Fuji GA645 Zi newbie questions and comments

<p>I just received my 645 Zi today from KEH. Luckily I also ordered a Users Manual. I'm running a 120 roll of Fujicolor Portrait 160 right now just to get the feel of it. For our upcoming trip to Hawaii this will certainly fill the bill of being lightweight, portable and not taking up a lot of room. In fact it is noticeably smaller than my Nikon D3. Here are some initial observations:</p>

 

<ul>

<li>Going to have to get used to portrait mode being default. I have a feeling I'm going to be flipping it on its side a lot for landscape shots.</li>

<li>It is much lighter than my D3 which will make it very comfortable to carry around.</li>

<li>Like any new camera it will take awhile to learn its ins and outs.</li>

</ul>

Here are a couple of newbie questions:

<ul>

<li>The date format is yymmdd. I would prefer to change it mmddyy. I tried following the manual's instruction to change the format but it kept returning to the default. Can someone help me here?</li>

<li>I tried changing the distance scale from meters to feet, but the viewfinder still has an "m" instead of "ft" in the upper right hand corner. Once again I tried following the manual but must have gone wrong somewhere. If I can't make the change, no big deal. I will just multiply the meters by 3.</li>

<li>If I want to auto-focus on a subject that is off center, do I just focus, keep the shutter half depressed, and then recompose?</li>

<li>The exposures counter reads 23 00. I gather that the 00 remains constant. If I am reading the manual correctly the "23" means that it has had 2,300 actuations. Does that sound right?</li>

<li>If I decide to use a hot shoe flash what is recommended? I have a Nikon SB-800 speedlight which I just tried but it didn't fire</li>

</ul>

I'm sure I will have a few more over the next couple of days.<br /> <br /> Thanks<br /> <br /> Graham <img title="Smilie" src="http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" />

<p>Hello Graham,<br>

I think you will come to love your Zi. I bought the last new one sold in the USA from BH Photo 7 or 8 years ago. Since then, it has worked flawlessly and given fantastic results. Dont worry about 2300 shutter firings - I am way above that, and these things were built to last. Autofocus, yes, foucs, keep button 1/2 dressed, recompose, then fire. I believe manual states this, as well as a way for doing this without locking exposure at the time focus is locked. Flash, get the Fuji Flash GA, it was made specifically for these, and also has a useful bonus feature in that they have a slave flash setting, so you can use it as a wireless off camera flsh with either the Zi, or possibly your Nikon. (optical sensor slaved)</p>

<p>Thanks Randall, I am currently waiting to get back my first roll of film. With some usage I am sure I will get to learn the different options pretty quickly without having to check the manual each time. In the meantime I have a GW670III being delivered today. I will compare the two, and return one of them.</p>

<p>I received the GW670 a few hours ago, and it's going back to KEH. The camera is simplicity itself to use. More so than the GA645Zi. However, for my trip to Hawaii it is too bulky. The other thing is that on a 120 roll of film you only get 10 exposures compared to 16. Granted the 670 negs are a lot bigger, but I'm not planning on making huge prints. I also like the zoom feature on the Zi which gives a wider field of view than the 670. The main downside to the Zi is the slow lens especially at the long end. I don't see that as real problem because I'm not going to be using it for action shots. This is going to be primarily a landscape camera.</p>

<p>Hi: would you mind answering these questions on the GA645Zi<br /> 1- When changing the zoom to wide to telephoto The F stop will change as well. Correct? So, if I am shooting a portrait and I zoom in to 90mm<br /> I have to make sure the F stop is changer to appr 7.0 . So then I have to adjust my flash to compensate for the smaller f stop. Correct<br /> 2- In order for me to try and get the background out of focus I have to shoot wide with f4. Correct? <br /> 3- I shoot manual on camera, AF and Manual flash. So, I think using a Flash meter would be helpful instead of trying to calculate the Guide number on the flash.<br /> 4 Last question: It mentions Bar code film . Is that only Fuji Film that has bar code?<br /> I do appreciate your time. Thank you, Dennis</p>