Class-leading autofocus, superlative image quality and highly effective noise control make the Fujifilm GFX100 II the medium format mirrorless camera that grabs attention
A mid all the talk about full-frame digital photography, we seem to have lost track of the fact that 35mm (36x24mm) film used to be called ‘small format,’ and medium format cameras accepted exactly the same film emulsions but with much larger frames.
In 2023, a medium format mirrorless camera such as the Fujifilm GFX100 II has a sensor that measures 43.8x32.9mm – that means its sensor is around 1.7x the size of a full-frame sensor, which brings many benefits. As the images from the GFX100 II consist of up to 11648x8736 pixels, they can make prints of just under an impressive 1 metre across (98.62x73.96cm, to be precise) at 300ppi. The camera’s huge pixel count gives plenty of scope for cropping without loss of detail but it’s not just about outputting images in the native 4:3 aspect ratio.
In fact, there are seven aspect ratios available incamera, so if you want to shoot in 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1, 65:24, 5:4, or 7:6 ratio, you can. Also, in the unlikely event that you need even larger images, there’s the option to create 400MP files using the 16-shot High-Resolution Multi-Shot mode. But that’s not all that the GFX100 II has up its sleeve.
BSI-CMOS sensor benefits
It’s not just the size and pixel count of a sensor that’s important, its design is pivotal too. The Fujifilm GFX100 II has a 102MP backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor, which means that each pixel is the largest it can be and has the maximum potential for gathering light. Lots of light means there’s a strong image signal, which is great news for noise control.
In addition, Fujifilm has given the GFX100 II a base sensitivity of ISO 80, which means that the native range is ISO 80-12,800 and there are expansion settings that take the range to ISO 40-102,400. And thanks to that large sensor, noise is kept under tight control.
Medium format cameras have tended to be slow, but thanks to the modern sensor design, paired with Fujifilm’s latest X Processor 5, the GFX100 II emphatically breaks out of this limitation, as it’s able to shoot 102MP images at up to 8fps (frames per second). What’s more, it can maintain that rate for 1,000+ JPEGs, 325 compressed raw, 302 lossless compressed raw or 76 uncompressed raw files.
Excellent AF
In addition, the Fujifilm GFX100 II has AI-based subject detection autofocusing with the same algorithms that are found in the superb APS-C format Fujifilm X-T5 and X-H2S. This means that as well as Face and Eye Detection, the camera can be set to Animal, Bird, Automobile, Motorcycle & Bike, Airplane and Train detection.
