Full Frame Veteran Shoots Fujifilm GFX100 II at MotoGP: The $4,000 Fujinon GF Lens That Matched $16,000 Nikon Glass

Mattia Campos has spent more than 20 years working with every kind of ultra-flagship full-frame camera you can think of. Not long ago, we reported how he decided to step outside his comfort zone and take the Fujifilm APS-C system to Patagonia for wildlife photography.

The short version? Fujifilm’s APS-C system completely blew him away. His review turned out to be one of the best—and most brutally honest—camera reviews of 2025. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s absolutely worth your time.

But Campos didn’t stop there.

He also put the Fujifilm GFX100 II to the test in a place where you would least expect a medium-format camera: a MotoGP race.

The full review is in Italian and was published on JuzaPhoto. Below, I’ll summarize the key takeaways, including a direct comparison with the Sony A1 and the Nikon Z8.

One comparison, in particular, really stands out.

Campos compared:

He cropped the GFX files to match the field of view of the Nikon files—fully expecting the Nikon setup to come out on top.

It didn’t.

The results were practically identical.

In other words: with a €4,000 GF lens, he achieved the same level of sharpness as with an $16,000 Nikon super-telephoto.

And that was just one of the advantages he found in high resolution—and in medium format more broadly. He also appreciated several other qualities of medium-format files… and was equally honest about the aspects he liked less.

You can read all about it below.

NOTE: the original article shared months ago contained images. However, Mattia has since then canceled his account on the forum and the images have disappeared. However, his text and findings are still there, which is why I still decided to share it.

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Fujifilm Fixed Its Biggest Pre-2024 Mistake: The Beauty of an Open X-Mount Lens Roundup

When I wrote the FujiRumors 14-year anniversary article, I mentioned that our journey wasn’t without difficult moments—and that Fujifilm, at times, made some serious mistakes.

The biggest one in recent memory was the 2024 firmware debacle, which severely degraded autofocus performance. It then took Fujifilm several months just to restore AF behavior to pre-bug levels. While things have improved significantly since then, Fujifilm still has some catching up to do compared to the top brands. And since FujiRumors is independent, free, and fully at the service of this amazing community, we won’t hesitate to remind Fujifilm of that from time to time 😉.

But if we look further back, I’d argue that the biggest mistake before 2024 was Fujifilm’s decision to keep the X mount closed, preventing third parties from offering autofocus lenses.

What’s interesting is that, while some companies still actively block third-party access to their mounts (Canon RF full frame) or even take legal action against lens makers (as Nikon did with Viltrox), Fujifilm eventually recognized that this kind of protectionism was a mistake. Opening the mount was the right call—and ultimately a move that benefited the entire system.

So, luckily, here we are today, able to share a major lens roundup covering a wide range of third-party autofocus lenses. And let’s hope autofocus G mount lenses will follow soon ;).

And that’s not all.

Manual focus lenses also play an important role in the overall lens ecosystem, so we’ll be including those in this roundup as well.

The Big Roundup

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Fujifilm X-E5 – The Camera That Understands You

It’s time to share some love to one of Fujifilm’s best and most loved (and also most owned) cameras: the Fujifilm X-E5.

And it’s not only me saying it. Look up the stellar reviews the customer camera is getting all over the web – with some frankly weird exceptions:

And along with it, also one of Fujifilm’s hottest lens releases of the past few years: the Fujinon XF23mmF2.8 R WR.

I did share my thoughts about my Fujifilm X-E5 here.

Anyway…. the Fujifilm X-E5 is quite successful, and if you want it bundled with the XF23mmF2.8, then good luck in your hunt for one, as it is mostly out of stock.

With all that said, enjoy the reviews below.

Reviews

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Bob Poole Puts the Fujifilm GFX100 II in the Path of Elephants — and It Delivers Cinematic Magic

While working on his latest elephant documentary, Emmy Award–winning cinematographer Bob Poole decided to bring an unexpected camera into his setup: the Fujifilm GFX100 II. Not as a main cinema camera — that role was covered by the ARRI Alexa 35 paired with the massive Fujinon Duvo HK 25–1000mm f/2.8–5 — but as a creative tool to capture something different.

The goal was simple: get unusual, ultra-high-quality shots from extremely low angles.

To make that happen, Poole and his team built an elephant-proof cage and placed the GFX100 II directly on the ground — right on paths regularly used by elephants — to capture perspectives that would be impossible with traditional cinema rigs.

Naturally, this should have been a disaster.

After all, if he had asked internet forum experts, they would have confidently explained that the GFX100 II is “not a real video camera” and that creating meaningful cinematic footage with it would be basically impossible.

Luckily, Bob Poole didn’t ask the forums.

And somehow — against all odds and comment sections — the GFX100 II ended up delivering stunning, cinematic footage that blends seamlessly with high-end cinema cameras.

Here’s what Poole had to say about working with the GFX100 II:

  • GFX100II has been instrumental in this film project, giving us angles we would have never been able to achieve with larger cameras
  • We made an Elephant proof cage and dropped the GFX100II on a path the Elephants use
  • when the Elephant pops in front of the camera, all the detail is there on that large sensor, all that information, I think it’s going to blow people away
  • the idea was always to have massive wide angle shots that show the landscape from a perspective you otherwise you would not see
  • GFX100II came into play because the wide angle stuff coming out of these lenses in this amazing camera were seamless
  • the image has the same beautiful soft rolloff of the Arri Alexa 35, shallow DOF, super sharp, beautiful bokeh
  • the image is fantastic
  • GFX100II also really valuable for timelapse, counting on that large sense to be able to oversample and then be able to work within the frame which has given our post production so much flexibility, because we can move within the frame we’ve created
  • GFX100II stills are amazing. We have got so many beautiful images

Well done, Bob — and well done Fujifilm for giving creators tools that don’t just improve image quality, but actually expand what’s creatively possible, opening new ways to work, experiment, and tell stories with more freedom and flexibility.

GFX Cameras

GF Lenses

Cinema Color Science Showdown: Arri Alexa 35 vs Every Major Camera Brand — Why Fujifilm’s Film Heritage Matters

Let’s Talk Colors

The 76K expensive Arri Alexa 35 is considered the gold standard when it comes to cinema color science and color quality.

But what if you want to get those awesome colors into a more affordable package? Which brand comes closest to it?

Well, Cinecolor published a color grading demo exploring real-world differences in color science between the Arri Alexa 35 and nearly every major camera brand that shoots in Log format.

The cameras tested are:

IMPORTANT – The True Goal of the Test

There are two things to consider for this test:

  • How good are colors right off the bat (after simple Rec 709 conversion)
  • How much editing is needed, to match the Arri Alexa colors

Sometimes colors right out of camera are quite close to Arri (iPhone/DJI) or already very beautiful (Fujifilm) or quite lifeless (Sony), but in any case, the question is how much editing is needed to match as closely as possible the Arri Alexa 35.

The Result in Short

DJI and iPhone (although can have HDR look), have closest Arri colors. Probably because of small sensor and less editing flexibility, it is important for Apple/DJI to get best possible colors in camera.

Fujifilm was tested with the old F-Log file, not with the newer F-Log2 or the newest F-Log2C. F-Log2C has the best skin tones. With that said, F-Log looks great already. Fujifilm has its own and very beautiful look, and it requires just a bit of editing to come close to the Arri Alexa 35 files. He says:

It’s really impressive what Fujifilm can deliver in terms of color science, even with older X-T4 F-Log. That’s not surprising considering their background in creating film stock. Fujifilm shooters won’t be shocked by the results, but hopefully others, who don’t shoot Fujifilm, will understand why so many are drawn to Fujifilm specifically because of colors.

Nikon and Sony are the files that you have to work on most, because Nikon handles colors very different and has uneven saturation and Sony files look lifeless and drab. But it’s important to note that you can edit them to get close to Arri. It just requires more editing time and skills to get there.

Panasonic is far away from the Arri skin tones. Canon also is not quite close to Arri.

Conclusions in Short

Except for DJI and iPhone (and GoPro), which have a small sensors, you have a huge flexibility with all camera brands and you can edit files to make them look closer to Arri Alexa 35. The only difference is how much you need to edit to get those awesome results.

To get the closest results to Arri with less editing, Blackmagic and Fujifilm are best (after DJI and iPhone).

Fujifilm also has very good colors right out of the box, so you can edit colors if you want to match Arri, but colors look great also without editing.

Sony files really need to be edited, but the good thing is files are flexible.

The results a bit more in-depth

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