Medium format PS help

pradheep thavamani · Oct 6, 2020

Looking to buy PS medium format camera. I am thinking of buying either Fujifilm GA645Wi or Zi. Any suggestions?

Alan9940 · Oct 6, 2020

I own a Zi and it's a great camera, but you have to be careful in buying one. Most common issues are LCD bleed and problems with the ribbon cable that goes between the camera back and the body. No experience with the other Fuji you mentioned, but IMO I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

pradheep thavamani · Oct 6, 2020

Alan9940 said:
I own a Zi and it's a great camera, but you have to be careful in buying one. Most common issues are LCD bleed and problems with the ribbon cable that goes between the camera back and the body. No experience with the other Fuji you mentioned, but IMO I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

Thanks for the info.

halfaman · Oct 6, 2020

I think also that the Fuji GA645's are the closest thing to a medium format PS camera I ever saw.

gijsbert · Oct 6, 2020

I have the GA645Wi, it's great, auto focus works well, image quality very good. The manual focus ergonomics is not great but it works, no range finder so zone focus only, apart from that the ergonomics are quite good, nice grip. It's pretty light ~900gr and with the retractable lens it fits easily in many small bags so it's great for travel, I don't think it stayed home on any of my trips since I got it!

Tripod landscape shooting is a bit bothersome because of the default portrait orientation. I guess one could get a bracket to make it easier. The lenses are not very fast, F/4, so for low light photography it is not the best, although with the leaf shutter it is possible to handhold at low shutter speeds.

The non-Zi models should't have the lcd/ribbon cable problem.

abruzzi · Oct 6, 2020

yeah the earlier models put the LCD on the top of the cameras so a constantly flexing ribbon isn't an issue. I have the Zi and it takes great pictures. For a P&S having a zoom is nice, though it means the lens is pretty slow.

The later Pentax 645s (the N and the NII) can function as point and shoots since they can do auto exposure, auto focus, and auto wind, but they're a lot larger and may not fit your definition of P&S. The later Mamiya 645s had, I believe, AF and AE, though not sure about film advance. Also the Contax 645 is auto focus, and I assume AE and maybe motorized film advance--I've never looked that close at them. However the Contax and Mamiya, like the Pentax aren't particularly small..

Jim Blomfield · Oct 6, 2020

Fujifilm GA645zi +2! Remarkable as point and shoot with amazingly sharp lens. The small zoom is a definite bonus.

fabulousrice · Oct 7, 2020

pradheep thavamani said:
Looking to buy PS medium format camera. I am thinking of buying either Fujifilm GA645Wi or Zi. Any suggestions?

Like the other ones have said, be careful with the models that have the LCD screen at the back because mine worked fine and then the screen / computer of the camera became unusable.
I can no longer use manual features, check that the correct speed of the film was detected, etc. At the end of the day, it's mostly a luxury point and shoot - not even a reflex, difficult to use in manual mode, etc.

pradheep thavamani · Oct 8, 2020

Thanks for the information.

Medium format PS help

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