Fujifilm GW690 II , III

[absquatulate]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!



I sold it.

I think there are some out there whose viewfinders need a clean, l have no problem focusing mine at all, mine is bright and it's the easiest to focus MF camera l own, it had only had 16 rolls through it when l got it. Don't forget, most of these come from Japan, which has high humidity, which will potentially cause fogging in a viewfinder via mould etc. Fortunately these cameras are relatively easy to service, the design is not radically different from a folding camera, with the shutter assembly being distinct from the body itself. The top plate is relatively easy to remove to adjust the rangefinder and clean the viewfinder.

 

[Cerridwen]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

 

[Bags27]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

I agree that it does feel less dense and so is manageable weight.

When I once complained about the rangefinder patch to a friend, he suggested taping a piece of exposed film leader to get more definition. I tried that to no effect. I bring this up because somewhat here might know better what he meant.

 

[Overrank]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

I agree that it does feel less dense and so is manageable weight.

When I once complained about the rangefinder patch to a friend, he suggested taping a piece of exposed film leader to get more definition. I tried that to no effect. I bring this up because somewhat here might know better what he meant.

You can put a little black square over the viewfinder front directly in front of the rangefinder spot, so you only get the image from the rangefinder itself. Or you can put coloured gels (e.g. blue) over the rangefinder window itself to increase contrast.

See http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

 

[Bags27]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

I agree that it does feel less dense and so is manageable weight.

When I once complained about the rangefinder patch to a friend, he suggested taping a piece of exposed film leader to get more definition. I tried that to no effect. I bring this up because somewhat here might know better what he meant.

You can put a little black square over the viewfinder front directly in front of the rangefinder spot, so you only get the image from the rangefinder itself. Or you can put coloured gels (e.g. blue) over the rangefinder window itself to increase contrast.

See http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

Thank you!!!! I misunderstood him. Can't wait to try this.

 

[John KM/linhof]

I bought a damaged GW670 III with the hope to repair it. The lens/shutter was knocked out of alignment so that the camera would not focus to infinity. I found some parts and a very detailed repair manual but was chicken to take it apart for repair. I have found a repair person who may be clever enough to fix this for me - I am willing to pay around $200. Repair people are rare and expensive these days (the local car repair place is now charging $130 an hour).

Years ago I had a GSW690 III and loved it, but sold it because I needed the funds for a car project.

I also still have a Linhof 220 but it is missing a crucial part that fixes the handle to the body. Parts for this camera are impossible to find, other than a donor.

I like the idea of these two cameras, one is used naturally for horizontal pictures while the other is naturally oriented to vertical pictures.

6x7 transparencies are amazing when projected.

 

[Cerridwen]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

I agree that it does feel less dense and so is manageable weight.

When I once complained about the rangefinder patch to a friend, he suggested taping a piece of exposed film leader to get more definition. I tried that to no effect. I bring this up because somewhat here might know better what he meant.

You can put a little black square over the viewfinder front directly in front of the rangefinder spot, so you only get the image from the rangefinder itself. Or you can put coloured gels (e.g. blue) over the rangefinder window itself to increase contrast.

See http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-165.html

Thank you!!!! I misunderstood him. Can't wait to try this.

I 2nd that! Thanks for sharing!

 

[alex_virt]

You've probably already seen these then, and they're actually screenshots of the actual photos on Flickr ( I'm locked out of my old account, downloads disabled, don't ask! ),

To download a "disabled" photo from Flickr, click 'View all sizes', open the maximum size, right-click and 'Save page as...' I use Firefox browser. It will save the HTML file and a folder with all images, scripts and other stuff from the page. You'll find your image in that folder.

 

[Horiz Opposed]

I’ll second the comment about the viewfinder made by Bags27. Focusing was really tough.

I do not have any samples to show, in reply to your question, because I never got past the “Let’s run a roll or two through here, and see how they look.” phase. I so wanted to love this camera. Large film size, classic 2x3 proportion, rangefinder, great Fujifilm glass. What could be bad?

I live in the US, and reached out to JCH in Tokyo to find a GSW690II for me. I specifically wanted the wide angle vs the regular one. He found a really nice one, and I had the light seals redone locally. But that rangefinder was dim, small, and there was very little contrast in the patch where you focus, so unless you wanted to go small aperture all the time, focusing was difficult.

And they are huge!

I sold it.

I appreciate your thoughts and insight. My GW690 III arrived the other day and already loaded with Portra 160. It is agreeable that the camera is quite large. Considering the size of the negatives, the tradeoff for me, is fair. I am used to focusing with rangefinders, and yes the little patch on the GW690 does seem small and faint compared to others I have used. This will take a little bit of refining of my focusing skills, I'm not worried.

What is surprising... the weight, much lighter than I expected. By all comparisons my Mamiya 6 feels more "dense" compared to the GW690. Holding it is not an issue, I have average sized hands.

Can't wait to see what develops. Thanks again all for the input and tips.

Congrats. Enjoy!

 

[Cerridwen]

As a follow up I have put the first roll through my newly acquired GW690III.

I'm very pleased with the rendering and will be definitely utilizing this camera more.

Just need to be more careful with handheld shots under 1/30th, they displayed some noticeable blur. Other than that, I absolutely enjoyed using it for a quick walk about. Focusing was not that difficult (for me), weight and size are manageable considering the size of the negatives.

Thanks again for all the help and input. Here are the "keepers" from a walk down my road. The only PP was some minor curve adjustments after scan.

















--
"The more they overthink the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain" - Captain Montgomery Scott