6x9 good camera availability

<p>Hi. I would like to know, if there is ANY good camera for 6x9 format.<br>

I mean, NO VINTAGE or old crap, but something newer, SLR, probably with a bit of new technology involve (autofocus, exposure, etc). I know that query for some can sound silly, but for me it seems, there is nothing such that on market. Everything goes to digital photography.<br>

I will appreciate any reasonable answer.<br>

Please DO NOT suggest 6x7, 6x6 or similar cameras, or anything in unreasonable high price.</p>

<p>Princess, there is nothing on the market that meets your requirements. You're stuck with very expensive modern 2x3 view cameras, if you want new and modern and, did I say?, expensive. Otherwise, its old crap. <em>All</em> fully manual. The modern 2x3 view cameras accept digital backs, all quite expensive and none near full frame.</p>

<p>Re crappy old SLRs, no 2x3 SLR can be used with lenses shorter than normal for the format. If you want wide angle lenses and 2x3 (2.25" x 3.25", really, 6x9 is a lousy metric approximation), you're stuck with view cameras and selected press cameras.</p>

<p>As they say, principessa, beggars can't be choosers. You come across as a beggar. I don't fault you for wanting a Maserati at an old Trabbi price -- who doesn't? -- but you'll be very lucky to get that, even fully manual. The closest you can come to champagne on a beer budget is probably a Mamiya Super 23 or Universal with the full lens kit; these beasties are fully manual and somewhat limited.</p>

<p>If you lower your sights a little, princesse, you can do what I've done. 2x3 Graphics (Pacemaker Speed and Century) and 2x3 Cambo (SC-1). Remember that the lenses matter much more than the box that holds lens and film apart and keeps the dark in. </p>

<p>As for automation, prinzessin, just throw down your crutches and walk. Its been done without supernatural intervention.</p>

<p>Re lenses, lenses interestingly shorter than normal for the format aren't inexpensive. Go price a 35/4.5 Apo-Grandagon <em>and</em> the center filter for it. I use mine on a Century Graphic and on a hybrid Cambo [long story] that shoots 6x12. It won't quite make infinity on my SC-1.</p>

<p>Fuji GSW 690III.</p>

<p>Well I think Dan was a little harsh--just a little, because you came in with both a hugely unreasonable and unreconcilable set of demands <em>and</em> an attitude--but the fact remains that nothing close to what you want has ever existed, and certainly not without spending a lot of money.</p>

<p>The modern 6x9's are manual to the extreme, basically small view cameras that can take digital backs (or 6x9 or other size film backs). As Jim suggested, Fuji did make some nice 6x9 rangefinders not <em>too</em> long ago, but they are also quite manual, not having even built-in light meters. So other than rangefinder focusing being faster and easier than ground-glass focusing, no help there.</p>

<p>I know this doesn't meet your demands, but IMO the closest thing might be something like a Rollie 6008AF, which is an automated (auto-focus, auto-exposure, and I think auto-frame-advance) 6x6 SLR. That is the biggest film frame you can shoot with "new technology". And a Rollie 6008AF kit will still be quite expensive. (The Hy-6 is somewhat newer, but even more expensive.)</p>

<p>In fact, if I had to guess about your price range (I don't know what is an "unreasonable high price"), your best bet may be a Fuji GA645Zi. Yes, it's only 645 film, but it is highly automated, even has a modest-range zoom lens, and you can probably find a decent one for $600 or so.</p>

<p>Mr Fromm, this is one <a href="https://plus.google.com/103337364495946347176/posts">scary looking princess</a>.</p>

<p>Your requirements (good, not old, not expensive) are mutually exclusive. Good tends to be expensive. The only 6x9 cameras I know of in current production are such as Arca Swiss, Sinar and Linhof and they are mightily expensive. Other than that they tend to be old, e.g. Mamiya Press. Even the most recent (Fuji) 6x9 went out of production a good few years ago.</p>

<p>Where did you do your research? I'm not really well versed in the world of MF, but I know that it is hard enough to find a 6x6 or 645 with autofocus and/or AE that is usable and not exceedingly expensive, much less the larger formats. Just learn to take pictures without it...</p>

<p>Mr. Sims, it whines and makes unreasonable demands like a princess. Or perhaps a little prince that has no rose and no downed aviator to housebreak it.<br />______<br />|........ |<br />|........ |<br />---------<br /><br />The camera you want, Grendel, is in the box above.</p>

<p>You should mention what you intend to photograph and whether fixed lens can do the job or not. It has been less than 10 years that the two Fuji RF cameras (65mm or 90mm lenses) went out of production and they are indeed very modern manual operation cameras with very fine optics, obtainable in excellent condition, each for well under $1000. Not SLR (I know of none that is SLR that is reasonably priced), but very useful in many circumstances.</p>

<p>That's it. There isn't anything else at reasonable price, other than a LF type camera (which also is not SLR).</p>

<p>I've been shooting 6x9 since 1972. I now use a 6x9 Cambo 23SF view camera and am very happy with it. Hard to find and pricey when you do, it's worth the hunt.<br>

Other options have been mentioned. I used Speed Graphics, folders, Galvin 23, etc but like the Cambo the best. Arca Swiss made some fine 6x9 view cameras as well.</p>

<p>If I didn't have the Cambo I'd get the Fuji 6x9 rangefinder.<br>

God luck!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Pretty much state of the art in 2x3 SLRs: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum51/83928-plaubel-makiflex-standard.htm</p>

<p>OP, go over to APUG and search for Makiflex, there are other discussions about them. And use Google to search for Arca Swiss Reflex. After thinking about an AS Reflex I went far, far astray with a 2x3 Graflex RB Ser. B. Long story. What you should know about 2x3 AS Reflexes, from a friend who has one and lives in Besancon, where Arca Swiss is now located, is that AS is very reluctant to overhaul his camera. Very.</p>

<p>Also look into the Musashino Optika.</p>

<p>None of these is good enough for you, all are fully manual, although some Makiflex lenses have diaphragm automation (stop down themselves when the button is pushed). And they're all very hard to find, especially in good working order.</p>

<p>Fuji GSW 690III though a rang finder and not autofocus, takes excellent pictures. If you want 6x9 then you are going to have to adjust your expectations both in price and nature of the camera. But the Fuji's are actually reasonable. They are not new, but they are not "vintage" and I haven't got a clue what you mean by "old crap". So your right, there doesn't seem to be anything on the market that fits all your desires.</p>

<p>Also, Voigtlander makes two Bessa 6x7 'folder' cameras. No 6x9.</p>

<p>For the OP -- I had the same search in mind. I wound up with two cameras:<br>

- A "baby" century graphic<br>

- Mamiya press, a rangefinder camera with excellent modern lenses. </p>

<p>Either would be an excellent starting point.</p>

<p>Many cameras mentioned are vintage and most not of the quality of more recent 6x9 cameras (e.g. Fuji GW or GSW 690 III);</p>

<p>Some of those that are more recent or of high quality (Arca-Swiss, field camera 6x9, etc) are not SLR or even rangefinder and are very expensive. SLRs like the Pentax 67 are limited to 6x7;</p>

<p>You have to either sacrifice SLR capability and downsize, or accept RF-VF type cameras if you want something modern.</p>

<p>If there was a market for a 6x9 SLR there would be one. There isn't. There was a bulky 4x5 SLR of small production volume but it probably does not exist today. Otherwise, if you need 6x9, you can acquire a field camera with 4x5inch and/or 6x9 cm capability, or acquire a fixed lens Fuji.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If you can move down from 6X9 to 6X8 you can look at the Fuji GX-680 series cameras. These are large, heavy and require manual focusing but prices have come down. There are reasonably priced field type 4X5 cameras which will accept 6X9 backs. An overhauled Kodak Medalist or Medalist II with conversion to 120 film is capable of excellent results. It's a rangefinder camera, not an SLR and exposure and focus are manual, not automatic. I use 6X7 SLR cameras. Some have automatic exposure but none has auto focus. These cameras are large enough. A 6X9 version would be even larger. </p>

<p>Jeff, the OP was very firm about its wishes. It wants what it wants when it wants it where it wants it as it wants it, will accept no substitutes. Better nothing than to have something that's not exactly what it wants. And the price had better be right, too.</p>

<p>I once worked with a nice young lady who answered (no kidding) to Miss Piggy. Blonde, chubby, squealed and referred to herself as moi. Anyway, one day Miss P. and I went out to lunch. On the way back to the office she told me that it was her birthday and asked what I was going to give her for her birthday. Well, I said, your mother raised you to believe that nothing is good enough for you so that's what I'm giving you. Nothing. She was not pleased. Or amused.</p>

<p>The OP's given name puts me in mind of the great epic Beowulf. I wonder if it tears arms off.</p>

<p>Dan, there are two reasons someone would make a posting with an unrealistic question. The first is that the person may be a troll. The second is that the person is either unrealistic or immature or just profoundly ignorant. Someone other than the OP might benefit from the information others provide but if the OP is really a troll or unrealistic or immature or profoundly ignorant then making fun of her/him will probably not change that situation. </p>

<p>The closest you can get to meeting this list of demands (there's no other word for it) would be by dropping the image format width by 1 cm (8 mm actually). Then there are 6x8 cm SLRs with modest levels of automation: Fuji GX680, and Mamiya RB ProSD with a 6x8 motorized back. Both have metering prisms available, but no autofocus.</p>

<p>Ray, you raised a good point. </p>

<p>It prompted me to look up the GX680's specifications. 6x8, as Fuji interprets it, is 56 mm x 76 mm. This is only 2 mm shorter than late Graflex 2x3 roll holders (RH-8, Graphic 23 with pin rollers) and 6 mm shorter than the typical 6x9 roll holder. So perhaps one version or another of the GX680 might do for the OP if it can scrape up the funds to buy one. Heavy thing, though.</p>

<p>Jeff, I appreciate y'r thoughtful comments. The OP could be a troll, but since it doesn't seem to be a native speaker of English -- congratulations to all posters whose first language isn't English who take the trouble to try to communicate with us in our language -- this seems unlikely. The OP's continued silence is, though, consistent with trolling (post and run). And I'm not sure how ignorant it is. I mean, it was very firm about what it wants and doesn't want.</p>

<p>Dan and Jeff, the issues you're discussing are substantial ones if we want photo.net to remain a useful community. I suspect the OP's tone is a mixture of (1) not being a native English-speaker, (2) maybe coming from a culture the norms of which do not give him reason to see that this tone would be taken as somewhat offensive to people from the UK and US (hate to speak for Oz and NZ), and (3) a genuinely strident approach. His only other post I see appears to have similar issues:<br>

http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00c23n<br>

I don't know the answer to this general photo.net problem. I just suggest that we try not to assume the worst of those for whom our language is difficult, and for whom our respective cultures have somewhat different norms. Conversely, anyone who comes here or anywhere to ask strangers for free advice should try to be respectful and polite.</p>

<p>P.S.<br>

Ray's suggestion of a Mamiya with a 6x8 back is a very good one that didn't occur to me until pretty late. It gives the OP a fairly modern SLR of <em>almost</em> 6x9 size; of course, there's no auto-focus, and the metering is comparatively primitive.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Ray, you raised a good point.<br>

It prompted me to look up the GX680's specifications. 6x8, as Fuji interprets it, is 56 mm x 76 mm.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Thanks, Dan. Mamiya's interpretation of 6x8 is also 76mm wide.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>this tone would be taken as somewhat offensive to people from the UK and US (hate to speak for Oz and NZ)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Hey Dave, if you're including piddling little English-speaking countries like NZ, don't omit Ireland - we're also in that category ;)<br>

And the entire nation of Canada must be grumbling into their mountain-cold beers at this slight, wondering "why not us, AGAIN?"</p>

 

<p>Ray, you're right, and I meant no slight to Ireland (being an American whose largest fraction of ancestry is Irish, but with German, English, French, Spanish, and Scottish too!) or Canada. I just feel like I have a better sense of what would be regarded as offensive in the UK and the US than I do for other countries. Also, I had the impression that in Ireland many weren't all that thrilled with the whole English language thing (however universal it may have become), feeling dispossessed of your/their native/ancestral language; and of course Canada has French too. And it wouldn't surprise me if English is the most widely-understood language in South Africa, and ... there's no way I can exit this gracefully, is there? I'll just end by admitting that I wish I could speak / understand / read / write some other useful language half as well as many of the non-native English speakers here do with English.</p>

 

Gx680 is a good camera and the extra cm is not a major issue. It is very big and heavy and the lenses (and filters) are

massive but excellent. I like mine but it is about as portable as a small large format camera. I would actually prefer a little

less automation. The MkIII is the best bet but be careful as not all accessories are interchangeable and the MkI has a

battery challenge although there are solutions. Let me know if you are interested and I can offer. Ore advice

<p>Dave, I was just kidding around of course. I laughed at your droll "there's no way I can exit this gracefully, is there?"</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Also, I had the impression that in Ireland many weren't all that thrilled with the whole English language thing (however universal it may have become), feeling dispossessed of your/their native/ancestral language</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Actually, only a tiny minority care about that or still use the Irish language in everyday situations. Maybe 2% of the <5 million population, mostly in pockets called Gaeltachts on the wild western fringes. The rest of us are very ambivalent about it. The State likes to keep up the pretence that it still matters (with road signage, official documents, some radio & TV broadcasting etc. in both languages) but privately, politicians will tell you that it's a considerable waste of money and effort and they'd truthfully like to be rid of the century-old hypocrisy that a language revival is both possible and desirable. That horse bolted in the mid-1800s, when the people embraced English because it is *useful* if you want to get ahead in the world, and there is no going back. But certain things are just too politically toxic to be honest about; they've become national articles of faith even when they are patently nonsense. I'm sure it's the same in the US, where a certain vocal faction would get all over the President if he were to admit that, you know, maybe we shouldn't be invoking this 'God' chap all the time.</p>