#fuji gw670

[leroideparis]

Untitled by Ronnie Conlin Via Flickr: Fuji gw670ii | Fuji Neopan Acros 100

[emilyjasper]

Nicola & Handre by Emily Jasper

[neverstopseeing]

After hours

Porta 160

[minasaleeb]

Sprockets, glass and circuits...Part 2

The Admiral - Fuji GW670II

Continuing on from my first post, I’ve culled a bit of my gear down in the hopes of streamlining what was becoming a very good start to a photographic museum. Second off the rank for reflection after the Werramatic is another lead-shutter rangefinder - I simply adore the combination of a parallax corrected viewfinder and a relatively quiet leaf shutter. The Admiral as I like to call him is a Fuji GW670II from land of the rising sun - Japan!

He has a particularly stoic approach to life - a single fixed 90mm f/3.5 lens with brilliant Fujinon EBC coating to project an image large enough to cover a very respectable 6x7 format. This camera was a spur of the moment purchase; I was in Canada at the time that it came up on the ‘bay. It was described as ‘parts only’ as one of the leaves in the shutter has a bend pointing outwards, the viewfinder was very hazy and the seller couldn’t test whether the coupled rangefinder was working due to the blurry viewfinder. It was being sent from Hawaii so God knows how much humidity it had absorbed throughout its life.

I threw a bid at the last few minutes a couple of dollars above the starting price and switched my phone off. The next morning I was the proud owner of an 80s classic. Did I mention I was off to the UK within a few days of buying it? I didn’t get to see it except for after I returned about 4 months later. It was promptly packed into my luggage and remained in storage for another 2 months after I returned to Sydney. One day in March 2014 I decided to bite the bullet and check on what this mystery purchase had in store. 

One has to appreciate the Japanese - they don’t make something complex unless it needs to be. Dismantling the top cover to clean the viewfinder was as straight-forward as unwinding the cover for film advance lever and about 5 small phillips head screws. Some watered down windex and a good air out in the sun - and everything was back to clear!

The rangefinder actuating pin was getting stuck in mucky grease when getting down past 1.5 metres; a small drop of lighter fluid freed this up quite easily and the small bend in the leaf shutter stumped me as to how it got bent in the first place. Fortunately it has no effect!

Fuji’s EBC lenses are great for high contrast results - they truly make whites and blacks pop! Not sure about colour as I haven’t used colour emulsions in this camera. The GW670II sports double shutter buttons - one on the top and one on the front for ease of use in the vertical or horizontal alignment. Use is quite intuitive with shutterspeed and aperture set on the lens, wind on using the lever on the top plate and shoot!

All up the Fuji GW670II is a dependable, fixed lens rangefinder with impeccable glass. It supports usage for street photography where a medium format SLR like the Zenza, Mamiya or Pentacon would be too loud and where a TLR could be too attention-drawing. The Fuji GW series ran in 6x4.5, 6x7, 6x8 and 6x9 with options for superwide fixed lenses in some of the series.

[robertpaniconi]

Deer

[jamesbernal]

Maggie found the only patch of wilderness in Chicago’s Loop.

And Maria, found the only patch of tropical Miami in Chicago.

[davidbillet]

[jamesbernal]

Finally got around to developing a couple rolls of film. Here's a photo I made back when these things still existed. Chicago, IL