GW 690iii Did I get the Deal of the Century!

[nksyoon]

6x9 - another temptation! How handholdable is one of these? I have a great aversion to carrying tripods around.

 

[Dougg]

Nick, it seems pretty clear to me this whole series of big Fuji RFs was designed for hand-held use. I had an opportunity today to handle a 670III at the big camera swap meet near Seattle. Never had held one before. First impression was of comfort from the ergonomic grip and that it was lighter weight than expected. Easy to hold, nice big viewfinder, with framelines that not only move for parallax but also shrink slightly in focusing closer to maintain better framing accuracy. Very nice... except for the miserably small and dim RF spot. Shortly after this I did the same peering and focusing with a Canonet QL17 GIII and its focus spot was noticeably larger and more contrasty than the Fuji's. Odd.

 

[rich815]

These babies feel pretty good in the hand but what prevents me from using mine by hand w/o a tripod too often is two things. One, the long throw and more narrow DOF of the 6x9 format has it difficult to use fast for street photography. Two, unless you shoot at least 1/250th you will likely, through even minute camera shake, compromise the sharpness the these lenses can give. You will get acceptable sharpness but not the blow-away sharpness that they are capable of.

 

[mountainrivera]

Pics attached. I promise I will stop gloating now Shot a couple of rolls yesterday. Big camera bot not too heavy. I just bot an epson 3170 refurb on epsons site - $68 delivered - to scan pics from my new toy. There is a 10% coupon if interested : 6AAXFP