Photographers who shoot Fuji GW690 i/ii/iii

[loccdor]

I loved using the Fuji GW690, while it worked. The huge, bright viewfinder was fantastic. The lens quality is stellar. But after putting around 30 rolls into it, the shutter has frozen up from old grease. I've spent more than a year now trying to get someone to repair it. It's too expensive for me to buy another with not enough people around who can service them. But if yours is in working condition, it's brilliant.

The downside to the pictures from this camera, as the original poster alluded to, is that the lens is so "perfect" and format is so large that images can come out looking digital, without the character that many expect from film shots.

 

[Prest_400]

There was a Photo book released reasonably recently, but I don't remember the Author nor name...
She was a photographer that in 2023-24 published photographs of the 70-90s of mostly American street, of people "hanging out" around. For the life of me I cannot remember, but I did listen to a podcast interview. She mentioned using a Fuji medium format camera of a large size and few exposures that gave an excellent quality. Aside of that there was an interesting discussion of the societal changes compared to now.

I loved using the Fuji GW690, while it worked. The huge, bright viewfinder was fantastic. The lens quality is stellar. But after putting around 30 rolls into it, the shutter has frozen up from old grease. I've spent more than a year now trying to get someone to repair it. It's too expensive for me to buy another with not enough people around who can service them. But if yours is in working condition, it's brilliant.

The downside to the pictures from this camera, as the original poster alluded to, is that the lens is so "perfect" and format is so large that images can come out looking digital, without the character that many expect from film shots.

Print larger! I do like to maximise image quality and rarely end up thinking "it looks digital". The 90mm FOV and DoF limitations do make a quasi Large format look that can be approached by very fast lenses in smaller sensor formats, but 6x9 is large. No replacement for displacement some would say.
I have fingers crossed for servicing. My GW690III has been with me for 10 years and I am planning to finally do a long trip using it as main camera. Hope everything goes well.