Episode 412: Why Not Go Larger Than Full Frame?

Show Notes

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 412 for Thursday July 18th, 2024. In today’s episode I am posing the question, “If Upgrading Your Camera System, Why Not Go Larger Than Full Frame?”

In the early days of photography we started out with the daguerreotype cameras, which were very large, slow cameras that used a plate system to make images. In those days if you wanted to do a portrait your subjects had to be able to sit still for long periods of time.

Of course, over time technology evolved and we got the Kodak Brownie camera with 35mm film. Later we had DSLRs with no film, all images captured to floppy discs and then later memory cards. Today we have Mirrorless cameras that have done away with the mirror and the bulk and we have faster, better glass.

Throughout the evolution cameras became faster, smaller and easier to carry, however you may not know that they are not the only cameras out there. Ansel Adam shot a lot of his amazing images with a large format camera in 8 x 10 or Medium Format in 6 x 7 sizes.

A lot of people believe that these larger cameras have gone the way of the dinosaurs as they don’t see them anymore, but they would be wrong. There are companies that still make modern Medium Format cameras, however they are not truly Medium Format as they are not 6 x 7 cameras. The modern Mirrorless Medium Format cameras are generally using a sensor that is 44 mm x 33 mm in size compared to 35mm full frame cameras which use a sensor that is 36mm x 24mm in size.

When you look at a company that has been doing large cameras for a long time, like Hasselblad they offer two different sensor sizes. Their “H” series such as the H6D-100C have an even larger 53mm x 40mm medium format sensor, but their portable Medium Format cameras such as their X1D or X2D still use the same 44mm x 33mm sensor as Fujifilm’s GFX system.

Phase One like Hasselblad makes only Medium Format cameras and they use the same size 53mm x 40mm sensor as well making them comparable to Hasselblad in image size and quality, it only comes down to each company’s technology in their camera backs and lenses, but when you want some of the very best images possible these systems deliver, but at a hefty price tag of up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and several thousand dollars per lens as well!

However along comes Fujifilm with their new GFX system of cameras and lenses offering competition in the Medium Format arena. Fujifilm unveiled their GFX system in 2016 with the original GFX 50S and then later released their original GFX 100 camera as well.  The GFX 50S sold new for $6,000 and the flagship GFX 100 sold for $10,000 which is no small sum of money but considerably cheaper than $50-$100,000 for the other two camera systems.

Medium Format cameras are known for their awesome image quality and high resolution sensors but they have the drawback of being slow systems where you need to take your time to compose and capture images. As I have mentioned before on this show, I personally own the GFX 50R which is Fujifilm’s range finder style Medium Format body and I totally LOVE it with one small quark and that is the much slower Contrast Detect AutoFocus system compared to the Phase Detect AutoFocus system in their 102 Mega Pixel GFX 100 series bodies.

Now Fujifilm has had tremendous success with their GFX series of cameras, selling many camera bodies and lenses but many people are still turned off because of the slower workflow with the Medium Format cameras only have very low frame per second rates for shooting continuous. Many photographers even though they want the image quality of Medium Format they are not willing to put up with the slower workflow especially if they also shoot sports.

In September of 2023 Fujifilm decided to turn the camera world on it’s head again by releasing the GFX 100II which is capable of 8 frames per second with its mechanical shutter and 5 frames per second with its electronic shutter. Another thing that Fujifilm did to up their game is they added video up to 8K, which is unheard of in Medium Format cameras. And even though the GFX 100II is the successor to the original GFX 100 flagship body, it has a lower price tag at $7,500 compared to $10,000 for the original GFX 100.

Now with the release of the Fujifilm GFX 100II unless you really need the “spray and pray” speed of 20-30 frames per second, you can get your hands on a very high resolution camera that is also fast enough to shoot sports and Fujifilm even has some ultra fast lenses with apertures of F/1.7!

But why am I sharing all this information about the Fujifilm GFX series camera systems? Because if you are looking to upgrade your camera gear from DSLR to Mirrorless why bother with full frame when for the same money you can now get a much better, higher resolution system that can do any type of photography from landscapes to portraits and weddings to sports as well!

You are sitting there thinking “Why would I spend $7,500 on the GFX 100II when I can buy a Sony A1 for the same price?” You are right about the pricing being the same, but the Fujifilm has a much larger 102 MegaPixel sensor compared to the Sony A1’s 50 MegaPixel sensor. When you need the very best image quality why would you settle for full frame when Fujifilm Medium Format can give you so much more? Additionally the Fujifilm GF mount lenses don’t cost any more than the Sony G Master lenses and again you are getting much more resolving power with the Fujifilm lenses.

If you are someone who is still shooting DSLR and there’s no shame if you are and you will need to buy new lenses anyways, why not make the switch to the Fujifilm GFX series? You will gain far more in image quality than you will ever get with full frame and you can really blow your clients minds with the finished images you can make for them with this Medium Format system.

I know I just spent the first half of of this episode I have been telling you to look into switching from full frame to Fujifilm Medium Format, but as I was writing these show notes, Canon officially announced their EOS R1 flagship mirrorless body along side it’s new EOS R5 II at 6am Eastern time this morning, so let’s take a look at the EOS R1 now.

Canon’s new flagship EOS R1 has been officially announced and will be on hand for the Paris Summer Olympics and let’s take a look at the specs for this new camera.

The EOS R1 has a 24.2 MegaPixel full frame sensor that is Back Side Illuminated as well as being a stacked sensor like the current EOS R3 and it also features IBIS with a combined total of 8.5 stops when used with IS lenses.

The DIGIC X processor is being paired with Canon’s new DIGIC Accelerator to seriously improve performance for AutoFocus along with their proven Dual Pixel AF system with Action Priority. With this new system the camera is capable of identifying the subject when shooting sports such as soccer and if the ball is passed from one player to another the autofocus follows the ball to the new player automatically!

This new capability makes the AutoFocus system in the EOS R1 light years ahead of anything Sony or Nikon has on the market and I watched the video from B&H today where they demonstrated the AF system while shooting sports. With this AF system the camera will also give priority to your intended subject so that even if someone moves in front of the subject the AF box will stay on your subject and not just hunt around which is seriously impressive!

A lot of people speculated that Canon would use a 36 or even 50 MegaPixel sensor to compete with Sony and Nikon but I knew they would stick with 24 MegaPixels, not because I have any inside knowledge but because I know Canon and how they do things. Although the sensor is 24.2 MegaPixels thanks to their new DIGIC Accelerator the camera is able to upsample JPEGS in camera from 24 MegaPixels to 96 MegaPixels, which is very impressive.

In addition to their upsampling they also have a Neural engine in camera that allows the camera to do its own noise reduction similar to what you would get from Topaz Labs AI Noise remover so shooting high ISO is no longer a problem in most shooting scenarios.

For video specs the EOS R1 can shoot 6K 60p video along with 4K at 120p as well as 1080p at up to 240p and it can do 12-bit internal video and save to its dual CFExpress B cards which is a fantastic upgrade. For stills the camera allows you to shoot up to 40fps with 20fps of pre-shooting when you half-press the shutter. Speaking of the shutter, you can even customize what the half-press of the shutter does. The electronic shutter can shoot up to 1/64000 sec. The electronic first curtain can shoot up to 1/8000 sec and the Mechanical shutter can also do 1/8000 sec.

The EVF in the EOS R1 is a beautiful 9.44 million dot with OVF simulation and View Assist. Just like the EOS R3 the new EOS R1 also has built in Eye AutoFocus where you can control the movement of the focus points with your eye after training the system and it can be programmed for use with multiple eyes if you have a team of shooters using the same camera.

ISO sensitivity, the camera can natively go from ISO 100 to 102,400 super snow storm and can be expanded to ISO 50 to 409,600 Mega snow storm but I would be leery unless the Neural engine can really clean up the images.

For ports the EOS R1 has the normal 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks as well as USB-C for charging and data transfer and a full size HDMI port as well as built in LAN port for network connectivity and tethered shooting.

There is the familiar LP-E19 battery that is used in the EOS R3 and you can also buy an optional battery grip as well to hold two of those batteries for some serious shoot time when out in the field shooting professional sports. I think the one other thing that impressed me the most in addition to all the new technology is that Canon prices the EOS R1 at $6,300 which is $200 cheaper than Sony’s A1 flagship camera.

If you are a professional sports shooter for the Olympics, NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL or NASCAR and you have been waiting to make the jump from Canon DLSR to Mirrorless now is the time to pull that trigger as this camera is on pre-order now!

Check out all the awesome stuff at Moment for your photography/videography needs!

https://partner.shopmoment.com/4PDeVG

Save on your orders for SmallRig gear

https://smallrig.com/r/TP7FQU

If you'd like to pick up your own HOVERAIR XR Drone use the following link

https://thehover.com/products/hoverair-x1-self-flying-camera-combo

and code XMHOVER to save $20

Get your own discount on VITURE XR One glasses, Neckband, Switch Dock and more!

https://shop.viture.com/?ref=LiamPhoto

Check out the latest deals at OWC (Other World Computing) for all your Apple/Mac needs.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/specials/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cj

Get low cost SSLs for your sites here.

https://ssls.sjv.io/eKgZQr 

Sign up for VidIQ using the following link:

https://vidiq.com/liamphotoatl

Check out my ThinkTank Affiliate link. When you buy using this link you help the channel, pay nothing extra and can even get a free item!

https://bit.ly/3ZmKqju

I now have my own discount code for my Subscribers and Podcast audience at http://www.platypod.com use my code WD20 to get 20% off on any Platypod branded items, excluding bundles which are already discounted by 20% or more. One user per customer.

I also have an affiliate code for Dehancer Film profiles at http://www.dehancer.com and use code LDPHOTO

Check out the awesome gear Ulanzi has for photographers and Content Creators!

https://www.ulanzi.com?aff=1002

You can buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/liamphotoaf

Also be sure to join the Liam Photography Podcast Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/liamphotographypodcast/ You can reach the show by call or text @ 470-294-8191 to leave a comment or request a topic or guest for the show. Additionally you can email the show @ liam@liamphotographypodcast.com and find the show notes at http://www.liamphotographypodcast.com.

You can find my work @ https://www.liamphotography.net and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @liamphotoatl. If you like abandoned buildings and history, you can find my project @ http://www.forgottenpiecesofgeorgia.com. and http://www.forgottenpiecesofpennsylvania.com.

Please also stop by my Youtube channels Liam Photography

Forgotten Pieces of Georgia Project

Forgotten Pieces of Pennsylvania Project