FDTimes September-October Issue 122-123 goes live at 10:15am EDT. Go to www.fdtimes.com for more information on the new Fujifilm GFX100 II and more.
Fujifilm leapfrogged from APS-C cameras to Mirrorless Medium Format (completely bypassing Full Frame) at Photokina in September 2016 with the introduction of their 51.4 Megapixel GFX50S.
Stockholm, Sweden. September 12, 2023. Seven years later, Fujifilm launches their newly designed 102 Megapixel GFX 1000II. It has enough new features to astonish even the most laconic attendees at the Fujikina launch in Sweden, land of Garbo, Bergman, Easyrig, Ljud & Bildmedia, Saab, Smörgåsbord, ABBA and, it does not go unnoticed, Hasselblad.
The new GFX 100II is not much larger than a Full Frame camera. And there’s the challenge. Call it “Medium Format” and you might think its 8K, 4K, FHD multi-format 43.8 x 32.9mm sensor would be smaller than so-called “Large Format” 36 x 24mm Full Frame, once known as Leica Format.
I think we should call it “Larger Format,” as originally suggested off the record by a Fujifilm executive.
The IBC 2023 printer in Amsterdam, is on the phone. “Three hours until the presses roll,” he warns. With nine seconds more time to write than to watch Oppenheimer, here is a rapturous ode to this compact, comprehensive, cinematic camera achievement.
Larger Format Fujifilm GFX 100II comes with good timing on the recent successes of Larger Format Oppenheimer and Barbie, the former shot on analog Kodak horizontal 65mm film and the latter on digital ALEXA 65. There’s something magical about going larger—in both movies and stills.
The newly developed GFX 100II sensor measures 43.8mm wide x 32.9mm high (55mm diagonal). That is about 1.7 times larger than Full Frame.
Its Fujifilm G Mount has a flange focal depth of 26.7mm with an incredibly wide inside diameter around 64.5mm. That opens up a world of almost any cine lens on the planet, which is why Fujifilm calls the GFX 100II a multi-format cine camera. In the camera’s main menu, Image Format offers choices of GF, Premista (VV 46.3mm diagonal), 35mm Full Frame (43.19mm diagonal) and Anamorphic Full Frame squeezed (43.35mm diagonal)
Lens choices include at least 17 Fujifilm GF lenses, including the new 55mm F1.7R WR, 30mm F5.6 Tilt Shift and 100mm F5.6 Tilt Shift.
Attach a G Mount to LPL, PL or PV adapter, and the Larger Format world widens with more than 100 lenses that include ARRI 65mm series, Vintage 765, Leitz Thalia, Hawk 65 Anamorphic, ZEISS/Hasselblad, Whitepoint, Ottoblad, Panavision 65 and more.
Select Premista image format in the GFX Menu for more than 319 lenses, from Angenieux to ZEISS or 35mm FF format for at least 275 lenses.
Furthermore, you do not even have to abide by the GFX 100II sensor modes. Simply attach one of more than 489 Super35 or Standard 35mm lens models and crop in post.
To misquote Shakespeare, “The GFX 100II is your oyster” and the lenses you use will be its pearls.
