Thank you EVERYONE again! I've read every reply and have a LOT to think about. Basically I have analyzed my own wants in this situation and have boiled it down to this.
I want everything to be pre-planned with all variables known before I pull the trigger and buy this Fujifilm medium format camera. I want no risk.
That may have been reasonable in the past, but clearly is not today. The film world is just too different. I've been away from film for 10 years or so; much has changed.
So, if I go with the GF670, a lot will be unknown. What is known is that I can start shooting easily. I have access to every possible roll of 120 film still in production. I just dont know where to develop it. All the major labs here in Shanghai have a serious reputation for scratching negatives. There is very little concern for quality. Printing is a huge unknown. There may be somewhere out there that can print. I just dont know where that is. I'll have to search out a developing lab and a printing lab, but in the meantime I can shoot and enjoy that part of the process.
A lot have suggested doing this at home. At the very best I can see doing b & w development at home. Printing at home is not an option at all. I'm not even certain I can print at home as every single room in my house has very very large windows. Even the bathroom. It will take an enormous amount of work to black them out. We'll see.
I am confident that b & w film will be around for as long as I need it. I primarily a color shooter but perhaps when I see the negatives from a 6 X 7 camera, I will like b & w more. Color film is very hard to see into the future. Kodak is the main color shooter and they are in struggling to stay alive now. I find their strategy very very disappointing. I see no future for them but instead a company that is cashing out while they can. Since their film business has not been downsized, I cannot see how they can transfer it to a smaller group of investors. They are still set up for mass scale production. Also, movies are going digital at a phenomenal rate, which will hasten the end of color film. At least Kodak's film. Fujifilm might survive if they pick up the bulk of Kodak's customers.
I am reasonably certain that if I determine again to cease shooting film, then I can resell the GF670 for a decent amount of money. So the overall cost of the camera is not a big deal to me anymore.
What is most important to me, the print, is the most problematic. Ironically, my second choice is also a Fujifilm camera, the Instax 210. OK, stop laughing now. I know that the Fuji Instax film will not even be slightly close to the GF670's prints. But they will be prints. I want real, tangible prints from my time here in China. That is first and foremost my goal. I've been to the shops here that sell film and they also sell the Instax cameras. On the wall are hundreds of prints from the Instax. Surprisingly good compared to what I remember Polariods to look like. The camera is a joke unfortunately. Plastic, cheap feeling, a real toy camera. But it is only $80 so the cost is certainly right. I can shoot enormous amounts of film before I hit the $1600 price of the GF670. I just wish the Instax 210 camera wasnt such an ugly looking toy.
Thanks again everyone. This is a real nice forum. I hope some day to be a film shooter and participate more on the practical end, rather than the theoretical, outsider's end.
