Sony Fanboy Tries a 102MP Medium Format Camera for the First Time | FUJIFILM GFX100S Impressions

Hello, everyone. My name is Mario So, and today, I wanted to share my thoughts on trying out a medium format camera for the first time, specifically, the Fuji GFX100S. I've never shot on a medium format camera before, and I was very excited to try this camera out. I was able to borrow one for a week, and I also borrowed three lenses that came with it. I was able to borrow the Fujinon GF lens 45-100. There's another big boy, which is the Macro 120, another big boy, which is the 110, and this one which is the 50 GF Fujinon lens.

Just to preface this video, I've been shooting on Sony cameras for about five or six years now, and I started shooting on APSC sensor cameras and then moved on to Sony full-frame cameras. All my thoughts and perspectives on this video are going to be based on the fact that I've been using Sony for such a long time. This video is not meant to be an in-depth review of the Fuji GFX100S. I just wanted to give you my perspective as a Sony shooter, what works for me and what doesn't work for me.

For a little bit of background as well, Sony isn't the only camera I've shot with. I started shooting on a Nikon D5100, and then I moved on to the D800. I was shooting video at that time with a Nikon. Don't ask me why. I also got a chance to shoot weddings on a GH3 back in the day and then a little bit on a GH4. I also shot on the Canon C100 cinema camera. I've actually shot with quite a few camera brands, but Sony is the one that I've stuck with.

The first thing that you need to know is the camera sensor on the medium format camera is actually bigger than that of a full-frame sensor, hence the confusion, because you may think that medium is smaller than full. A full frame sensor is about 36 mm to 24 mm. The sensor of a medium format camera, particularly the one that is on the Fuji GFX100S, is about 43 mm to 32 mm. The sensor of this medium format camera is roughly 79% larger than that of a full-frame camera.

The crop factor for this Fuji GFX100S and also the 100 is about 0.79. You have to take this crop factor into consideration when looking at your lenses. The lens 45-100 mm is in full-frame terms, about 36 mm to 75 mm. The maximum aperture on this lens is an F4, but in full-frame terms, that's about a F3.2. You're actually getting a little bit more light than you thought you would with an F4 on one of these lenses. Unfortunately, I only had a week or so to play with this camera, but these are my thoughts after using it for that time.

Let's first talk about a few of the things that I like about the Fuji GFX100S. This camera has a megapixel count of 102. That's about four times that of the A7 III, and six or seven times that of the A7S III, which is really insane. To be honest, though, unless you're printing big billboards, 102 megapixels is really an overkill even for most professional uses. The photos that come out of this 102-megapixel camera are really sharp and because it's Fuji, the colors are really nice as well.

Talking about color on the Fuji cameras, another thing that I like about the Fuji GFX100S is that you can get film simulations directly in-camera by Fuji, so you get Provia, Velvia, Eterna, and things like that.

In comparison to other medium format cameras, the Fuji GFX100S looks a little bit more like a DSLR, so it will be a familiar look if you have never shot on a medium format camera before. It's very solidly built and it has dual SD card slots.

One thing that I really like about the Fuji GFX100S is the top display that lets you toggle between some of your exposure settings as well as your histogram. I found myself using this top display quite a lot when I was shooting, and I found it very useful.

Another thing that I really like about the Fuji GFX100S is that it has a movie and a still switch. Depending on what you're shooting, you can just do a quick switch, and all the settings in your menu are going to be according to whatever switch you have. If you have it on movie mode, then all your settings are going to be related to video, and once you switch it back to stills, everything's going to be related to photos.

I find that the menus are a lot easier to navigate depending on what you're shooting unlike Sony's popular or not-so-popular menus, well, pre A7S III, all Sony menus are just very hard to decipher. The menus on the Fuji GFX100S are very easy to understand, and you're able to find what you need very quickly.

In terms of the screen, the Fuji GFX100S does not have a full flip-out screen. It has an articulating screen that swivels in different ways. That's a little bit useful. It's still a better screen than the A7 III or other Sony cameras, for example, that only have the flip-up screen.

You can also charge the Fuji GFX100S directly via USB-C, so if you are running out of juice and you're shooting in studio, for example, you can just plug it in to USB-C to a power bank and you can keep your camera powered.

I brought the Fuji GFX100S to a shoot. The shoot lasted about 3 hours, and I found that I only needed that one battery because they only gave me one battery to try this out. The battery life on this camera, in my opinion, from the time that I was using, it is quite decent, maybe just a little bit less than the A7 III's battery, but pretty good in general.

In general, medium format cameras are not really meant for video or at least for serious video work. They're more meant for serious photography, portrait work, and studio work, but the Fuji GFX100S comes equipped with very decent video features. It comes with the ability to shoot FLOG, which is the lock setting for Fuji. You can also shoot an HLG as well if you like.

Another really cool feature of the Fuji GFX100S is that you can shoot 4:2:0 10 bit internally on this camera, and if you have an external recorder that can become 4:2:2 10 bit or even ProRes RAW, which is very insane coming from a medium format camera. There are a few limitations, though, when it comes to video, which I'll be talking about a little bit later, but the fact that you can get that quality of video out of this is very impressive.

The Fuji GFX100S has a microphone jack and a headphone jack, which is handy for video. This camera also has a few advanced audio features, such as audio limiter directly in camera. It also has 5-axis in-body stabilization, which makes it very useful for video work.

If you want to see how the Fuji GFX100S performed, I have a video coming up next, so make sure to subscribe and enable the notification bell to be in-the-know when that video comes out. It's going to be cool. In that video, I'll be showing you a lot of footage that I shot with this camera.

In terms of autofocus, the Fuji GFX100S has face detection and also eye autofocus, and that applies for photo mode and video mode.

In terms of video, the maximum resolution is 4K at 30 frames per second, and in 1080p you can only go up to 60 frames per second, which is a little bit unfortunate. I was hoping that you can get at least 120 frames per second in 1080p, but we're not getting that on the Fuji GFX100S.

Another thing that I didn't like is that the side of the Fuji GFX100S body on the right is a little bit too wide, so it didn't fit two of the gimbals that I have.

I've been shooting on mirrorless cameras, and I've been very comfortable shooting on smaller mirrorless bodies. When I got a chance to shoot with the Fuji GFX100S, it's actually a lot heavier than the Sony A7 III that I mostly use, and I found that I had to get re-accustomed to shooting with larger camera bodies, like, for example, when I used to shoot at an Nikon DSLR, the D800. That's not the fault of the camera itself. That's just me having gotten too comfortable shooting on smaller camera bodies over the years. The body itself weighs about 2 pounds, and once you add one of these Fujinon lenses, which are all quite massive, the weight really adds up very quickly.

If you wanted to rig it up with a cage, a microphone, a shotgun mic, some filters at the front, it can become a very heavy setup, at which point you might as well just get a cinema camera and shoot video on a cinema camera. Another thing with the size of the Fuji GFX100S is that it makes it a little bit less flexible and portable. Sometimes I want to go out and don't want to carry too much with me, so I just bring my small mirrorless camera and it can fit almost anywhere. But, if you have one of these, you're going to have to think twice whether you want to bring it with you or not.

In terms of rolling shutter for video, it's actually not too bad. I would say it's a little bit similar to the A7 III. For a medium for my camera, I'll say that the rolling shutter on the Fuji GFX100S is not bad at all.

For video specifically, I found that the autofocus was a little bit flaky. It was not always accurate. Sometimes it took some time to hunt for the subject, even though it has eye autofocus. In my opinion, it's not as snappy or as quick as other Sony cameras. The Sony A7 III, even though it doesn't have eye autofocus in video mode, it only has face detection, I found that it was a lot better and a lot more accurate as opposed to the Fuji GFX100S. When I'm shooting on the Sony A7 III, I can just trust that the autofocus is going to work 90% of the time. On this one, when I was shooting video on this, I had to keep looking at the screen to make sure that it was in focus.

Another thing about the Fuji GFX100S that didn't really quite like is that it only shoots 5 frames per second, so don't expect to shoot sports or high action scenes with this camera.

Overall, it was a fun experience trying out a medium format camera for the first time. It's exciting to see that a lot of manufacturers are putting a lot of higher end video features in traditional photo cameras like the Fuji GFX100S. I think this camera is well suited for studio work and portrait work. At this price range, if you wanted to shoot a lot of video and wanted equal capability or functionality between photo and video at this price range, I'll probably go with the Sony A1. If your work requires high megapixel counts or if you shoot a lot in controlled studio environments, I think this is a really good choice, if you like the medium format look as well, in the Fuji Color Science.

I'm a little sad that I have to return this in the next couple of days and that I can't get more time to play with this, but I hope that this video gives you a little bit more insight into what a video format camera is if you have never shot on one before. I hope you found this video informational and useful. If you did, please like the video. That will greatly support the channel. If you haven't subscribed yet, make sure to subscribe as well. That would be greatly appreciated. That is all guys. I'll see you in the next one.