There are many things to love about the Fuji GW690. I love its awesome size whilst managing to remain inconspicuous. I love the noise of the clockwork as I adjust the settings and the tiny, mirrorless, leaf-shutter ‘tink’ noise as it fires.
It has a perfect union of glass and focal plane and a sheer opulence in resolution, easily producing 50 megapixel scans of crisp clarity.
One of the things that I didn’t expect to love was the number of frames on each roll. Getting 8 pictures from a roll of 120 initially sounds restrictive, and possibly expensive. (Plus the camera is fiddly to load on the move, doubly debilitating if you have to load 4.5 times more regularly than a 35mm camera).
The result however is that have never struggled to finish a film. Earlier this year, as I crossed the Alps, I wanted to photograph some of the mountain scenery. I wanted it in black and white and wanted some extra contrast. In goes a roll of Ilford HP5+ which I pushed to ISO800, (technically speaking I under-exposed by a stop and did the ‘pushing’ at the point of development). The result was a quick(ish) 8 frames of the mountains around me before the camera was empty and flexible once more.
I could have 36 frames for roughly the same money, but as a perhaps spoiled shooter of the digital era, I am accustomed to the flexibility of the digital sensor, of being able to set an ISO for a shot rather than a roll. More than once I have had to forgo images because I’m 17 frames into a 36 frame roll and can’t get enough light onto the film.
With the Fuji there is no need to worry, (as long as you have more film on you), you can move from black & white to colour, from tungsten balance to natural light, from push to pull, almost, almost at a whim.
As I was celebrating the Fuji’s arrival into the fold, I talked about how he would consume only the finest slide film. Since returning to the UK and scanning some of the C41 stuff I shot on the trip, I have come to the conclusion that this limit would be foolhardy. He shall have a balanced diet of C41, E6, and Monochrome, (a five pack of Ektar 100 has arrived, marrying my love of resolution and the colour negative process).
I have also backed the successful Ferrania and the currently struggling Cinestill Kickstarter campaigns in the in the hope of snaring some new emulsions to play with…
The blog has been quiet for the last month because of some pretty big developments here at jamesgreenoff.com. I’ll be going to into more detail about those shortly, but one advantage is that the whimsical ramblings posted here should be a bit more regular in future…
