10.27.2021

GFX50S II: "More than Full Frame" x Justine Milton

GFX50S II Impression

The GFX50S II is an incredible camera to use, the medium format sensor has all the desirable features for most portrait photographers. With the super shallow depth of field from a large sensor, paired with lenses like the GF80mmF1.7 you can create such dreamy images. The separation it provides from such a crisp subject to a beautifully blurry background is something I really admire in these cameras.

The 4:3 crop, which for me, coming from a film background is so so important. That way shooting digital I don’t have to crop in post, I can shoot in the format that I think in and that is such a relief. I also think its a much more flattering aspect ratio for most images! The grain structure that looks and feels more like film grain than digital noise. And with that, the high ISO capabilities are insanely amazing, barely any noise, and still super clean coloring!

GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

The incredibly crisp large sensor that allows me to crop from horizontal to vertical if I need to! (I hate to admit to doing that, I would love if you all thought I was a genius and shot everything perfectly, but the truth is sometimes in the moment you’re shooting and something happens quickly you want to capture that and you don’t always have time to think about the perfect composition in the moment, but with this censor…afterwards you can change that and still have a top quality image.)

Super cute moment that happened really quickly. Better composition thought of while editing.

  • GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

  • GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

I know editing can make a huge difference and go a long way, but bare with me here, coming from film where I don’t have to edit much, it’s not my strong suit. So the SOOC image coloring is very important to me. The GFX50S II has gorgeous coloring, both the RAWS and fuji’s jpeg’s with the film simulations. So much so, that the back of camera shots look so good I actually show them to clients without even thinking about it!

And the touch screen where I can pinch to zoom to check if eyes are open super quickly or if the focus is tack sharp is a huge bonus. I never thought of how convenient that could be but I use it ALLLL the time!

  • GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

And one thing that’s a huge bonus, is the buffer, not that I rapid fire a lot, but on my old DSLR when I would do that it would fill up the buffer pretty quickly. I’m not even using the fastest memory cards and I haven’t managed to fill up the buffer yet. Its shockingly large which is really nice.

GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

And while I could talk about just about everything I love about this camera, I’m sure it would begin to be like okay, okay, we get it, you like it… BUT the dynamic range, wayyy larger than every other mirrorless camera I’ve seen or edited images from this year. (and that’s at least 6 different ones) I can pull an image up but 3-4 full stops in LR (not that i mess up that often! But sometimes you gotta underexpose a lot) and it looks flawless, no added noise, no weird color shifting and it’s a beautiful image, like some of my best, not just passable or a “ahh let’s just put it in black and white and pretend that didn’t happen” legit some of my best!

GFX50S II & GF45mmF2.8 R WR

Okay last point I promise, the focus, while It’s not crazy fast like the GFX100S it’s more than adequate for like 99% of things I’m photographing. And I tested this out on toddlers, so might as well have been olympic sprinters. In all seriousness I had no issues nailing focus for fast moments when the kids did something cute!

  • GFX50S II & GF80mmF1.7 R WR

  • GFX50S II & GF80mmF1.7 R WR