Fuji GS645S - worth getting one ?

Hi there,

I'm a avid Leica user and want to jump to Medium Format - I'm rounding money for a Fuji GX617 but that will take a while...

So I would like to start and my usual dealer has one of these cameras ( Fuji GS645S ) for 250 euros...

Now that seems nice for me - while I gather the money for its big brother.

Still worth buying ? Camera is in good condition, 3 months warranty, comes boxed.

I'm trying to research about the camera ( to be honest I never considered it ) - does it have a meter ? I'm not talking about AE, just a internal meter ?

Any opinions are greatly appreciated !

Great camera, absolutely tack-sharp lens (60mm f/4, about the same as a 35mm lens on 35mm film). It has a meter, I assume averaging. When I used this camera I normally carried a Sekonic L-308 handheld meter (which I still use) so I can't really comment about the meter performance. The camera has a leaf shutter with speed settings of 1 second to 1/500th with flash sync at all speeds. Not much bigger than a 35mm camera and very lightweight. The normal framing with this camera is vertical, which I prefer. I used to own one and I would love to get another for those times I don't want to drag the RB around. Takes 120 or 220 film, just slide the pressure plate over. The T setting on the leaf shutter is a little funky - it has a separate shutter release which *doesn't* take a standard cable release - that's the one negative about an otherwise awesome camera. For less than $400 US, not a bad deal at all. If you are into wide-angle work, there is also another version, the GS645W with a 45mm f/5.6 scale-focused lens, harder to find and pricier but also very good.

All the Fuji 645 cameras are very good. I loved my Zi... I have a short article and price guide here on these cameras

Dead Link Removed

Dan

"Fuji GS645S - worth getting one ?"

Yes.

rthomas already summed it up pretty much.
These are great cameras - Sharp lens, quite small, lightweight - an ideal travelcompanion.
They´re all mechanical exept for the light meter (of the - o + variety). I do b&w and
for that the meter is good enough, I don´t know if it´s good enough if you´re doing slides.
The vertical framing was a bit strange at first but I got used to it very quickly.

I have one as a carry around/notebook camera. I find the built-in meter is less prone to sky influence than the one in my Mamiya 6. Do treat it gently - the 'roll bar' on the front is there for a reason. The rangefinder spot boundary can be a little hard to see in some lights, the the image coincidence is clear.

Just wondering - given the good name of GA645 - what would be the reason to pick GS645S over the GA645?

slnce-z-gsi said:

Just wondering - given the good name of GA645 - what would be the reason to pick GS645S over the GA645?

Click to expand...

Two words: manual focus.

I could never really like my GS645S. Got it as a light MF camera for hiking. It's light alright, one of the lightest fully equipped (i.e. w/ rangefinder & light meter) MF cameras.

Things I did not like (just my opinion):
- Rangefinder patch is hard to see/use, unusable imo in dim light. Leica/Bessa rangefinders are much much brighter. The edges of the Fuji patch are also fuzzy.
- The lens is sharp but also very contrasty, not to my liking. The rendering of Leica/Zeiss lenses is different, more subtle, nicer for b&w imo (the Fuji is ok for colour).
- Minimum focus (1 m) is too long for a 60mm lens (35mm in 135).
- Default orientation is vertical, which I found hard to get used to.
- Shutter release gives a fairly loud clack, despite only triggering a leaf shutter.
- The shutter release never felt right to me; too much of a pressure gradient around the release point, making it hard to keep still the camera and thus defeating one important purpose of a leaf shutter.
- Not a robust camera like Leica or Hasselblad, bit plasticky feel. Not terrible either though.
- Attaching a hood, filter or even just too deep a lens cap will make the lens protrude beyond the protective bar, making it very vulnerable to knocks. This is a serious design flaw in my opinion.
- The original hood does very little because it is not deep enough. I suppose that Fuji did this to make it stick out less, because of the above. It still does stick out past the bumper bar though. Weird compromise.
- The T-setting is triggered with a small hard-to-get-to button on the lens assembly; no remote release connection provided.

The good:
- Small, light for MF.
- Sharp lens (and high-contrast too, which can be good or bad).
- Good metering.
- Long battery life on two SR/LR44's.
- Two tripod connections, one for vertical, one horizontal.

250 Euros is a good price. You could just try it and sell again if it doesn't work out- little lost.

grahamp said:

I have one as a carry around/notebook camera. I find the built-in meter is less prone to sky influence than the one in my Mamiya 6. Do treat it gently - the 'roll bar' on the front is there for a reason. The rangefinder spot boundary can be a little hard to see in some lights, the the image coincidence is clear.

Click to expand...

I agree with grahamp exactly... I have one, use it the same way as my carry-around camera... and the spot can be a bit hard to see in some light, but I have attributed that to my glasses since if I move them just a bit, the spot appears clearly.

The Fujinon does not have the extreme micro contrast that the Mamiya 6 lenses exhibit, but it is more noticeable than some of my older (Japanese and German) lenses.