For years, medium format cameras have come with a fairly predictable list of compromises. Incredible image quality? Absolutely. Huge files, big bodies, expensive lenses and a camera bag that suddenly feels like it has bricks inside it? Usually that, too.
I have used plenty of these bodies over the years, from Phase One and Hasselblad cameras to even larger Sinar systems, and while each has impressed me in different ways, very few have ever made me think, “I would happily take this on vacation.”
The Fujifilm GFX100RF changes that conversation completely – and right now it is probably the medium format camera that excites me the most.
The reason is remarkably simple: Fujifilm has made medium format genuinely travel-friendly. The GFX100RF packages its enormous 102MP sensor into a fixed-lens body weighing around 735g, making it the smallest and lightest GFX camera Fujifilm has produced.
That distinction matters, because it no longer feels like a camera you reluctantly carry just because you need the resolution. It feels like something you could throw over your shoulder, walk around a city with all day, take through an airport or pack for a weekend away without questioning whether you really need to bring it.
Then there is the lens. Fujifilm has paired the GFX100RF with a fixed 35mm f/4 optic, giving you roughly the same field of view as a 28mm lens on a full-frame camera.
For me, that makes enormous sense. It is wide enough for landscapes, architecture, interiors and documentary photography, while remaining perfectly usable for environmental portraits, editorial assignments and general professional work.
It also makes the GFX100RF feel less like a specialist medium-format camera and more like an everyday photographic tool. This is a focal length that can comfortably document an entire journey without leaving you constantly wishing you had brought another lens.
What really gets me excited, though, is the way Fujifilm has embraced different aspect ratios. The dedicated aspect-ratio dial might sound like a relatively small feature next to a 102MP sensor, but creatively I think it is one of the most important things about this camera.
There are 9 formats available, but naturally it is the panoramic 65:24 option that grabs my attention. It gives you that wonderful XPan-like view of the world, transforming ordinary scenes into long, cinematic compositions and encouraging you to think about photographs completely differently.
Sample images
Better still, Fujifilm doesn't force photographers to commit to that crop permanently when shooting RAW. The selected aspect ratio can be embedded into the RAW file, and recognized by software like Lightroom and Capture One, but the complete sensor data remains there if you decide that you want the original frame back. That is incredibly useful.
I can compose deliberately in 65:24 while shooting, experience the photograph as a panoramic image through the camera, and still know that I have the full image available if an editor needs another crop or I simply change my mind when I get home. For documentary and professional photographers in particular, that flexibility is invaluable.
That is ultimately why I think the Fujifilm GFX100RF has changed the game for medium format. Fujifilm hasn't simply made another smaller GFX camera; it has challenged the idea of where a medium format camera belongs.
This isn't something that has to remain inside a studio, live on a tripod or emerge from a Pelican case when a commercial job demands 100 megapixels. It can be a travel camera, a documentary camera, a street camera and an everyday professional tool.
While I've enjoyed the Phase Ones, Hasselblads, Sinars and other serious medium-format systems over the years, the one I currently want to pick up and actually go somewhere with is the Fujifilm GFX100RF. And that, perhaps more than any specification on the box, is what makes it so exciting.
Shop Fujifilm GFX100RF
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