5 Frames With a Fujica GL690 – by Denys Trofimchuk

If you are like me, you are into cameras with the “wow” factor — rare, a bit weird, a bit underrated, and so forth. Maybe, it’s the desire to overcompensate for the lack of skill, or just a plain old “boys will be boys” thing, so getting a new toy is a must once in a while?

One day, a friend of mine asked me, if I want to borrow his Fujica GL690. I almost yelled “Yes!”. I was exited, because it’s a medium format, 6×9 Japanese rangefinder from the 60s. The Fujica has spectacularly sharp Fujinon lenses. This one had the standard 100mm F3.5, there are also a rare 65mm wide and 150mm portrait lens. It looks, feels and works almost precisely like the Leica M3 Double Stroke – except it’s 3 times the size and you only have 8 frames in the roll… so make them count!

I could have it only for a couple of days, so there was a lot of shooting to be done. I tried to do some street photos, but with a huge brick to your face, you’re not too stealthy. It also takes a while to focus a lens the size of my hand. After a bit of brainstorming, I decided to use it as a sort of baby large format portrait camera and do some portraits.

Pros:

• Gorgeous lens – sharp , with beautiful rendering
• Simple in operation, fully mechanical
• Large viewfinder/ rangefinder patch
• Flash sync on all speed/quite lead shutter
• Fool proof and simple mechanisms to protect from accidentally pressing the shutter or exposing the film when changing the lenses
• Huge negatives

Cons

• Size and weight
• Only 8 frames per roll

In short, it’s a big camera with a big character, and you either love it or hate it!

Here are some of the portraits I shot:

Denys Trofimchuk
www.denysphoto.com

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