GA645Zi and KEH

[frank-grumman]

The good, the bad and the ugly..... marvelously light; less weight than my G2 w/ a 45mm lens and GD-2 data back. Really like the pop-up flash. Loading/unloading is a breeze. Really innocuous appearance; gathers no looks from passersby on Philly streets. Will easily fit in a hotel room lock box, even easier than my D700 w/ a lens on it. With Portra and Fuji 400H Pro, IQ is beautiful in my opinion when compared both with my G2 and F5 using the same film equivalent. Since I'm not taking pics of fast-moving subjects the AF speed is not an issue.

Zooming sounds like a jack-hammer. at least on the model I had. I just don't like it, not a bit. But, can't have everything. Shooting in landscape mode is doable but a pain in the ass, however, no more so than if the default were landscape orientation. Closing the back door on my version of it requires a reverse twist on the unlocking tab, i.e, moving the tab in your direction perhaps 1/8" in order to get the door to close. If I don't do this I have to press inordinately hard on the back door and I'll bet a buck or two that's how come so many of these bodies have the cracks in the lower portion of the thumb grip. VF has significant barrel distortion on my version; don't know how that compares to other copies. It's also not the brightest of VF's though that may be in some part also a function of my ****ey eyesight.

Back LCD is showing signs of impairment on the cable leading to it as seen in distorted characters thereon. But, the light leakage on 25% of the shots I took off the last roll is more than I want to countenance. 😀 So, thankfully, I had gotten from KEH. Called em up and within 3' of conversation finishing up I had a FedEx return label, printed it out and sent it back today with the promise of another copy - and that's a full week after the return period expired. This was EX rated, BTW. Apparently its covered by KEH's 6 month warranty. These guys are gonna get my business.

This all just FYI - I'm no Dante Stella, as I'm sure it's easy for you all to discern 🙂

 

[ray*j*gun]

KEH is the best retailer I have found for any gear.

 

[Spanik]

Well, I have to say I like my Ga645Zi also. Wasn't from KEH but it is a fine camera. Much underappreciated. I'm not as fond of the loading as you (a M645ProTL is way easier) and the zoom could be better but otherwise an excellent camera.

 

[imokruok]

Well, I have to say I like my Ga645Zi also. Wasn't from KEH but it is a fine camera. Much underappreciated. I'm not as fond of the loading as you (a M645ProTL is way easier) and the zoom could be better but otherwise an excellent camera.

Ditto on both accounts. I had a GA645Zi for a while because I wanted to shoot in MF with a bit of ease. Didn't much like loading it and it was noisy, but it made a nice image! Lighter than my old ProTL combo too...with the fast 80mm lens that was a beast to carry.

 

[Ming]

KEH is the best retailer I have found for any gear.

Really interesting in buying a GA645Zi. Do you happen to know any european KEH-like sites?

 

[Spanik]

Not exactly something alike. And Fuji isn't really well represented at the few shops that do second hand gear. I got mine from the classifieds section on a european forum.

 

[keytarjunkie]

Thinking about getting one - how bad/loud is the zooming? and how does the viewfinder compare to, say, a contax g2? or any non-rangefinder viewfinder?

 

[Doug]

...
Zooming sounds like a jack-hammer. at least on the model I had. I just don't like it, not a bit. ...

The zoom function on this camera is stepped, not continuous, so it goes from one discrete focal length to another; I think it's five steps or so. That might explain some clicking noises, but a jack-hammer sounds like trouble! I think you did the right thing in sending it back. I have really enjoyed my Fuji GA645Wi, but that's a different camera...

 

[StefanJozef]

I think the zooming is quite loud, but the viewfinder is in my opinion far superior to my G2 which I have since sold on. I just love my GA645zi and wouldn't part with it.

 

[daveleo]

KEH is the best retailer I have found for any gear.

Same here, but I'll add that BH in NYC are equally fabulous for solving problems.

 

[frank-grumman]

my replacement from KEH is to arrive this coming Friday, so I'm looking forward to finding out just how much better/the same/poorer it is compared to the previous one. I have two G2's one of which has very bright VF, the other of which is pretty close, and both are better than the VF of the one I sent back. Yes, the stepping motor of the zoom was really quite loud, so I'll see how the sound of the motor is on the replacement version.

Agreed on BH and I've also had "no questions asked" returns from Adorama.

 

[frank-grumman]

My second copy of the GA645Zi showed up today, rated at Ex condition. It has the ubiquitous hairline crack in the lower bottom right of the back cover below the thumb grip that I saw in the previous version I had, this one, however, it is even less noticeable than the former one. The VF of this one is much brighter than the previous one and, pleasant surprise here, the AF motor is far more quiet and, though step-wise in function, less ratchet like in sound. Now I just need to shoot a roll of 120 and get it developed to make certain that there is no light leak as in the earlier copy.

 

[kuzano]

The crack comes from the factory.

The crack comes from the factory.

My second copy of the GA645Zi showed up today, rated at Ex condition. It has the ubiquitous hairline crack in the lower bottom right of the back cover below the thumb grip that I saw in the previous version I had, this one, however, it is even less noticeable than the former one. The VF of this one is much brighter than the previous one and, pleasant surprise here, the AF motor is far more quiet and, though step-wise in function, less ratchet like in sound. Now I just need to shoot a roll of 120 and get it developed to make certain that there is no light leak as in the earlier copy.

There must be a little guy with a hammer at the end of the assembly line who taps that crack onto the back. I have had four of the GA645Zi models, and handled a few others. I have yet to see one without that hairline crack.

Joking aside, there must be a bump in the internal metal subframe of the door, and using the edge of back when closing the camera eventually creates the crack. Have never seen any problem in usage associated with the crack. It's just there. I had one with 234,000 shutter clicks and the crack was never worse on any of the one's I had. I did have Frank Marshman (Camera Wiz) replace the LCD on the back door with a new one from Fujifilm about three years ago. It was surprisingly inexpensive including the labor and at the time Frank could still source parts from Fujifilm.

Your original experience with the sound on the first camera rather shocked me. All the Zi models I have had have been the quietest cameras I have used for power zoom, autofocus AND film transport. Until I got used to it and began to trust the camera, I used to look at the film count to see if the camera had shot the frame.

I'm a little hard of hearing, but not to the point of not hearing those noises with most camera's.

 

[daveleo]

Apologies in advance for sidetracking your thread, but the "guy with the hammer" reminded me of this.

Lots of years ago I investigated why 90% the small electric motors coming off an assembly line (GE, Fort Wayne!) jammed up. Long long story about days of dimensional analysis made short . . . turns out the one assembler whose motor NEVER jammed up, brought a small mallet to work from home and tapped the motors she assembled until they ran, before she sent them to packaging.

All of us management people chewed her out (and then promptly issued mallets to all the other assemblers).

 

[frank-grumman]

Now that is funny 🙂 🙂 and no need to apologize 🙂

In fairness to the sound of the AF, I lost a good bit of hearing in military service many years ago and recently acquired some pretty spiffy hearing aids the quality of which is such that it may well amplify the sound beyond what normal hearing would acquire. I just hope there are no light leaks on this copy.

FWIW, my take on the hairline crack issue is that it may well be related to the need to close the door easily until one reaches the stopping point, and then, at that point, turn the opening/locking toward counterclockwise slightly, and then add a bit of pressure to the door which will then close very nicely the rest of the way with no added pressure. Course, it may have nothing whatever to do with that 😀

 

[kuzano]

In fairness to the sound of the AF, I lost a good bit of hearing in military service many years ago and recently acquired some pretty spiffy hearing aids the quality of which is such that it may well amplify the sound beyond what normal hearing would acquire. I just hope there are no light leaks on this copy.

So, it appears that somewhere between my lost hearing and your super reinforced hearing is the "real" sound that a GA645Zi makes in operation.😀

 

[Spanik]

There must be a little guy with a hammer at the end of the assembly line who taps that crack onto the back. I have had four of the GA645Zi models, and handled a few others. I have yet to see one without that hairline crack.

I must have one made on a monday then as I cannot find any cracks in mine. Or I'm not looking at the richt place. To be fair it hasn't seen much use and looks to be carefull handled when I got it.