Would you buy the new Fuji Range Finder?

Would you buy the new Fuji Range Finder?


  • Total voters
    788
david b said:
Simple. Yes or No.

IS there a new Fuji rangefinder coming?

Is there a link around somewhere that I'm missing?

I saw the text announcement from PMA that they're showing a prototype MF RF camera, but that's all. Somebody on this thread had a picture... where'd that come from?

BTW, I don't think Fuji is doing this as a noble gesture. Makes sense... if you want to sell film, there have to be cameras, so if you're also a camera company, why not use one product to create demand for the other? Corporate-buzzword types call this "synergy"...

And yes, a portable MF camera makes a lot of sense to me. The fact is that 35mm film is a lost cause: DSLRs (and DRFs) produce better image quality, if your final product is an image that will be distributed digitally. But a scanned medium-format image is still very competitive with digitally-captured images.
 
ruben said:
Can't decide yet. I need to know if there is a red hole in the back.
If it takes 220 like they say, I would say no.

Didn't you just compare this to a Holga in the other thread?

I would probably NOT buy one, just because used MF gear has gotten so cheap. Unless this is priced really aggressively it has decades' worth of equipment to compete with for sales.
 
jlw said:
Makes sense... if you want to sell film, there have to be cameras, so if you're also a camera company, why not use one product to create demand for the other? Corporate-buzzword types call this "synergy"...
Please forward this to:

Antonio Perez, CEO
343 State Street
Rochester, NY 14608
 
Yes Yes Yes !

In fact I am already planning to convert it into a 'Foldable Xpan' once I get one, as I did before with an old Zeiss Ikon.

He He ...
 
Boys cool down, I have now several Iskras to sell for cheap, with and without red holes, exchangeable backs, 120/220, f/3.5, etc.

What really socks to me with all these folders is a very simple issue: the hood.
You cannot really go far with the camera opened and the hood mounted as this situation is prompt for bumps. You may have not heard a lot about this complain for the simple reason it is very difficult to find a hood for the Iskra small thread, but I had.

The other way around, opening and closing the camera each time, and threading the hood and unthreading it - not much practical to my taste, unless you are doing portraits in a studio. Loading and unloading a single film each 10 or 9 frames doesn't add "portability", to a type of camera (folder) already cumbersome to begin with.

The bellows is another weak point. They gather dust and don't stand small rain.

So my best advice for the wellfare of all is to continue chating on behalf of purchasing, as to make Fujifilm interested in our bite, and for those among us really serious I advise you to faint by cheap: buy an Iskra.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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There are no numbers on 120 roll film backing to correspond to 6x7, so 6x7 cameras and backs never work with the red window.

And, yeah, I want one. I currently use a Voigtlander Perkeo II, and I'd love a similar camera built to modern standards of alignment and film flatness with a coupled rangefinder.
 
I said yes, if it will be reasonable priced and 6x6 :) As well as there will be reasonable priced Fuji Neopan 120/220 around at that time these beauties come to market. As much as I like my GS645 I regret it is not 6x6. I know what is 15(30) or 12(24) exposures per roll and it is enough for me. Lately I started to load shorter strips in my 35mm cassettes 'cause 36 exposures film live for too long in my cameras.
They must produce 6x6 version for me. Also I'd order tele-Fuji with some glass like Sonnar 180/4 (if they increase rf base to make it real).

Eduard.
 
Ernst: Who's to say Fuji has to choose between these two pursuits? I'd bet they're cooking something up on the digital front along these lines. We're not talking about Kodak here. ;)

I havn't touched a a MF camera in some years, but the last one I had real fun with was a Fuji. Soooo...I say Yes.


- Barrett


- Barrett
 
I bought the original folding Fuji645 new in 1982, worst camera I ever owned bar none. Very unreliable, plastic body developed light leak through crack at the hinge of the front lens board and bellows needed replacing within a few years. The wind/shutter cocking interlink was the real weak point, really badly designed.
A well known s/h dealer here told me he won't touch the original folding 645 with a barge pole.
I just hope Fuji has not made the same mistakes with this one, and learned some lessons.
I hate to pour cold water on this but I would wait while to see just how reliable it is!!!

P.S. I also hope the setting system for time exposures is better designed.
 
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John Robertson said:
I bought the original folding Fuji645 new in 1982, worst camera I ever owned bar none.

That's what I heard from lots of people. It seemed to be a wonderfully designed camera from a usability perspective (size, format, etc.) but quality of materials was, well below the usual Fuji offering. Heck, it was well below a Brownie!

I voted yes, though I am sure the price will be much higher than I could pick up a used 501 or something like that. I wish CV would come out with one, a screeeeeeming wide angle lens on a MF RF body. That would rock some houses!

B2 (;->
 
sure...ignore everything fuji has done since 1982. it's only been 26 years and they haven't made a quality product since.
 
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