articles/Review/fujigfx50s-page1
by Tom Lee Published 01/04/2017
Sometimes when you look at new gear and all the publicity and hype around says it’s ‘a game changer’, ‘knocks spots off the competition’ or ‘it’s the best thing since sliced bread!’, you tend to feel you’ve heard it all before, get a bit blasé and gloss over it saying – ‘yeah right’.
With a raft of mirrorless cameras currently available, it's the last leap of faith by photographers and we were surprised at the quality and results from a smaller and more lightweight camera, so much so that they are now becoming regular additions to many wedding photographer’s kit bag. Some photographers have replaced their full-frame DSLRs altogether. I am one such convert, recently replacing my Nikon D4 and its remaining stable for the Fuji XT2 mirrorless system. I can quite happily get 30” prints of my landscapes and wildlife images without much problem and rarely feel the need for a better quality image capture.
Enter the new Fuji GFX 50S medium-format beastie. At just under £6,200 for the body alone, it’s a more substantial investment than the XT2 and if all you need to produce are 10”x8” desktop prints, then it’s probably not for you. So why even consider it?
It all started when I read through the review material carried out on beta models, and I tried to get hold of one (just because I'm nosey), to see if the hype was even half true. This was my first problem – they’re like hen’s teeth. Either the hype was all based on technical material (and they haven’t even gone into production yet), or they were actually that good. I expected that most of them would have gone to Fuji ‘X’ photographers first, but the scale of independent reviews all saying great things got me curious…..
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