Fujifilm: The Good and the Bad – DPRTV

DPRTV published a video about the Good and the Bad of Fujifilm.

The Good

  • many different styles and design of cameras that appeal to different type of photographers
  • whether you like more modern or vintage, Fujifilm has it
  • lots of price points using the same sensor
  • they keep innovating their APS-C sensor lineup, now they have high resolution 40MP and stacked 26MP
  • steadily improved video features
  • X-H2/S both video optimized models but for whatever your priority is: X-H2s for less rolling shutter and slightly better dynamic range or X-H2 for absolute detail. But many features are similar between the too
  • autofocus third party options

The Bad

  • Fujifilm is now focusing on higher end, but they can grow on affordable range
  • they hoped they make more affordable XC primes like the XC35mmF2, but that still their only XC prime
  • more affordable pocket sized cameras
  • tracking continuous autofocus. Fujifilm is getting stickier, but it still lagging a little bit behind and you get more false positive with Fujifilm than with other brands. Sometimes its the lenses that can’t keep up with the tracking
  • no tap to track in video mode
  • why no native leaf shutter lens option for the GFX system? Fujifilm made leaf shutter lenses in the past for Hasselblad in the past. You can adapt those H series Hasselblad lenses (Fujifilm H mount adapter G) but you don’t have autofocus. Fuji’s argument might be that sensor readout is getting faster and eventually there will be stacked sensor or global shutter, but that’s still a long way off for medium format

The Lastest and Greatest

FR-Readers Wishlist Corner: Firmware Suggestions, Video-Less X-Pro4, Fujinon XF16-160mmF3.5-5.6 and More

Wishlist Corner

I am terribly sorry…. terribly sorry that many of you had to wait so long to be featured.

But no matter how hard I work, especially in a crazy 2022, with 3 higher end cameras coming out and 4 XF lenses coming out, I simply could not find time to collect all your wishes and share them.

So I’ll do it today… I grabbed a large beer, took a deep breath, and worked to organise the wishes I have received over the last few months in this article.

So… down below it is: the FR-readers wishlist roundup

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

Fujifilm Managers Interviews: About Competition and Alliances, Dreams of Modular and Fixed Lens GFX and More

image courtesy - phototrend
image courtesy – phototrend

There have been two interviews with Fujifilm managers, one in French (the more comprehensive one) and one in Japanese (short).

I will sum up both of them, but the Japanese one only because it involves Koji Matsumoto, the president of Fujifilm Imaging. It does not say much at all, but if we hear from his mouth that X-H2 and X-H2S are selling better than Fujifilm thought, than it has its value.

The French manager was definitely much more talkative and if you don’t speak French, our summary below will cover it all.

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

AstrHori 40mm F5.6 for Fujifilm GFX Released

The new AstrHori 40mm f/5.6 for Fujifilm GFX has just been released.

  • Medium format lens: 40mm F5.6 Medium format lens for Fuji GFX-mount Cameras, perfect for portrait, architecture, night view and Landscape photography.
  • Charming and unique pentagonal starburst: the AstrHori 40mm F5.6 will present a pentagonal starburst effect at the aperture of F8, especially when shooting night scenes or portraits at night, it can create an amazing ambience.
  • Compact and lightweight: Weight only 333g, a good-looking compact size mounted on the camera, does not increase the burden on your journey.
  • Precise focus ring operation: the focus ring is evenly damaged for more precise and smooth operation, and there there is a special stepped design between the focus ring and the aperture ring to avoid accidentally touching other parts during operation.
  • Compatibility: Medium format 40mm F5.6 for Fuji GFX, GFX 50S, GFX 50SII, GFX 50R, GFX 100, GFX 100S, GFX 100 IR Ver.

Sample images and more details can be found at the dedicated Amazon product page here.

Fujifilm GFX100S vs Hasselblad X2D Dynamic Range Test

The web is full of professional reviewers suddenly discovering how amazing the Hasselblad X2D is, how gorgeous its dynamic range, the flexibility of those files. It’s all so amazing. Forget full frame, medium format is the future!

Sadly many of those reviewers have since now totally ignored that the Fujifilm GFX100S exists. And by the way, they also ignore the Fujifilm X-H2 and X-H2S. Fujifilm simply does not exist.

Luckily for us, Bill at Photon to Photos did not forget that Fujifilm makes digital cameras and has them all in his database.

And he also added the Hasselblad X2D now.

How you can see, the Fujifilm GFX100S matches the Hasselblad dynamic range at base ISO, but starting from ISO 400 and beyond there is not competition and the GFX100S beats the X2D in terms of dynamic range.

So Fujifilm is able to take out more of the sensor than Hasselblad.

You can access the data here at Photon to Photos.

UPDATE: Jim Kasson, a very respectable and competent fellow GFX shooter, has a different view on the chart. He writes:

Bill’s PDR tests don’t take sensitivity into account. My tests show that, at base ISO (64 for X2D, 100 for GFX 100S), the two cameras are within 0.2 stops of having the same sensitivity. Once you correct for that, Bill’s curves for the two cameras are nearly on top of each other. So the Fuji Rumors claim is at best misleading, and at worst just plain wrong. C’mon folks, these cameras have the same sensors, albeit operated slightly differently. How far apart can the DR be?

You can read more at blog.kasson here.

Fujifilm Designer Talks about GFX: “I would Love to Evolve the GFX50R Rangefinder Series” and More on GFX Series Development

Fujifilm design manager Mr. Masazumi Imai (the guy we are all very grateful to because he designed the original X100 – read the story of his inspiration here) gave an interview in Japanese to MapCamera.

As usual youtube struggles with live video translations, but down below you can find a summary in English of both videos as well as the videos themselves.

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

Fujifilm X-H2 DigitalCamera Review: “Fujifilm just Broke all the Rules for APS-C camera Sensors”

Digitalcameraworld has posted its full Fujifilm X-H2 review as well as their dynamic range, noise and resolution lab results compared to other APS-C cameras such as the Fujifilm X-H2S, Canon EOS R7 and the Sony A6600.

Let me start with their final sentence:

We thought that APS-C sensors had reached their resolution limit, especially with the lack of any significant increase in real-world resolution from Canon’s 32.5MP sensor.

But the Fujifilm X-H2 has blown that idea out of the water, with resolution superior to all but a handful of full frame and medium format cameras and at a price that easily undercuts them all.

If anyone was thinking that APS-C had had its day and that full frame was the future, then Fujifilm has just blown that idea out of the water.

So, in terms of resolution, the Fujifilm X-H2 is a true beast.

In terms of dynamic range, it is actually astonishing to see the Fujifilm X-H2 getting better the higher the ISO value is, basically matching and beating at ISO800 and beyond the lower resolution Canon R7 and Sony A6600. Only the Fujifilm X-H2S can stay ahead of the X-H2 in their tests.

And in terms of noise, also here, starting at ISO800, it pretty much matches lower resolution APS-C cameras.

You can see the lab results below.

You can read the full Digitalcameraworld review of the Fujifilm X-H2 here and their test results here.

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AstrHori 55mm f/5.6 for Fujifilm GFX

In addition to the recently launched AstrHori 75mm f/4, Astrhori also promised two more lenses coming soon for the Fujifilm GFX system.

Well, one of the lenses has just been announced, the Astrhori 55mm f/5.6.

  • AstrHori 55mm f/5.6: Pergear* / Amazon
    * with 10% discount using code YZPCQSMPS37F

Main Features

  • Pre-Order, Orders Will be Shipped at 23th Sept. 10% Discount for Pre-order, Discount Code: YZPCQSMPS37F
  • 55mm F5.6 Medium format lens, perfect for portrait, architecture, night view and Landscape photography.
  • Charming and unique pentagonal starburst: the AstrHori 55mm F5.6 will present a pentagonal starburst effect at the aperture of F8, especially when shooting night scenes or portraits at night, it can creat amazing ambience.
  • 350g, Compact, lightweight and portable: good-looking on the camera, does not increase the burden on your journey.
  • Precise focus ring operation: the focus ring is evenly damaged for more precise and smooth operation, and there there is a special stepped design between the focus ring and the aperture ring to avoid accidentally touching other parts during operatoin.
  • Medium format 55mm F5.6 for Fuji GFX, GFX 50S, GFX 50SII, GFX 50R, GFX 100, GFX 100S, GFX 100 IR Ver.

Main Specs:

Frame Size Medium Format
Focal Length 55mm
Optical Structure 5 Elements in 5 Groups
Angle of View 52°
Focusing Range 0.59m-∞
Lens Size About 79mm*45mm
Compatible Mount GFX
Focus Model Manual
Filter Size  62mm
Aperture Size F5.6-F22

Let’s Get Serious: The Hasselblad X2D is Awesome, But Don’t Call it a GFX Killer – and Here is WHY!

Fujifilm GFX Shooters, Rejoice!

After a long wait, DJI (the owner of Hasselblad) launched the Hasselblad X2D.

Great specs, phase detection autofocus, IBIS and many more lovely features that make it a worthy and much needed competitor to the Fujifilm GFX system.

All Fujifilm GFX shooters (me included) should rejoice right now, because competition is a good thing and if the GFX system finally gets some serious pressure in the medium format realm, Fujifilm will be forced to step on the gas even more to keep dominating the market.

The Dubious Design Choice

But as much as I think the Hasselblad X2D is an awesome piece of gear, in its very same design philosophy lies a choice, that some might love, but many others might consider a dealbreaker and a flawed idea to start with: it has no mechanical shutter.

What this means is that you either rely on the electronic shutter (which is not the best choice on medium format cameras with slower sensor readout) or you use the native Hasselblad XCD lenses with build-in leaf shutter.

This choice Hasselblad made has two major downsides:

  • you can’t use older legacy glass on the Hasselblad X2D (except you use only electronic shutter, which is not recommended and rather limiting due to the slower readout of MF sensors)
  • you have to pay for the leaf shutter every single time with every lens purchase

And something I have noticed going through our Fujifilm GFX group, is that GFX owners LOVE to adapt vintage glass on their camera. It’s fun and it can give unique and very characteristic results.

Sadly, by not having a mechanical shutter, the Hasselblad X2D is simply the less ideal tool for this purpose than the Fujifilm GFX.

A GFX Killer? Let’s check it

Now the forums are quickly flooding with statements that the Hasselblad X2D is a GFX killer.

Really?

Well, let’s check one of the most important (if not THE most important) aspect: Price!

So let’s do just that, let’s buy the Hasselblad X2D as well as the Fujifilm GFX100S with 3 comparable GF and XCD lenses.

with

with

with

All in all, in order to build up a similar system (1 camera with 3 similar lenses) you’d spend:

This means you save $7,474 by buying the GFX system over the Hasselblad.

With the money saved you could add to your GFX system the Fujinon GF 80mm f/1.7, the Fujinon GF 23mm f/4 and something like the Fujinon GF 45-100mm f/4. And you’d still have some money left to buy a spare battery and SD-Cards.

So, with a budget of about $20,000 you can buy:

  • X2D with 3 lenses
  • GFX100S with 6 lenses
    + still a couple of hundreds of dollars left to invite your better half to a romantic weekend, take lovely images with your new gear and show her/him that only 100 megapixel can make justice to her/his beauty

One might argue that the Hasselblad X2D has 1TB internal storage. Not really an argument, as I guess we all have plenty of SD-cards at home, so by buying the GFX you don’t really need to add SD-Cards to it as we can just use the ones we already have.

But even if we were to buy the equivalent storage in terms of SD Cards, let’s say we’d add four SanDisk UHS-II SD cards, you still end up saving $6,200 over the Hasselblad X2D system, hence still plenty of money to invest in lenses.

There is still no comparison. The Fujifilm GFX100S is the objectively better choice in terms of features and price.

However, buying decisions are not only made rationally. There is also a very subjective aspect to it. So if you really love the design of the Hasselblad system, then you are obviously better off getting the X2D over the GFX100S.

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RUMOR, NEWS and COMMUNITY

Fujifilm X-H2 rumors, Fujifilm X-T5 Speculations, Manager admits X-T1 Saved the X Series, Viltrox 75mmF1.2 Coming and More (Top 10 August)

In theory August should be the month of holidays, but with 67 articles published in 31 days, it looks like here on FujiRumors we worked harder than ever.

A work that was well worth it, as it lead to tons of rumors and several articles of high interest for you.

So I’ll share today the top 10 articles for August that you should not have missed… and if you did, you’d better give it a look now.

  1. Japanese Fujifilm Manager: “Long Debate if to go Full Frame or Medium Format and Fujifilm X-T1 Saved the X Series”
  2. Don’t Worry: Why Fujifilm X-H2 with ISO 125 Can’t Be Compared with ISO 125 on Sony, Canon and Nikon
  3. Meet the Viltrox 75mm f/1.2 PRO Autofocus Lens for Fujifilm X Mount – Coming Soon
  4. Fujifilm X-H2 Coming with Pixel Shift Multishot for 160 Megapixel Images
  5. Sigma CEO Confirms Sigma 18-50mmF2.8 for Fujifilm X mount Coming End of 2022 (Probably December)
  6. Fujifilm Manager: “We Are Developing WOW Products that You’ll Really Want to Buy (but no Cinema Cameras)”
  7. Why the Fujifilm X-H2 Coming September 8 will tell us A LOT about the Fujifilm X-T5
  8. Fujifilm X-H2S Snaps Gold Award at DPReview
  9. DPRTV Fujifilm X-H2S Review: “Similar Price Point of Some Full Frame Cameras, But in a More Versatile Package”
  10. Fujifilm Will Promote X-H2 as Having “Improved Low/High ISO” Performance

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