Fujifilm GFX100 II: Constipated Software with No Advances in Functionality
Related: Fujifilm, Fujifilm GFX100 II, Fujifilm medium format, Fujifilm mirrorless, medium format
Fujifilm GFX100 II | Fujifilm GF 30mm f/5.6 TS | Fujifilm GF 110mm f/5.6 TS | Fujifilm GF 55mm f/1.7 WR.
The Fujifilm GFX100 II will almost certainly show the same broken Focus BKT behavior as with the Fujifilm GFX100S/100. Or at least I give it low odds of a fix. And they’ve had 5 years to get it right.
I read the user manual for the GFX100 II today, and what thumped me between the eyes was the total lack of any new and useful software features. You get a few new and (useless to me) video features, but nothing new, no revised thinking, no improved design, no nothin'. Well, maybe I missed something but I am not seeing it.
Little things can make a big difference, and there are also missing features that ought to be there. Fujifilm has made NO PROGRESS WHATSOEVER on improving the firmware:
- Self-timer still restricted either 2 or 10 seconds. Why, when it is so trivial to allow more choices and so useful at times? Sometimes I need 3 seconds or 5 or 15 or 20. And where is the configurability for how many frames and the interval between them, as other cameras offer?
- Self-timer still cannot be canceled by pressing it again during countdown.
- Still cannot assign some functions to some buttons. For example, accessing IBIS on/off MAY NOT be assigned to the Q menu. There are many other abitrary and capricious restrictions that have no basis other than stupidity of design. 90% of the available choices are JUNK devoted to baking-in JPEG processing settings.
- No frame averaging support.
- No “maximum accuracy” AF mode eg CDAF not PDAF in magnified Live View. If Fujifilm marketing wants to masturbate over “surgical accuracy” I can’t stop them, but I want a camera that actually nails it every time for landscape. Maybe the GFX100 II will prove itself, but PDAF has always had shortcomings and how it can beat the GFX100S using the same technology that fails even in the center all too often... dunno.
- No multi-shot high-res mode as with Panasonic S1R or Leica SL2—still stuck with field-unusable pixel shift modes.
- What kind of professional camera ships set to JPG capture only?
- Stupid things like no built-in delay for pixel shift capture. You can actually press the shutter button and the damned thing will immediately start exposing, guaranteeing out-of-register frames.
- Auto-ETTR exposure mode which all cameras should have... but none do.
- Still the inertial coupling between RAW and JPEG: exposure should not be coupled to what the JPEG can tolerate based on the idiotic “18% gray” standard, but what the sensor can capture for maximum image quality.
- No focus shift compensation (other professional medium format cameras have it).
- Why can’t I shoot an aperture series automatically?
- etc
It’s amazing to me how constipated Fujifilm has become on its feature set.
There is no software/firmware innovation with the GFX100 II, there is not even the good sense to mimic useful features from other cameras. Well, at least the hardware is better, including a vastly improved EVF.
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