Thoughts on the Fujifilm GA645Zi (and GA645 in general)

[Brian Hirschfeld]

I am considering picking up a Fuji GA645ZI to shoot mostly with 400+ ISO speed films (so not concerned with the slow speed of the lens) and wondering if any of you guys had any thoughts on this camera as a compact medium format system for travel and just general enjoyment?

My main question is, I know the viewfinder is vertical, does this mean when the camera is held normally that the image is vertical, and you must turn the camera to "portrait" mode to get a regular landscape frame? Thanks for the help.

Best,
BH

[DanielStone]

yes, film runs sideways in these cameras, so framing is "vertical" as standard, if you want a landscape/horizontal shot, then you'll need to turn the camera sideways to accomodate.

Lens is great, very sharp. I've only used the fixed-FL versions of these cameras, and they've all been very good performers.

-Dan

[heinrichvoelkel]

GA645Zi has a "hit and miss" autofocus. I never got the camera to focus right and sold it after a month, buying new and selling with a big loss.
The fixed lens 645 Fujis are all great, with or without AF.

[GX680III]

It's a great camera and the lens is a joy.  Perhaps I've been lucky but I've not had problems with AF except in very low light/poor contrast.  

The only issue is the flash - if you shoot portraits, you will need to find the Fuji dedicated flash to give you enough power and breadth of coverage to match the lens (except at the widest setting).  I cheated at first and used a modified (extended the base so the Fuji would fit) Contax SA-1 Flash Adapter which has a slave cell built into it and the flash from the Fuji then triggers a bigger unit (I used a Contax TLA280 set to manual at 28mm) to give you the coverage. After months hunting for the Fuji flash I managed to find one at KEH; a week later 2 popped up on Ebay and would have saved me import duty...  Such is life.

The GA645Zi is a great camera - you shouldn't be disappointed.

[pixjohn]

I used to have the Fuji 645zi, it was a great camera to travel with, I never had focus problems. If you want a small compact camera to shoot film with, this is one of the best options for medium format.

[Michael Josefsson]

It is a great camera, but not for moving objects. Otherwise I have found the AF to be all OK. In the auto modes it usually selects an aperture of about f/9 which of course help giving a depth of field. I use it on vacation mostly and can only recommend it. The neg size is a large step up from 135-film. I have only limited darkroom experience but I feel the negs contain MUCH more detail than my scanner ever will understand.

[KingRoach]

I've recently got a Fujifilm GS645s, which is very similar but more manual and less compact (lens does not retract).

As you said, frame is portrait orientation by default, but you have two tripod holes if you want to do a landscape shot. You can handhold of course.

Rangefinder middle dot is a bit hard to find sometimes. Maybe it's just me, this is actually my first rangefinder, ever.

I enjoyed carrying it around. Much better than carrying other style SLR 645 cameras (familiar with Mamiya m645 here).
Never heard a single soul complain about the image quality and there seems to be consensus that it is one of the sharpest MF lenses ever. I am yet to develop my first film.

Anyway, I am wanting to shift this camera as I do not see myself using it a lot in the future so contact me if you are in the UK and want to know more about it.

[Brian Hirschfeld]

Thanks for the responses, I think I will pull the trigger on a Zi, I want the zoom range personally. Thanks for the info.

Best,
BH

[ned]

I wanted to share a shot I took with my GA645Zi. This was in a very dark building using the popup flash. The autofocus nailed it and the little flash illuminated it nicely. I did darken the boarder to bring focus to the center.  I'm very happy with this camera.
Cheers,
Ned

[Brian Hirschfeld]

Very nice photo quality! How did you scan this? what film was it shot with? Thanks,

[ned]

Very nice photo quality! How did you scan this? what film was it shot with? Thanks,

I used Porta 400 and scanned on a minolta multi pro. Nothing special.