A Fujifilm Professional GA645i and Ilford Pan F

I’ve never written a 5 frames article before, usually because I can’t decide on which 5 frames I’d like to include, I’ve attempted it several times but it always ends in defeat as I simply can’t decide on which ones to include and which poor ones to neglect and be cruel to!

I had actually submitted this as a 5 frames article, but as I never had a photo of my camera Hamish suggested I add some more photos, so I decided to make this article about the Fujifilm GA645i used for Black and White.

Well I shot quite a few rolls when I had the Fuji GA645i.

The lens is a pin sharp, nicely coated fixed Fujinon 60mm Super EBC f4 lens (equiv to 35mm in 35mm Format) with the camera being like a big Konica Hexar AF.

f4 will give you as much shallow depth as around f2.8 on a 35mm format type camera!! I just wish the camera were able to focus closer – it’d be even better if it were able to! But minimum focus distance is about 2.3 ft or 70 cm away in theory, but in practise it’s a fair bit farther – so not very helpful!

You can see some other shots taken with this on my Fujifilm GA645i in the Hindu Kush post

I miss this camera a great deal and for the life of me can’t work out why I sold it. 

It must’ve been when I had my eyes on something else, but whatever that was I’ve long since forgotten.

I remember when I first got it – It felt great to look through that gorgeous huge bright polarized viewfinder. I remember the blue tint – probably a result of anti reflective coatings on the glass. Whatever it was I’ve missed it ever since.

I bought it to take photos of various trips I was planning to take and also to shoot some Black and White. 

I think the portrait vertical format is superb and suits the type and style of camera it is. It means most of the time I’d be shooting in that default mode and thus would have to think and compose accordingly. It’s like a large cuddly Half Frame camera.

I used to be a member of the CADW in Wales and the National Trust and visited almost every landscape garden and house in southern England and Wales.

I usually shot the photographs in a series; be it Stourhead, Waddlesdon Manor, Llanthony Priory etc.

My favourite place in the whole world is Tretower Castle nestled in the Brecon Beacons. Tretower is a CADW monument and where I think my spirit will travel to and haunt when I die as it contains so many magical, yet sad memories from my life. I promised never to visit it again and keep the memory of the last times as a precious little gift hidden away in my heart. I was tempted to write a 5 Frames in of Tretower, but I’ve so many memorable and lovely photographs from so many different formats (all B&W) that I wouldn’t know where to start.

Scanning is a long boring task which puts me off from re-scanning most of my stuff at a higher resolution and a task I will get round to one day. My digital scans are all archived away in safe spinning Hard Drives and haven’t had time to access them with my new (old) Mac. But I did come across these in my iPhone File folder. The scans are of a low resolution which is a shame but viewed on a screen after a long time they don’t look half bad.

This series is a selection of Photographs I took, unfortunately most of my other nice ones are still hidden away in boxes and un-scanned.

Some are shot at a National Trust landscape garden called Stowe. A Georgian park which is quite magnificent and perfect for any type of Photography. If you haven’t visited it you’ll be delighted at the colours of Spring, Summer and Autumn and the structures, monuments, lakes and trees. Beautiful. It has a magical kind of vibe and one can spend all day wondering around it.

The others were shot in Tretower Castle, a CADW monument in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, which I mentioned above.

The other set is of West Kennett Long Barrow in Wiltshire. If you haven’t been there, you’ll find many an ancient mound and standing stone and the village of Avebury close by which has a stone circle circling through it.

The latter are magical places, with a certain energy I cannot describe, places I could sit and feel forever.

West Kennett Long Barrow reminds me of “Fog on The Barrow Downs”, a chapter in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring.

“…In the midst of it there stood a single stone, standing tall under the sun above, and at this hour casting no shadow. It was shapeless and yet significant: like a landmark, or a guarding finger, or more like a warning..”

Go inside the Barrow and things turn from magical to somewhat dark, I can imagine old Wights dwelling within, silently waking and haunting the unwary or the sensitive.

These were shot with the mentioned Fuji GA645i with a roll of Ilford Pan F 50 iso, a Yellow Filter and developed in Rodinal. I think Black and White works well here, it helped that I had an interesting sky and the summer light gave the stone some structure and texture.

The metering is nailed, I didn’t have to do anything, just point and shoot. In colour it tends to under expose a tad but in B&W it’s just right on target.

It’s an easy electronic camera; easy to load, wind on and unload. Of course you have to fiddle with 120 reels but everything for someone beginning Medium Format is a dream.

My only issue is that it does feel a bit plasticky in parts, but that’s just the outer layer, it does have a confidence inspiring heft to it.

Pan F is a lovely film, I should use it again sometime..and find myself another Fuji.

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