It's Cheaper But Is It As GOOD? - Fujifilm GFX50S II
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2022-05-05
·
2,212 words · ~11 min read
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- Today I have in front of me, a camera that is somewhat familiar,
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but also new. It is the Fuji GFX 50S Mark II.
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And it is a Mark II camera. But once I open this box,
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and if you guys have ever watched a Fuji video that I've ever done, you'll probably notice that this camera
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looks strangely similar to the last Fuji camera that I unboxed.
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Here's the camera. We'll look at it more in a second. Let's just see what else is in the box.
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Apparently, I am missing or USB-C cable and brick.
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So, imagine that that's in this box.
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We've got the standard medium format strap, which again,
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you've probably seen before, but it's a strap you probably won't use.
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I say that every time, but I never use these. And you shouldn't either.
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We've got some international plugs and,
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a battery! Just like if you watch the GFX 100S video,
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this camera uses the XT4 battery, the NP-W235.
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I love this battery. If you own an XT4, you probably have a bunch of these.
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And it works really well with this camera because the battery door is on the bottom,
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just like my 100S video. But this camera does have a completely different sensor
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from the 100S, and it's kind of targeted at a very different market,
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but we'll talk about that in a second. We also have Fuji's new 35 to 70
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F4.5 to 5.6. And this is the kit lens that ships with the camera.
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So the interesting thing about this camera is that the price of it is 3,999 for the body,
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so what I'm holding right here. If you get it with the lens,
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it is 4499, so it's a $4,500.
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So it's a $500 adder. And honestly, that's a really good value
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because this is a 35 to 70 lens. So that's a decent range.
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Yes, it's not a constant aperture, not the fanciest lens ever,
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but it is weather resistant. So if you're looking for a starter kit
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for medium format, to get your foot in the door, Fuji wants this to be as accessible as possible.
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And let's just figure out how they've priced this camera
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at that price point, because yes, you might be hearing 3 99 99,
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and thinking Brandon, $4,000 for a camera? That's still a lot of money.
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And yes, it is a lot of money. But don't forget the sensor's huge.
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And medium format is larger than full frame, which is the most common
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mirror less camera format that I see these days. Wow, this lens doesn't actually wave very much.
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It has that kind of kick kit lens pop out. So I think the classic 18 to 55 Canon
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also did something similar to this, but when you kind of zoom it out, it would just pop out,
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and you'd see this much of the barrel exposed.
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And I'm sure it's a design that makes a lot of sense in terms of like economics.
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And again, it's a very functional design.
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It's not the prettiest design. This is not a pretty lens,
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but very functional. Let's weigh this. About the caps?
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The lens weighs 0.85 pounds. How much of that, is that in grams?
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386 grams. Not bad. Not super light, not super heavy.
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And then the camera comes in at 900 grams. Exactly.
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So just under two pounds, pretty standard, like something like the 5D Mark IV
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from many, many years ago now, like a standard DSLR size.
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That's kinda what this feels like to me. And that's what the 100S felt like to me.
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Okay, I'm going to put this lens on, because I'm sure I'm giving you many of you anxiety.
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I'm just flailing the sensor around. - [Jono] How big is it?
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- How big is what? - [Jono] How big is the camera? - It's about the size of a DSLR.
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Oh! Ah!
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- [Jono] Bananas! - Jono has graciously given me
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the ShortCircuit banana for scale. So,
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(Jono laughs) if you want to see what a GFX 50S Mark II looks like,
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with a banana that is sort of ish to scale,
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it's like a Cyclops smiling from the top down. Okay, let's take a quick look at the physical body
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of this camera. If you watch my GFX 100S video, this body is exactly the same,
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but I will go through it nonetheless. On the top, we've got a manual aperture priority,
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shutter priority program, and then six custom buttons.
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Nice to see. We have the movie to still mode,
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one button snap, very nice.
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On off shutter. And then these control our views. So it goes from histogram
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to our normal settings view, with the exposure compensation,
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and then our virtual dial view. On the front we've got a command one dial,
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we've got the command two dial. And on the back of the camera, we've got a joystick for focus control,
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delete drive. They've actually removed,
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if you're used to other cameras like a Sony, or even other Fuji cameras,
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they've removed the directional buttons on the back. So this is just all for your finger,
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which you might like, in terms of like, finger placement and comfort.
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But personally, I think I'd actually still prefer to have
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another level of control here, even though the joystick is fine. You can get through pretty much every part of the menu
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with the joystick. It's just, I never always preferred to use the joysticks,
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cause I've gotten so used to over the years, just using control buttons.
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You might disagree. But for me, that's never been my favorite way
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to use a camera is a joystick. Menu button, display,
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and then playback for photos that you've taken. On the right of the camera,
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we've got dual SD card slots, and then a 2.5 mil remote port.
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And then on the left of the camera, this piece right here,
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where it says GFX 50S II, that is the only way
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you can tell this camera apart from a 100S. Obviously, besides using it.
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But like if you were standing two feet away, they look identical.
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So finishing off the ports, we've got a headphone jack, a mic jack,
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type C, micro HDMI, and a flash sync port.
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And then the display of course goes like this,
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or like this. Which is nice, but again,
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not my favorite flip out display that has ever existed. And then you also have a quick menu function button
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on the tiny little thumb rest right here. The quick button I have to still get used to it.
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I've only used the GFX cameras in a limited capacity,
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but I never actually found myself using the quick settings button on these cameras,
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just because it's kind of awkward, when you're holding the camera like this,
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have to let go of it a little bit and have your thumb go to here.
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Like cause you're holding the weight of your camera with your grip. Maybe if you have it in your other hand and you have this,
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then, then it's an easy movement. But if you're holding it with one hand,
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for whatever reason, maybe you're holding something else, or like holding something into the shot,
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or that kind of thing, then getting to the quick menu is not my favorite.
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Also I didn't mention this in my 100S video, but I did just notice,
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when you change ISO on this camera, you actually have to push the front command dial in,
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in order to get to the ISO settings. So if you look on the top of the camera here,
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you'll see that I'm now changing my ISO. And then I press in,
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and now I'm changing my aperture. I don't love that.
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At least first impressions, I don't love that. It might be the kind of thing that I would get used to.
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But to me, it's not that intuitive, especially when you open the camera for the first time.
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A small thing overall, but a quirk that I don't personally like with this camera.
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I commend Fuji on taking existing R and D that they've spent on designing a sensor and a camera body,
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and putting it together, delivering it at the lowest price point
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that they have ever. Because the upfront cost has already been recuperated
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with the other cameras they've released. So, okay, enough talk.
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The camera, you've seen it physically. We've talked about it. You've seen the lens.
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Okay, we're back. Let's take a look at these photos of Colton. Now a couple of them look like
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they've actually ended up out of focus, because I was trying to go in and out really quickly
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to see how well the auto-focus system could track. Some of them, I actually nailed it.
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But others came out a little bit soft, not a huge deal.
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Because again, this camera isn't really made for like fast motion.
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And if you're going to use it, you're probably using it for either
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something that is relatively still, or as a secondary where you can kind of
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nail that moment perfectly, instead of it being like, I need to capture this action every single time
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it happens consistently. But I mean, just like the 50S from before,
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the 51 megapixel sensor on this camera is excellent.
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And, for those of you who are pixel shift enthusiasts,
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this camera actually now has the 200 megapixel pixel shift mode,
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which allows you to use the in-body image stabilization
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to move itself, to gather more pixels and color data,
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and then stitch all of those photos and posts, giving you a much higher resolution,
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more detailed shot, than even your normal 51.4 megapixel shot.
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That does take quite a bit of horsepower. And it's not something that we can unfortunately show in this video,
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but here's a couple of other photos from this camera, and you guys can be the judge.
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What do you think? I mean, it is again the same sensor as the old camera.
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So, visually, besides the nostalgic negative profile,
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which I have to say, I really liked the nostalgic negative film simulation
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that they've added to this camera. I loved it on the 100S, and even though this camera's sensor
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is the same as the previous camera, it's,
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it feels like that new profile breeds new life into the sensor, as well as the slightly improved auto-focus.
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So first impression, honestly, I'd say Fuji has done a pretty good job with this camera.
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They've taken technology they already had in terms of R and D,
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put it together in a camera. Yes, it's $4,000, but $4,000 for a medium format camera of this caliber,
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especially as an entry level, guys, it's pretty good. Like there's nothing else on the market right now
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where you can get a medium format camera for less money. And this is probably a supplementary body to someone like,
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for someone like me who owns an XT4. If you can afford another $4,000,
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plus maybe 500 minimum for another lens, then this would make a great camera
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to go along with a fast camera, like something like the XT4,
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or even something like a Sony. If you want that higher resolution, higher detail image quality,
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would I buy one? Maybe. But I am not a hundred percent sure.
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I mean, I'm not a professional photographer ultimately. But as an enthusiast, this camera is pretty compelling.
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And if you're looking to get into medium format, you don't really have a cheaper option.
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And I would say this one's pretty good. So thank you guys for watching! And if you guys want more camera videos,
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let me know in the comments down below. If there's another camera that I haven't checked out, that you want me to check out,
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and subscribe to ShortCircuit. See you later! - [Camera Man] We know you want the 4d.
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- Yes, we know you want the Ronin 4d. We're working on it.
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We might get one, but no promises.