NEW! Fujifilm GFX 100RF

This is going to be one fun camera to shoot with! Yes, I’m starting out enthusiastically because to me, I predict that the combination of features, ergonomics and engaging tactile shooting experience, as well as image quality of course, would make this a camera I’d reach for time and time again if I wanted to head out and shoot, but also travel lightly with minimal gear and not sacrifice any image quality whatsoever. When I say “tactile shooting experience” I mean how the buttons, dials and control wheels feel when they are turned or activated. Solid yet smooth, with positive detents or clicks, which is what I loved about my Fujifilm X100V and made that such an enjoyable camera to pick up and shoot with. All of its controls just exuded a very high quality feel. While I haven’t yet handled the GFX 100RF as of this writing, I’d be very surprised if it didn’t exude the same sort of premium feel. So… let’s get to more details…

The Fujifilm GFX 100RF was announced on March 20, 2025 and will sell for $7,000. It is basically a “rangefinder” style, 100 megapixel medium format camera (hence the RF in the name) with an integral, compact 35mm f/4 lens (28mm equivalent in 35mm full-frame terms) and a leaf shutter allowing for high-speed flash sync up to 1/2000 second. It also has an electronic viewfinder offset to the top left of the camera (when viewed from the back), similar to the layout of the Leica M series, as well as Fujifilm’s own X100 series (now up to the VI or “six”), Fujifilm’s X-Pro series and also the X-E series. I personally still shoot with an X-Pro2 as a primary camera, and an infrared converted X-E2, and love how they handle. However unlike the X100 and X-Pro series, the GFX 100RF does not have the Hybrid Viewfinder, that is, the combination of switchable electronic viewfinder and optical viewfinder with an electronic overlay. While I love the Hybrid VF, in practice I do end up using the EVF option more than the optical option on my X-Pro2, and due to the nature of the additional optics and complexity of the Hybrid Viewfinder, so far the electronic viewfinder component has not been as good as EVF-only cameras like the X-T5, X-H series or GFX series. So the GFX 100RF is really more like an oversized X-E series camera, albeit with a fixed lens and a far better EVF! The GFX 100RF has a 5.76 million dot EVF with 0.84x magnification, which is basically on par with the larger GFX 100S II, and that EVF is very nice indeed.

In most ways, the image quality and performance will be very predictable, basically on par with the GFX 100S II. In addition, I’ve downloaded a number of full-resolution sample images that Fujifilm provided, and I was very impressed by the image quality of the 35mm lens, being essentially tack sharp into the corners even wide open. There were numerous night shots with stars, and even at f/4, they seemed pinpoint across the frame when they weren’t trailed for the longer exposures.

Where the GFX 100RF will differentiate itself from its larger interchangeable lens GFX cousins is the smaller size, weight and unique handling and additional tactile controls. There is a new mechanical aspect ratio dial which has a lot of options, and translated into traditional film sizes for fun, there is 1:1 square, 4×5, 6×7, 645 (full sensor aspect ratio), 35mm (3:2), 24×65 (TX-1/X-Pan) and even 6×17 panoramic, with others too, such as 16:9 for example. Shooting a raw+jpeg, you can select a 6×17 crop for example, and see that crop in the viewfinder to help with composition. You can choose to black out the area outside of the image entirely, show a grey transparent overlay, or just show framing lines. Bring the raw file into Adobe Lightroom, and it will be that chosen 6×17 crop, however if you select the crop tool, you will see the full raw file with the crop overlay, and you can then tweak the crop up or down to reframe, or even change to a different aspect ratio entirely since the full sensor data is still all there. I have used this feature with the menu selectable aspect ratios on other GFX bodies and it is a great creative feature for sure and really helps to visualize your compositions. Having those aspect ratios on a tactile mechanical dial will make using them even more compelling.

There is also an index finger operated digital teleconverter (zoom/crop) lever below the shutter release and scroll wheel, which will allow you to “zoom in” to the equivalent focal lengths of 45mm, 63mm and 80mm, or in 35mm full-frame terms, that would be 35mm, 50mm or 63mm. These virtual focal lengths, like the aspect ratio crops, can be reframed and changed entirely if you have shot a raw+jpeg image. Note that at this time, raw-only shooting will totally disable the aspect ratio dial unfortunately, and I do hope a future firmware update might change that.

Since the sensor is 100MP, even a fully “zoomed in” 80mm equivalent crop will give you a 20MP file and  that would still allow for a 30×40 inch print quite easily. Note that the full 11,648 pixel wide image file from a full width capture will allow for 8 foot wide prints (97″ at 120 ppi source) without any upsampling or fancy AI processing. I have numerous large prints here from 120-ish ppi originals from my smaller Fujifilm cameras, and they hold up to nose-to-the-print viewing. For example even 24×36 inch prints from my old 16MP Fujifilm X-E2 look great when viewed up close. Trust me; I have been making large digital prints for over 20 years now and a large inkjet print absolutely does not require a 300 ppi original file to look good, like so many people seem to insist. The one thing to watch out for is using the digital teleconverter at higher ISO settings. While the 100 megapixel sensor is very useable at high ISO, some of that is due to the fine-grained nature of a full sensor 100MP image. When you crop in fully and are left with a 20MP file for example, larger prints will have less megapixels of course, and thus the appearance of any high ISO noise will not be quite as smooth and innocuous as when using more of the sensor.

Included with the camera will be a filter adapter, a protective filter, a squared off lens hood as well as a premium strap. With wonderful tactile controls that more or less mirror those on the X100VI, a fantastic EVF, 100 megapixel image quality with tremendous dynamic range, a built in 4-stop ND filter, 20 different film simulation types as well as the aspect ratio dial and multiple virtual focal lengths, I predict the GFX 100RF is going to a wonderfully engaging camera to shoot with.

You can try one for yourself to see if I’m right! Borrow one to shoot with on April 13th, during a photo walk hosted by Beau Photo and Fujifilm. Have exclusive use of a camera for a 1 hour walk around Granville Island and discover all the possibilities this camera offers. For more information and to register, visit the Eventbrite registration page.