Initial Review – FUJIFILM GFX100S and FUJINON GF80mmF1.7 R WR at the Puyallup Washington State Fair

I’ve spent the last year and a half using a FUJIFILM GFX50R camera, and it was definitely a challenging camera to use – slow autofocus, poor dynamic range (hard to recover highlights and shadows), bad in low light, but when things came together right, it could produce wonderful images. That entire time, I’ve also owned the FUJINON GF80mmF1.7 R, and that lens has been a pain to use – slow, slow, slow.

So, I was at a three way impasse – do I keep shooting with the GFX50R and improve my technique, do I sell it and give up on medium format, or do I go big and try a newer camera body with updated sensor and focusing? Well, I chose the third option. Luckily, I found a used GFX100S on Craigslist for a decent price. The price was such that if I used the camera, found it wasn’t to my liking, I could resell it break even. Well, it was worth a shot.

I’m happy to report that without a doubt, the GFX100S is faster to focus – especially with the 80mm, the leeway you have in post processing is far superior, and eye-detection with continuous autofocus and multiple frames per second is actually useable now! Check out the samples below!