Wonderfool

The monster Fuji GW690ii (AKA the Texas Leica) is a fixed lens, rangefinder medium format camera. It’s nickname as the ‘Texas Leica’ comes from it’s rangefinder format and at how sharp the results are and it’s larger than life appearance. 

I purchased this camera after succumbing to a severe case of G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome), the curiosity type, rather than just wanting new gear. I prefer using rangefinders as a tool after falling in love with the process through my M-mount Bessa R2m, and I wanted to experiment more with medium format cameras, after my experience with the RB67. The Fuji offered more portability and in the body of a rangefinder, and after reading numerous reviews around the quality of the lens/camera, as soon as one came up from a respectable seller in the UK, I had to try it out. 

First impressions were that the build quality was solid, but by no means luxurious, with plastic grip where a leatherette and plastic finishing across the body. You can tell this was a designed as a simple workhorse of a camera, with maybe the more artisan materials being left off to keep the weight down and portability up.  Every button is pronounced and easy to use, with the camera taking the shape of a cartoonish toy camera silhouette and this did make me feel a bit self conscious using it. Some other issues I had with it, was I wasn’t a fan of moving the lens hood to change the aperture and because if this constant moving the lens hood is prone to becoming misshaped. Although, the viewfinder is optically beautiful, large and light, the rangefinder patch was very faint and made it difficult to focus on 1/3 shots. This may have just been this particular camera, though. 

Despite those first impression issues, the plus points of this camera do override them. The first and main one is the powerhouse of the lens. It is incredibly crisp and it is clear how the camera earned it’s nickname. It’s portability and simplicity is also a massive plus. Unlike touring with the RB67 which was holstered in my rucksack, I could keep the fuji around my neck with a secondary 35mm camera round my neck too. It made medium format photography much more accessible for this reason. The simplicity of the camera meant I could spend more time thinking about photos I wanted to take, rather than preparing the camera to take the photo. Whilst using the camera I also really appreciated how it felt to use it. When you wound the film, you felt the gears turning. It felt mechanical, it felt like it was working for you and these feelings added to the photo taking process.

First time trying out a coloured lens whilst shooting in B/W. Yellow, orange and red can up the contrast of images. Trying to remember why... it’s something about the red colour in the light either being amplified or reduced, changing the contrast of the image. 

This is the Kodak 35. Since seeing the military version of this camera produced for the second world war between 1942-45 (civil production of this camera was ceased during this time), I wanted to try and get my hands on the civilian version as a way to experience the same view/image creation as someone in the field during WW2. The camera was introduced in 1938 and after 1945 civil production did continue until 1949. There were a number of different shutter/lens combinations and it seems this model was produced either in 1946-47. It is fairly simple to use, but using a camera of this age does come with the lack of ergonomic design or helpful features. It is built like a tank, and is a fair weight when handling it. One major problem I found was rewinding the film shredded my hands as it was so stiff. Maybe if this camera had a CLA or service this would be smoother.