Tag Archives: Fujifilm

Saved by the view

The view which saved my day

The view which saved my day – captured with my the camera on my cell phone.

Saturday this weekend I planned to spend capturing the essence of autumn – whatever that might be. As usually when doing this kind of work, my camera bag was packed with gear for film photography. So far I’ve been pretty much geared up with mechanical cameras – no batteries needed. This time I brought with me my GF670W to get those wide perspectives captured on film.

My plan for the day was to take a gondola ride first, and spend the rest of the day freestyling – meaning driving/walking around without any special places in mind. It’s quite amazing how coincidences shaped this day.

In the beginning of my trip I had to take a ferry to get across the fjord, and although it was blue sky and perfect weather it was quite cold wind out on the fjord. After capturing a few frames I headed back to my car to get some coffee. I poured me a full cup of coffee, took a sip or two and regained my normal body temperature. Today I brought with me a cup which wasn’t possible to put in the car’s cup holder, so when driving off the ferry with a full cup of coffee in hand I had to pull over and drink my coffee first.

While drinking coffee I discovered some great light and a nice possibility for a picture. After I was done capturing the scenery I headed back to my car, and then I stumbled upon an information sign about some ancient graves near by. Interesting was my first thought and I headed back to the car to get my tripod and a box of Kodak Ektar.

During the walk along the trail to the ancient tumuluses I discovered several great locations and perfect light. The early morning frost was still claiming it’s position in the shadows, and behind there was nice, warm sunlight and a forest in it’s autumn dress. Probably about an hour went by in this little seaside forest. Satisifed I went back to my car – totally forgot about the ancient tumuluses.

Morning frost and warm sunlight

Morning frost and warm sunlight – captured with my the camera on my cell phone.

Driving through the spectacular valley before driving over the mountain pass at Stranda mountains meant a lot of stops. Can’t wait to develop the film to see pictures – they sure looked great through the viewfinder.

About five minutes into driving up the steep hills on the mountain pass I saw a great view, so I pulled over and rolled down the side window of the car to hear the music outside while photographing the view. As I often do I took a snap with my cellphone first, then I got my GF670 ready and half pressed the shutter button to measure the light. Oh god – all the symbols in the viewfinder were flashing red. Got a real bad feeling right away – the camera just came back from Japan after having the lightmeter repaired. Remember I rolled down the side window to hear the music outside? Can you guess the lyrics of the song that started playing on my stereo? “I need a miracle, I need a miracle”. A song I haven’t heard in years – “Fragma – I need a miracle”. A miracle I needed.

Removed the battery, inserted the battery again. Same procedure a couple of times more. Still all these flashing red symbols. Maybe it was just the battery needing replacement. But in rural Norway a CR2 battery can be hours away, and saturday afternoon can also mean no battery before monday.

After searching online without luck I suddenly remembered a photo shop in a village about 20 minutes away. 14.10 I saw on my clock – and they close at 15.00. I drove straight back to the village and looked on my map to locate the shop. They replaced my battery and my camera was working again. This could turn out to be quite a special day. Photographer P. P. Lyshol in Sykkylven saved my day – so I bought an extra memory card for my cellphone just to support them.

About 30 minutes later I arrived at the gondola’s starting point – no cars in the parking lot – strange. Online they were advertising opening hours 10-17 Saturdays and Sundays. When walking back to the car I saw this nice little creek, partially frozen. And like this the day went on, and on and on.

The frozen creek next to the closed gondola - captured with my the camera on my cell phone.

The frozen creek next to the closed gondola – captured with my the camera on my cell phone.

Later that day, when the sun was just above the horizon, I got problem seeing the road due to a dirty windscreen. Had to find a gas station to get it cleaned. Operation clean windscreen was soon completed. The sun was soon going to be hidden behind the peeks nearby, and I decided to not drive back to the main road were I was originally driving in case I could find a nice place before the warm sunlight was gone for the day.

What happened?

Of course I found this absolutely fantastic place with a quite large river, and the riverside had lots of ice covered boulders. The camera was mounted on my tripod and I realized that I didn’t have time to get the tripod set up before the sunlight was gone. I released the camera from the tripod, quickly adjusted aperture, shutter and focus, composed my picture and pressed the shutter. 2 seconds later the sun went down behind the mountains and the river earlier lit by warm sunlight was now in the cold shadow. Hopefully this frame will look just as great on the roll of Kodak Ektar as it did in reality.

The riverside in the shadows - seconds earlier it was bright, warm sunlight.

The riverside in the shadows – seconds earlier it was bright, warm sunlight.

None of these pictures would have been taken if it wasn’t for all the coincidences – stopping to finish my coffee after the ferry, then going to this small forest to make some photographs, then stopping to capture the fantastic view on the mountain pass and finding out that the battery on my Fujifilm GF670W was drained after the previous stop, going back to Sykkylven to replace the battery, then coming to a closed gondola at Stranda and later having to clean my dirty windscreen.

It all started with the cup of coffee, two rolls of Kodak Ektar and then beeing saved by the view.

Now I just have to wait a few weeks while I get the rolls developed, it will be exiting to see how the pictures looks like.

6 rolls of Kodak medium format film

6 rolls of Kodak medium format film

Fujfilm GF670W – The beast from the east – part 2

Fujifilm GF670W vs Canon 1d with 600mm f/4 size comparison.

Fujifilm GF670W vs Canon 1d with 600mm f/4 size comparison.


Are you one of those who enjoy a stripped down camera where you only get the basic tools for photography? Then you will without doubt familiarize yourself quickly with the Fujifilm GF670W. If you’re also a one lens man or girl we’re talking.

With the GF670W you are in no risk of having to scroll to page 20 to set the white balance, before scrolling back to page 9 part 3 to switch from aperture priority to manual.

Load the 120 or 220-film, set the ISO and you’re ready to rock.

Control wise you have a nob for setting the shutter speed and ISO, the on/off button and the focus ring on the lens. That’s it. That’s all I need. As an extra bonus you also find aperture priority mode with exposure compensation(+/- 2 stops). No real photographers use that, so I don’t understand why Fujifilm put it there. Just kidding – sometimes it’s quite nice to have it – especially with rapid changing light conditions.

fujifilm-gf670w-shutter-dial

The shutter dial you can turn from 1/500 to 4 sec plus Bulb exposure. I didn’t expect to use much the 4 or 2 second choice, but it was quite handy when I went out to do some nighttime cityscapes and forgot my cable release. My tripod wasn’t sturdy enough for Bulb exposure wihout cable release, and having the possibility to set 4 sec. at f/5.6 saved my night.

Lens wise the GF670W has a 55mm f/4.5 lens which is absolutely georgous. Superb color rendition and little disortion. If you’re a pixel(or grain?) peeper then I can’t help you with details, that’s not my cup of tea. The negatives looks nice and feels nice, that’s enough for me. Of course I would love to have a tiny f/2 lens on this baby, but that ain’t gonna happen. F/4.5 has so far been great. If I have to shoot by night there’s an option to stick something in the hot-shoe.

Fujifilm GF670W with lens hood

Fujifilm GF670W with lens hood

If you’re a square girl or guy you will fit 12 6×6 shots on one roll of 120-film or 24 on a roll of 220-film. Do you prefer a bit wider perspective on things then you can switch to 6×7 and fill the 120-roll with 10 exposure or 20 on the 220-roll. Switching between 6×6 or 6×7 is done while loading the film and you have to stick with it until the next roll.

Unlike the GF670W’s little sister, the GF670, the W-versjon is not a folder. That was a key point for me. After seeing pictures online of the GF670 covering the whole face of the photographer it was quite clear that it was not going to fit in my pocket anyway. In addition I want to have the hood constantly on, same goes for the filter if that’s needed. And probably the most important thing – the camera is always ready to shoot – no unfolding needed.

Powering this beast is a CR2 battery. How many shot’s you’ll get on one battery I don’t know, so far I’ve shot about 30 rolls. It will probably last for months or years.

A couple of days after getting the GF670W I traveled abroad for three weeks and also brought with me my Rolleiflex. You know why – to have both the wide lens of the GF and the little less wider perspective and that lovely waist level viewfinder on my Rolleiflex. Those who know me know how much I love my Rolleiflex – so it might be a surprise that for three weeks I didn’t expose a single frame with it.

To wrap things up – so far I’ve scanned about 10 rolls shot with the GF and they all look great – just remember to remove the lens cap before shooting. (The review is not continuing below the pictures in case you wonder.)

Original Fujifilm half case and lens hood attached.

Original Fujifilm half case and lens hood attached.

Fujifilm GF670W with leather case.

Fujifilm GF670W with leather case.

Fujifilm GF670W – The beast from the east – PART 1

fujifilm-gf670w-medium-format-range-finder-camera

It’s really quite insane, but totally true – the Fujifilm GF670W is so silent that it’s got a red light indicating you have pressed the shutter. That’s gotta be the definition of a quiet shutter.

But hey, let’s add an insanely noisy knob for winding the film forward for the next shot in case you want to notice your neighbours you’re getting ready for the next shot.
Why bother to engineer this remarkable shutter and then having to leave the room for winding the film if you want to be anonymous?

It’s absurd.

Maybe Fujifilm’s shutter department is in Japan and the knob department is on the other side of the world – I don’t know. My 65 year old Agfa folder winds the film totally silent, the Fuji should too.

That’s just how this camera is, like it or not. I love it.

Right from when I picked it out of the box and the smell of a new (and already discontinued) analog medium format camera filled the room I was sold. And did I mention – it got the looks too. Even my M6 Classic looks odd next to the GF670W.

But let’s get down to business – it doesn’t really matter how a camera looks or smells. How it performs and feel is the clue. And performs it does.
The lens is great, no wait a minute…I gotta say superb.
The viewfinder is like those gigantic panoramic windows you’ll see downtown on a funky office building.
The ergonomics are superb.
And it got all the knobs and buttons a photographer would dream of – that’s like two or three.

If I could ask for two more things it would be a quiet film winding knob and a mechanical shutter, because the electronics is the only thing I would imagine fail in this well engineered camera.

Did I mention the lightmeter broke down? Yes it did, and repairing it wasn’t easy. Fujifilm Norway didn’t want nothing to do with this camera even though is just a few years old and crazy expensive. I was quite surprised by this lack of service from Fujifilm, the service was non-existing. Luckily I got it repaired in Japan through a local camera shop. The way Fujifilm is developing their business with shutting down production of most of their film related products makes the film part of their name look kinda funny.

It may look like I got mixed emotions about this camera, but I don’t. I’m in love and love isn’t meant to always be easy. The GF670W might be the finest piece of photographic gear I have ever owned.

In part 2 I will get more into details. See below for a couple of photos taken with the Fujifilm GF670W.

Read more in part 2 – coming soon.

Wading in the Gulf of Finland. Photo: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg (Svein Ove Ekornesvåg)

Wading in the Gulf of Finland. Photo: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg (Svein Ove Ekornesvåg)

Something bright in sight. Foto: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg (Svein Ove Ekornesvåg)

Something bright in sight. Foto: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg (Svein Ove Ekornesvåg)