Iron Creek Photography®: Catching up on the Fujifilm GFX50s

Fujifilm GFX50s, Mamiya 200APO
1/3200 ISO 400

Before we begin speaking directly about the Fujifilm GFX50s we'd like to introduce a great camera store.

Foto Care is located in New York on 41-43 West 22^nd Street. Foto Care has been on our radar for some time however we’ve only recently begun shopping there and more importantly recommending them. There are a few things (actually more than just a “few”) we like about Foto Care. First, our colleague Anthony Festa works there. Anthony is a great photographer as well as being a highly skilled technician; he’s our go to guy for anything we screw up on our cameras or software.

The second reason for liking Foto Care as much as we do is their diversification of products offered. From cameras of all types, to tripods, bags, storage,and of course service. While Sandy still prefers to shoot with a 35mm camera Don prefers medium format and Foto Care can offer Don a choice of platforms ranging from Fujifilm, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Leaf, and Phase One. For 35mm shooters the offering is just as wide with selections ranging from Canon to Nikon, Fujifilm and Leica.

You can visit Foto Cares website by clicking here or follow them on Facebook by clicking here. Neither of us are employed by or are affiliated to Foto Care in any way. We neither receive payment nor other compensation and are recommending them as we feel they are an excellent source for camera gear.

1/400 ISO 160

We plan on writing more on Foto Care soon. In the meantime…

We recently visited the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. The primary purpose was for Sandy to test her new FE100-400 with her Sony A7rII. (we’ll be sharing this soon). Don decided to use the Mamiya 200 AP attached to the GFX 50s via a Fotodiox pro lens mount adaptor. The 200mm is currently his longest available lens and he is very patiently waiting for the Fujifilm GF 250 to be released. Okay maybe not so patiently. Don has cut his emails down to once a month to Anthony on this subject. Don’s biggest fear is that it’ll be released in June while we are in Scotland and he’ll have to wait until we return to try it out.

1/400 ISO 160

The above image shows the full-frame version while the bottom is a 100% crop. This as well as all the other images in this blog were captured handheld. The processing was all accomplished in Adobe ACR and Photoshop CC. I’d like to point out that the amount of processing was kept at a minimum and in all cases I used “Shake Reduction” either at 100% or 50% depending on the file.

Full-frame 1/3200 ISO 200

100% crop

The Mamiya 200 APO was kept attached to the camera the entire time in the zoo and shot without the extender. While Don could have used the 1.4 extender on some occasions he found the resolution to be more than good enough to allow for cropping in. Since he was shooting animals, most of which were moving Don decided to do a continuous capture (or burst mode) thus allowing to take several frames at a time. There’s a trade off with this type of shooting which is volume. Don keeps 2-64-BG cards in both slots at all times; ending up using 1-entire card before it automatically switched to the second for a total of 566-frames. Don hadn’t done that much shooting since we were in Alaska several years ago shooting bald eagles as they were feeding.

1/400 ISO 250

1/400 ISO 640

Don found the overall weight of the camera and lens to be more than manageable while walking around the zoo for several hours and miles. This is something Don would not have attempted with his older medium format kit as it was much heavier and slower.

Yes, its a crop!

1/4000 ISO 800

As is this one

1/400 ISO 800

While Don carried a spare battery he never had to change. Beginning the day with a freshly charged battery that showed 4-bars on the indicator; he ended the day with the same battery showing 3-bars. It was a pleasant day with partly cloudy and temps in the mid 60’s.

1/640 ISO 400

1/500 ISO 200

We had a lot of fun photographing at the zoo and are looking forward to our trip to San Diego later this year hopefully after Don gets his Fuji GF 250.

It was an interesting exercise as the range of movement was either glacier slow or very fast. The Mamiya 200 APO is a great lens to use as it is totally manual from the aperture to the focusing. Don is still excited about being able to capture with a longer lens that offers the choice of auto-focus.

Capturing this guy was more luck than anything else. Don is still uncertain if he was posing or just showing off.