Using the GFX100RF at Berlinale 

A year ago, in Berlin, I wrote a post titled “Have the confidence”. The theme of the piece was “I know this festival. I know the layout. I know what kit I need, but I still brought more”.

Well, this year it’s different.

I am here with an X-H2 & 90mm, an X100 and GFX100RF.

Thats it!

Thats either (over) confidence or a huge risk. So how is it playing out? As of last night I had filed 1013 images, with the cameras used broken down below.

It’s been an interesting exercise.

The GFX has proved most versatile at the photocalls, enabling me to use the same camera to shot both very wide (its a 28mm) and crop down to a full length.

The crop below still ended up with a JPG that is 5000 by 4000 pixels

The bright lighting supplied by the festival means that the F4 lens is not an issue and most of the images are being shot around the 1000 ISO mark.

The eye tracking focus is accurate enough and fast enough in this environment, even when it does start to become a little “manic”.

Last year I requested my allocated position on the Red Carpet be moved from inside to outside so I could create something different to previous years.

This position is not front row and so, as the front row has a clean view of the carpet, there is no point of me trying to compete with their images, so I aim to capture something a little different.

Thats not to say however, that I am 100% confident in my choices. Every morning, when I look at what other photographers are posting, the straight “up and downs” with the use of flash, that I am not filled with self-doubt. However I have made the decision, packed accordingly, THIS is how I’m going to shoot this red-carpet!

Its in this environment the GFX is struggling a little. Being a wider lens than I would normally use, its not always picking up the main subject, and it can be a struggle to get it to focus on the closest object within the set focus zone.

The lighting is also more tricky on the carpet, leading not only to higher ISO’s but also difficult control of the colouring.

Yes I thought I would go all out at this premiere, fitting a Star Filter to the GFX. (The X100VI was producing clean wide/full length images).

Again the image size is plentiful to allow heavy cropping of the captured image (which I do within lightroom as its far more flexible than using the digital zoom).

One thing I have found it exiftool (a component used by the LR/Mogrify 2   Plug-in I use to export resized images with borders) seems to struggle with images over 10000 pixels, with an intermediate export to a smaller size seeming to be the only work around).

I am half way through my time here with another 4 days to go.

I do know that there are times when I have had the GFX in my hand I have missed the image, but I am not sure I would have got it with anything but a super fast camera which goes against the whole point of me using the GFX to slow down and think more about the images I (try to) make.

I guess I will have a full conclusion at the end of the 8 days shooting. I can tot up what I manage to get publised whilst I am here and compare it to last year. That said, there are a lot of factors which effect how much is seen so it won’t really be a measure of if this year’s strategy worked.

The Thursday post will probably be a slideshow of all the images so far, from all the cameras.

Let me know your thoughts on my work here so far with this (mighty) camera.

J