexiness, ergonomics and exposed controls.

 

[ThomasNorway]

• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.

They are plenty fast, allow for backups or manually copying.

CFExpress Type B card slots are huge, that's why Sony went with Type A and a dual slot design. I see no obvious benefit of CFExpress on the GFX100RF.

What is XCD? Not XD I presume

Obvious: An XCD slot means you can add a Hasselblad lens to get acceptable image quality. A much-needed feature for Fuji ;-)

- Chris

For the price I paid, I was expecting a Hasselblad as a bonus

The lens is quite good btw, you should try one :-D

 

[Truman Prevatt]

The Fuji GFX 100RF arrived from LenRentals today for a three-week stay chez Kasson. From the setup menus, it appears to be brand new. I’ll get to the testing soon enough, but I have a few thoughts on the design.

• The on/off switch is too easy to move. I’ll bet some folks are going to have trouble accidentally turning the camera on when they put it into the bag.

I thought the same when I looked at mine. On the other hand I have had no issues with accidental engagement - even coming in or out of the bag.

• The Q switch is flush. This should reduce the accidental activation of the Q switch, which has happened to me with other GFX cameras.

Fuji has played around with location and design of the q button on the X series over the years. On the XH1 I had to disable the q menu because every time I put the camera to my eye I was looking at the q menu and missed more shots than I want to talk about. I agree, they seem to have found a good location and design on the RF. In fact I accidentally engage the i button on my Z8 more often than the q button on my RF.

• Leaving the crop wheel aside for the time being, I love the way the controls work. The aperture ring on the switch has an A position which allows the exposure system to change it, which is perfect. The shutter speed dial has a similar A position. There’s an ISO adjust embedded in the shutter speed wheel that is so much better for me than the thumbwheel ISO adjustment of a lot of the other GFX cameras. And there’s huge exposure compensation dial that falls readily to thumb.

My only real beef with the RF is the same beef I have with every Fuji with a EC dial. A simple push lock on the top would prevent accidentally engaging it while not impacting the operation.

• It looks like the lens has two knurled rings, but the front one doesn’t move. Pity.
• The menu structure will be familiar to anyone who has used another GFX camera.
• The focus mode selection dial is flush with the body except for the part you use to adjust it.
• The joystick is not great. Fuji could do some work on the haptics. But the joystick has never been the GFX’s strong suit.
• The front knurled dial is mushy. It needs some crisp detents. Same with the back knurled dial.
• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.
• The lens hood is small, and that’s nice. It’s probably less effective than a petal hood, though.

The OEM hood is too cumbersome. I replaced mine with the Hoage aftermarket hood which is less cumbersome.

• Now for the most controversial part of the camera, the crop dial. I’m a raw shooter, so I view the crop dial as a compositional aid, and nothing else. If you look at it like I do, it is way more prominent than it should be, and it needs a lock button.

I was skeptical of the crop dial and aspect ration dial at first. I played around with different settings. However, I found when I use the white line framing lines (similar to my M4 and Q2M) it provides quick compositional aids. I ended up assigning the aspect ratio dial to the thumb wheel and (ISO to the front dial) and am quite happy with the operation. The one think I would like to see is Fuji add the option to meter to the selected portion of the frame when using a crop or aspect ratio different than 4x3. I, however, find the aspect ratio dial more useful than the crop dial - which is why it's assigned to a wheel.

• The LCD tilts but doesn’t swivel. That’s fine with me.
• The latch for the battery door is not self-engaging. Oops.
• There are no detents on the SIO dial. Oops again.
• Access to the ISO dial by lifting a collar is brilliant.
• I’m not fond of the way the flash card access door works. Fuji could take a lesson from Nikon on how to do this right.
• No IBIS, but then you probably already knew that.

To me, this is a modern digital embodiment of the Plaubel Makina 67 with a shorter lens. I would have preferred the lens be around 45mm instead of 35mm, but nobody asked me.

Questions? Comments?

Look forward to your results.

 

[jhunna]

The Fuji GFX 100RF arrived from LenRentals today for a three-week stay chez Kasson. From the setup menus, it appears to be brand new. I’ll get to the testing soon enough, but I have a few thoughts on the design.

• It’s small. It weighs about the same as a Z7 and a small 35mm Nikkor, and it’s not all that much bigger.
• The on/off switch is too easy to move. I’ll bet some folks are going to have trouble accidentally turning the camera on when they put it into the bag.

Agreed, however the power save functions keeps this from being the catostrophe it could be. Many times I have pulled my camera out the bag to find that the switch is in the on position, yet I still have plenty of battery.

• The Q switch is flush. This should reduce the accidental activation of the Q switch, which has happened to me with other GFX cameras.

Agreed.

• Leaving the crop wheel aside for the time being, I love the way the controls work. The aperture ring on the switch has an A position which allows the exposure system to change it, which is perfect. The shutter speed dial has a similar A position. There’s an ISO adjust embedded in the shutter speed wheel that is so much better for me than the thumbwheel ISO adjustment of a lot of the other GFX cameras. And there’s huge exposure compensation dial that falls readily to thumb.

Agreed.

• It looks like the lens has two knurled rings, but the front one doesn’t move. Pity.
• The menu structure will be familiar to anyone who has used another GFX camera.
• The focus mode selection dial is flush with the body except for the part you use to adjust it.

I like this and its location. It makes adjusting it pretty easy.

• The joystick is not great. Fuji could do some work on the haptics. But the joystick has never been the GFX’s strong suit.

On initial impression I agree this is the case, but after a few months of use, the joystick has relaxed and become a pretty accurate control for navigating menus, etc... I do not use it for live focusing, but will use it for reseting focus position in Af-C. (If I turn off the touch screen I don't even need to do that).

• The front knurled dial is mushy. It needs some crisp detents. Same with the back knurled dial.

Agreed.

• It’s got two SD card slots. I would have much preferred one XCD slot.

Or even a proper CF-B slot. File transfer from the camera could be better as could the buffering.

• The lens hood is small, and that’s nice. It’s probably less effective than a petal hood, though.
• Now for the most controversial part of the camera, the crop dial. I’m a raw shooter, so I view the crop dial as a compositional aid, and nothing else. If you look at it like I do, it is way more prominent than it should be, and it needs a lock button.

Something to think about as you are using the camera. The crops are kept when opening the RAW files in LR. That could be an aid, in developing and in framing the scene. I disagree that the dial needs a lock, it is by far the most difficult dial to move. If they made it easier to move, then a lock would be in order. I also wish the markers were on the outside of the wheel instead of on top.

• The LCD tilts but doesn’t swivel. That’s fine with me.

Agreed. Even for video this is better than swinging around screens.

• The latch for the battery door is not self-engaging. Oops.

Good point, just noticed this and now it IS aggravating.

• There are no detents on the SIO dial. Oops again.
• Access to the ISO dial by lifting a collar is brilliant.

Agreed.

• I’m not fond of the way the flash card access door works. Fuji could take a lesson from Nikon on how to do this right.
• No IBIS, but then you probably already knew that.

To me, this is a modern digital embodiment of the Plaubel Makina 67 with a shorter lens. I would have preferred the lens be around 45mm instead of 35mm, but nobody asked me.

Questions? Comments?

Excellent initial thoughts looking forward to your thoughts going forward, especially how they may differ from today vs three weeks from today.

 

[JimKasson]

Comment:
The ISO lift-up was standard on film slr shutter wheels.

But on those cameras, it was just a reminder. It didn’t actually do anything to the camera.

Build quality is excellent but this camera might be vulnerable to knocks and general wear and tear. It needs a leather wraparound case like the iphone needs a case. Companies should give a “droppability” score.

I’m afraid objective testing isn’t going to find much new to say here, the IQ is basically known, this camera is all about form factor, sexiness, ergonomics and exposed controls.

 

[andrew_stannard]

Hi,

If you have the crop display set so that the viewfinder zooms in on the crop and has black bars at either side if it isn't 4:3, then the camera does meter for the crop only.

Otherwise it meters for the whole frame regardless.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

Hi,

If you have the crop display set so that the viewfinder zooms in on the crop and has black bars at either side if it isn't 4:3, then the camera does meter for the crop only.

Otherwise it meters for the whole frame regardless.

Thank you Andy, I did not know that. That is a very useful tidbit in cases you know you are going to crop and want to eliminate the outer area, e.g., bright sky from the image. I have my display selection to on lever, so it would be pretty easy to flip between metering modes.

 

[NewCameraUser1]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.

Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

 

[JimKasson]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

 

[ThomasNorway]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

One might argue that SEMI-TRANSPARENT and LINE reflects the possibility of including the whole sensor, while BLACK indicates a definitive crop.

 

[SrMi]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

One might argue that SEMI-TRANSPARENT and LINE reflects the possibility of including the whole sensor, while BLACK indicates a definitive crop.

I think GFX cameras use whatever is visible in the EVF to compute metering.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

Why? It allows the use of the black mode to be used to estimate exposure in the cropped area in the case one has determined he/she wants the image cropped. The bright line, semi-transparent frame lines could be used as compositional aid but the user is intending to make the final decision later. The exposure could be different in those two cases - especially in a wide angle lens. So it gives the photographer another arrow in his quiver to estimate the best exposure for the final image.

As the old saying goes, one man's noise is another man's signal," or looking back to my teen age 60's roots, "one man's noise is another man's music," or according to the proverb of Lucretius, "what is food for one man may be bitter poison for the others."

As usual with most cameras, "one man's bug is another man's feature."

 

[jhunna]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

Why? It allows the use of the black mode to be used to estimate exposure in the cropped area in the case one has determined he/she wants the image cropped. The bright line, semi-transparent frame lines could be used as compositional aid but the user is intending to make the final decision later. The exposure could be different in those two cases - especially in a wide angle lens. So it gives the photographer another arrow in his quiver to estimate the best exposure for the final image.

As usual with most cameras, "one man's bug is another man's feature."

Well stated and you hit the points well. It is not a big but a well thought out feature.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

I’ve noticed this affects how the camera meters a scene, and it’s really frustrating. In Surround View, the EVF offers three display modes: BLACK, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, and LINE. But if you choose SEMI-TRANSPARENT or LINE, the camera still meters the entire sensor, including areas outside the cropped view. That skews the exposure and throws off the final image.
Aspect ratio doesn't matter here. It applies to any cropped aspect ratio.

I consider this a bug.

One might argue that SEMI-TRANSPARENT and LINE reflects the possibility of including the whole sensor, while BLACK indicates a definitive crop.

I think GFX cameras use whatever is visible in the EVF to compute metering.

I set the 100RF on a tripod with a crop using the white lines with a very bright object in the lower left corner. When I switched to the Black the exposure changed values (SS in this case since it was aperture priority). When I switch to semi-transparent the exposure change back to what it was in the beginning.

So it seems to ignore everything in the blacked out area of the crop for exposure calculation.