I have had this camera for about one week. I was a long time Fujifilm digital devotee, then switched back to Nikon. The GFX 100s was too much to resist, a powerful took packed into a relatively small package. This will be a shooter’s thoughts on using the camera.
Working with such large files is a challenge. I have to load images in small doses on my M1 Mac with only 16 Ram. Lightroom and Capture One seem to handle the images well on my computer. The sliders are very jumpy in Lightroom, exposure changes seem to pop more quickly than with smaller images. I am exporting for web display with a limit of 20MP. Loading larger images onto the site is a struggle.
January 2, 2023 (Route 114, Bristol RI)
Lens 45mm F 2.8, Handheld, mid afternoon, cloudy
The New Year is here. These shots are from and near the Herreshoff Marine Museum a few blocks from my home. As expected the images abound with detail. Most impressive to me is how the highlights hold, even with an increase in exposure. I edited slightly with white balance and with the highlights in the sky, they are all there to be had (much more than the naked eye beheld).
I am not crazy about the toggle button on the back of the camera. It is a bit small, and there is no way it could be managed with gloves on.
January 5, 2023 (Providence River)
45mm Lens, Camera held against a support
It was another overcast, misty day that carried into the night. I took this shot by bracing the camera against the railing, exposing for 2.1 seconds at F 4 and ISO 400, A priority, AF. I tried handholding but could not get a sharp image. The only edit is a small increase to exposure. Colors are from in camera white balance change. Again the sky’s highlights are quite marvelous, and even the lighting on the bridge did not blow out. Again, this image size was reduced to 20mp for web purposes.
January 8, 2023 (Horseneck Beach, Westport, MA)
23mm Lens, .3 ND and .3 Grad ND (Acros R Film Simulation) for Seascapes
I love going to this place. Harry Callahan shot some legendary images here. It was 35 degrees with no wind and brilliant sun, a wonderful afternoon. I asked the camera to shoot Raw and Super-fine, in Capture One all of the Raw images show up in Black and White. I’m not sure why. With this camera, blown highlights are a thing of the past. I must say this capability is quite miraculous. To top this off, there are gobs of detail in the shadows to play with. I did not edit these images much aside from dropping the highlights to preserve the cloud detail, and bringing up the shadows in some cases. On the day’s last image from Bristol Harbor, I applied a graduated filter to the sky in Capture One as an experiment, but the detail already there from dropping highlights out of the camera was simply enhanced more.
45mm Lens, Acros R Film Simulation, no filters
I finished the day at Westport Point where there are rickety shacks and a small fishing fleet.
And some color images from Westport Point. Color did appear in Lightroom. These are out of camera with minor drop of highlights. Sunny white balance. The color images show banding from web display. It does not exist in the original files. I have the shutter set up for Mechanical or Electronic and at ISO 400 at wider apertures, the electronic shutter kicked in nicely.
September 2023
Venice Florida
These images were shot with the marvelous Mitakon 65mm F 1.4 lens. It is a bit on the heavy side but still well balanced against the weighty GFX body. It is a joy to manually focus this lens. The focus peaking on the GFX is absolutely fantastic, allowing more confidence. The images are very crisp and have a filmic quality to them.
August 2023
Colt State Park, Bristol RI (Hasselblad adapter)
I shot this image with a Hasselblad 60mm lens and a Metabones Speedbooster adapter. The Speedbooster is a big chunk of metal and glass, quite an impressive thing. It apparently increases the maximum aperture of the lens. I can’t recall the settings on this image. Many enjoy fiddling with adapted lenses on the GFX. I had a bad time with a Novoflex Pentax 67 adapter, my beloved 105mm Takumar got stuck in it. I managed to get the lens off by taking the adapter apart. This was very disappointing. Novoflex support was responsive, but I just gave up the ghost because of the hassle of the company’s request for pictures of the adapter, return, etc. It was an expensive deal.
