Fujifilm Kicks Off Photokina 2018

2018.09.25

Photokina 2018 is off to a fantastic start. Just a day ahead of the start of the conference is Germany, Fujifilm made a slew of Medium Format announcements.

First up is the most concrete announcement of the day, the Fujifilm GFX 50R is a rangefinder-style Medium-Format Digital Camera with the core pipeline from the GFX 50S reviewed here packed into a smaller, more compact and robust body. Like the GFX 50R, this new mirrorless camera is built around a 51 megapixels CMOS sensor with 0.8X crop-factor paired with an X-Processor Pro. This combination delivers 51 MP images 3 FPS and Full 1080p HD video.

The Fujifilm GFX 50R has huge 0.5" EVF with 3.7 Megapixels, 100% coverage and 0.77X magnification and an essential Eye-Start Sensor built right in. This professional-grade digital camera is fully weather-sealed and freezeproof down to -10C and is highly ergonomic. The body features dual control-dials, dedicated EC and Shutter-Speed dials, plus an 8-way joystick.

Although smaller, the GFX 50R manages to maintain the same 400 shot-per-charge battery-life of the GFX 50S. It also keeps the Dual SDXC UHS-II card slots and adds Bluetooth 4.1 LE to facilitate remote-control and image-transfer.

Fujifilm expects the GFX 50S to be widely available in November for a suggested price of $4500 USD or $5700 CAD. Pre-order yours right here from Adorama or B&H Photo. This ensures you will be among the first to receive this camera while helping support this site without spending a penny more than otherwise.

Emphasizing their continued emphasis and dedication to the GFX Medium Format platform, Fujifilm also showcased a preview of the next GFX 100S. This unique flagship Medium Format digital camera is expected to be the first such camera with built-in Image-Stabilization. Also the only such large sensor to offer built-in Phase-Detect AF. As its name suggests, the GFX 100S is being built around a new 102 megapixels CMOS sensor.

Three more GFX lenses were also added to the roadmap:

Fujinon GF 100-200mm F/5.6R LM OIS WR

Fujinon GF 45-100mm F/4R LM OIS WR

Fujinon GF 50mm F/2.5R WR

Designed to resolve over 100 megapixels, all these lenses will be both weatherproof and freezeproof. Pricing and availability were not announced yet, nor were any photos of the lens circulated, so stay tuned.

• Digital Camera