How will the Fujifilm GFX100S Fare as to PDAF Banding
Related: black and white, Contrast and Phase Detect Autofocus, digital artifacts, focusing, Fujifilm, Fujifilm GFX100, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm medium format, Fujifilm mirrorless, Jeff K, medium format, noise, pattern noise, PDAF banding and striping noise, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony A7R IV, Sony mirrorless, striping pattern noise
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PDAF banding is a serious headache for monochrome conversions. It makes very unlovely skies, just for starters.
When I shot the Fujifilm GFX100 around two years ago, I had numerous images with PDAF banding that made a monochrome conversion a non-starter. When I shot it again in spring of 2020, I did not notice issues, but I wasn’t looking for them.
One reader tells me he updated his GFX100 firmware and the PDAF banding still exists. Another thinks it’s gone after the update. I don’t own the GFX100, so I can’t say for sure, but the Fujifilm GFX100 firmware v3.0.0 update notes make no mention of anything that might address it.
It defies imagination to think that Fujifilm is so inept as to leave such a glaring issue in place. OTOH, Fujifilm shipped the GFX100 with the problem and it stayed that way a long time, so I’m not so sure they always know what they are doing. And then there is the useless science fair project of 16-shot mode on the GFX100—total clusterduck.
But when the Fujifilm GFX100S arrives (which I intend to buy for ongoing coverage), whether or not it has PDAF banding issues will decide whether it can serve as both a color camera and a color-shot-for-monochrome camera, or whether I have to proceed with a D850 Monochrome or Sony A7R IV Monochrome conversion at maxmax.com.
UPDATE March 13: I downloaded some of the dpreview.com GFX100S samples. The GFX100S still suffers from PDAF banding, just like the GFX100. You probably won’t see it in color, but aggressive monochrome processing brings it out.
Jeff K writes:
Rainy San Diego today: distant clouds/mountain tops scene, GFX100 w/ GF50mm. Two screen shots, with settings, of the imaged cropped in ACR. Color screen shot of untouched RAF and then B/W adjusted version reveals GFX100 under v3.0 still has the battle of the bands playing.
DIGLLOYD: the image clearly shows the horizontal lines of PDAF banding. Yes, the processing is aggressive, but that’s the point: if you want a dramatic monochrome conversion, the horizontal lines totally screw the pooch. I’m baffled how Fujifilm can let something like this go unaddresed—maybe the answer is they cannot figure out a solution? Gimme a sensor with no damned PDAF—I don’t need it for landscape and such and CDAF is always more accurate anyway.
UPDATE: Jeff K writes again later, after making some more images:
Seems to me that Fuji has mitigated the banding issue all but for deepest, darkest under exposure in blue hues (as Kasson’s work demonstrates for other hues). For other hues under exposed, I haven’t yet found banding.
