Disclaimer: the EOS R pictured was rented from Eco-Rise, in Japan. The GFX50s is mine. The Cambo is mine. The lens pictured is mine. Each was purchased individually through distributors or via auction. I’m not sponsored by Fujifilm, Leica, or Canon.
Relevant links:
10 things Fujifilm should change for the Fujifilm X-H2
Leica SL: 7 things that should change for the SL2
Cambo Actus GFX part 1 - camera movements
Fujifilm X H1 VS Leica SL Part 1 - basic handling
Fujifilm X-H1 VS Leica SL Part 2 - gloves
Yes, what you see above lacks saturation, contrast, dynamic range, and is soft at near the front of the lens. I didn’t tilt the Cambo ACTUS GFX far enough forward. You see, I had intended just to take a few test shots, after which I’d cull the bad ones, save the profiles and shoot proper ones tomorrow, where focus, file quality, WB and more would be carefully set. But then family matters erupted.
Tomorrow the EOS R goes back to the Eco-Rise. It is now 2:00 AM. I don’t have time to finish the shoot. I’ve got other stuff to do, like making a video of the EOS R attaching to the Cambo ACTUS with a special adapter, getting my wife off to Hokkaido, and a bunch of packing.
So, the above image, which was intended to be a guideline, is now the main frontal in an upcoming riot of Canon EOS R content. (By the way, the EOS R is a polished camera, whose AF is as fast as can be, but whose between-frame updates are the devil. I love it. I hate it. I wish it had the X-T3’s processors inside.)
What guts me most about the above image is the following litany of problems:
Hot areas (of which there are many in this image), are now permanent.
White balance was different from frame to frame.
Blacks are basically squished.
I haven’t a composite table to help recover sharpness or colour from certain parts of the image.
As a result, the image is soft, lacks both bite and texture in the highlights, is squished, and isn’t that dynamic.
And yet, I’m impressed. When I discovered that I’d shot with JPEG instead of RAW, I was gutted. Fujifilm’s JPEGs aren’t perfect but they are heads and shoulders above Leica’s, Canon’s, and Nikon’s. They are my favourite thing about any Fujifilm camera. That statement said, I had no idea there was even a S.FINE setting. The image above is merely FINE. When barely pushed in post, grain shows up a lot sooner than in RAW files, and colours are splotchy, but, even bereft RAW data, it is do-able. In an absolute pinch, I could use an image like this in a demanding magazine shoot. Obviously, I’d have to do something about the hot spots. There would be very little I could do if instead of the GFX50s I had captured the image with the Leica SL.
In a couple of weeks I’ll finish my EOS R series of articles and videos. This image will show up. It’s far from perfect. But, because Fujifilm’s JPEG engine is so good, I’m confident that it will be one of the better EOS R images out there on the internet.