Medium Format

I have been using digital cameras, exclusively, for several years. Over that past few weeks I've been experimenting with a Fuji GW670III Medium format film camera. It uses 120 and 220 roll film, with 6cm x 7 cm negatives. It's a wonderfully simple camera, with no meter or fancy electronics to confuse you. It's a rangefinder type camera, which uses two points of view to establish a focal point (it's hard to explain, much easier if you see it in action). It has a fixed 90mm lens, which is excellent! You have to wind the film manually (manual labor, ewww). There are two shutter release buttons, one on top and one on the front for portrait orientation shots. It's a very large camera, but surprisingly light. Since it has no meter I have to use a handheld ambient/flash meter, which is really no big deal. I've gotten to the point where I can pretty much visualize the changing light and adjust without too much mental gymnastics.

I shot a couple of rolls of film around the house and at the park just to get a feel for how the camera exposes film. I wanted to be sure that I knew if I needed to slightly under or overexpose under certain conditions and with certain film. It reacts very predictably with the fuji film I'm using, very slightly overexposed at the meter's predicted settings. Not a big deal, because the film has a higher dynamic range than digital and I'll be mostly working off of digital scans and post-processing in Adobe Photoshop. The higher dynamic range means it is able to capture detail across a broader spectrum of dark to light. I got my first few rolls scanned last week, and was very happy with the results. I wasn't exactly taking the most artistic or well thought out pictures, but trying to take test shots in varying lighting conditions.

All in all, I really love this camera. I think there is a very good chance I will purchase one for myself, since this one is a loaner. I will continue to use my Nikon digital cameras for the majority of my work, but I can see a need for the higher dynamic range and detail captured in medium format. The Fuji GW670III is a very nice, utilitarian, camera. It's especially lightweight for a medium format, so I highly recommend it for anyone looking to get into medium format or just looking for a "hand-holdable" medium format camera.