That’s the question I had awhile ago, and in order to answer it, I got myself the Fujifilm GW690III, a medium format fixed lens camera. It shoot film at 6×9 ratio, probably the largest you can get, completely manual for both focusing and exposure, built like a tank, and works like a charm. I wanted a taste of medium format myself, so instead of buying a digital back with interchangeable lens system, I decided to just keep it simple.
The Fujifilm GW690III was a great medium format camera. But why I decided to sell it? Well, my issue was not too much on the camera itself, but rather on handling of film. As the negative was so huge, it’s hard to get it flatten for a proper scan, and you really need a good scanner to extract the very best bits of it. Hence, I can’t do the negatives justice, and getting them scanned by the lab cost a bomb.
So is medium format really worth the hassle? Well, it really depends on what you want to use it for. For landscape, hell yes. The amount of details you can extract, the huge print you can enlarge and make, it’s really jaw dropping coming from full frame. The same advantages go to shooting still life products and portraitures. Everything else? Well, I personally don’t see a need but you will be your own judge.
Looking beyond film, currently there were a few high megapixels full frame digital cameras that offer similar advantages at a much lower price point, hence eating into the pie of medium format cameras. However, digital medium format still has some other advantages (such as tonality) that position them better, but that’s a whole different story that I’ll not go through today. All in all, I really enjoyed using this camera and shooting with medium format, but it’s not what I need at the moment. So it’s time to say goodbye and hopefully someone will make better use of it. Till then.
It’s been two years since I made a switch from my Fujifilm X-series mirrorless to Leica M rangefinder camera. Within the short two years of time, I started off by trying out on the Leica M9-P and subsequently decided to go for the Leica M-P Typ 240 as my main camera system. This is followed by the addition of Zeiss Ikon, Hasselblad Xpan and Fujifilm GW690III, where all of them are rangefinder cameras.
Any regrets? Well, there were of course moments of rant, but all in all I’m fairly happy with what I can achieve with these cameras and the shooting experience they provide. Using a rangefinder and manual focusing is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, just like not everyone can appreciate driving a vintage or manual car. Yes I do missed out some moments, I do screwed things up occasionally and ruin my shots, but that just proven to myself that my skills are still lacking and needs to be improved further. I have nothing but myself to blame if I get things wrong.
Throughout the two years, I really learned a lot, and I do saw the rooms for further improvement, though my growth process is somewhat slow. Well, it’s okay, I shouldn’t stress myself up, end of the day it’s my hobby and it should be enjoyable rather than stressful. I’ll try my best to stay focus and stick to what I have now. I want to spend more time improving my skills before I make the next change. What will my next change be? When will it happen? I wonder. For now, I’ll just indulge myself in using my rangefinder camera to shoot and create more pictures that I’ll be proud of. Till then.
Recently everyone is raving about the launch of Fujifilm Medium Format camera… I can’t resist the temptation and hence wanted to get one for myself… but I don’t have the money to spare… so I bought something “equivalent” at about 20 times cheaper instead 😛 Enter to the world of medium format with Fujifilm GW690III… Okay, joke aside. Actually I bought this camera quite some time ago, just that I haven’t really spend much time using it, hence I didn’t share much about it. I have shot a couple of rolls of film with it and thought that perhaps I can share a little of initial impression for now.
I’m always curious about “medium format” and wonder what’s so special about it. It’s common for you to see remarks such as “the medium format look” or “the medium format bokeh” on the internet, but is that all medium format offers? I wonder. Hence, I decided to check it out by myself. Getting a digital medium format is not cheap, and I certainly wouldn’t spend that amount of money just to test out something. After much research, I decided to go with the compact medium format cameras such as the GA645, GF670 and GW690 series released by Fujifilm. I happened to come across a used set of GW690III in a bargain price and hence bought it over.
GW690III is a 6X9 medium format rangefinder camera with a fixed 90mm f/3.5 lens. This lens translate to around 39mm in focal length (35mm equivalent), it has 1/500s leaf shutter that syncs with flash at all shutter speeds via a hotshoe or PC port, therefore making it a versatile to be used for different type of shots. All in all, it is a simple camera with no built-in light meter, no lens changing, no auto film advance and no removable film back. You just load your film, set your aperture and shutter speed, focus your lens and start snapping away. You only get 8 shots out of a roll of 120 film though, so every shot counts.
Operation wise, the viewfinder is fairly bright and clear, but the rangefinder patch is a little small and dim, hence it might be hard to focus at times. There are two shutter buttons on the camera (one on top and one in front) which are convenient as user get to decide which is more convenient to be used. It also features a shutter lock mechanism which prevents the shutter from firing accidentally when it’s in your bag. You will need to pull out the built in lens hood in order to access the shutter speed and aperture adjustment (both on the lens). All in all, the camera is fairly compact and reasonably light (or heavy) for what it offers.
About that gigantic 6X9 negatives. I’m not too sure whether there’s any difference in terms of the tones and gradations between full frame and medium format negatives, but what immediately stands out is the amount of details it managed to capture. I can still recall my jaw dropped when I view the scanned negatives for the first time on my computer screen. The depth of field for medium format is certainly shallower when compared to full frame. Perhaps these are the reasons why professionals like to use medium format to capture their portraiture or fashion work. The bokeh of this lens is pleasing, though not remarkably magnificent.
There are of course some “down side” in shooting with such large negatives. When shooting full frame, I can easily achieve focus from foreground to background when I stopped the lens to around F11 or so. But with medium format, I’ll need to go much further to somewhere like F22 or more in order to get the maximum depth of field that I need when shooting landscape. However, this does mean that I’ll either need a higher ISO film (for shorter shutter speed) or to shoot with longer shutter speed on a tripod. Those are the things you’ll need to take into account and workaround. Yes, this is what the camera does best – to slow you down and make you think before you shoot.
All in all, I do enjoy shooting with this camera very much. For hobbyist like me, this is perhaps the best-bang-for-the-buck option to get myself dipped into the world of medium format. Honestly, I don’t really see myself switching over to shoot medium format more often. However, it does gives me a good refreshing feeling when I picked it up and shoot a roll or two. There will certainly be occasions where it will become invaluably useful. I’ll try to shoot more with this camera in the days to come and we shall see what I can squeeze out of it. Till then, happy shooting!
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