The Fuji GF670 Arrives!
Just arrived! The UPS guy just dropped off this baby and WOW, it’s bigger than I thought! Still, the Fuji GF670 is pretty cool. Here is a very quick first look as I open the box with you for the first time. Review will be up soon but I will be out over the next few days shooting with it. Can’t wait! The Fuji GF670 is a Medium Format film camera that can shoot 120 or 220 film in 6X6 or 6X7 format. It is a rangefinder with a fold out lens. Very cool! BTW, B&H just posted this as in stock! This is the same camera as the Voigtlander Bessa III but the Fuji is a few hundred dollars cheaper. OK, here is the video:
and here is the blurb from Fuji…
The Fujifilm GF670 Rangefinder Folding Camera is a dual-medium format professional camera. It will shoot 6 × 6cm or 6 × 7cm formats, which is selectable via a simple switch (the format cannot be switched mid-roll). It accepts both 120 or 220 roll film and in the 6 × 7cm format, you’ll get 20 exposures on 220 rolls, and 10 exposures on 120 rolls. In 6 × 6cm format, you get 24 exposures on 220 rolls, and 12 exposures on 120 rolls.
The GF670 has an aperture priority automatic exposure mode in addition to its fully manual capabilities. This camera features center-weighted metering and an electronic leaf shutter with speeds ranging from 1/500th to 4 seconds. It also has a Bulb setting and will synch with your flash at any shutter speed.
It has an ISO range of 25 to 3200 which is set manually on a dial at the top of the camera. The GF670 has a built-in EBC Fujinon 80mm f/3.5 Fujinon lens, 35mm equivalent to 40mm in 6 × 7cm format and 44mm in 6 × 6cm format. The lens folds fully into the camera so it is protected when not in use while at the same time providing convenient portability.
Well here it is 6 years later since this Fuji GF670 post. Wondering if you still have the camera and any final thoughts. Thx
I do not have the camera any longer. Sorry. Sometimes I wish I did though!
Steve,
Thank you for an excellent review. I shoot MF with Hasselblad cameras but these are really heavy stuff to travel around and I was looking for some MF replacement. I was considering Voigtlander Bessa MF but thank to your review I will definitively go for Fuji, I had no idea these are the same cameras! Actually I do own Bessa 4M 35mm camera and never had problem with it, well built and solid metal, no plastic at all! Thank you very much for your review, great shots (really over my expectations from MF rangefinder). God bless you.
Miroslav
thanks for the teaser… love checking out the site ….. always worthwhile….. im an ep1, gf1, and gxr shooter,[ sometimes the samsung ex1]….. keep up the great reportage and please more on the x100 soon …its my next camera and why i came by today….
Hey Randy, yea it’s a nice camera but I agree on the thin bellows. I am afraid it will rip or get a hole punched in it while carrying it around. It’s not built like an MP but it’s built fairly well. Review coming soon.
This camera looks amazing. I went down to freestyle photo in LA today to take a peek at it. they were nice enough to let me handle it for a long time and the guy working there was very knowledgeable about it. Seems like an excellent camera for getting into medium format. I love every aspect of this camera aside from 2 things. Seems like a huge pain to take the filter off every time you want to fold it back up and when its extended and open it looks and feels a bit easy to damage. lots of mechanism and very thin feeling bellows, I can see myself bumping it into something and totally bending it or tearing the bellows.
That said, it is such a beauty to hold in your hands, from pictures it seems giant and unwieldy but after a few minutes holding it I can see handling it very easy in use.
I eagerly await your review as I sit here fighting every urge to go back to freestyle and buy it.
Also the Lens hood and soft case are like $80 each!!! Come on!!!
Hi Steve,
I ordered the Voigtländer version, a vew weeks ago and it was delivered, today. Looking forward to your further review!
Dieter
Wow Steve, it’s huge.
About 20 years ago, I had the 6×4.5 version of that same camera, and it was a good bit smaller. It also shot in portrait format which took some getting used to, but it was brilliant. I regret selling it.
@ Elaine/Steve,
Yeah, I think it will be around much longer than five years. Just in case though, I am filling up another freezer in the garage. Just bought 100 rolls or Reala 120 and a few piles of assorted b&w..screw it 🙂
Max
Hey Richard,
Thanks so much for the tips and the quick review (nice hip shot there!). Grabbed one yesterday on eBay. Should be a lot of fun. Love all the data below the frame. Nice and helpful touch.
Best,
Max
@ Max,
I love it. It is quieter than my F80 which is already quieter than a Leica. If you set the system to F9.5 as recommended by Fuji – that gives it the quickest actuation timing. So with that and a zone focus set to 2 metres (Remember the 35 on 135 2 metre box rule). You can shoot and be quick and accurate.
The dual active/passive AF woks great in ANY light. Pitch black works well cause it is IR and not TTL or human eye.
Fuji film is auto ISO recognized. Film loading is quick and easy, it is LIGHT. Overall the best camera I have with a killer lens.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3338/4593934167_78c627893c_m.jpg[/img]
TRIX from the hip, zone focus. I think I did this in D76…..either that DDX. I forget. I forgot to add. The DATA imprint BELOW frames is awesome. Exposure modes, EXP compensation, focus distance, shutter, aperture, etc.. just like digital.
Have I just made their prices jump on eBay? 😉
Hey David, yes that was a fire alarm in need of a battery. We just moved in and one of the alarms needed a battery. I did not even notice it in the video!
Elaine, I think film will be around longer than 5 years and also feel there will always be some type of film available, at least while I am on this earth. It will be a specialty item eventually but you should always be able to find some B&W. I also heard some whispers that there may be some new Fuji film coming soon 🙂
The only issue is that watching a discussion on LinkedIn Professional Photography Subject: “The Future of Film” is that most of the pros seem to think 5-10 years, (more like 5) is how long film will be around. There are some people working in the industry who say that too. It will be a sad day when that happens. I hope it doesn’t happen at all, but…
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=20522491&gid=60135&commentID=17375701&trk=view_disc
Is that beeping sound in the video indicating that your fire alarm detectors need a battery change? 🙂
Richard those fixed fujis are nice and preferable to a folder. Same concept though.
Hey Richard,
Fabulous images, as always. So, what do you really think about the Fuji 645? Seems worth grabbing for close to painless medium format shooting.
Best,
Max
@Chris, thanks man! Yea, I noticed that but at the very end of the video I correct it and show it fully extended 🙂 Nice shot!
@Jim – Yep, when folded in this camera is pretty thin and not so heavy. Its large but thin so easy to carry.
@Garry – Great, glad you enjoyed it. Ill have much more in the full review soon.
@Matt – Yep, they are both made by Cosina. If you want silver, get the Fuji. Black get the Voigtlander.
@Chris – The 9000 is an awesome scanner. If I ever get the funds together for one, and I can find one, I will buy the same scanner. 🙂
@pixelmixture – Yea, imagine this in a digital version? That would be pretty damn sweet!
@designed – Thanks!
@Aldo – I’ll be shooting it today so hopefully it shoots as well as it looks 🙂
@soe – THANKS for the link! Great images and makes me even more excited to shoot with this camera.
@Paris – Ha ha, my corporate jet…too funny! How about my corporate Bicycle? Thanks!
@Eric – I think they both may have the same lens, but could be wrong. Anyway, the folding aspect is what makes its so thin and compact. It’s not a rugged camera but hopefully it will hold up well.
@Chris – Thanks!
@Richard – Great shot. Thanks for the info! Also, that 2nd shot is really fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
What I meant to really say – is the folders are cool. And there are a lot on ebay right now for good prices. The cert06 ones that are fixed up by Juergen are just beautiful – but costly. But still 400 USD is nothing in the scheme of things.
This is a shot that has sold well in exhibitions taken on that 1954 folder of mine.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/3761668065_f980cd3582_m.jpg[/img]
I shoot a Agfa Isollette III that I had upgraded at certo6.com (seems down now) with new leather bellows and cladding and CLA and matching all nice. It is even more manual than this fuji but a tonne lighter. IMHO the best fuji rangefinder with fixed lens to get is the GA645 or GA645i in either wide or normal lens.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2667/4130580252_c881963080_m.jpg[/img]
Delta 3200@3200 in DDX, Sunny 16 rule.
Sweeet!
This (and the Voigt) should produce some hefty negs, i am so looking forward to your scans!
In this market though, you cant really get away from the Mamiya 7 and from the way you seem to be heading Steve, it looks to me like you may wanna try that one as well. (?)
Anyways, good luck shooting and enjoy this “little” marvel!
Chris, nice scan, plenty of contrast and no obvious scratches or dust..
true but I hate it when companies dont brand products properly, I have no problem buying a Cosina lens, just brand it as such. Profesional photographers arent going to really care all that much.
@Eric: Interesting question. Another site (which I believe to be trustworthy) says that “either version has the same modern high performance 6 element 4 group 80/3.5 lens.”, but the one on the Bessa is labeled “Voigtlander Heliar”. Don’t know what that means about who actually builds it, but I would bet it doesn’t matter very much. 80mm f3.5s aren’t particularly challenging to make; not very wide, not very fast. There are lots of good ones.
Not a fan of the fold out aspect of it, if only it was more like the mamiya 6 and 7 with the lenses but im sure it being a 6×7 camera with fuji glass that it will produce incredible negatives. Fuji produces all the hassleblad lenses now so that should pretty much tell you what your going to get. I am confused though, does the Voightlander version have a Voight lens and this have a fuji lens or do they have the same cosina lens branded differently ? I would be much more likely to get the one with the fuji lens regardless of colour if they were different.
Steve,
When you’ve shot some black and white (try FP-4, or Fuji Acros) and you have some negs that you like, send two or three out for custom wet prints. Then, if you want, you can scan the prints and compare the results to the negative scans. The prints will, for sure, blow you away, and I’d really be curious to see how scans of the prints compare to scans of the negs.
I guess you don’t live near your favorite old farmhouses any more, but the Fuji would be great for that kind of highly detailed picture. (Maybe you could fly your corporate jet back up north for a couple of days?)
I totally regretted selling my Bessa III for an M8. I loved that camera. I’ll most likely end up getting the Fuji GF670. I posted a few pics on flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/soelin/sets/72157622591046498/
Wow! I didn’t know about the existence of that camera! It’s kind of another option for medium format rangefinder cameras, and you cant’ find much of those! a Plaubel Makina 67 seemed like a beautiful portable camera, but you can only find them used in eBay for a high price, and this beauty is brand new and for the same or even lower price… seems amazing to me!
Hey, great stuff! Looking forward to this review.
i would die for a digital version … film si great (i miss my bronica RF645) but really time consuming
hey steve, you should get a bronica RF645 … one of the best MF rangefinder camera ever
Matt, they are made by Cosina. It’s a joint marketing thing with Fuji. The only difference between the Bessa III and the Fuji is the colour. I wanted the black so I went for the Bessa.
Garry, I have placed an 85% JPG of a full size scan here:
http://drmoss.ca/Nikon1-1.jpg
But beware – it is 25MB big! Tri-X developed in TMax, so rather grainy, and I’m just learning the 9000. No artistic merit, just taken so my son could prove to his mother that he had weeded the daylily bed!
Looking forward to your review Steve. They market and brand that same camera here in Australia as a Voigtlander Bessa 3. It’s doing well. Are they made by Cosina in Japan now?
Hey Chris, would love to see some full size scans from that Coolscan and GF670.
Steve: Great video, that might find it’s way onto my shopping list…
it doesn’t look like it at first but “folders” are highly portable cameras .they’re also very quick to deploy. this is a very interesting proposition but a bit on the pricey side for me
You’ll love it, but don’t forget to open it it fully (in the video you haven’t opened it that last little bit and the lens is at an angle). The shutter is very quiet – as in digicam quiet. Excellent lens and really easy to focus. The metering is non-TTL, but seems to be very accurate. I use mine on aperture priority, and lock the exposure with a half-press of the shutter button after metering the best area when the subject is backlit. The negatives are wonderful, and really show their detail when put through a Coolscan 9000.
[img]http://drmoss.ca/bessa3_6-1.jpg[/img]
Very interesting. I had no idea that there existed a folding version of the Fuji 670/690 series; I do not think they have ever been sold in here in The Netherlands — the GF670 is not even mentioned on the http://www.fujifilm.nl site, also not as a historic camera. I am very curious to see the results. And yes, Velvia rules 😉
@Nick, Thanks man! Yea, Velvia 50 at dawn/dusk would be cool. I’ll see what I can do.
@Patrick – Thanks!
@Elaine – Ha ha, yea maybe I should go out and roam the streets looking for some interesting scenes. I’m excited to shoot it.
@ Renze – Thanks!
Awesomesauce, can’t wait to see the results!
Wow.This is old school. This looks pretty cool to use. I like the rangefinder aspect. It would be a great WeeGee camera. Can it take a flash unit? Take a few shots of crime scenes with it. LOL!
Look forward to it. You probably should be developing yourself at this point 😉 It’s just as much fun and cheaper. but then you could spend a life time looking for that magical combination… Great work Steve
Sooo awesome. I bet it produces incredible results… You should shoot some Velvia 50 in the Arizona desert at dusk and dawn! I love shooting medium formats, the negatives are like little pictures especially when you shoot transparency films!
Thanks Per! I am having the film processed and scanned at a pro lab for best results. Can’t wait to see how it goes.
Can’t wait to see some images. Hope you will try the Mamiya 7 midium format rangefinder as well in some point.