Using the Amazing Fujifilm GFX100s For Wedding Photography

As a passionate wedding photographer with a bit of a background in Landscape photography, the idea of having, and primarily using a Medium Format camera has always been a bit of a pipe dream until finally laying hands on the new Fujifilm GFX100s. That being said though, as primarily a wedding photographer, Digital Medium Format cameras have typically not been the best tool to produce wedding photos – so hopefully this little hands-on insight makes it clear why I chose the GFX100s for wedding photography.

What is a Medium Format Camera?

The name ‘Medium Format’ comes from the days of film where there were a selection of different sized films for use in different cameras. Those of you old enough to remember using a Box Brownie in their family photography would remember the film size being much larger than what came next in consumer-grade photography in the standard 35mm film rolls.

Basically speaking, most consumer film cameras would use 35mm film, while professional photographer-grade cameras would be using larger medium format film, and a few might even use large format for some applications. There is a marvelous true-story film about a photographer battling this stereotype of pro-grade camera with Vogue magazine in We’ll Take Manhattan, made in 2012. A really interesting movie.

The larger the film used meant larger negatives of images, meaning more detail can be captured with cameras using medium format film – therefore in theory – making better overall images.

 

When considering digital cameras, the sensor where the device mimics the use of film to capture an image has until very recently been much smaller than what was available with traditional film – which is a center of any debate over which is better – film or digital photography.

Cheaper digital single lens reflex cameras, or ‘DSLRs’ tend to have a smaller sensor when compared to ‘pro-grade’ DSLRs who are said to have a ‘full frame’ sensor – which is really just the equivalent of 35mm film. I’m making a few generalisations here, but this makes things easier to illustrate a point.

So taking from this little photography history lesson – the majority of today’s photographers are using a format that was generally reserved for consumer photography – ie 35mm, or full frame format, and the only reason why medium format film fell out of favour was the technological limitations of digital imaging at the time.

 

Digital Medium Format Cameras are traditionally not great for Wedding Photography

Since the dawn of digital photography, digital medium format cameras have been developed and have been around for a while now – however have usually only been used in very niche areas that benefit from the high fidelity that such a format can produce due to a number of draw backs the relatively new technology comes with.

• Digital medium format cameras are slow

Up until now, medium format digital cameras have been notoriously slow when compared with their film-based counter parts, or in particular digital full frame cameras. This is due to a number of issues related to technology. The processing power required to process and capture an image using a medium format sensor is significantly more than a full frame sensor, also the method of capture using these larger sensors tends to slow things down to a point where these rather large cameras were relegated to photographic applications where one usually used a tripod for every shot.

One wouldn’t generally be taking a medium format digital camera to something that requires a quick camera – like sports, or events like weddings.

• Lens selection is not ideal

Another issue that comes with medium format cameras is the general nature of available lenses available. Medium format Lenses and even camera bodies for that matter are usually much larger than usual full-frame camera lenses, making lugging them around all day on a wedding day not an inviting prospect. It’s a big reason why mirrorless cameras have become so popular over the past few years being that they are so much lighter!

While talking about medium format lenses also, they tend to be quite a bit slower than full frame lenses. If you are a person without a photographic background you may not understand what the ‘speed’ of a lens means – basically it’s the amount of light that transits the lens and hits the image sensor. Medium format cameras often have to operate using a higher ISO sensitivity in low light situations to capture the same image as an equivalent full-frame camera – therefore having a reputation of producing too much noise in an image.

• Large file sizes

Digital medium format cameras tend to produce images at a resolution not really needed for wedding photography. Many people consider 24mp images ample for wedding photography, while I personally prefer larger images but it’s all a matter of preference. The reason why having too much resolution is an issue with wedding photography is the requirement for editing thousands of images in post production. The higher the resolution of images produced, the longer it will take based on the power of the computer doing the editing.

• Cost

Cost is also traditionally a huge factor in deciding not to go with a digital medium format camera with bodies often starting at $15k-$50k with lenses on top.

What’s different with the GFX100s for Wedding Photography

So if all these negative aspects of digital medium format are such an issue, why would you choose the GFX100s for wedding photography, considering it is a digital medium format camera? Well basically the GFX100s has attempted to address all of these pitfalls traditionally associated with digital medium format cameras.

• The GFX100s is rated at 5fps

First of all is the speed, my main work horse cameras throughout my wedding photography career has been the Nikon line up of full-frame DSLR cameras – the D700, D810 and D850. These cameras had 5, 5-7 and 7 frames per second continuous shooting speed respectively – making these cameras not super fast when compared to flagship DSLRS at 14fps or 30fps with mirrorless full-frame cameras, but I felt to be quite fast enough when in a situation like wedding photography.

The only reason why you would need a faster continuous shooting speed would be in high speed situations like sports.

Guess what the continuous shooting speed rating for the GFX100s is? 5fps. Now this is slower than my usual D850’s 7fps but still ample, particularly considering each image is a whopping 102 megapixel image! It’s just incredible it’s that fast! I had used digital medium format cameras in the past in the famed Pentax 645z which had a rating of 3fps and I found that overbearingly slow, but 5fps with the GFX100s for wedding photography is perfectly workable.

• ISO handling is amazing

As for lenses, I tend to use the venerable combination of a 24-70mm f2.8 lens on my main full-frame camera, and the 70-200 f2.8 lens on my second body when shooting a wedding, so when looking at lenses for the GFX100s for wedding photography I tried to match that combination as much as possible, purchasing the 32-64 f4 lens meaning that this lens was not as fast as my usual go-to lenses.

Thankfully the GFX100s, and many modern mirrorless cameras for that matter, handle high ISO ratings amazingly well, allowing for little to no noise in low light situations. in fact since swapping to the GFX100s for wedding photography, I’ve used my hot-shoe flash much less often that what I might have with my Nikons.

This may be due to the ability of mirrorless cameras allowing a preview of the shot I’m about to take through the viewfinder I don’t know, but all I know is that my habits in this regard have definitely changed and I’m not afraid to bump the ISO up as much as needed.

• Files are large, but not too large

This is probably the biggest issue for most when considering the GFX100s for wedding photography. As it packs a massive 102mp sensor, which is double that over the Sony Alpha1, and 3x the Nikon D850 which many professional wedding photographers swear by.

The fun thing is that when selecting a few options on the GFX100s, like reducing the bit depth to the lower 14bit (still huge) colour depth, and compressing the RAW files make the file sizes a quite reasonable 90-120mb and when compared to my Nikon D850 Raw sizes of 50-60mb that doesn’t seem too bad; particularly when you realise these settings don’t change much in image quality.

These file sizes are still larger of course which requires a beefier computer to handle them which may be a consideration for you – but for me the beefier computer in front of me the better!

• Not as expensive as you may expect

Ok, cost is a big one – so many people out there just hear the phrase ‘medium format’ and get scared off immediately, and for good reason! If you’re in the market for digital medium format cameras you cay find yourself looking at AUD$20-$60k for a lens and body setup which is the price of a car.

That said though, those of you in the market for a new camera may be looking at the mirrorless full frame options out there, which is fair enough – but look at the costs carefully, the cost of a Sony A9 II body is $7k with the popular 7s III is $6k. Then there are the Nikon’s 7z II for $5.5k or the Canon famous R6 for $4k. This is compared to the hefty $9k for the GFX100s.

So, sure if you’re only buying a body having a GFX100s for wedding photography is pricey, but go price the lenses! The medium format GFX range of lenses tend to be quite a bit less expensive than the equivalent full frame lenses available. When pricing up a Nikon 7z II setup I found that the total cost for me would be $12k, when a GFX100s setup was $13k. What’s an extra $1000 when you can have the incredible ability of medium format in your hand?

Why I chose the GFX100s for Wedding Photography

I was thrown into a bit of a situation earlier in the year with the untimely death of my main Nikon D850 camera body which I managed to drop into a waterfall while photographing a wedding in Hobart, Tasmania. Claiming the camera on my insurance meant that I had to replace my usual workhorse of my wedding photography with something new.

I had always been a Nikon fan, ever since purchasing my very first DSLR in the venerable D80 while living in Japan – so my first port of call was obviously either a new D850 or join the mirrorless trend with the newer Z7ii.

I had been resisting heading into the mirrorless world as shooting stills with a mirrorless camera always seemed ‘off’ to me having no physical ‘clunk’ of the mirror when taking photos. Whenever I was asked why I chose Nikon over Canon I would always cite the main reason as being the satisfying ‘clunk’ noise that Nikons made over their more electric sounding Canon counterparts.

I had attempted to use mirrorless cameras for still photography in the past heading to presentations and industry nights where professional photographers are given pieces of equipment to try out for themselves. Never enjoyed the process at all and I had attended nights run by both Nikon and Sony.

On the other hand I felt as though taking the obvious choice and opting to buy a new Nikon D850 was an opportunity to upgrade lost. By this I mean that I had a chance to try something new and something astonishing had caught my eye in the new Medium Format Fujifilm GFX100s for wedding photography.

I had become familiar with Fujifilm cameras as I use a couple of X-T3s as my primary video cameras for my wedding videography which I believed was the best application for mirrorless cameras, but the whole idea of having a Medium Format Camera really appealed to my inner tech-nerd so I looked into it further.