What's Wrong With the Fuji 690 Series?

[Calzone]

I just got a 100/3.5 AE in LN condition for no money because it might need to be repaired. Kinda like a time capsule back to 1974.

Today I'll get some batteries to test it. The dealer said the SSC button didn't work, but the batery check works. I opened up the cover and took note that the one contact for the SSC was bent a bit where it might not make a good contact. Perhaps a repair won't be needed.

Cal

 

[pagpow]

Spanik,

On your GM670 you can use Nikon diopters made for the Nikon F2. If you had a GL690 the F2 diopters also work and match the thread on the eyepiece. These do not fit your G690BL unfortunately.

Cal

The eyepiece diopters for the Bessa rangefinders fit the round eyepieces of the big Fujis, too. Available at Cameraquest.

Giorgio

 

[lawrence]

I used to use my BL690 in all my trips, side by side with a Rolleiflex 2.8D. I have bought another 690, but it is a GL690. My main lens is a 100/3.5AE, which works very well with flash for portraits, and it is super sharp for landscapes.

I have just won one of these on eBay and really looking forward to using it. My first big Fuji 🙂

 

[JChrome]

I have just won one of these on eBay and really looking forward to using it. My first big Fuji 🙂

Did you get the 100mm AE or non-AE? Assuming the latter as they are more common.

 

[rhl-oregon]

I have just won one of these on eBay and really looking forward to using it. My first big Fuji 🙂

Have fun. Enjoy the clangor-clank of the counter!

I enjoyed my GW690--I tended to haul it around on a monopod like a hobo's satchel over my shoulder-- but sold it (gone to Oz via RFF) once I bought a GF670, in one of those cost-recovery gear sales that are usually futile since they neither fully recover the funds expended on the newfangled purchase nor do they seem to prevent refilling the gaps in the camera cabinet. I won't be surprised if another 690 shows up here....

 

[Spanik]

The GL690 or G690BL are silent as a mouse.

 

[JChrome]

Have fun. Enjoy the clangor-clank of the counter!

Also, the counter isn't what causes the noise. I am admittedly being pedantic here but I can't help it... I have a really serious vendetta against this myth of the counter causing the noise with the GW690 series...

I'm fighting the battle across the web (even youtube!!)

The most watched youtube video on the GW690 also mentions this but Mike was kind enough to call out the myth in a popup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8wH9KPLbTU

 

[Texsport]

Texsport,

Someone who shoots large format looked at some of my 6x9 negatives shot with my Fuji and said, "With negatives like these you don't need a 4x5." I took this as a great compliment to my technic, the IQ, and the tonality I was able to capture. This was using a light table and an 8x loupe.

In just area the 6x9 is 6.5 times the space and a lot more happens there. 12x18 isn't that big a print, but I understand the 35mm negative will display some limits on IQ and tonality at that enlargment.

I wonder if you have a really clean highly detailed 6x9 negative and print it at a modest 12x18 that the detail might look/approach the look of a larger negative. I guess I'm wondering about print size that would be appropreate for say an exhibition print.

Thanks in advance.

Cal

I think that the 6X9 can approach, but not equal 4X5, in a 12X18, but the differences between older images shot on older 4X5 film, and 6X9 images on modern fine grained film are even smaller. I have a 4X5 camera with a famous Ektar 178/2.5 lens, but generally use it for longer range scenic a when I want subject isolation, but have never seen the need for using it with portraits. Once in a while, for maximum detail on a close subject, I might use a 4X5 with a Rodenstock APO Renar 240/8- a copying lens.

I hope that CineStill 50D becomes available in 120 film shortly. It is possibly the finest grain film yet. I'm shooting it and CineStill 800T almost exclusively in my 35mm cameras.

Texsport

 

[lawrence]

Did you get the 100mm AE or non-AE? Assuming the latter as they are more common.

It's the AE version

 

[Texsport]

BTW - I like loud shutters!

I've never tried to go stealth with a 6X9 camera either.

It states that an event has occurred. My favorite shutter is the Canon T90!

But, then again, I am a little deaf too!

Texsport

 

[FrankS]

Funny title. It's like the question: "When are you going to stop beating your wife?"

 

[Huss]

The eyepiece diopters for the Bessa rangefinders fit the round eyepieces of the big Fujis, too. Available at Cameraquest.

Giorgio

The eyepiece diopters for the Nikon FM series cameras fit Bessa rangefinders which also fit the round eyepieces of the big Fujis, too. Available anywhere (ebay, stores etc).

 

[rhl-oregon]

Also, the counter isn't what causes the noise. I am admittedly being pedantic here but I can't help it... I have a really serious vendetta against this myth of the counter causing the noise with the GW690 series....

OK, just don't shoot me! I thought it was the shutter, too, but a really authoritative sounding pontificator insisted it was the counter. I just like alliteration, really. ;-)

 

[sevo]

Also, the counter isn't what causes the noise. I am admittedly being pedantic here but I can't help it... I have a really serious vendetta against this myth of the counter causing the noise with the GW690 series...

Call it "the release mechanism that couples to the counter", then. It is not the shutter, nor the release by itself, as the earlier interchangeable lens models and their lenses aren't that loud. Personally I suspect that it actually is a feature actively built into the cameras - it is much too loud to be a accident that escaped the designers, and a release signal audible to the entire photographed group may have been considered desirable by the key market of bus tour operators.

 

[JChrome]

Call it "the release mechanism that couples to the counter", then. It is not the shutter, nor the release by itself, as the earlier interchangeable lens models and their lenses aren't that loud.

I am unsure what is meant exactly by "release mechanism that couples to the counter" but I assume it's the shutter firing linkage?

The sound isn't coming from the counter on the bottom, the linkage to it, nor the shutter within the lens.

Just to clarify - there are two shutter release linkages - one is the linkage between the winder assembly and the buttons you depress to fire the shutter (which are coupled to the counter) - the other is the linkage between the winder assembly and the shutter within the lens. The sound is being made by the latter. A large metal piece shoots across to actuate the shutter and this causes the sound. All of the springs add to the 'hum'.

Here's the link to the thread which shows it:
https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144759

 

[JChrome]

Personally I suspect that it actually is a feature actively built into the cameras - it is much too loud to be a accident that escaped the designers, and a release signal audible to the entire photographed group may have been considered desirable by the key market of bus tour operators.

That could be right. But I think probably what is happening is that they opted to make the entire camera more simply made (and as a consequence more robust and cheaper). It's hard for me to believe that anyone would want that sound as a 'feature' 🙂.

I should open up my GL690 and video the firing of it to see the linkage and the differences in the design.

 

[JChrome]

I was going to take a video of the shutter release mechanism on my BL690 but I'd have to do a lot more surgery than just taking the top plate off. With the GW690, you just take off the top plate and it's all there.

Anyway, the mechanisms are completely different between the GW690 and the BL690. The original G/BL/GL series has to accommodate for interchangeable lenses and therefore has the shutter release interface right next to the lens mount:

Notice the two interfaces, the smaller one is the shutter and the longer one is the winder.

Compare this to the winder assembly on the GW690, where a metal 'bit' has to fly across from the left to right to actuate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUvAK6dmks

Within the video, you can see that by winding the camera, there's nothing winding any element within the lens. This means that the spring to store the energy is within the body of the GW690. So the winding mechanism within the body has to not only actuate the shutter, but also power the shutter.

This is no small detail and is a large departure from the GW690's predecessor.

 

[Calzone]

I think that the 6X9 can approach, but not equal 4X5, in a 12X18, but the differences between older images shot on older 4X5 film, and 6X9 images on modern fine grained film are even smaller. I have a 4X5 camera with a famous Ektar 178/2.5 lens, but generally use it for longer range scenic a when I want subject isolation, but have never seen the need for using it with portraits. Once in a while, for maximum detail on a close subject, I might use a 4X5 with a Rodenstock APO Renar 240/8- a copying lens.

I hope that CineStill 50D becomes available in 120 film shortly. It is possibly the finest grain film yet. I'm shooting it and CineStill 800T almost exclusively in my 35mm cameras.

Texsport

Texsport,

Thanks for the response. I have no large format experience.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

BTW - I like loud shutters!

I've never tried to go stealth with a 6X9 camera either.

It states that an event has occurred. My favorite shutter is the Canon T90!

But, then again, I am a little deaf too!

Texsport

Texsport,

The sound of a Nikon F3 with motordrive never bothered me. Also I own a Pentax 67II.

I also have damaged hearing. LOL.

Cal

 

[Spanik]

Stealth is more a function of the photographer than the camera. Ok, if you try to go stealth with a 18x20 chamber the camera might be a bit conspicuous.