Fujifilm GFX 50S II First Shots: Fuji’s 50MP version of the compact GFX 100S hits our testing lab!
posted Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 9:30 AM EDT
Click here to browse our Fujifilm GFX 50S II First Shots
Earlier this month, Fujifilm held their 2021 X Summit event and among the several products announced was a new addition to Fuji's growing GFX family of medium-format mirrorless cameras: the GFX 50S II. Back in 2019, Fujifilm launched the GFX 100, with a 102-megapixel sensor, IBIS and a large camera body with an integrated vertical grip. It was like a 1D-series camera meets medium-format sensor. It was big, and expensive, and was vastly different than the original 50MP GFX 50S. Fuji followed the GFX 100 with a more affordable, more portable offering: the GFX 100S. It kept the same high-res sensor but was packed into a smaller, lighter SLR-styled camera.
However, for those who don't need 102 megapixels -- let's be honest, those are large photos with some hefty filesizes -- or who want to jump into the world of medium format photography at a more budget-friendly price point, the new Fuji GFX 50S II answers that call. Ergonomically, you get the smaller, lighter GFX 100S body with the more manageable 51.4-megapixel large-format Bayer CMOS from the earlier GFX 50S and GFX 50R cameras. And you get in-body image stabilization, too -- something the other 50MP GFX cameras lacked. All in a camera body that costs $4000. Granted, that's still a lot of money, but in the world of medium format, that's a great price point!
We recently received our Fujifilm GFX 50S II review unit, and of course, the first stop is a trip to our testing lab for First Shots. Given the similar imaging sensor to the GFX 50S/50R cameras, it's no surprise that the 50S II features a similar ISO range. The native ISO range spans ISO 100-12,800, but it is expandable quite a bit; down to a Low ISO 50 and all the way up to ISO 102,400. As always, our First Shots series gives you the chance to see how the image quality performance stacks up across a camera's full ISO range. We have two series over on our Fuji GFX 50S II Samples Page, one with in-camera JPEG processing set to the default level of noise reduction processing (filenames with "NR5D") and another with NR processing at its most minimal ("NR1"). The GFX 50S II does not allow you to turn off NR processing completely.
See how the GFX 50S II looks across its full ISO range over on the Samples Page. And, as always, to see how this camera's image quality compares side-by-side with its competitors -- or any camera we've lab-tested over the years -- use our handy Comparometer tool.
