Fujifilm GA645Zi

[Curt]

Italy is getting closer in my sights so I needed to figure out exactly which film camera to take on our anniversery vacation. You know the trip that's supposed to be a second honeymoon. Our 40th that is. I'm nearly a hundred and fifty now so the 8x10 view camera is out.

I finally decided to take the advice of a very smart friend, Mark Barendt, who suggested some time back that the GA645Zi would be a great camera for travel. Well Mark it arrived from Japan today.

This is a work of art. I just can't find a fault. Mine is as close to new as one can get. Not one small scratch on it. The camera shop listed it as mint. That's a common word thrown out there so I had my fingers crossed. Fuji runs a couple of hundred test fires on its cameras so who ever had this one must have shot some film in the shop because it has had a few dozen rolls run through it.

There is a camera, case, lens cap, lens hood, neck strap. It did take some time to enter the data in but all is now intuitive. The standard orientation is portrait do the camera is turned for landscape. I'm going to love this travel camera. Oh, it has a flash and is either all automatic, manual, or aperture and the autofocus zoom lens can be set to manual too. It also reads and sets Fujifilm rolls. Let's see, Fujicolor? I haven't shot color film in ages!

$600.00 US.

Curt

Thanks Mark for putting that bug in my ear!

 

[tomalophicon]

Pictures, please.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Awesome. I love mine.

 

[Mark Fisher]

You will not be disappointed. Some of my best images this year were with this camera. It is really easy to handhold to very low shutter speeds.

 

[Klainmeister]

...if that 8x10 is becoming too much....

 

[mathomas]

Very good camera. I have several framed photos on the wall from it.

 

[ChuckP]

I've had mine for maybe 10 years and still think it's great. My display has the common problem of dropping a digit now and then but I'm used to it. I did get the instruction book with it and it did help me out in a few cases. But I'm one of those people who like to read the instruction books.

 

[Curt]

I read the instruction book and set the information in. Without the instructions getting the sequence for entries would have been nearly impossible. It's a complex camera behind that ease of use.

 

[Brian C. Miller]

I bought a GA645zi recently in excellent shape, and I've found that by and large, it's an excellent performer! Its focus locked onto pine trees and other things that I thought would confuse its autofocus system. The lens is extremely sharp, and it reads the bar codes on Fuji film. I do wish that it would meter at 3200, but what the hey, can't have everything!

The lens is quite sharp, and I haven't yet seen any flare problems that I've seen on other zoom lenses. It doesn't lend itself to "decisive moment" pictures unless the focus is manually set, but it's a very competent performer.

 

[mathomas]

I love mine, and consider it an ideal vacation/travel camera. I have more pictures on the wall from this camera than any other, and I have a lot of nice cameras to choose from. I recently did an overview of it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pybwbc0tQ

and some of my photos (quite varying in quality, but all my responsibility), on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=76198982@N00&q=fuji ga645zi

Hope it helps others evaluate this camera for their own purposes.

 

[Taylormade]

Where did you buy the camera from?

 

[mathomas]

Where did you buy the camera from?

If you're asking me, I got mine from eBay for, I think, $600.

 

[Taylormade]

Actually, that question was for the OP as to where he obtained his camera? I've been looking on ebay but not too impressed with the condition of several of the cameras. I'd love to have the black one but not sure it's worth the price premium.

Thanks!

 

[Taylormade]

Ah well, I decided to get a black one after all. It's about as mint as mint can get with only 600 shutter actuations, the original box, case, lens cap and hood. Can't wait to start dabbling in MF.

 

[Curt]

Hi all, I contacted several camera shops in Japan and found one that had what I wanted. I was going to wait until I could go to Japan but it came up and I got it just in time for the upcoming trip to Italy. I ran a roll of film through it and check the camera out. The frames are excellent. I have a travel tripod that I'm going to use when possible, ha ha, if I can and the part of the camera that I like the most is the vertical format in hand held position. 16 shots on a roll isn't bad either! What's not to like? Well I ordered a Crumpler neck strap, wow what a difference that makes. I envy those in New York who can just go to B&H etc. and check out all the gear. I bought a new cable release too.

So if you want one of these cameras just check everywhere until you find the one you like and go for it.