Is this the camera the street photography world has been waiting for? Or is it just an overgrown X100?

Fujifilm kindly sent me a brand spanking new GFX100R to play with and I spent a few days putting it through its paces on the streets of London. Here are my thoughts - not a 'review' as such but just my experiences of using the camera in the real world.

The GFX100RF looks and feels like an overgrown X100VI and all the controls and the menu system feel reassuringly familiar. This seems to be an obvious decision by Fujifilm to implant the successful DNA fro the X100 range into a medium format body. And it works. The camera sits nicely in the hand and, for a medium format camera, it's surprisingly light and compact. The lens is very small, thanks to its maximum aperture of f/4, though with the filter adapter and lens hood attached it becomes much less pocketable (the filter ring and hood provide weather sealing - almost essential for street photographers).

Although light in weight (amazingly, for a medium format camera, it weighs in at just 735g), it feels chunky and well-built, although perhaps not to Leica standards (I mention Leica because there's an obvious parallel between this and the Leica Q3 - more on that later). The ergonomics are good, with the only niggle being the poorly-placed lever on the front which operates the digital zoom - I found myself accidentally nudging this all day long resulting in unwanted cropping.

Some reviewers have complained about the f/4 lens, pining for something faster. I accept that in low light a faster lens would be useful (for night shooting, for example) but most of what I shoot is at f/8 or f/11 so it wasn't a problem for me. Had Fujifilm gone for an f/2.8 or even f/2 lens, the resulting size and weight would have completely changed the characteristics and the whole ethos of this camera. So I get the f/4 rationale. Whatever the limitations, this is an incredibly sharp lens throughout the aperture range - perhaps overly sharp (if that's not an oxymoron).

The sensor produces amazing detail and lovely rich medium format depth - but I can't help feeling that 102mp is overkill; I still use an old 24mp camera and that provides more than enough resolution.

The elephant in the room is IBIS - or rather the lack of it. For me it's no problem: I have managed for 50 years without IBIS and I don't think my work has suffered as a result. I think IBIS is a 'nice to have' but far from being essential; the savings in size and weigh more than make up for it.

This camera has lots of features I won't mention because they're generally not of great interest to street photographers. Call me old-fashioned but I'm not massively interested in gimmicks like digital zooms, variable aspect ratios or film simulations - though I accept that the hipsters and Tik-Tokkers now require this stuff.

But is this a street photographers' camera? Possibly. One slight negative for me is that it feels a little slow in operation - nothing like the Hasselblad X2D - but slower than I would like. Also, as a habitual zone-focuser, I would want a much deeper zone than this lens offers - even at f/11. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed using the 100RF and it does produce lovely images. I could see myself using it for ‘slow street’ (fishing, maybe) or travel photography - but probably not as my everyday street camera.

Would I buy one? Again, possibly, but when you think the price point isn’t that far away from a Leica Q3, the Leica is unquestionably the better camera in many respects. It feels more solid in the hand and the F/1.7 Summilux is as close to perfection as you can get.

You can find all the technical specifications here.

Plus points:

Amazing detail from the sensor
Very sharp lens - (but perhaps too clinically so)
Light and compact
Feels solid, well built (certainly compared to the X100 range but much less so alongside a Leica)
Great for ‘slow street’ and documentary
Massive cropability
Very customisable - lots of function buttons
Lots of gimmicks
Battery life 820
2 card slots

Negatives: