Fuji GW 690 Prices Japan

[GregY]

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.

Drew..... as an examiner on a guides course... i wouldn't stop the flow of the day of to set up a view camera and take a photo. You're right about Sella.... he's my hero.
(BTW you can't tell the precariousness of a situation by one photo. But we know your penchant for one upsmanship here.)

 

[Chuck1]

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.

Prices aren't going down...

 

[Craig]

But we know your penchant for one upsmanship here.)

You mean you don't believe the story of climbing K2 solo in an afternoon while carrying a 16x20 camera and managing to get a 27 stop range of tones on Tmax 100? Naturally, the images were perfectly sharp despite having to work around the sonic booms from passing Concordes

 

[250swb]

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

There is a genuine premium on the GW670/III, it is comparatively rare. But the 6x7 format is a dream compared with other 6x7 cameras available, mine is 'mint' and has 170 on the counter (maybe plus that for however many times it been rolled over?) but equates to just 1700 shutter actuations based on one digit equals ten actuations, so a long way to go for 9,900 shots when the counter resets from 999.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Greg - guiding parties? That would sure limit your personal time. One upmanship wasn't the point. I know you've done some tricky shooting yourself, but was trying to be more teasing than bragging. Really early on I used an ice axe attachment to mount my P67. It wasn't very versatile. I moved on to 4x5 for the next several decades, and when I got back into 6x7 again, most of our glaciers here were already gone! Just a handful left in the High Sierra now. And we've just had the hottest March on record which melted 80 to 90% of this winter's snowpack.

Yesterday ran into a fellow on my very modest knee workout ridge up the canyon from me who had seen Chogolisa from a distance from a high pass in Ladakh, but didn't remember the name of the peak. But it's enormous. That's where a climbing companion of my nephew was kidnapped by his own Pakastani Liaison officer and held for ransom.
When he finally managed to escape, he published a book, Dangerous Liaisons (John Climaco). My nephew was on the Chinese side of K2 & Broad Peak at the time.

(Incidentally, Craig, at the time, my nephew was with the man who discovered that remote side of the Karakoram for the very first time, from the summit of Broad Peak on its first ascent - the legendary Kurt Diemberger - also the oldest man to ever climb K2, and sole survivor of its most lethal incident - and also a mountain photographer who's 35mm work is, uh, er, well, let's just say, rather disappointing once you've seen what Sella did in that part of the world). I don't know about Concordes, but Tibetan Geese have been spotted flying higher than the summits of K2 and Everest, and have much better fuel economy, and maybe a little spatter in the wake, but no contrails.

Getting older has its disadvantages. My companion on my last long mtn trek slipped in a motel shower last week and broke his collarbone. Bones get brittle. My finger joints have a lot of pain. No more steep stuff for me - not even a tall extension ladder. (I've improvised a long pole detail sander to reach high trim on the outside of my house - I'm surprised nobody had tried to market one of those).

 

[mshchem]

I crashed my F-18 onto Denali and had to ski down using a toboggan made from my 20x24 plate holders!

 

[GregY]

I crashed my F-18 onto Denali and had to ski down using a toboggan made from my 20x24 plate holders!

 

[GregY]

There is a genuine premium on the GW670/III, it is comparatively rare. But the 6x7 format is a dream compared with other 6x7 cameras available, mine is 'mint' and has 170 on the counter (maybe plus that for however many times it been rolled over?) but equates to just 1700 shutter actuations based on one digit equals ten actuations, so a long way to go for 9,900 shots when the counter resets from 999.

There certainly is now, but before the rush, the 67 was the cheapest....i guess since other 6x7 were available....

 

[mshchem]

There certainly is now, but before the rush, the 67 was the cheapest....i guess since other 6x7 were available....

Minilab printer scanners like Frontier have carriers that max out at 6x7, anything bigger means manual scanning which is a pain for labs. I think this is prime reason 6x7 is so desired. I still print optically since I'm scanning impaired.

 

[itsdoable]

Best I can do is dragging a X-Pan Telemark Ski touring in the Wells Grey area. I thought I had taken the GSW690 too, but no, I took a Plaubel Makina 67.

The prices of these reflects the current demand and limited supply, they were never big selling items.

 

[DREW WILEY]

(??) The big film lab near here in Oakland has automated scanning even for 6X9, right onto digitally exposed RA4 postcard size snapshots up to 12X18 inch maximum. Drum scans are optional and way more expensive; but they'd have to output those on inkjet - they don't have a Lambda or Chromira laser printer. You get what you pay for, of course. And those are economy snapshot prints. They do a little bit of corrective printing or cropping per request; but the mass production "digified" or "digi-doofed" color isn't great. They use Fuji Superia.

I use them just for what they're best at - color film developing per se (they accept both C41 and E6 film up to 8x10).
But it's amazing just how much largely amateur 35mm and 120 film work they take in. There's a huge resurgence in demand for real film, just like for vinyl records; but except for instant film cameras, most of that gets digitally printed by various local specialty labs. Home desktop inkjet printing is far more likely to begin with small size digital capture. That whole section of the city is turning into a budget art colony with murals and interestingly painted houses, sculpture etc.
It's nice to see these creative types displacing the skid row drug trade look; but it's still in a Port & Industrial setting with horrible air quality.

 

[Jarno]

Over here also, my lab has a Noritsu which does 6x9max. Love the mountainscapes!

 

[DREW WILEY]

The big film lab here is only five miles further down the freeway from the small lab which can't process sheet film. But that extra 5 mi. is exactly where traffic snarls up so badly, so that it adds an extra hour round trip except for a brief 3 hr commute window around midday. So I still use the smaller service with their Noritsu when just 120 film is involved (1 day turnaround).

 

[Klaus_H]

I wouldn't rely on the frame counter reading. I purchased two GW690 IIs and one GSW690 II. The three cameras were overhauled at two different repair shops. The shutters were “only” inspected, not replaced or repaired. Nevertheless, the frame counters were reset to 000. When I inquired, I was told that this is the “standard procedure” when overhauling Fujis. The frame counter can also be reset very easily by anyone who isn’t a technician. I suspect that only on a few Fuji GW6x0 and GSW6x0 models does the counter show the actual number of exposure since the last shutter service.

 

[ChrisGalway]

Is the shutter on the GW690 prone to premature failure any more than any other leaf-shutter camera? Is it fundamentally a worse design or construction?

I ask because on this and other forums, people raise the shutter count issue for these cameras more often than for any other camera. (For example, I don't see this issue raised for the Mamiya 7ii, or Super-Ikontas for that matter.) I've tested my GW690 for accuracy and repeatability, and it's almost spot on, unusual for a camera of this age.

 

[Klaus_H]

As far as I know, the shutter in the GW and GSW 6x0 cameras is a standard COPAL shutter. According to the two repair shops that overhauled my cameras, there is no reason why the shutter in these cameras should require more maintenance than in other cameras. The reference to service intervals in the user manual underscores the camera’s “professional” credentials.
The frame counter is probably mentioned so often in forums because it is easy to read. This is a unique feature that leads people to attach disproportionate importance to the counter.

 

[koraks]

I ask because on this and other forums, people raise the shutter count issue for these cameras more often than for any other camera

I think what's going on is a simple matter of "we manage what we can measure". If there had been no counter on these cameras, nobody would have raised the issue of shutter lifetime, just like we don't do this with Schneider etc large format lenses.

 

[DREW WILEY]

It's fairly easy to tell if a counter has been reset if you compare it to the general condition of the camera. One of mine came still boxed in papers and was mint, mint, mint. Not a trace of wear. So I had every reason to believe only 5 or 6 rolls had gone through it. The older one, that I bought at around 400 on the counter, seemed realistic for its degree of wear.

These cameras were popular not only with group shot pros, but probably even more with amateurs in Japan, who likely never serviced then anyway. There sure are a lot of them around; and I suspect the fears of a counter reset are overstated on more recent models

One of the bigger problems with older cameras is that the rangefinder window can get somewhat smudged or smogged up inside; and it's a bit of a pain in the butt to get inside there to clean it.

 

[John Wiegerink]

I had, at one time, owned three Fuji's, one 645 and two 6X9's. Only had a problem with the 645 and repaired it myself. The two 6X9 cameras were faultless. I sold them for reasons that I have now forgot and thought about picking one up for a travel camera again. That was until I checked the price they were going for. Ouch! The GW690 and 670 camera prices are just not worth it for me and I decided to look for a cheap GL690 outfit because the last time I check on those they were selling for almost nothing. Well, surprised again! The GL690 prices have also gone sky-high. I guess I'll just have to suffer along with my old Kodak Medalist II and Super Ikonta C late model if I want to shoot 6X9. I could do worse I guess.