With today's Fujifilm announcement of the GFX100RF, we now have a new thing to contemplate, the 102mp compact camera. Curiously, Fujifilm makes a point of claiming "lightest camera in the series to date" (25.9 ounces, or 735g). Okay, but that's over 7 ounces (200g+) heavier than Fujifilm's own 40mp X100VI, so the question very quickly becomes whether or not you really need that medium format sensor and all it brings to the table.
It is interesting that Fujifilm decided upon a 28mm equivalent f/4 lens for the GFX100RF—the X100VI has a 35mm equivalent f/2—providing it also with in camera 36mm, 50mm, and 63mm crops (the X100VI has 50mm and 70mm crops). As I'll note in my upcoming X100VI review the take-with-crop option is useful once you have pixels galore to deal with. One thing Fujifilm avoids talking about, though, is that the GFX line is 4:3 aspect ratio, not 3:2 (you can get a 3:2 crop from the camera, as well as eight other choices).
For the most part, the GFX100RF is an upsized X100VI. The controls are mostly the same, particularly the dials and de-minimus function buttons. The focus mode switch does move off the side of the camera where it tended to get moved, there's new aspect ratio and crop controls, but that's about it. While the GFX100RF doesn't have the hybrid viewfinder of its smaller brother, the EVF is now 5.76m dots with a big .84x magnification and an "optical simulation" mode when using crops. The body is once again available as all black or in panda clad (silver over black). The big difference to the X100VI is that the GFX100RF does not have sensor stabilization; coupled with the f/4 lens, that's going to pose issues with getting everything possible out of that 102mp image sensor when handholding. One other difference over the X100VI is that Fujifilm includes the special filter that makes the camera more weather resistant; this is an option with the X100VI.
You might have noticed that crop comes up a lot in the description of this new camera. I'm not convinced there's a huge (or any) need for 28mm angle of view at 102mp, and I think that Fujifilm figured this out themselves. Virtually all the crops on this camera provide at least 24mp level of pixel output, so the question quickly becomes whether or not the user is going to spend the time while photographing to do the cropping, and what they'd actually do with finished images that are different pixel counts.
This is the most Leica-ish camera Fujifilm has yet produced, in the sense that it's a high-priced luxury item as much as it is a functional product. At US$4900 list, it's triple the price of an X100VI, which functionally does much the same thing. Yes, I know I'm going to get a ton of "but larger sensors are better" complaints in my In Box after that statement, but having used the X100VI for awhile now, it's more than enough camera for 99% of the likely audience. This is the "a V12 is better than a straight line 6" type of argument in another form. For a fairly narrow customer set, that may be true. For most people, no.
That said, there is one aspect of the camera that might prove popular with a subset of photographers: the leaf shutter means that flash photography can be done at any shutter speed. Just as sports photographers went through a period where they learned how to overpower the sun, I suspect the influencer crowd is about to do the same thing.
Personally, for the type of work I'd carry and use a compact camera for, the X100VI is already above what I need and produces excellent results. If I were producing large output work that would clearly benefit from the larger image sensor, I personally would opt for the interchangeable lens GFX100S II, because I'd need wider optics at the one end, and I wouldn't want to lose pixels at the telephoto end. So I'm back to the Leica argument about the GFX100RF: there's a snobbish, exclusivity appeal that will sell this camera, not the functional capability (as good as it might be). Fujifilm's own headline includes the words "premium compact camera."
And sell this camera will. Fujifilm seems to have locked into the "if we can't win playing the same game, we'll play a different game" strategy. X-Trans, huge pixel counts, legacy-styling, metal body designs, and a focus on mid-range primes are all very targeted product marketing. Fujifilm is locking more into the "want" than the "need" these days in how they describe what they're producing.
