Enter the Fuji GW690
Recently I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a medium-format range-finder camera. Being a Bronica fan I really wanted the Bronica RF645, but after getting the Tomiyama Art Panorama 170 there just wasn’t any budget for a $2000 range finder camera. I had been looking at some others and finally decided on the Fuji GW690 mark II (in my case possibly mark 1.5, more on that later).
If the counter is to be believed, my example has only had 14 rolls (now 15) of film in it. And, honestly, it looks like a low-milage example. The strength of the dollar vs. the yen really helped on the price. Another thing that helped keep the price down was a quirk of Japanese listers - they only ever list items that are “Mint++++++++” and this camera was just listed as “Good” so the asking price was about a third less than the other listings for camera of this model.
Once it arrived I grabbed a roll of black and white film from the drawer, loaded it up, and went for a walk. This camera is a joy to use the only real gripe I have is that I wish it had a built in meter, but it’s probably for the best that it doesn’t to minimize the risk of battery damage and the like.
As the name implies the negatives are 6cm X 9cm and you will only get eight shots on a roll of 120 film. I love the size of the negatives and recently I have been pondering if 36 shots per roll that come on 35mm rolls of film is really too many. I want to be able to have a steady schedule of new images, something like one roll a week or ever other week and having to take fewer shots really works with my style. I try to put some thought into answering the question “do I want to take this picture” with every shot and only having eight shots to take makes that question have even more meaning. And generally speaking, I can get eight shots any time I take the camera out, but getting 36 means I take a lot of pictures that I wouldn’t necessarily take otherwise.
Something I look forward to is making prints from the negatives. I am more interested in the “alternate” printing process like Platinum Palladium and I have been wanted to make those kinds of prints straight from negative. I like the idea of a small picture that has a lot of detail; one that really pulls the viewer in and almost whispers its secrets one person at a time. I have high hopes that these negatives are the right size to really make that happen. Stay tuned for more on this.
