Several years ago, I began shooting and developing medium format 120 film. As previously noted, unrolling wet 120 negatives from a reel is an emotional experience. They are huge, they are glorious and each time I again fall under the spell of medium format photography. Flash forward and I now own four medium format roll film cameras. First purchased was a Yashica Mat 124G. It is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) in 6x6. A little later I added an early-1960s Super Fujica 6 folding rangefinder. Later still a mid-1960s Zeiss Ikon Nettar folder with scale focus. Both folders are also 6x6 format. The fourth medium format camera is the subject of this post.
As I shot those cameras on a routine basis I learned three things.
- First, I prefer holding the camera to the eye when shooting. While the Yashica TLR is tack sharp, and has a meter, I haven’t bonded with the left-right reversal, nor do I enjoy looking down into the camera to compose a frame.
- Second, I prefer rangefinder focusing. The Super Fujica 6 is perfect in this respect and merges neatly with my daily use of Leica rangefinders.
- Third, an in-body light meter is a must. While there are a lot of light meters available for hand use, to include many mobile apps for cell phones, several of which are resident on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, nothing beats the convenience of an in-body light meter.
Earlier this year I visited a camera shop about an hour’s drive from me. On that visit I saw and held a Fuji GF670 Professional. I was blown away. The viewfinder was large, bright, magnificent. Range finding was easy, intuitive, and felt the same as on my various Leica M bodies. The built-in light meter was readily viewable in the finder, and it was easy to integrate readings throughout a scene to determine a correct exposure. Best of all it included an aperture priority mode. To achieve that mode the body included an electronic leaf shutter. As with my Leica M7, no power, no camera. However, as I detailed in a recent post on the M7, aperture priority is an important part of my shooting experience, and I am willing to accept that I need to bring along a few extra batteries. I left the shop without the camera but it haunted my dreams for many weeks. You can guess what happened when I revisited the shop…
I bought the GF670 knowing full well it wasn’t a practical choice by modern standards. It’s a folding medium format film camera released in 2008, which already tells you everything you need to know about how out of step it was when it appeared. But that’s part of what appealed to me.
The camera itself is simple. It folds up, it opens out, and it makes big negatives. All while being small enough when folded to fit easily for travel. The fixed 80mm lens (35 equivalents are 44mm in 6x6 and 38mm in 6x7) keeps me from overthinking things, and the leaf shutter is quiet enough (almost too quiet!) that it never draws attention. Nothing about the GF670 feels flashy or clever. It feels built to do a job and do it well.
Using it slows me down in a good way. Opening the camera and extending the bellows forces a pause before I even look through the finder. Once I do, the rangefinder is bright and focusing feels natural (although sometimes I fiddle around finding the focus tab). The controls are right where I expect them to be, and aperture priority works well enough that I don’t have to think about exposure unless I want to.
The lens is excellent, but not in a way that shows off. It’s sharp, handles tones well, and gives me negatives that scan and print easily. That matters more to me than corner sharpness or MTF charts. My results are consistent, which is exactly what I want from a camera like this. Or any camera for that matter.
Six months on and the GF670 has become my regular 120 shooter. It matches how I like to work. I don’t shoot fast, I don’t shoot a lot, and I usually know what I want the negative to look like before I trip the shutter. This camera supports that mindset. It reminds me to slow down, pay attention, and make each frame count. That’s enough for me.
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