First off I wish all of you a very happy & successful new year! My start into the new year was characterised by going “Full Fuji”: I traded in all my full frame kit (Nikon D850 / Z7) to get a Fuji medium format camera with a couple lenses. This means that next to my APS-C format gear (X-Pro2 / X-H1) for journalistic & documentary work I now also have a larger than full frame camera (GFX 50R) for more thoughtful, higher image quality photography. Really? How much more do you need than the already impressive image quality Fuji’s APS-C sensors provide? And be aware, the larger sensor also introduces several challenges & some disadvantages, to coin a phrase: “It’s one small step in format, but one giant leap in adapting your photography” (compared to full frame). Please read on to find out more!
Vertical shadows play on the wall, X-Pro2 with XF 23mm F/1.4R @F/5.6, 1/2700 sec, 400 ISO
Stepping up from an APS-C X-Pro2 with the XF 27mm F/2.8 R to a medium format GFX 50R with the GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR (both rangefinder style mirrorless cameras with their most compact “pancake” lens mounted) is quite a “leap” actually … It will increase your kit size by approx. 15%, the weight by approx. 85% and nearly double your cost (and the lenses will cost approx. 3x of what you’re used to with APS-C … 😅). Woah! To add insult to injury y’all should be aware that to get a similar depth of field on medium format compared to APS-C you’ll need to stop your lens down by nearly 2 (two!) stops more. So a F/5.6 on your X-Pro2 will need a dim F/11 on your GFX. OK, you can partly compensate this by allowing a 1 stop higher ISO (w/o seeing any negative effects), but still. Low light photography w/o tripod becomes a bit of a challenge. The next thing you gonna notice is the different aspect ratio. The above image was taken on my X-Pro2 on 3.2 aspect ratio (quite a “long” format 😉), with the veritable XF 23mm F/1.4 R attached. Based on the relation between length of sensor diagonal and focal length I’d need a 45mm lens on my GFX 50R to achieve the same (diagonal) field of view as with the XF 23mm on my X-Pro2 (both corresponding to a 35mm full frame equivalent field of view)
Now, Fuji is so kind to offer us a GF 45mm F/2.8 R WR which would perfectly fit the bill, but that one’ll set you back by another approx. 1800$ … So on account of that eye-watering price I unfortunately don’t (yet) have such a lens (Jeez, with those kinda prices you don’t just “go out and buy a lens” … 🙃). So, I tried it with my compact GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR instead (corresponds to a 40mm full frame equivalent field of view), see the resulting image below:
The same shadow play, on the GFX 50R with the GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR @F/11, 1/340 sec, ISO 200
Interesting, even Fuji was telling me the correct medium format lens to compare to the XF 23 would’ve been the GF 45mm, the width of the images appear to be very similar: Compared to the X-Pro2’s APS-C sensor with its quite “long” 😉 3:2 aspect ratio, the GFX 50R’s medium format sensor has a more balanced “shorter” 4:3 aspect ratio. But if you frame to the same width and crop (shorten) the APS-C image to the same aspect ratio as the medium format sensor you get nearly an identical image, see the direct comparison below (OK, the position of the shadow on the right side is shifted between the 2 images, but that’s due to the change in the sun’s position - I took the second image a few minutes later):
X-Pro2 image, now cropped to 4:3 aspect ratio
GFX 50R image, same as above
So how did this all play out? We wrote the year 2016, fall 2016. @Photokina Fujifilm effectively turned the world of photography upside down by launching a larger than full frame “medium format” mirrorless camera system at a significantly lower price point (-30%!), compared to any other medium format competitor. They boldly just overstepped full frame and went straight to medium format, coming from their APS-C format X-series range. Of course I was intrigued! But at that time an 8 grand entry ticket into the medium format game was still too high for me, so instead I went full frame in April 2018 (Nikon D850, see here, here and several posts thereafter …). The definitive advantage of full frame vs. APS-C is the narrower depth of field at comparable aperture, combined with the in general higher max. aperture and less high ISO noise. But in the end I had to concede that the increase in image quality (which in some cases was even not really evident, see here) was too much offset by the significant higher size & weight compared to Fuji’s APS-C offerings. Last but not least I so much prefer Fuji's user interface to the Nikon setup!
So at the end of 2018, when Fuji announced a ‘rangefinder-esque’ version of their medium format sensor camera in form of the GFX 50R at an even lower price point (around 6 grand with the standard lens), I knew I had to get my sweaty hands on one! Weighing less and more compact than my D850 / Z7 and FTZ adapter with comparable lenses at only an approx. 10% higher price? I was sold: The GFX’s medium format files demonstrate an amazing depth, tonality & 3D pop; it has traditional dial based ergonomics (like all Fuji’s); the viewfinder is on the left of the body (rangefinder style) and it has a tilting touch screen allowing discrete photography with the camera at waist level like I did with my Hasselblad C/M long times ago … Hey, what more do you want?
Before continuing the comparison between Fuji’s APS-C and medium format I should clarify that in reality Fuji’s “medium format” is actually a cropped medium format, you could say like a “macro” four thirds ;-) see the comparison of the sensor sizes below:
Sensor size comparison, courtesy of photographylife.com
Moving from APS-C to Fuji’s medium format obviously brings a massive nearly 4x increase of sensor size, whereas you only get an increase of 1.67x vs. full frame. So you could expect that image quality-wize full frame and cropped medium format are roughly comparable and both visibly better than APS-C. But when analysing my test shots I was surprised to discover that there is actually a visible improvement from full frame (Nikon D850 with AF-S 35mm F/1.4) to Fuji medium format (GFX 50R with GF 50mm F3.5)! Check out the crops below:
Crop from APS-C test shot, with X-H1 and XF 23mm F/1.4 @F/2, 1/850 sec, ISO 200
Crop from Full Frame test shot, with Nikon D850 and AF-S 35mm F/1.4 @F/2.8, 1/250 sec, ISO 64
Crop from Fuji medium format test shot, with GFX 50R and GF 50mm F/3.5 @F/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 320
Coming back to my original question as to how much additional value this (cropped) medium format brings vs. full frame I think there is no clear cut answer. It depends as always on your priorities & preferences! On the plus side you get fantastic files off Fuji’s medium format sensor (btw the sensor has a Bayer layout, so no demosaicing issues in Lightroom). They sport amazing detail and clarity, with beautiful dynamic range and tonality. Vs. full frame DSLR’s you get the benefit of a hi-quality EVF (electronic viewfinder), and not needing to bother with AF micro adjustment, all at a visible higher image quality level while in a comparable size package vs. full frame (and all that at a very reasonable price!). The compactness of the Fuji GFX 50R, especially if coupled with the smaller lenses (like the aforementioned GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR) even allows you to do some street photography (provided you have the time to get the focus right) …
On the down side, If you do chose to go the medium format route (vs. full frame) you need to accept that you will not get the creamy bokeh full frame sensors with large aperture lenses are capable of. Fuji’s medium format lenses, while delivering amazing image quality all just don’t have very large max. apertures. These modest max. apertures mean you already lose approx. 1-2 stops vs. full frame lenses of comparable focal lengths. To this you’ll need to add nearly another stop (vs. full frame) to achieve a comparable depth of field. So be aware you are looking at 2-3 stops less light gathering capability! However, due to the better high ISO performance of the medium format sensor (see also interesting comparison here) you can recover around 1-2 stops by dialling in a higher ISO value. Another challenge is depth of field. When using medium format you have to select your focal plane very carefully as the sharpness fall-off from sharp to unsharp zones is much more pronounced than the smaller formats (no worries with APS-C btw!). Also note that focus speed is quite a bit slower than you were used to on full frame …
With this 1st post of the new year I hope I could give you some food for thought and help y’all in your personal decision process! Please leave me a message in the comments section below or on my ‘about’ page if you have any questions or there’s anything I could help to clarify for you. Many thanks joining the discussion and for visiting! And once more all the best for your photographic new year!
Best regards,
Hendrik
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