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A few months ago on a whim I picked up a Fuji GS645S at Map Camera, and shot about 30 rolls with it until I sold it to a friend the other day. It is an interesting, quirky little camera. One that demands a little more from the photographer than most other cameras might.

BONUS ANECDOTE
I took this camera with me to Nebraska, and had it with me when I met my two photo professors from the University. Shelley has used one of these Fujis for a long time. Dave told me that the time he met John Szarkowski, he (Szarkowski) had a recently purchased GS645S with him, but was still in the process of figuring it out. Dave mentioned that his co-worker used one, and for fun they should give her a call. Turns out she was unable to answer the phone, but the joke was for her to pick up the receiver and hear “Hello, Shelly. This is John Szarkowski, and I have a question for you about my camera.”
END OF ANECDOTE

As far as lenses go the 60mm lens is “razor sharp”. “Razor Sharp” is one of those euphemisms guys who test and write about lenses tend to use. I did not do those brick-wall lens workout tests like Pro camera testers, and have no idea what most of the terminology they use to describe optical performance even means. Except for “Razor Sharp”.
I have not had time to make more than just a few large prints with it, but the ones I have made are indistinguishable than prints made from larger 6×7 negatives.

So this is it: The lens is great. The camera is interesting. On the street, people look at it, and will ask you about it. The vertical orientation makes you make photos you might not normally take. This is good. The rangefinder patch is hard to see. This could be better.
If you want to get into Medium Format photography, and like rangefinders AND can get a hold of one of these, go for it.

Alas, last week I fell in with a Mamiya 7 and it has the perfect balance of weight (less than at Pentax 67) and handle-ability. The shutter is dead quiet, you’d never think a camera that big would be quieter than any Leica. The Fuji would have been a good machine to keep around, but it would not have gotten used as often as it deserves, and so it is off to a new home.

The following contact prints betray the lens quality since the negative file sheets are not 100% clear, and the glass used to hold them to the paper spent it’s pre-darkroom life as the top of an end table. Also, they are digital files 488 pixels across.

Before:

After:

Urayasu Backstreet Photo Festival
Aug 3 -10 2008
10:00am to 4:pm

To get to the exhibition pictured above:

1. Leave the South Exit of Urayasu station (Tozai Line)

2. You can go south, straight through the rotary, or around past the koban to a major intersection.

3. Cross the intersection, and keep to the left.

4. Head on past the Sukiya.

5. Keep going straight and cross this bridge.

6. Take a left on Flower Street (across from the shrine)

7. The barber shop with the green awning will have some photos. Check them and head down the street.

8. This is Flower Street, the “Backstreet” of the Urayasu show.

9. Keep going straight until you see the small convenience store, and take a right.

10. The local citizen’s meeting hall is about 10m south of the intersection.

Urayasu Backstreet Photo Festival 2008
Aug 3 -10 2008
10:00am to 4:00 (6:00pm on the 3rd, 9th, and 10th)

SUPER BONUS PICTURE / サービス写真:

From the Summer, 1995 issue of Deja-Vu, a Japanese Photography Quarterly:

deja-vu: “The Japanese writing system cannot be separated from reality, as the shapes or the pictures of the characters are based on real things. And when a character is handwritten it is that much more related to its base in the real.”

Araki: “Handwriting is raw, and that’s why I like it. And I like photographs that are still tied to reality. I don’t want them to lose their humidity, so I stop and shoot before the become refined or sophisticated. ‘Incomplete’ photographs are more attractive, they possess the past and the future– they move. ‘Complete’ photos make me feel like I am alone in a coffin.”