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Fuji GFX 50S Performance


Timing and Performance

Mixed performance for its class.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot
~1.3 seconds

Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.

Play to Record,
first shot
~1.3 seconds

Time until first shot is captured.

Powerup to first shot was sluggish compared to most DSLRs, but not bad for a mirrorless camera. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot took the same amount of time, which is quite slow, requiring one shutter press to get out of review mode and another to take the shot.


Shutter Response (Lag Time)
(Default Electronic First Curtain Shutter Mode)

Full Autofocus,
Single-point AF
0.476 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting. (All timing performed with the Fujinon GF 63mm f/2.8R WR lens.)

Manual Focus
0.270 second

For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".

Prefocused
0.108 second

Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The shutter lag numbers above measure time from shutter button press to image capture, with the lens already set to the correct focus distance. This largely removes the issue of differences in lens focusing speed, and measures how fast the camera can measure and act on focus information. In this metric, the Fuji GFX was on the slow side for a modern camera, even for one relying on contrast-detect AF. The Fuji GFX 50S' full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) was 0.476 second in Single-point (center) AF-S mode. That was with the 50S' Rapid AF option set to Off. With Rapid AF set to On, the measured lag time actually increased slightly to 0.481 second, but that's an insignificant difference. By comparison, most mirrorless cameras test at below 0.25 second these days, and the Pentax 645Z's phase-detect AF lag tested about 3 times faster at 0.158 second.

When manually focused, the Fuji GFX 50S' shutter lag time dropped to 0.270 second, which while faster than autofocus, is a bit slow for manual focus lag. Interestingly, enabling Rapid AF significantly improved manual focus lag to 0.111 second, pretty close to the 645Z's 0.117 second result.

The Fuji GFX 50S' prefocused shutter lag of 0.108 second is a bit faster than the 645Z's 0.112 second, but that's slower than most cameras. The Fuji's Rapid AF setting made no difference here.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.


Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Super Fine JPEG
1.0 second

Time per shot, averaged over a few frames (we no longer test for buffer depths in single-shot mode).

Single Shot mode
RAW + LSF JPEG
1.0 second

Time per shot, averaged over a few frames (we no longer test for buffer depths in single-shot mode).

Early shutter
penalty?
No

Some cameras refuse to snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.

Continuous mode
Large Super Fine JPEG
0.33 second
(2.99 fps);
40 frames total;
3 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 40 frames, then slows to an average of 0.57s or 1.75 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous mode
Lossless Compressed RAW
0.34 second
(2.97 fps);
21 frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 21 frames, then slows to an average of 0.57s or 1.75 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous mode
Lossless RAW + LSF JPEG

0.34 second
(2.97 fps);
11 frames total;
5 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 11 frames, then slows to an average of 0.62s or 1.62 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous mode
Uncompressed RAW
0.33 second
(2.99 fps);
8 frames total;
6 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 8 frames, then slows to an average of 0.62s or 1.61 fps when buffer is full.

Continuous mode
Uncompressed RAW + LSF JPEG

0.33 second
(2.99 fps);
8 frames total;
8 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 8 frames, then slows to an average of 0.62s or 1.63 fps when buffer is full.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a 64GB Lexar Pro 2000x UHS-II SDXC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle time was one second when shooting Large Super Fine JPEGs or RAW+ Large Super Fine JPEG files. This is sluggish compared to most ILCs and DSLRs. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.)

The Fuji GFX 50S' Continuous mode speed is rated at 3.0 fps, and our lab results confirmed that. That's slow by today's standards, but on par with the 3-year-old Pentax 645Z DSLR which uses a similar sensor.

Buffer depths were fairly good in Continuous mode when shooting best quality JPEGs. We managed 40 frames before the camera slowed down, and that's with a difficult to compress target. (You may be able to do better with typical scenes.) When shooting lossless compressed RAW or RAW+JPEG files, buffer depths decreased to 21 and 11 frames respectively which isn't bad, but when shooting uncompressed RAW files, the buffer depth dropped to only 8 frames.

Buffer clearing times were quite fast with our fast UHS-II card, taking between 2 and 8 seconds to clear after a max-length burst depending on the file type. The GFX allows you to change settings while the buffer is clearing, however you cannot view just-shot images until after they are written to the card.



Bottom line, the Fuji GFX 50S' overall performance is sedate by modern standards, although it was never intended to be a sports camera. Power-up time, mode switching, autofocus speed, shutter lag and single-shot cycle times are all slower than most ILCs, but not bad considering the class. The 3 frames-per-second burst mode isn't what anyone would call quick these days, but buffer depths when shooting JPEGs or lossless compressed RAW files are reasonable, and buffer clearing is pretty quick with a fast UHS-II card.

Battery Life

Decent battery life for a large sensor mirrorless camera.

Operating Mode Battery Life
Still Capture,
(EVF, CIPA standard)
400 shots
Still Capture,
(LCD Monitor, CIPA standard)
400 shots

The Fuji GFX 50S uses a custom NP-T125 10.8V 1250 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with a dedicated charger. The battery is rated for 400 shots per charge when using the detachable EVF or LCD monitor, however that's with Auto Power Save On. With it Off, battery life drops to 340 shots with either display active. That's decent battery life for a mirrorless camera with such a large sensor, but quite poor compared to most DSLRs. We definitely recommend getting a second battery for your GFX 50S if you plan any extended outings or shoot a lot of video. You may also want to consider purchasing the optional VG-GFX1 vertical grip which doubles battery life with a second battery.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of on fully-charged battery, based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions. While real-world battery life tends to be much better for mirrorless cameras, CIPA-rated battery life is still very useful for comparison purposes.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

 

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