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Earth Ritual with the GFX-100 II, One Year On

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This time last year I was preparing to shoot the amazing “Earth Ritual” performance by the Of The Wild Ecological Circus Collective. I have been incredibly fortunate over the last few years to have been involved with various circus acts and performers, from Glastonbury to traditional travelling circus. I filmed this performance using the then new Fujifim GFX-100 II. The GFX-100 is a large format camera with a 102 megapixel sensor that has an area around 1.7x greater than a full frame sensor (approx 1.3x wider/taller). This sensor can be used in many different ways, for example using it’s full width to shoot 4K or shooting at 8K with a frame size just fractionally smaller than Full Frame. For Earth Ritual I used the large format 4K mode with the large format Fujifilm GF 55mm f1.7 lens for an extremely shallow depth of field. 
I really like the way this camera looks, I shot using F-Log but it also has a number of different film emulations built in. Since I shot the film there have also been firmware updates to improve it’s autofocus. There is a more in depth write up about the shoot here.

Fujifilm Eterna digital cinema camera

But also since I shot this Fujifilm have announced that this year they will be releasing a large format cinema camera based on the GFX100 II.  The Fujifilm GFX Eterna looks like it will be a really interesting camera, especially if you are interested in larger than Full Frame formats. You can find more information about the Eterna here.

I used Nanlite and Nanlux lights to light this. Mostly utilising the Forza 720B with a projector lens and gobo as well as a number of Nanlite Pavotube lights for the background.

One thing about all of the circus people I know is that they are passionate about what they do and put a huge amount of effort into delivering entertaining performances. Yet circus is often seen as something seedy or second rate – I can assure you that most contemporary circus is hugely entertaining. Whether that’s a beautifully artistic performance, a funny comedy sketch or a show just for grown ups. So, next time a circus comes to your town, go and see a show. And I hope to bring you more circus later in the year. 

cameras, cinematography

Fujifilm Announces Eterna Large Format Film Making Camera

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Fujifilm Eterna digital cinema camera

OK, OK, so it’s not a Sony camera. So, why am I writing about it? Well I think it’s very interesting and Sony don’t have anything quite like it.

Fujifilm have announced that they are developing a digital cinema camera that is based on their large format GFX-100II digital stills camera. They say it’s “in development” but they have been showing samples at InterBee in Japan and there are pictures of it on the Fujifilm website, so it can’t be all that far from being launched.

The sensor in the GFX-100II is a huge 43.8 x 32.9 mm large format sensor with 102MP. It’s not quite as big as some medium format cameras, but it is 1.7x larger than a full frame sensor.

The sensor is made by Sony and it’s a great shame that Sony haven’t put this into a camera, although Sony would have to come up with a new very clever lens mount system if they wanted to allow owners of existing E-Mount lenses to use them to shoot cropped.

In the GFX-100II Fujifilm do some very clever things with the sensor such as offering the ability to choose between a slower (possibly 14 bit) readout that gives increased dynamic range, a touch less noise and additional tonal information or a faster readout speed (that is probably 12 bit) with much less rolling shutter but also slightly less dynamic range. At least they give you the choice and you can switch between the readout modes depending on what each shot needs the most.

LOTS OF SCAN MODES:

You can shoot using the full sensor width at 4K or with a special 5.8K 2.35:1 scan mode and when used like this with a suitable lens such as the Fujifilm GF 55mm f1.7 the results are gorgeous. Take a look at the film below, shot with the GFX-100II.

If you want to shoot at 8K this is also possible by cropping the sensor to very slightly less than Full Frame. And then from this you could also shoot Super 35 at around 5.7K after cropping. Additionally the camera has several anamorphic shooting modes including open gate 3:2. So, that large format sensor opens up lots of possibilities, you are not limited to large format, Full Frame and Super 35 are possible and look great.

ADAPTABLE LENS MOUNT:

The GFX lens mount can easily be adapted to PL, Canon EF, Nikon, M42 and many others. Looking at the pictures the Eterna has a locking version of the GFX mount. The camera has special modes for the Fuji Premista lenses and Fujifilm say they are working on power zooms and other lenses for the Eterna.

The side of the Fujifilm Eterna Digital Cinema Camera



RECORDING CODECS

Recording codecs in the GFX-100II include internal ProRes, H265 and H264, so plenty of decent options and  its even possible to output raw to an Atomos recorder at up to 8K. I would expect to see all of these same options in the Eterna and the quality of the H265 encoder is extremely good with the ability to choose between I frame only and Lon GoP at a wide range of compression ratios.

CONNECTIVITY

Looking at the pictures of the Eterna you can see that it has an SDI out, HDMI out, Ethernet, Genlock and timecode connectors. There are also lemo connectors and hirose connectors – presumably for accessory power and lens options. 

The front of the Fujifilm Eterna Digital Cinema Camera



EDIT- It has been revealed that it does have a built in ND filter.

And the name – Eterna. Well that comes from one of the film stocks that Fujifilm used to make and it’s also one of the built in film look presets that the camera has.