Fuji GW 690 Prices Japan

[braxus]

What the heck happened to GW690 prices recently? They jumped up 30 percent and Im in Canada, so I wont be affected by tariffs if from Japan. Im watching these cameras, trying to get myself another copy of the 6x9 camera since I sold my last one 4 years ago. What used to be 800 Canadian for a Mk 1 camera, you now see them at 1200-1500. These cameras are not worth that price in my opinion, because its a fixed lens camera. And they all need servicing after 999 rolls. Sure it takes great pics, but when I can get a Pentax 67 camera with removable lenses, etc for less, I just can't see why these Fuji's are commanding so much. And there's lots of them out there.

 

[mshchem]

These are a new cult item

 

[mshchem]

BTW, I wouldn't trade my ultra reliable enormous negative Fujis for a 67. I admit the 67 is cool.

 

[Alexander6x6]

I have bought my Texas Leica ten years ago and I will never sell it.

 

[Craig]

Used to be able to buy them for $500 all day long. Same thing happened to Mamiya 6, they are very expensive now too.

 

[250swb]

And they all need servicing after 999 rolls.

Fuji only recommend serving at that point given it was sold as a professional camera, and professionals rely on their cameras to put bread on the table. It doesn't expire at that point, the counter rolls over and starts again and the camera may be good for another 1250 rolls. Given you have no idea how many times the counter has rolled over without servicing choosing one with a low shutter count is meaningless, it may have just done it. The caveat is that an otherwise pristine camera from Japan may have had a hard life sat on a shelf given temperature and humidity and make the 999 service seem optimistic. And complaining it's a fixed lens camera and therefore not worth the price I think misses the point, it's the superb lens that makes the camera.

 

[Jarno]

Indeed, engineering is about trade-offs, no other camera comes close to being as robust, "compact" (hard to say with a straight face given it's size), and lightweight while being able to produce negatives this big.
The drawback is not being able to change lenses, not being able to look through the lens, I feel they could have included a lightmeter, that shouldn't have impacted that much.
Would love a Mk3 version of the GSW (I have the Mk1), because the hood and shutter lock are welcome additions (have them in my backpack when hiking or biking), but not at 1kEUR+(including shipping and taxes) . I think I paid 950 for my GW Mk.3 in Germany, and I found the GSW Mk.1 local in NL for 700, like a year or two ago.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Indeed, engineering is about trade-offs, no other camera comes close to being as robust, "compact" (hard to say with a straight face given it's size), and lightweight while being able to produce negatives this big.

The Kodak Medalist would like to have a word with you. More robust, smaller, and 3 ounces less weight. 6x9 negatives.

After that list, the Fuji certainly has a lot of advantages, or at least differences

 

[Alexander6x6]

The Kodak Medalist would like to have a word with you. More robust, smaller, and 3 ounces less weight. 6x9 negatives.

After that list, the Fuji certainly has a lot of advantages, or at least differences

This camera was made in 1940s, is it correct?
Is it as sharp as GW690?

Is it good in color? No color shift? No yellow or blue tint?

 

[campy51]

BTW, I wouldn't trade my ultra reliable enormous negative Fujis for a 67. I admit the 67 is cool.

Do what I did. I bought a GW670III about week ago.

 

[campy51]

The Kodak Medalist would like to have a word with you. More robust, smaller, and 3 ounces less weight. 6x9 negatives.

After that list, the Fuji certainly has a lot of advantages, or at least differences

I bought my second Medalist about a month ago and sold it a couple of weeks ago and bought a GW670 III and it's a joy to use compared to the Medalist. Medalist has a great lens but the operation is nuts and can't seem to connect with it. Although it is the coolest looking camera.

 

[Dan Daniel]

I bought my second Medalist about a month ago and sold it a couple of weeks ago and bought a GW670 III and it's a joy to use compared to the Medalist. Medalist has a great lens but the operation is nuts and can't seem to connect with it. Although it is the coolest looking camera.

Like I said, things change after robustness, size, and weight with the Medalist vs Fuji! As more of a handheld view camera rather than a street shooter, the Medalist is usable in its idiosyncratic way. For anything resembling most any other handheld camera you have ever used, the Fuji is the choice.

 

[ChrisGalway]

I bought my Fuji GW690iii for €450 in 2019, it was advertised as "almost new, barely used" and when it arrived I swear it really was "new", only 3-4 films put through it, so for once the seller's description was accurate. It's a classic, I love using it, pity about the incredible noise of the shutter linkage mechanism (leaf shutter itself is whisper-quiet).

And the biggest plus of all: no battery! A true "photographer's camera".

Having said all that, I still prefer my Mamiya 7ii + 80mm lens, despite the fact it has a (not very standard) battery. Both cameras have great lenses.

 

[Ardpatrick]

Unfortunately the Fuji 6x9 is caught in the same Youtube influencer vortex as the Makina Plaubel, and originally the Mamiya 7. When the M7 prices skyrocketed, the Plaubel became the affordable cool alternative. When they started to skyrocket too, the Fuji’s were next, or something like that.

Meanwhile Hasselblad 500C’s - and even more so the RB67, both surely the most capable all round medium format cameras ever, remain relatively cheap it seems. But maybe there’s a lesson there for us learned photographers - surely a 500c or whatever would get the job done more or less as well (or better) with the right slow speed film stock?

I don’t own either camera (I own 2 x M7 bought years ago) but I’d guess a 500c w/ 80mm would fit in the same size camera bag as a Texas Leica, albeit oriented sideways. It might be a little heavier esp if you use a pentaprism finder, but unless one is making very large pano prints from drum scans or > 20 inch wide darkroom prints direct from the negs on a perfectly aligned enlarger with a pristine App-Rodagon N 105mm lens, will the format difference or the nominal differences between a Fuji EBC lens and a Carl Zeiss lens be meaningfully visible?

I’m guessing the answer to the above is ‘probably not.’

The 500C has a whole range of widely available excellent glass in a range of focal lengths too!

 

[loccdor]

Another option is a Horseman with a 90mm lens and 6x9 back. Heavier, but you get movements if you ever want them. There are Horsemans going for around $300.

My Fuji GW690 was $500 in 2011. It died 12 years later of shutter grease and no one could repair it.

 

[Jarno]

Or a Horseman Convertible, without movements
Built a sort of Horseman Convertible myself, which uses large format lenses on focusing helicoids and Horseman Graflok backs (6x7, 6x9 and 6x12).

 

[GregY]

Used to be able to buy them for $500 all day long. Same thing happened to Mamiya 6, they are very expensive now too.

Exactly!..... I've had a bunch.... they used to be cheap...now they're very high priced.
My favourites were the GW680lll & the GSW690lll.
I'll always prefer them to the Pentax or for that matter any 67...

 

[braxus]

Well Im reposting my video on the GW 690 and GSW 690 since its so popular again. I forgot to post it a while back, so it reminded me I have to upload it. Going to make a revision to it now, due to todays update on prices. Looks like if I want to get my copy of the GW/GSW cameras again, I'm going to have to bite the bullet on them.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I have both a GW690ii and a later GW690iii which I bought "as new" (only 3 rolls of film shot with it). The asking prices on both models have doubled in the past two or so years. But so have a lot of pro MF cameras (not all). Although I have a full Pentax 6x7 system (great for tele work), and plenty of LF gear (8X10 and 4x5, including roll film backs), I think the smartest buy I ever made were these Fuji 6X9 rangefinders. I'd been aware of them for a long time, but never realized their sheer convenience. And even at inflated pricing, they're still a comparative bargain.

They're great for quick handheld as well as tripod work. I have the ones with 90mm lenses - a nice slightly wide angle compromise. It's a really really sharp lens with good bokeh too. I like the simplification of the system. Talking about Hassies and other MF SLR's is really a diversion from the subject. Those give you interchangeable lenses and so forth, but not this kind of convenience. I could have had a nice Mamiya 7 at a reasonable price, but for even less than that bagged BOTH the my GW690ii and a mint 300 EDIF tele lens for my Pentax 6x7. I think I made the right choice. I just accept the limitations of each : the Fuji RF's are fixed lens, the P7 is bulkier and heavier, and generally requires a tripod (or even a big solid tripod in the case of long teles).

And I can carry the Fuji RF in a quite small shoulder bag almost as compact as basic 35mm system, comfortably tucked under my parka on a rainy or snowy day. I've had it on long haul backpacking trips through blizzards. Held up great. It's my favorite quickie go-to camera. Used it day before yesterday for a quickly changing light between downpours in an industrial district where a slower system would have been hazardous due to intermittent truck traffic.

Get the latest model you can afford (like a GW690iii or GW680iii with a lower roll count on them - their recommended tune-up cycle was every 1200 rolls - I'll never reach that even with the earlier ii model which I bought with 400+ rolls showing on its counter). The main difference between the ii and iii is the especially easy spool loading feature of the iii.

 

[campy51]

The GW670III I bought has 211 on the counter. All my other cameras are 6x6 and I think I like this format better.

 

[blee1996]

The Fujica's have stellar lenses and convenient operations. My gsw690 produce stunning color slides on par with 4x5 large format, while the older G690 with 100mm lens is my favorite for b&w work. I also miss the time that they could be bought for $500 all day long.

 

[Vaidotas]

When sheet film bigger than 4x5 goes from 5 € per one sheet, a lot of folks moved to 120 film, where roll goes for 10€.
6x9 is nice format with limited camera choices.
Mamiya Press is next.

 

[GregY]

When sheet film bigger than 4x5 goes from 5 € per one sheet, a lot of folks moved to 120 film, where roll goes for 10€.
6x9 is nice format with limited camera choices.
Mamiya Press is next.

Beyond the price $$, the Fuji 6x9 goes places that a view camera wouldn't work

 

[Prest_400]

I've had the GW690III since 2014 which back then was the best bang for the buck. I haven't tracked very recent prices but know there was a noticeable jump during the pandemic. Influencer hype wise I haven't seen which big video might have done anything recently.

They are spartan and reliable so far. If anything I wish I had gotten a GW680 sometime for that one more frame for color film. That, or a GSW. A few months ago there was a local auction where one mkII was sold for USD500 equivalent, others in another place for 700-900 take home price. So there are ways to get one below a grand with patience. I'd have bitten for the GSW IF I hadn't recently gotten a P645 with 35mm, but that's just a huge Half Frame P&S
IMO the 670 is a bit sub-optimal as one anyways carries what is a 6x9 camera but masked off. They are indeed more expensive than the 6x9s also!
A dream camera as a travel photographer is the Mamiya 6/7 but the prices are delulu so I forgot about it. I did bring my GW690 on an Asian trip and it's portable and convenient for its format. But I wish 220 existed for Kodak & Ilford, to make the film carrying more compact and convenient shots/roll. Again, for those discussing SLRs. A Hassie is travelable as a simple kit, but an RB67 already takes half of an usual carry on allowance.

Well Im reposting my video on the GW 690 and GSW 690 since its so popular again. I forgot to post it a while back, so it reminded me I have to upload it. Going to make a revision to it now, due to todays update on prices. Looks like if I want to get my copy of the GW/GSW cameras again, I'm going to have to bite the bullet on them.

Welcome to link it!

I've been wanting to do preventive maintenance on mine (EU) but a bit of a PITA reaching any of the recommended technicians so far; might be next season.

When sheet film bigger than 4x5 goes from 5 € per one sheet, a lot of folks moved to 120 film, where roll goes for 10€.
6x9 is nice format with limited camera choices.
Mamiya Press is next.

Indeed, I never picked up LF due to the cost and pace. Also, a decade ago film was cheap and nowadays 120 is twice the prices from then. The 690 is not as cheap to be trigger happy with as a 645 or 6x6 but those negs/slides. Ironically Slide what was made me want the 690 and I don't shoot chrome as much as I should. But have some Velvia for the colourful season coming

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've used a Sinar view camera in more precarious places than that Greg. But what Sella did with his huge plate camera makes us all look like wimps. In one of my books there's a picture of him hauling it straight up an icefall at 22,000 ft on Chogolisa.

If the wide angle perspective was appropriate for the anticipated scenery, I carried the GW690 ii with me on long-haul trips after I was 68 or so. But if I needed to home in on distant spires or foreground details, my idea of an older age lightweight system became 6X9 roll films backs for my little Ebony 4X5 folder. A compact 300 Nikkor M lens for 6x9 became the perspective equivalent of 450mm with 4x5 (i had 200 and 105 mm M's too; but generally preferred a trio
of 125 NW Fuji, 180 Fuji A, and 300 Nikkor M). The biggest problem with a view camera in the Wind River Range was more horsefly bites than quickie RF shooting (should be called Moose flies or Bighorn sheep flies there - you can't get above them).

For airline carry-on purposes, I have opted to carry both a Fuji 6X9 RF plus a P67 with a tele; or else, the RF plus a the Ebony 4x5. That gave me quite a bit of versatility. For car camping trips, the RF's plus an 8x10 system is realistic.