Film: 120/medium format
Format/Frame: 6 x 4.5 cm
Fuji GS645W is a serious professional 6×4.5 medium-format rangefinder camera which is quite unknown, unpopular and underrated… Medium format is perfect for landscape photography. However, it is difficult to find a compact camera with a wide angle lens.
—Kemal Tarik Yolcu, via Flickr
Read Camera-Wiki’s full review of the Fujica GS645 Wide HERE
If you google the Fujica GS645w, you’ll likely find all kinds of information on the cousins of the camera featured here. But, it will take a bit of discretion on the searcher’s part to find specific information on this particular model.
So briefly, for the sake of clarity, here’s a rundown on this line of cameras.
First of all, there is the GS645 with the 75mm lens (a modern folding camera too). Then there is the GS645s that has a 60mm fixed lens and, on the front of the camera it says, “wide 60.” The other unique feature of this model is the protective “cow bar” wrapping around the lens housing—you can’t miss it.
However, the true GS645w (emphasis on the “w”), is the model with the 45mm lens on it—equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. And, on the front of this camera, it simply says “wide,” without the “cow bar.”
Unlike its two cousins, the GS645w is not a true rangefinder even if it looks like one. The focus system is simply a zone-type system where you “guesstimate” the distance of your subject and then manually set the lens focus ring before you release the shutter—something you’d find on less expensive or older cameras (think Kodak Pony). However, this isn’t much of an issue given the extreme wide-angle of the lens, and therefore an abundance when it comes to depth of field. To get an out-of-focus image with this camera, you’d have to simply forget to set the focus.
I like to think of this model as a high-end, medium-format, point-and-shoot camera.
Recently I sent my GS645w to TLC Camera Repair in Highpoint, North Carolina for a complete CLA. They are pretty backed up at this time, so I probably won’t be getting it back for at least another month. Like many older cameras, the light seals in the camera door back are dried out and need replaced, and given how much I enjoy shooting with this camera, it’s an expense that is certainly justified.
