Fujifilm unveils one of the wilderness cameras I’ve seen in a while, the 102MP medium form GFX100RF compact camera. Yes, you read the right thing – this is a carry-on street camera with a huge sensor and a fixed 35mm F4 lens (28mm full-frame equivalent) that can capture 11,648 x 8,736 photos. If that’s not enough, it has features that we rarely see on compact cameras, such as the built-in ND filter and a dedicated aspect ratio dial.
The GFX100RF uses the same 102MP CMOS II HS in-format sensor found on the GFX100 II mirrorless camera. As Fuji make fun of Last week, it could be considered as its popular high-resolution version x100 vi APS-C is compact. Although smaller than any other GFX camera, it is heavier than many all-round mirrorless cameras at 1.62 pounds (735 grams). For a premium feel, the camera is “from the single blocks of aluminum and lens rings, dials, bottom plates and other details all from aluminum, or from aluminum.”
Like the X100 VI, it is designed to be a street camera with shutter speed, exposure compensation and aperture setting that is quickly visible and adjustable. However, the GFX100RF has a new dial on the back that lets you choose from nine aspect ratios, including 7:6, 1:1:1:1, 3:4, 16:9:9, 17:6 and 65:24″XPAN“Widescreen ratios found on other GFX models.
It also has a remote switch selector/lever on the front of the camera that changes the focal length from the native 35mm, 45mm, 63mm and 80mm (35mm, 50mm, 50mm and 65mm full equivalent) with corresponding resolution losses. When using these modes, you can select a new “walking around” function to display areas within the image range as a translucent frame.
Fujifilm said that due to the eight-group configuration of 10 elements, including two non-spherical lenses, a fully important fixed lens can suppress spherical aberration and field curvature. It uses an optimized newly developed “Nano-GI” coating to suppress internal reflections, even at the edges. Despite the large size of the sensor, it focuses to 7.9 inches, giving some interesting high-resolution macropossibilities.
The shutter itself is a leaf rather than a focal plane type that reduces the size, and the GFX100RF is Fuji’s first GFX model with a built-in four-platform ND filter. This is a convenient feature that allows for bright light shooting on cameras in medium format, as it allows shutter speed to add motion blur or wider aperture to make the depth of field shallower.
The GFX100RF has an autofocus system similar to the GFX100 II, including AF prediction function and facial/eye AF, which can identify subjects such as animals, vehicles, birds and aircraft. The burst speed is a pretty decent 6 fps, and its mechanical shutter is a little slower than the GFX100S II at full resolution. It has 5.76 billion dot offset electronic viewfinders, such as one on the X100VI and a 3.1-inch 2-axis tilted 210 million dot rear display.
It can even shoot 4K 30fps 4:2:2 10-bit video (probably with some pixel bins), and Fujifu says it will provide up to 13+ dynamic range when using the Flog-2 setup. Additional features include SDXC UHS-II card slot, 20 built-in film simulation, SSD recording, microphone and headphone ports, and MicroHDMI connectors. One missing feature compared to X100VI is in vivo stability.
The GFX100RF may be highly appealing to the capabilities of street and travel photographers. It’s not cheap, at $4,900, but it’s less expensive than its main competition $6,660 Leica Q3while providing a larger sensor and 40 additional megapixels. When it arrives in late April 2025, it will be available in black or silver.
