Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay First Look, Tutorial and Image Quality Comparison with Mini 8/9

The Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay is now shipping, and matejphoto has 3 videos up, covering:

  • First Look
  • User Guide in 90 Seconds
  • Image Quality comparison with Instax Mini 8/9

Sadly Fujifilm continues to ingore our request for an Instax Wide Printer, which is incomprehensible for me. It can’t cost them massive R&D to develop one.

Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay: AmazonUS / BHphoto / Adorama / FocusCamera

VIDEOS BELOW

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

Fujifilm GFX100: One Last Roundup Before Shipping Starts

Jonas Rask Fujifilm GFX100 image shared at the GFX facebook group
Jonas Rask Fujifilm GFX100 image shared at the GFX facebook group

Fujifilm GFX100

The Fujifilm GFX100 is about to ship, and what we have for you is one last glorious Fujifilm GFX100 roundup, before it starts falling into hands of mere mortals (with pockets a bit bigger than mere mortals ;) ).

The Slanted Lens tested the Fujifilm GFX100. Problem? They didn’t use the latest firmware that adds support for phase detection AF on GF lenses, and Lightroom still officially marks the GFX100 as preliminary supported. Sadly this makes every review so far incomplete.

With that said, here is what they think about the GFX100 (video below).

  • details are amazing
  • in medium format at f/2 you have so just very little DOF
  • dynamic range test
  • at -5 EV he is still able to recover the hightlights with no problem
  • he thinks it could have been underexposed for at least two more stops, and he’d be able to recover that
  • at +1EV he is able to hold the highlights, with just a little bit pink color shift
  • at +2EV the highlights are gone, with yellow color shift
  • at +3EV the details are gone, skin tones are yellow
  • at +4EV it’s basically blown out. No way to recover that image
  • if you work in very contrasty situations, this camera will work extremely well, because of amazing shadow recovery
  • pretty amazing dynamic range
  • ISO test
  • ISO 100 very clean
  • ISO 200 there is a little bit of grain
  • ISO 400 also a little bit of grain
  • ISO 800 grain builds up more
  • ISO 3200 grain starts to become very pronounced
  • ISO 6400 major grain. He thinks it’s unusable for stills
  • ISO 12,800 becomes pixelized
  • ISO 256,000 grain is extremely strong
  • He’d not go over ISO 400 for clean images in stills and in general up to 1600. For video up to 3200
  • even at higher ISO, the colors remain consistent, no shift
  • Autofocus
  • in stills he is not as impressed as he hoped for [I noticed when the subject was far away, the tracking was not so reliable, but more close, super sharp. I personally wonder about his AF settings. Also, pre-production, you know :)]
  • in video holds the focus well on the subject, and AF is as good as anything else on the market
  • IBIS
  • Impressive. Might be a great camera to put on a drone

And More

Fujifilm GFX 100: B&H Photo, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera, CalumetDE, ParkcamerasUK, JessopsUK, PCHstore

The GFX Community

Follow FujiRumors: Facebook, Flipboard, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube and Twitter

GFX100 Cameralabs Podcast & More

** CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of the Article **

Review of the 4k FUJIFIlM GFX 100 for Filmmakers

Fujifilm GFX100

The vast majority of people, who are going to get a Fujifilm GFX100, will get it for its photographic virtues.

However, the Fuji GFX100 is also the first medium format mirrorless camera that can fight an honorable battle with full frame and APS-C in the video department.

4K@30p, 4:2:0, 10 bit internal… not bad at all!

This is why I decided to highlight this review by Muse Storytelling, which focuses on the Fujifilm GFX100 for filmmakers. He says:

  • the whole demo video you see has been shot handheld with Fujifilm GFX100
  • 10 bit gives you lots more colors over 8 bit and allows for more post processing
  • understanding Fujifilm film simulation allows you to create amazing images in camera
  • Velvia is great for scenes that look bright, happy and energetic
  • Classic Chrome more subtle and subdude look is great for interviews and moments with a serious or sad tone
  • external recorder for 4:2:2 10 bit image allows for simultaneous F-Log and film simulation recording
  • using film simulation you got to get it right in camera, less flexibility in post compared to F-Log
  • when using the LCD screen in bright daylight and shooting F-Log, it becomes a bit difficult to evaluate exposure and focus on the LCD screen, but it’s totally fine if you use film simulation
  • very customizable
  • changing settings takes a bit longer than on dedicated film cameras like the RED camera they use, but you can set custom buttons to speed up your workflow
  • they say in most cases, for film you better use manual focus. But the AF system on Fujifilm GFX100 is great, and for interviews with people moving back and forth, the eye AF worked better than they could have done by manually focussing
  • sweet spot for exposure seems to be 1 stop over: gets all the shadows properly exposed and away from the toe of the curve
  • when using F-log or Eterna, the GFX100 holds highlights very well
  • he is impressed with image quality, handling and features for such a compact camera with such a massive sensor
  • they will use the GFX100 a lot more in future for their video work

Fujifilm GFX 100: B&H Photo, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

The GFX Community

Follow FujiRumors: Facebook, Flipboard, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube and Twitter

TESTED: Capture One Pro 12 Improved Fujifilm X Trans Support

Capture One Pro 12.1 has promised us improved Fujifilm X Trans support. But how well does it really work?

Thomas Fitzgerald tested it and has written about it on his blog here. His conclusion:

The changes are very, very subtle to the naked eye.

The update fixes some issues that can occur when there is very fine repetitive detail such as tree branches, leaves, foliage and things like that.

It’s as if they have improved the anti-aliasing algorithms ever so slightly.

It’s something most people probably won’t notice, and they didn’t have to do this, but it pretty much eliminates most rendering artefacts from X-Trans files.

Capture One Pro 12 – save 50%

Follow FujiRumors on Facebook, Flipboard, RSS-feed, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram

Our Owners Groups

Our Facebook Pages

Fujifilm GFX100 Phase Detection Pixel Banding and Pixel Shift Multishot Solution

the black line in the center part has been manually added by Bill from Photons to Photos
the black line in the center part has been manually added by Bill from Photons to Photos

Fujifilm GFX100

For years, mirrorless cameras lagged behing DSLRs in terms of autofocus speed.

In order to catch up, companies started to incorporate phase detection pixels on their sensors, and modern cameras have phase detection pixels spread all over the sensors, very much to the delight of photographers, who enjoy fast autofoucs, eye autofocus all over the frame and reliable subject tracking.

But no technology is perfect, and so also phase detection has its downside.

When pushed to the extreme (meaning extreme shadow recovery for example), sensors with phase detection pixels can show some banding.

This has been documented with Nikon, Sony and so forth, and of course Fujifilm is no exception. They all use the same Sony sensor at the end of the day :).

It looks like also the Fujifilm GFX100 is (unsurprisingly) showing the same banding issue, when its RAW files are pushed to the extreme.

In fact, the Fujifilm GFX100 sensor has

  • a total of 3.78 million phase detection pixels
  • 7,776 PDAF pixels every 18 lines

The more phase detection pixels a sensor has, the more you can use phase detection also in lower light.

Bill Claff from Photons to Photos has published a Fujifilm GFX100 sensor heatmap (via dpreview), showing a short black line every 18 rows (see image above).

Should we panic?

I guess not. Or we could just throw any modern mirrorless camera into the garbage that uses phase detection pixels (unless it’s X-Trans ;) ).

It’s, as always, a tradeoff.

Do you want faster autofocus? Or do you want RAW files that even when pushed to its limits and beyond don’t show banding?

The Solution

First off: Fujifilm is fine tuning the firmware for the Fujifilm GFX100, and of course they are aware of banding. They are working to optimize sensor readout and the final firmware will show, how much banding the camera will really have.

But in any case, there is partially a solution to that, even without optimized and final firmware.

As I told you already months ago, Fujifilm is working to bring pixel shift multishot into the Fujifilm GFX100.

The original goal was to have it ready for GFX100 launch, but it needs a bit more time of development.

But pixel shift mulitshot will come, and as we have seen from other phase detection mirrorless cameras offering this feature, pixel shift reduces or even eliminates banding completely.

So, as long as you are shooting static subjects on a tripod and use pixel shift multishot, you won’t have any issues with banding.

Fujifilm GFX 100: B&H Photo, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera

The GFX Community

Follow FujiRumors: Facebook, Flipboard, Instagram, RSS-feed, Youtube and Twitter

Full set of "false color" images where the colors are just used to help show structure as opposed to randomness.
Full set of “false color” images where the colors are just used to help show structure as opposed to randomness.