Fujifilm GFX100S Sturdiness: Bottom Plate and Tripod Socket Not Exactly Sturdily Built
Related: Dan B, Fujifilm, Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm medium format, Fujifilm mirrorless, medium format, tripods and support
I don’t know if this is a “real” issue or not. And anything that would break the base plate is likely to do other damage, like bend the lens mount. The Fujifilm GFX100 is very sturdily built AFAIK; the GFX100S much less beefy but whether that matters in any real sense...?
Start at about the 18:30 mark for a broken camera bottom and a teardown showing the cheap piece of low-grade cast metal (monkey metal aka pot metal) that has two tiny screws attaching it inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2jNkPlGJAo
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4572101
All the weight of the camera rests on this one small piece of pot metal, which in turn puts a lot of pressure on the edge of the base plate of the camera. And the base plate itself is very thin and of very modest structural robustness. However, it’s not clear to me that higher-grade metal would make any difference in this situation since torque/force in a small area fails the plastic, not the metal itself.
I’d say the risk of fracture as shown in the video is very low if the camera is treated carefully, but if you torque that bottom plate somehow (say with a tripod mounting plate) taking a hit while the camera is mounted (as in the example), then bad things could happen. The video points out that a heavy lens like the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 puts a lot of stress on the tripod socket. But I usually worry about torque on the lens mount from knocking the lens, a much more insidious risk, since an undetectable (to the eye) tweak of 10-20 microns can cause substantial tilt and swing.
Not spoken to in the video is that a good quality L-Plate might distribute the stress on the body and preclude problems. Still, there’s very little holding the whole shebang together. Looks like a solid reason for a Fujifilm GFX100 instead of GFX100s for anyone looking for maximum durability.
Dan B writes:
Apparently the 100S tripod base plate /tripod head screw mounting assembly is under-designed and made with inferior metals. I am not sure whether this will come into play in a significant manner or not, but it is concerning and it's something I now need to think about and factor in to using the camera, something that I shouldn't have had to.
There can't be any significant cost savings for Fuji to produce a camera this way. What the hell was Fuji thinking! I am @$*#48#*$#*$ PISSED OFF that I poured $6k into something made this cheaply. If I didn't like the 4:3 aspect ratio more than FF and like the image quality more than Sony A7R IV, I might be tempted act rashly and sell the Fujifilm and get a Sony again.
DIGLLOYD: I don’t know how well built the Sony A1 or Sony A7R IV are in this respect, but Sony has a track record of never failing for me, mechanically or otherwise. Lensrentals.com is probably the best source of information on what fails and how often.
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