chiron
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 GFX100 II --- What do owners think? | |
Sharona wrote:
chiron wrote:
Rand47 wrote:
chiron wrote:
gdanmitchell wrote:
^^^
I'm sensing a bit of GAS...
I'm not saying that one would never use a GFX for photographing the kids, but I'm thinking that the non-professional (and even professional) situations in which such gear would make a difference with that subject are... limited.
I think you're being just a bit dismissive of the process of making photographs of one's family. Whether medium format is appropriate very much depends on the kind of image you are trying to make. Sally Mann used an 8X10 view camera for most of her family images. Some of Alfred Stieglitz's greatest images were large format images of his lover and wife, Georgia O'Keeffe. There are many other examples (e.g., Harry Callahan and Eleanor; Emmet Gowin, Edith, and their family), and there are also great examples of wonderful photographs of family members made with smaller format cameras, e.g., those made by Elliott Erwitt or by Jessica Harper.
Personally, I see a clear difference in image quality between small medium format and full frame, notably in the color and tone transitions and the overall smoothness of the image, as one might expect since the GFX sensor is about 70% larger than a full frame sensor. You give up something and you get something by using medium format. I love small and nimble full frame cameras, but I also have long appreciated the look of medium format.
Why should image quality matter more for a commercial photograph of a can of soup or a model's lips than for a photograph of one's child? Which will be looked at longer and more intensely by the audience for whom it is intended? Image quality is certainly not the only criterion by which to evaluate a photograph, but it can be an important criterion, depending on what the photographer wants. What is deeper or more important than family?
My own expectation is that in the coming years, Sony will be obliged to move into the medium format arena as this becomes more a focus of enthusiast photography. Fuji is ahead there. I'll be very interested to see what Sony can do with medium format and autofocus.
I have to disagree. I own two GFX (102 mp) cameras and almost all of the lenses available - so I’m definitely biased in favor of the system for the work I do. But, I also have a good friend who has 3 GFX bodies and a full compliment of lenses, and a Nikon Z9 and good compliment of the best Z lenses. I sometimes do file editing for him. And I sometimes make artist proof prints for him. I’ve made 24x36 portrait prints from the Z9 that are every bit as good as my GFX portrait prints. And the reason his portrait was shot on the Z9 (in this case) was that with the light and conditions the GFX just didn’t cut it.
For still life, landscape, and “some” handheld work, the GFX’s detail rendering is great and pretty much state of the art (with the exception of the IQ4 150 Phase back), but it’s suboptimal for anything moving much at all compared to the Z9. I’ve actually been surprised by this (and to be honest, a little grumpy).
Rand
Fair enough for your experience, and I appreciate your thoughtful response. But some of my favorite shots of my grandchildren were made with my GFX100S. And others were made with my A1. The A1 autofocus is of course way better. But the GFX, while it misses some shots, has the image quaoities of medium format.
And what do you say to Sally Mann or to Emmet Gowin?
I have no skin in the game, but how long do you suppose it takes Sally Mann to make just one of her images? This may not be the right kind of comparison.
I think it varies a lot. In her book, she describes the making of the photograph of her son Emmett with his hands resting on the water of a river in which he is standing. She used an 8X10 set on a tripod in the middle of the river. She had six film holders that held two sheet each. She would make two shots, then swim the holder to the shore and swim back with another. They made twelve shots a day and repeated this for seven or eight days until she got a shot she was satisfied with. So, seven or eight days before printing.
Would have been easier with an A1 or Z9 or whatever. Not the look she wanted. She did all this before she was well-known.
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