The Fuji 45-100/4 that I’ve been testing for the last week is an incredible zoom. It is running very close to, and may surpass, the Fuji 32-64/4, which is the second-best zoom I’ve ever tested. The 24-70/2.8 Nikkor S is the best 24-70 full frame zoom I’ve tested. It seems natural to pit them against each other, even if the resolution of the Z7 is only about 70% of that of the GFX 100. I suppose I could test the new Fuji zoom on a GFX 50S, but since I’ve been using the GFX 100, I don’t have much interest in that camera.
I’ll be testing at 45mm, 63 mm, and 100mm for the Fuji lens, and 35mm, 50mm, and 70mm for the Nikkor. This post will look at the 35/45mm shots.
Here’s the test scene, with the 45-100/4 on a GFX 100, and set to 45 mm and f/4.
Target distance was 14 meters.
Test conditions:
- The heaviest RRS legs
- Arca Swiss C1 head
- ISO 100 for the GFX 100, and 64 for the Z7.
- Electronic shutter 1/10 at f/4, 1/5 at f/5.6, and 1/2.5 at f/8
- 2-second self-timer
- AF-S, medium spot size
- 3 sets of shots at each test condition
- Developed in Lightroom
- Picked best shot of each test condition
- Sharpening amount 20 radius 1, detail 0 (much less sharpening than the default)
- Adobe Color profile
- White balanced to grey background
We’ll look at some tight crops at about 130% magnification for the GFX 100, and enough more than that to make the angle of view the same for the two cameras.
In the center:
The Nikon is limited by the sensor. The lens is clearly laying down information that the sensor can’t resolve without aliasing.
Same.
The Nikon images would clearly be better with a 100 MP sensor.
In the upper-right corner:
There is a lot more corner falloff with the Nikon. The resolutions are similar, but there’s more aliasing with the Nikon.
Same story.
My conclusions are:
- The Nikon 24-70/2.8 Nikkor S is a heck of a lens that needs a 100 MP body to really shine.
- MF is once more better for even illumination.
Feel free to mix and match the f-stops if you want to look at equivalent stops.
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