Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 Review

Fujifilm spent years selling medium format to photographers and then pointed the same idea at cinema. The GFX ETERNA 55 is its first dedicated movie camera, built around a 102 megapixel sensor that measures 44 by 33mm, far larger than the full frame chips most cinema cameras use, which is the whole pitch: a taller, wider capture area for open gate, anamorphic and a shallow rendering nothing smaller can copy.

The engineering answers most of the obvious objections. There is a built in electronic ND that slides from 0.6 to 2.1 so you are not screwing glass on and off between setups, dual base ISO at 800 and 3200 to keep the huge sensor clean, better than fourteen stops of range, and internal recording up to 8K DCI along with a 4K open gate 4:3 mode for anamorphic finishing. Fujifilm's colour science, the reason its stills cameras have a following, arrives intact.

This is a 16,499 dollar first generation product and it shows in the ways first generation products do: a young native cine lens lineup, an unfamiliar body to rig, and workflow around files this size that you will have to build. But large format digital cinema used to mean renting something with a six figure sticker, and Fujifilm has put the look in a box a well funded owner operator can actually buy. For the right production it is a bargain hiding inside a big number.