Finally got a "Texas Leica"

[phrons]

Wow those pics make me want to buy one. But, I can't justify buying one if I still have my blad

 

[Prest_400]

Turns out my other cameras decided to crap out a week from a trip so at the end I may end taking just the Fuji GW690. The machine is fantastic and quite convenient, my only turn off for travel is 6x9 gets 8 shots a roll and it can make rolls go too fast.

The lenses are razor sharp. My impression is that the older ones are heavier and the newer version III is lighter and have more plastic than the more solid all metal first versions. I like their simplicity.

Wow those pics make me want to buy one. But, I can't justify buying one if I still have my blad

The GW690III is the most plastic feeling with the matte plastic shell but actually weighs a bit more than the mkI and II. The older interchangeable RF's do weigh more. The mkIII weighs 1460g and that is very similar to a basic Hasselblad w/80 planar kit.
But the Fuji is 6x9 I do see 6x6 justifiable along the 6x9.

 

[macfred]

The GW690III is the most plastic feeling with the matte plastic shell but actually weighs a bit more than the mkI and II. The older interchangeable RF's do weigh more. The mkIII weighs 1460g and that is very similar to a basic Hasselblad w/80 planar kit.

+1

---

Plastics: the urban myth of the Fuji RF http://www.dantestella.com/technical/gw.html
(scroll down to bottom of the page)

 

[nbagno]

My Ontario Texas Lecia seems to have a couple of small quirks. I can't remember if it was like this when I bought it.
Quirk 1) The film door latch seems to pop the door open, rather than say smoothly open the latch.
Quirk 2) The film rewind lever does not retract into the body after an advance, rather looking down from the top it stays at about the 7"o'clock position. It will retract to the body if I push it in.
None of the two quirks seems to affect anything. Here's one of my favorites from my GW690III
View media item 48912

 

[Prest_400]

Quirk 1) The film door latch seems to pop the door open, rather than say smoothly open the latch.
Quirk 2) The film rewind lever does not retract into the body after an advance, rather looking down from the top it stays at about the 7"o'clock position. It will retract to the body if I push it in.
None of the two quirks seems to affect anything. Here's one of my favorites from my GW690III
]

Lovely photograph! I have to say these cameras, or rather its RF 35mm on steroids form factor, can be funny. It really is as convenient to shoot as an enlarged Leica would but 6x9 calls for a more throughtful shooting pace (or not) with its large neg and 8exp per roll.

Also, the designers did leave quite some quirks. The shutter ping as the most infamous one.
I think it is consistent with mine. The advance lever will not automatically pop again to the fully retracted position, as there is some unacomoannied travel for the thumb (Maybe not very undarstandable, but the behaviour you describe). The door latch does have a bit of a pop to it indeed.

BTW I was surprised that they weigh like a Hassie (the GWs) aand a Nikon F5-6 with a light prime.

 

[macfred]

...
Quirk 1) The film door latch seems to pop the door open, rather than say smoothly open the latch.
Quirk 2) The film rewind lever does not retract into the body after an advance, rather looking down from the top it stays at about the 7"o'clock position. It will retract to the body if I push it in ...

Same here with my GW670iii !
It took some time but now I get used to the quirks - maybe those are features we cannot see through ...

 

[nbagno]

Lovely photograph! I have to say these cameras, or rather its RF 35mm on steroids form factor, can be funny. It really is as convenient to shoot as an enlarged Leica would but 6x9 calls for a more throughtful shooting pace (or not) with its large neg and 8exp per roll.

Also, the designers did leave quite some quirks. The shutter ping as the most infamous one.
I think it is consistent with mine. The advance lever will not automatically pop again to the fully retracted position, as there is some unacomoannied travel for the thumb (Maybe not very undarstandable, but the behaviour you describe). The door latch does have a bit of a pop to it indeed.

BTW I was surprised that they weigh like a Hassie (the GWs) aand a Nikon F5-6 with a light prime.

Thanks!

 

[eddie]

I have both the GW II and GSW II. I have never put any color film through them ( haven’t shot any color through any camera in many years), but your photos may lead me to rethink color.

 

[Fraxinus]

I love my GW690III! Had it from new when it was first marketed in the UK.
It's been through a lot, including a tripod crash that ended with a view dents and minor plastic damage, but it carried on regardless. The only thing I've had to attend to is to have the foam light seals replaced where the back closes on the body. The originals perished completely, leaving bits of sticky foam floating around inside the body which always managed to find their way onto the film emulsion!

Just yesterday I won a GSW690II on eBay for a very reasonable price. Can't wait to try it.
Here's a recent GW690III pic:

 

[mrosenlof]

I bought a gw 690iii new in 1994. Used it for about five years until it fell off a tripod I was carrying over my shoulder. The shutter is damaged, very possibly lens alignment too. It was the tripod's fault not the camera. It fell from about 5.5 feet to concrete. I used other stuff for a while, but sometime in the last six or seven years, I bought another. This time a 'ii'.

That ill-fated 'iii' had dropped from a tripod before. The same tripod in fact! I have dumped that particular head (the weak link). The first time was from a short height, less than 3 feet onto a pebbly beach. That time, I felt like the camera should have survived that fall. I think there are some stamped metal parts that hold the lens in place.

In my opinion, these things are excellent lenses attached to decent bodies. Which in my opinion again, makes an overall excellent camera. I think the bodies are more solid than the lenses, but that's often the case, especially if the shutter is in the lens. I agree that the 'iii' feels a little more plasticy than the 'ii', but I'll bet the body casting under the plastic is the same between those models. Tooling a change in those castings is an expensive process. I wonder how many of these things Fuji made. Anybody have a clue?

 

[etn]

Here's one of my favorites from my GW690III
View media item 48912

Wow. Incredible light! great pic. Thanks for sharing!

 

[etn]

Wow those pics make me want to buy one. But, I can't justify buying one if I still have my blad

Why not? It's a very different beast than the Hasselblad! that enough should justify it
Keep your Blad in any case. Apart from being one of the greatest photographic tools ever, its value only goes up.

 

[Prest_400]

The 6x9 format has also some nice cropping ability. Yesterday I checked some Provia Scans I had, and a frame with too much "empty space" top and bottom cropped nicely to 2:1 or even 24:65 X-Pan.
The 65mm might lend to more authentic pano crop but the 90mm can work nicely also on some frames. So, there's an X-Pan hidden within these Medium Format machines.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I recently took my 6X9 on a two-week backpacking trip in the high Sierra. The viewfinder window temporarily fogged up a bit in snowstorms; but the actual taking lens was unaffected. I got lots of nice color and black-and-white negatives.