6x9 rangefinder

I am interrested in MF for landscape photography and 6x9 format more interresting than 6x7 especially. Moreover, film processing and full frame printing is easily available where I live. Lightweight is an issue, so no MF SLR, only rangefinder. However I only know about the Fuji GWS690. Are there any other 6x9 rangefinder ? The Mamiya 7, though 6x7 format, has built-in meter and interchangeable lenses that are supposedly state-of-the-art. How do the 65 or 80mm lenses compare with the lens of the GSW690 ?

Thanks.

Some 2x3 field cameras do have coupled rangefinders. Horseman used

to build 2x3 camera with coupled rangefinders, but they discontinued

the lines and you can only get them on the used market those days.

I've seen one but I can't trust the old lenses (modern coating is a

must for me to consider any purchase). Linhof seems to be the only

one who still builds 2x3 field camera with rangefinders, but a

Linhof system costs well over $10000.

Have you considered a Mamaya super 23? Of course it is discontinued too. It is versital but bulky. Not too heavy though.

If you just wish to try MF without spending a fortune, why not consider one of the old classic RF folders like the Voigtlander Bessa II with a Color Skopar or Color Heliar lens, or a Super Ikonta with a Tessar. The quality will surprise you - even with these old lenses!

As an added bonus, the cameras weigh very little and are small enough to fit into a large coat pocket.

 

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Clive

I have a GW690 III. Light, 90mm is OK, and the price is at least rational. It's my travel/backback camera, beats lugging my bag of bricks (bronica) around the world. I may get a GSW sometime also. Think of them as great lenses with a body thrown in for free.

I am selling my GSW690III, I normally use 5X7 format but bought this for a 3-week walking tour of Italy. It worked really well, the lens

is fantastic (comparison shots with Hassy/80mm Planar favored the Fuji, most likely because of much more usable area on 6X9 vs the cropped 6X6). Light but not tiny, the bubble level was nice to have to keep things level. If I were a real MF user and not just a sheet-film addict looking for an temporary travel camera, I'd have the GSW with the 65 and the GW690 with the 90mm, for less $$ than

any comparable MF SLR, or maybe the 645 equivalents. Changing film

so often is an argument for 220 film in a 645, also nice to have the

vertical format. But gee, 6X9 is a nice size negative!!

My little Bogen monopod was an absoulte necessity to keep things sharp--I tested with Delta 100 and the camera on my Zone 6 tripod, on the monopod, and hand-held at 1/250, 1/125, 1/60 and 1/30. Take a monopod. (Although I coild not take it into the Uffizi and the Vatican Museum)

 

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Actually, it's probably dumb of me to sell this thing, because I'll probably buy another one in a couple-three years when I go to Italy

again, and it'll be more $$.

 

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Thanks to those users who replied to my March letter to MFD about a travel camera---the folks who told me to use wide-angle were right on, even the 28mm equivalent was at times not wide enough. I think 50mm

would be OK on the 6X7 format, but 66mm on 6X9 did not get enough of the Duomo in Florence and the Baptistry doors. Plenty wide enough in Venice, the streets and canals are much wider there. Converging verticals were a pain in the $#&*, though, almost enough to make me think of taking something with a rising front, like a Horseman or 2X3 Graphic with a quality 47 or 56mm.