Fuji GM670

hi all-

thinking of buying one of these camera's was wondering what the

general consensus is.... some of the questions i have are:

 

does it have a built in meter??? how heavy is it??? would it be good

for hand held shots??? does the film remain flat and is there any

problems with overlay???

 

THANKS!!!!

If you are thinking of the GW670, which you probably are, it's an excellent camera, if you want a RF and you are happy with a 90mm lens. It has no meter. It weighs 3 lbs. 3 oz, it's as good as any other camera for hand-held shots and better than many as its shape is very ergonomic, the film does remain flat, there is no problem with overlay. Most important, the lens is fantastically sharp and contrasty. Two models are out, the GW670III and the GW670II. They are essentially the same with only very minor and insignificant differences. The GW670II is all metal (the GW670III is metal and plastic) and therefore weighs an ounce or two more.

Richard, not so fast.

 

The Fujica GM670 was made before any of the GW series cameras. It and the G690 series formed the basis for the current Fuji rangefinders. The GM670 is an interchangable lens medium format rangefinder made in the 70's. It has no light meter, it is heavy (almost 5 pounds with lens, and it can be good for hand held shots if you can hold a heavy camera still. The film should remain very flat considering the design of the camera. I am not sure what you mean by 'overlay'?

 

Dante Stella has a webpage with lots of good information about these cameras. www.dantestella.com

 

I have a G690, which I like very much.

Since the interchangeable-lens predecessors of the GW cameraas were never officially imported into the US, and although they are occasionally available here they are few and far between. They are certainly not readily available, while the tone of his posting appeared to indicate that he was considering a current camera. However, I could be wrong; he could have been referring to a single GM670 that was available to him. We'll never know unless he tells us. :-)

By "overlay" I understood him to mean overlapping frame edges. I don't know what else he could have meant, but he could tell us that too.

I Think he was refering to a GM670 that was on Ebay when he posted the message. Who ever won the auction got a great deal seeing that the camera came with the 65mm fujinon lens and finder. The lens alone usually goes for more than the final price the auction reached. I kinda regret not bidding for this item myself. I guess I was having one of those rare moments of camera related restraint.

 

Actually the g690 shows up on Ebay fairly regularly. I have also seen 2 G670s in the last few months. They seem to be much less common.

The film stays supremely flat, and in my experience the 100/3.5 standard lens is

sharp as hell. Frame spacing never seems to go bad on these, no matter how bad the

body looks (you can test it by winding backing paper between two spools and

outlining each frame with a Sharpie marker from the front of the camera, with the

lens off). It is excellent for handhelds; it has a lot of inertia.

I'm one who got the GM670 from Ebay along with the Canon P fom the same seller, since I mostly shoot street portraiture and never really got the chance to use it until couple of weeks ago, I shot couple of rolls Tri-x 320 220mm, developer choice is Rodinal 1:50 - not the best, but the negative is very very sharp, so I decide I will stay with it just for now and let my 4x5 itch cool down a bit. The camera function just like my Leica M3 DS, actually one and half stroke, make sure you go all the way till the winder stops, otherwise you got overlap frames ( is "overlay" meant the same thing?). The camera is nicely designed but I rather not use it as handheld due to its weight and size, unless you have big hands.

I'm new to this site - but if anyone is interested in buying a GM607 it will be on eBay 27th May 2007 (body, 100mm F3.5 lens, lens cap & UV filter. They are amazing cameras - but I've decided to move to large format.