A couple of days ago I saw that Fujifilm is releasing a limited run special-edition of the GFX100RF, designed by fashion designer, producer, and artist Hiroshi Fujiwara, called the GFX100RF Fragment Edition. It looks pretty much the same as a regular GFX100RF, except with smoother leather and a different engraving on the top plate. There’s also a few accessories, including a strap, lens hood, and more. The GFX100RF Fragment Edition will only be available in Japan. It’s pretty cool, I guess.

I didn’t think much of it until yesterday, when a reader emailed me to take a closer look. Aside from a couple of physical changes, there is one internal change to the camera. The Monochrome Film Simulation was removed, and in its place is a custom black-and-white Recipe called FRGMT BW created by Hiroshi. It’s Acros with “stronger grain, tweaked highlight and shadow tone curves, reduced sharpness, less noise reduction, more clarity, and a bit of positive exposure compensation.” This Recipe, instead of being found in C1-C7, is in the Film Simulation Menu.

This is quite interesting. First, before we let this fact slip by, the Recipe includes an exposure compensation boost, which currently isn’t possible to program. You have to adjust the exposure manually, which makes sense, but Fujifilm just demonstrated that they have the ability to include an exposure adjustment within a Recipe. Is this something we’ll see in the future? Perhaps so. Fujifilm also demonstrated that it’s possible to replace a Film Simulation with a Recipe. Maybe you don’t use PRO Neg. Std or Eterna Bleach Bypass or Sepia—wouldn’t it be nice to replace the ones that you don’t use with a Recipe? Or maybe you replace all of the Film Simulations in the Film Simulation Menu with Recipes? There’s a lot of room for customization, and Fujifilm just showed us that it’s possible for them to do it.

I think this is also an indication of what’s to come regarding the future of the Film Dial or Film Era Dial. I suspect that Fujifilm will open up the Film Dial to allow Recipes for all of the positions, and not just FS1/FS2/FS3 (on the X-E5 and X-T30 III, anyway). I suspect that the Film Era Dial will be hard-set Recipes designed by Fujifilm (or photographers they have partnered with), similar to FRGMT B&W. This is speculation, of course.

I don’t want to read too much into this. It could be a one-time thing, and we’ll never see anything like this again. Nothing may come of it, other than this one special-edition model sold only in Japan. But it is intriguing to consider what it could possibly mean for future models.

So for those wondering what the FRGMT B&W Recipe is, well, here you go! It’s found on Fujifilm’s webpage for the GFX100RF Fragment Edition.

Film Simulation: Acros
Grain: Strong / Large
Highlight: +4
Shadow: +2
Sharpness: -4
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: +5
Exposure Compensation: +1/3

Obviously not every setting is included, so let’s take a guess on the blanks. Most likely it is Dynamic Range Auto, White Balance Auto (0R & 0B for the WB Shift), Color Chrome Effect and Color Chrome FX Blue Off, Toning Off (WC 0 MG 0), and ISO up to 12800 (based on one of the sample pictures). So if you’re interested in trying it yourself, you absolutely can. In fact, here are a few of my photos, which look pretty good, reprocessed on my Fujifilm X-E5 using the FRGMT B&W Recipe (choosing DR200 in lieu of DR-Auto).