I’m full of admiration for Fujifilm’s latest medium format camera. The GFX100RF builds on the viral success of the APS-C X100VI to take its modern digital-retro roadmap to the next level. With its 100MP medium format sensor, analog controls, fixed 28mm equivalent lens and aspect ratio dial (I would love it for just that ALONE), this is a camera guaranteed to drive luxury camera fans and influencers wild. But amidst all this latest excitement, I do think an earlier model has been cruelly overlooked.
I’m talking about the GFX 50R, the ‘rangefinder’ version of the first pair of medium-format cameras launched by Fujifilm. I would like everyone to take another look at the GFX 50R and tell me that this is not just as beautiful and just as desirable as the GFX100RF. And, of course, you could swap lenses.
There’s something else. The GFX100RF does have a little whiff of fashion marketing about it, but the GFX 50R was just a beautiful no-nonsense design. It wasn’t especially small, and there weren’t any lenses to match the slimness of the semi-pancake prime on the GFX100RF, so it was a bulkier kit all round, but it handled like a dream. Well, I thought so at least, when I wrote my Fujifilm GFX 50R review for Digital Camera World. Since then, DCW’s editor James Artaius has asked, “Where’s the new Fujifilm GFX 50R – and why has Fujifilm phased out rangefinders?” and Calum Carter says, “The GFX 50R is almost my perfect camera – did Fujifilm quit on it too soon?“. It’s not just me.
To a degree, the new GFX100RF fills that gap, but it’s not really the same thing – just as the X100VI is not really a replacement for Fujifilm’s XE-series rangefinder-style models (also much missed).
The obvious argument for phasing out the GFX 50R would be that the sensor was old, the AF was slow and the video capabilities were weak. All true, and all – I would say – irrelevant. The 50MP sensor would still wipe the floor with rival full frame cameras for image quality, it was never designed as a quick-fire street or sports camera, and it was never pitched at film-makers or vloggers. And if Fujifilm really did want to address these shortcomings, it could have done it with a GFX 100R with the newer phase-detect AF sensor and 4K video capabilities – maybe even with IBIS, which the GFX100RF doesn’t have.
But I guess Fujifilm has just lost faith in interchangeable lens rangefinder-style cameras and decided to go for fixed-lens retro-rangefinders instead. To me, that’s a step sideways not a step forward.