[matthew]

Updated: I now have a more comprehensive review of the GA645Zi on my 'thewsreviews blog.


No, it's not the Fuji X10, but it's clearly related:



This is my newest acquisition, and the last one for a while. It's a Fuji GA645zi, a circa-2001 medium format machine that has Program, Aperture, and Manual exposure modes but is otherwise essentially a point-and-shoot camera. Not only does it have built-in metering, it has auto focus and auto film advance. With sixteen exposures on a roll of 120 film, this is my new travel camera for long trips.



The GA645 is small for what it is. As a 645 camera its negatives are 56mm high, in portrait orientation, while the Olympus XA captures 36mm in height when it's stood on end. The GA645's negatives are 41mm wide versus 24mm for the small-format camera. The "zi" model of the GA645 has a zoom lens that's about the equivalent of a 33-55mm; its aperture range is f/4.5-6.9, which isn't bright but is reasonable for a leaf-shutter camera. Remember also that medium format has less depth of field than smaller formats, so this camera is still able to play with selective focus even if it isn't its strength.






While it looks bulky, the GA645 is actually just barely taller than the chassis of a 'prosumer' SLR like the D300/D700 or 5D/7D cameras; it's quite a bit lower than the D700's prism housing and has less obstructions to snag. It is a little wider, but not as deep as the SLR camera with even a modest lens attached. Naturally the Fuji's lens retracts somewhat when the camera is turned off. I need to add six rolls of film to the scale with the GA645zi on it to make it match the weight of the Nikon D700 body with no lens attached.


With the GA645zi I've accomplished two important things. The most significant is that I now have a medium-format camera that will disappear in the little $20 common-as-dirt MEC Pod sling pack that I use as a day bag – this image search not only shows the bag, but currently includes two of my photos in the first few dozen results. The camera's size and vertical-carry lugs also makes it one that I can comfortably carry without a camera bag if I do a longer road trip that would see me living out of a backpack, and it will still be useable when I'm half-blind from sleep depravation.

The other important thing about this camera is that I've finally been able to simultaneously own two cameras with the same name. My Zeiss Ikon rangefinder is commonly called the "ZI" and the Fuji GA645's "Zi" badge distinguishes it from the very different "i", "W", and "Wi" models. Granted, I'm not as good at duplicating names as Canon is – my scanner is the 9000F and my printer is the Pro9000mkII – but it's a pretty cool accomplishment.

And Zig, even though it's not one of the fuji 6x9 rangefinders, you are directly responsible for my owning this camera. (That's a good thing.)

Photos to follow next week – I'll be taking a test roll over the next day or two, and then going away over the weekend, so it will be developed and scanned early next week.