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Fujifilm GA-645Wi Medium Format

4.33/5 (6 Reviews)

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  • Weight-16 oz.
    Product ID20677

Product Description

With a 45mm wide-angle lens, the GA645Wi inherits all the features of the innovative GA645I professional, including passive and active autofocus, automatic exposure setting in program and aperture priority modes, and manual exposure adjustment when desired. Now includes BCS feature.


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Reviews 1 - 5 (6 Reviews Total) | Next 15

User Reviews

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by nanas sousa dias a Professional

Date Reviewed: October 13, 2008

Strengths:    Image sharpness and contrast.
Great lens multi-coating
Manual focus does work well if you read the user manual carefully.
Good light meter
Data printed on negative border
Flash sync at any shutter speed

Weaknesses:    User manual
Not a good looking camera

Bottom Line:   
Fuji GA 645 Wi

This is one of the best cameras I've ever used. Small, light, superb & super sharp lens, autofocus, manual exposure, auto advance of film, program, aperture priority, manual focus, built-in flash, data printed on negative border, what would I need more?
It is the ideal camera for those who want a MF camera, easy to carry.
I shoot chrome and B&W film with this camera and I've never had a bad light metering or out of focus image, made with this camera.
There are many people complaining about this camera but, many of those have never read carefully the manual, wich I admit, is not very user friendly.

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Duration Product Used:   11-20 years

Purchased At:   Lisbon

Similar Products Used:   Fuji GA 645
Pentax 67
Pentax 645
Rolleiflex 3.5E
Mamiya 6 Mf
Hasselblad 500 C/M

Type of photography:   Fine Art

Overall Rating:3
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Phillip George a Expert

Date Reviewed: September 15, 2001

Strengths:    Superb Lens quality

Weaknesses:    Much cheezier feeling than 645zi. Manual focusing as per review summary

Bottom Line:   
Couldn't get past the manual focusing feature of this camera. Unlike the 645zi, using hyperfocal distances cause the frame lines to change to the close-framing position causing problems in reframing for distance photographs. Sold the camera.

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Duration Product Used:   21+ years

Similar Products Used:   GA645zi (superb camera)

Type of photography:   Outdoor

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by Ricky Chan a Intermediate from Hongkong

Date Reviewed: March 5, 2001

Strengths:    - Razor Sharp Lens(in-focus)
- Light shuttor(can hold less than 1/10 sec)
- Light weight and small size, versatile!
- Good price
- Easy to use
- Data record



Weaknesses:    - The manual focus operation is stupid

- There are some "bind spot" that cannot be in focus e.g.0.8m (even you step down to aperture 22, this distance can never be sharp(according to the DOF table in the manual

Bottom Line:   
A good P&S medium format camera. But must be familiar to its "characteristics", otherwise, you may only get a blur, out of focus photo!

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Duration Product Used:   6-10 years

Price Paid:    $850.00

Purchased At:   Hong Kong

Similar Products Used:   This is my first MF


Type of photography:   Outdoor

Overall Rating:3
Value Rating:4
Submitted by John Beckman a Expert from NYC

Date Reviewed: July 24, 2000

Strengths:    Superb, superb lens; lightweight and small; price is fairly reasonable for what you get (if what you got worked better)

Weaknesses:    autofocus is erratic; metering is hopeless; portrait orientation is unfortunate, given its special appropriateness as a landscape camera; flash is hopeless; instruction manual is hopeless

Bottom Line:   
I'm the contrarian on this camera. Other than the lens -- which is superb and yields amazing photos -- I do not get why people rave about it.

The AF frequently doesn't focus on what you want it to; it often did not lock on what it was supposed to. Unlike an SLR or a mechanical rangefinder, you have no way of knowing it, other than looking at the distance readout and estimating distances. This was a very irritating aspect of this camera.

It was nice of them to include an on-board flash; the problem was that the flash was appalling. In all the time I owned the camera, I never got a good flash picture. Was it a TTL flash? Who the hell knows, because the manual was so awful, it didn't tell you.

Nor did it tell you how to get the best out of the metering. Was it centered-weighted, total average, or what? Again, who knows?

The camera was oriented for portrait taking (long side (6) up and down, short side (4.5) left to right). This was inevitable when you think about the design of a 645 roll film point-and-shoot camera, but it is a pity when you think about how well this camera suited landscape work. What made it worse was that when you flipped the camera to take a horizontal shot, you had to flip 90 degrees in the opposite direction from the one which most photographers are accustomed to (right hand on bottom, rather than top), or you obscure the meter and mess up the exposure (to their credit, they added a second shutter release to make this operation easier).

So, what should they have done with this camera? Kept the package -- which is a near ideal size and weight -- but make it a MECHANICAL rangefinder (like their 670 and 690). They should improve the metering and the flash. If they had, they might have produced the ultimate MF camera to take hiking.

Because of these shortcomings, I sold the camera and bought a Plaubel Makina. Though it has proved fussy in other ways, it fulfilled my requirements: small, convenient package/big negative.

But, as I say, I'm in the minority on this one. Most people love it. And, truth be told, I look at some of the photos I took with this camera, and some of my favorites are among them, and at those moments, I miss it a bit.

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Duration Product Used:   11-20 years

Similar Products Used:   wide range of 35mm and medium format cameras

Type of photography:   Other

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Darrin Vanselow a Professional from Porrentruy, Jura Switzerland

Date Reviewed: June 18, 2000

Strengths:    Very easy to use, very sharp, and by all means a great camera for marriages. " NO NOISE "
Also for reportage " No Noise "


Weaknesses:    If the intention, is to be fast and easy, with a 120 mm neg: None....
"Danger" it has DX CODE only with Fuji film. So if your using Kodak or Agfa, you must change the ISO by hand.....

Bottom Line:   
Great for reportage in 120 mm format. Also
Stock photos in 6x4.5 format can't hurt.

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Duration Product Used:   6-10 years

Similar Products Used:   Mamiya 6x7, Pentax 6x7
Fuji 6x4.5

Type of photography:   People


Reviews 1 - 5 (6 Reviews Total) | Next 15

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  • Weight-16 oz.
    Product ID20677


 

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