GS645W front plate ersatz

[bernard_L]

My Fujica GS645W is one of my favorite cameras since purchased ~15yrs ago. Bought (naively) as a landscape camera, soon came to appreciate that 28mm (equivalent) can be a general-purpose field of view (well, maybe not portrait or wildlife...)
I often take it with me on hikes. Last summer I lost the front plate and realized only when it was too late; probably was already loose from a previous shock. So I drew (Inkscape) two parts and had them laser-cut for a reasonable cost (25€ including postage).

The diffuser to illuminate the framelines was cut from a sheet of plastic from a dead TV LCD screen. With the proper glue(s), the new bezel is assembled and affixed to the camera top.

Sure, it is missing the "wide" lettering, but aprt from that does it not look like the real thing? Anyway it is a user camera.

Tech details.

• The two parts were made from 2mm thick PMMA (aka plexiglas).
• Laser cutting by plaqueplastique.fr good quality and prompt delivery, but inept technical/customer service.
• PMMA bonds to itself and to whatever plastic the GS634W body is made of using methyl metacrylate glue (aka superglue); strong bond
• My diffusing sheet (from TV screen) was probably some polyethylene, anyway, preliminary
• tests showed it did not bond with superglue; I bought some Loctite superglue "Plastics" that includes an activator/primer.

Now go out and take pictures.