I've been happily using my GW690III for about seven years now. This is a truly basic camera - a thousand dollar lens on a hundred dollar box. The Fujinon lens is absolutely outstanding. The GW690III has a 90mm lens, which is a bit wider than the 105mm found on most 6X9 cameras. That's actually something of an advantage for landscape photography, but may be a disadvantage for portraits. The only real "funny" with this camera is the T setting on the Copal shutter. It is a true "Time" setting, but the shutter remains open after release until you rotate the the shutter speed ring to one of the time settings - something of an inconvenience. Put the camera through its paces with a few rolls. That Fujinon lens is so good you may stop lusting for the Biogon.
That ridiculous T setting hopefully never( it's not present in this model so it seems), but I'm planing to use that B quite a lot, after all, the camera is surelly going out for some night photography.
Ari, she probably just bought Andre the camera so he wouldn't enter the wife-carrying contest again this year. He'd be on the sidelines trying out his new camera.
I have one of these too. Bought I really bad condition one from KEH a while ago. It looks like a piece of junk but works perfectly. I love the simplicity of it. Aperture and shutter speed on the barrel of the lens and, eh, that's about it. I find it too big and unwieldy for me to use hand-held though, especially since there is no meter. The lens is brilliant obviously ...
My only problem with it though is the 6x9 format. I think the 2:3 ratio just looks weird so I always end up cropping to a more 3:4 like ratio. I would much prefer if it was 6x8 and then you would squeeze an extra negative onto the roll. Small complaint though .. I still really enjoy using mine.
"I wanted to sell my Rolleiflex to finance the new purchase, but she veto the intention, I don't know why, she loves the freaking camera but never used it, I don't get it!"
It's because Rolleis are sexy.
You have to listen to her and keep it.[/QU
Too true,?Fujis are wonderful tools but functionality is there main atribute.