I recently read about the 65:24 “cheat pano” mode on the Fuji GFX100s and was intrigued by this mode that supposedly gives you a 50MB panoramic image. So while out in the Mojave Desert, I remembered to search for this in the menu, and sure enough under Image Quality, under the aspect ratio, listed with all the other traditional options like 4:3 and 1:1, is 65:24.

Here’s a quick description of the mode from a Fujifilm ambassador in Denmark: “With the GFX cameras we have something special. A large sensor meaning you do not need extreme focal lengths to go wide, and a built-in 65:24 panoramic crop mode means the GFX is kinda morphed into being a real panoramic camera! This means you see the world at about 2.7:1 in the viewfinder, and it is awesome!!!!!!…….The GFX100S has a 102 megapixel large format sensor, so even a panoramic crop still leaves you with a 50 megapixel image at 11648 × 4304! And if you shoot RAW, of course the RAW file is un-cropped so you can just re-compose later”

I found the description above when researching this topic for this blog post and just love his enthusiasm for shooting in this mode. I found it a bit intoxicating myself. Simple images take on an elegance they wouldn’t have uncropped in 4:3. Hard to explain and maybe not for everyone, but here are 3 sample photos in color. These are all shot with Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation and just a bit of added contrast, and film grain in Capture One.

Those were taken after I made some mistakes, however. When I first woke up as the sun was about to rise, I jumped out the Jeep. The sky held delicate pinks and there was this amazing vertical towering cloud to the northwest. I grabbed the camera and shot four of my favorite images which unfortunately did not turn out! The simple reason was that I forgot the camera was in manual focus from shooting the moon the night before. It was so cold out and I was so rushed trying to get a few shots just as the sun touched the tops of the hills that I completely messed up on the focus. Well, I studied these – taken in 65:24 panoramic mode and thought, what if I doubled down on the out of focus look and turned them monochrome and added heavy grain? Could these be “found” images from a photographer who explored the Mojave Desert 100 years ago?