Fuji Gw90ii My first Roll - It's a BIG camera.
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. I have been wanting a more mobile medium format film camera for a long time now. This camera does not disappoint. In fact. I made an entire YouTube video about it. It was also my first time using my new Insta360 camera:
For those who don't want to watch the video… or maybe you can't get enough of what I think about the camera and its product I thought I would write more about my feelings towards it.
First of all, the camera itself is a Fuji GW690ii. It's got a fixed 90mm lens and natively takes 120 film with a 6x9 aspect frame, which is HUGE. My Hasselblad 530cm also takes 120 film but shoots it shot on a 1x1 square format. So if you were to frame say the normal full frame sensor aspect 3:2 you’d still have to crop A LOT. This particular Fuji camera was built in the mid to late 80s (just like me). And there are other versions of it, for instance, there's the FujiGW90iii - for those keeping count, that's one more “i”, it’s got a different body build and some other fancy things. There's also the Fuji GSW90, which has a wider fixed lens.
I bought this camera from a friend. I ALWAYS prefer to buy my used film cameras from friends if I can. Not only do I trust my friends more, but it becomes part of the story of the camera and every click I take after that. This camera came from my friend Dave, who's a professional 1st AC in Hollywood and I’ve had the joy of working with over the years. He dropped about 10 rolls in my lap with the purchase of the camera and let me take my first image with it of him and HIS assistant Cheddar, that roll was mostly a test roll to make sure nothing was wrong with the camera.
My first real creative roll I took for a spin at sunset at the Redondo Beach pier. I've always taken cameras to test here, there’s just so much to look at, eat, drink, and smell… its one of my favorite places on Earth.
My niece Sara, a very talented photographer, came with me. Here is what I got:
The camera itself is HUGE. It's way bigger in person than it looks in the photographs, which is super fun because it's a bit comical when holding it up. I bought a small light meter that fits into the hotshoe, which is awesome. This way I don't have to lug around my light meter or take out my phone every time I need to figure out the exposure.
Because the negatives it creates are so large you can only take 8 photos per roll. Not a lot. And maybe the most annoying part of it. You'll get more out of a 220 roll… but you'll still have to pay for that extra film.
In general, the thing is SO SHARP. It’s a rangefinder so getting focus is a little tricky when having to line up the lines inside the viewfinder.
Still, the depth and the sharpness have me feeling (Heart Eyes).
For those of you not well versed in film and camera things, the larger the area of the film emulsion, or sensor (for digital), the more shallowness in your depth of field happens. This means there will be way more out-of-focus than in-focus, especially when you're shooting at a bigger F STOP or more open hole for light to come in.
There is something about this optically that makes me happy. It makes me happy in how it looks, the look of it to me is at the perfect crossroads of magic and real. It's also unique. I would say it’s harder to get this specific look on your run-of-the-mill 35mm camera or even a fancy mirrorless digital camera. The look of this size of negative runs along with medium format mirrorless cameras like the Fuji GFX line (notice the G in there still, 40 years later), and larger format cinema cameras like IMAX or the ARRI ALEXA LF.
Its size IS large, but for the camera being so big it's incredibly nimble and exactly what I would want out of such a large negative.
I can not wait to start shooting some weddings with it and hopefully some portraits. I'll just need to rob a bank to pay for all the film and processing over the next year.
Since writing this I took some very cool portraits working at the Hunewill Ranch a week or so ago in black and white. Check them out:
