Fuji GSW690III and TMX

Dante_Stella

Dante_Stella

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I was screwing around the other night, scanning some negatives, and I decided to tear one apart under high magnification. Really high magnification.

The following page, though exhibiting no great artistic merit, illustrates just what a 65mm f/5.6 Fujinon is capable of picking up - even with relatively careless shooting, developing, and scanning. I'm sorry about the typos on the page. It was late.

http://www.dantestella.com/technical/gsw690iii-res.html

When you drill down into stuff like this, you can see how modern medium-format wideangle lenses perform. I think it's like looking at a 35mm negative, just bigger. But draw your own conclusions.

Dante
 
Amazing lens resolution. I have however read reports on the net that the GSW690III is difficult to focus. Can it, in practical terms, be used hand held to take environmental portraits?
 
I had a similar experience with a Fuji GW670III and Provia 100F. I was on a waterfall photo trip using a tripod. On one of the frames, my friend noticed some backpackers at the top of the falls. We took a closer look with a loop and found they indeed were hikers. Amazing how much resolving power those Fujinon lenses have. 😎
 
I bought a GSW690III for that lens and used it on a trip to Rome; the negatives were so sharp and contrasty that my eyeballs bled. But the shutter sounded like spring metal snapping and it felt like I was walking around with a brick hanging from my neck. I sold it in favor of an M6 + CV 28mm f3.5.
 
It's that dang modern Fujinon lens in a fixed mount. I have a GW690 III, which I use for nature photography. It has more resolution than I need, since I mainly print to 8x10 and a once in a blue moon 11 by 14.

It's also a rather large camera for my needs, but I keep it due to those once in a blue moon 11x14 prints.

Because of my 35mm habits, I generally print the entire 56mm width of the frame, but width the 6x9 Fuji there is plenty of wiggle room for a cropped photo.
 
HMFriedman said:
I bought a GSW690III for that lens and used it on a trip to Rome; the negatives were so sharp and contrasty that my eyeballs bled. But the shutter sounded like spring metal snapping and it felt like I was walking around with a brick hanging from my neck. I sold it in favor of an M6 + CV 28mm f3.5.
Click to expand...

That shutter sound is very distracting, but when I look at the 6x9 alternative, which is a 5 lb plus Mamiya Press, I try to overlook the plastic sounding "ping".

A 6x7 Mamiya 7 series with 65mm lens would be a better camera for my needs - but I picked up the Fuji for about 1/2 the price of a well used Mamiya body without a lens.
 
That's quite incredible, really.

I looked into picking one up a while ago, though I much prefered the look and more simple build of the older GL690 with the 65mm f/5.6 SA. Hard to find though it seemed.

In the end I stuck with the Leica and bought a 28mm Elmarit, just because it was smaller really.

I still can't think of a better MF camera with the 2/3 aspect ratio. It's a terrible shame that they never made the Mamiya 7 into a Mamiya 9 (6x9)..
 
What a great camera

What a great camera

I had a GW670III and a GSW690III. I sold the GW to my friend, who is enjoying it. That was a fine camera. But the GSW was/is even better, I kept that one. It's so sharp,all the way into the deep corners, it's quite impressive. I have a full Mamiya 7 kit I am using now also, which is a great camera too. It's hard to say which I like better. You can definitely use it (GSW) for hand-held environmental portraits, I've shot many that way. Easily hand-holdable to 1/30 or even 1/15. I too wish there had been a Mamiya 9 (6x9), it would have been the perfect camera. As it is the Mamiya 7 is pretty fine even though it's only 6x7.
 
HMFriedman said:
I bought a GSW690III for that lens and used it on a trip to Rome; the negatives were so sharp and contrasty that my eyeballs bled. But the shutter sounded like spring metal snapping and it felt like I was walking around with a brick hanging from my neck. I sold it in favor of an M6 + CV 28mm f3.5.
Click to expand...

That's why my MF/travel kit is a bronica rf645 with 45/65/100 & 903swc for wider shots....metz 40 mz 2 is my flashhttp://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
 
Dante,
Agreed on the amazing results in that picture. May I ask, in addition to being made "with relatively careless shooting, developing, and scanning," was this picture also taken through the glass of a window, or were you on the roof of a building or similar?
--Dave
 
The Mamiya 7 lenses are equally startling. They put out such a high resolution that images printed to 20x24 look like 5x4, only there is a different tonality. LF is IMO still 'better looking' tonality wise, but I have images where even at 20x24 the details seems to extend beyond the visible eye. Still, some of my fave shots are on 35mm and grainy 🙂
 
Oh my. Dante, that's incredible. Thanks a lot for that, it's a great example.

I'm thinking about getting a GSW690II with the 90mm. If the 90 comes anywhere close to this I'll fall over.

Thanks again!
 
Michael, a friend of mine has the exact camera you're looking for and the print quality he gets out of fuji 400h is great, the colors just pop off the paper. He really enjoys it. I have a GSW690II and I dont think I'll ever give it up, such a sharp camera at f/5.6. That big clack sound after taking a picture... is a sound of success!
 
That's amazing Dante -- thanks for posting that! I cannot get over how sharp the Fuji and Mamiya rangefinders are. I use a Mamiya 7II, but I used to own a Fuji G690 (actually, I bought it after reading your original article on the cameras.). It was superb, but unfortunately a previous owner had gutted the lens during a self repair, so it did not focus correctly...my local repair guru said it was beyond economical repair. I sold it on to someone else (and disclosed the error!), and stuck with the M7II.

Several years ago I noticed a similar thing to you. I took this shot in the mountains one day...the film was Agfa Scala and the scanner a Minolta Scan Multi Pro, no sharpening. Like yours, these were not really planned images...I just took these normally on normal films, probably handheld, and scanned them with my scanner at the time. But they have a whole lot of detail.
mountain-road-scala-m7-4.jpg

100%
scala-detail.jpg

I believe this was the 80mm lens. I noticed a similar effect with the 43mm when I was in Japan:
jozankei-fall.jpg


jozankei-fall-crop.jpg


Either way, these modern Mamiya and Fuji 120 rangefinders are absurd. I also shoot 4x5 and usually the Mamiya is sharper, if only because the whole body is more rigid and plane parallel than my field camera, the lenses are better at wider apertures, and it is less sensitive to depth of field, camera shake etc etc. The are outstanding image-makers.
 
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It's like from a TV show or movie about spying when they can just zoom in on the video camera image and catch the license plate number of a car speeding past a mile away....

Yes w TMX it matches my 4x5 TXP in 11x14 prints.
 
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