Immaterial Intricacy - Brooklyn Bridge, New York - © Julia Anna Gospodarou 2017 manhattan skyline

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15 Comments

  1. Great review as always. Is the first image of Brooklyn bridge a small jpg image on here, as there seems something strange in the clouds on the left of the tall centre building and also above the tall right hand building. I’m only looking at a small image on my screen. I can’t see it on your gallery image. I must go to New York one day.

    How does the weight compare to the Canon 5DIII?

    1. Hi Barry. Thanks a lot. Not sure what you’re seeing on your screen, but over here the leading image looks good.
      The GFX is very close in dimensions and weight to the Canon 5DMKIII. Just slightly bigger and heavier but the difference is unnoticeable in practice. This is what makes is such a versatile camera.

  2. Hi Anna, Not sure whats happening, looks a bit like jaggies. I notice on some of your other images on here there are problems, on the last 4 images there is a wavy line above the hills, this is not on the RAW image or on your enlarged crops. Also the one with the Canon 17mm looks bad, the bridge columns are disappearing and there are artifacts in the cabling, this also is on image with Fuji lens but not so bad, it could be just the jpg size, think you need to save at 25% or 50% to avoid jaggies. Sorry just trying to help.
    Barry

    1. I think I know what you’re saying Barry. I can see it too today. But I’m not sure why it’s happening since the images look good on my hard drive and they are saved at 80% but here they look strange. I’ll have a look maybe there’s some plugin interfering. Thanks for letting me know.

  3. “Thanx” for a very interresting, deep and thoughtful review.

    I am about to invest in the Gfx system, but need a worksround for tilt shif photography..
    I have no Canon optics and are used to Sinar tec cameras.
    I still have a body (Sinar e) but no optics left over.
    This big boy is a bit to bulky to carry around, and allmost impossible to travel with outside a studio.

    As an alternative to the Canon Shift tilt Optics in your review, what are your ideas of not using Schneidler or Rodenstock optics (with great image circles) with a “type” smaller Cambo / Alpha / Linhof body…?

    With the best regards // E

    1. Hi Erik. I haven’t yet shot with the Schneider and the Rodenstock but you wouldn’t go wrong with any, from the impressions I’ve heard. Rodenstock seems to be more popular to replace the Canon TS for medium format but both Schneider and Rodenstock are made for large sensors (I think Schneider goes even larger than Rodenstock as for the size of the image circle) so they should give you even better quality than the Canon TS which is made for full frame. And the good thing is you can use them on different bodies, even on large format cameras like your Sinar for instance, if you want.

  4. Did you ever try using cooled cameras for your long exposures (like astrophotographers do)?
    Is you did, do they make a difference for your photography?
    Would a monochrome sensor be good for your Black and White photos?
    Cooled astrophotography cameras come in monochrome and with CFAs.

    1. Kenneth, I haven’t used cooled cameras for long exposure as this system is not very handy for my way of shooting – I’m moving quite a bit in the city and I try to keep my setup as simple as I can – but from what I know cooling the sensor can help with noise. However I couldn’t give you a hands-on impression at this moment. If I do it in practice I’ll surely get back with my impressions. As for monochrome, I prefer shooting in color because it gives me more freedom in post-processing when I convert to B&W and I can choose how a certain color is rendered. But some images can work if shot directly in monochrome too, especially when the color is not a defining element and you only need to work with the luminance of the image.

  5. Fascinating and very helpful article, with inspiring photos too! Thank you.

    Following your suggestions I’m very seriously considering buying the Formatt Hitech filter system and I have just one remaining question before pressing the “buy” button; do you think there’s much risk of vignetting with the Fujinon 23mm (18mm equivalent) lens?

    I know filter systems that mount the polariser on the front do vignette with this wide lens, but I’m hoping that the rear-mounted and very thin CP on this system overcomes the problem.

    Thanks for you fantastically detailed yet clear and enjoyable-to-read articles that cover so much useful and interesting stuff. Really very much appreciated.

    1. Hi Peter,
      I’m glad you found the review useful. Thank you.
      To answer your question, I’ve been working with the Formatt-Hitech filters on the GF 23 mm stacking up to two circular filters and I didn’t have an issue with vignetting. I haven’t stacked more than two filters because you don’t really need it, but it’s possible you can do it. So if you need to add a polarizing also most probably is not going to be an issue. I can totally recommend the Firecrest Ultra line and you can use my discount code JULIA10 at checkout to get a better deal since ND filters are not exactly inexpensive. Good luck and have fun shooting long exposure.

  6. Thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough article! I have heard Fuji has their own color look- did you notice this and/or it isn’t an issue when switching to BW.
    And is this now your go to camera?

    1. Hi Jacelyn. Happy to hear the article was useful.
      The Fujifilm GFX 50s is my main camera right now. I will probably get the GFX 100 for work where I need higher resolution more dynamic range but already the GFX50s is an amazing camera and it has covered everything I needed in a Medium format camera. The GFX and generally the medium format cameras do have a particular color style and I would say this is a quality. What I like very much is the depth of color. I’m talking got a bit more in detail about this in my extensive Fujifilm GFX 50S review here https://juliaannagospodarou.com/complete-fujifilm-gfx-50s-review/. You can have a look at it to get some more ideas. As for converting to B&W, I had no issue related to the color pattern and there are ways to control this. What you can do if you want to change the balance of color is you can use different color styles that are embedded in the RAW file when you process the image so you can get different tonal intensities and choose the one that works for what you have in mind.

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