3 Rolls of Film with the Fuji GA645Zi in Tokyo Japan
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- In which I take this gorgeously ugly hunk of plastic around Nakameguro and Shinjuku in Tokyo, with three different types of film to see just how well you can do street photography with an oversized medium format point-and-shoot camera. Will the Fuji GA645Zi triumph or will it it's 90s bubble be burst by the cold reality of the Japanese urban landscape?
Camera: Fujifilm GA645Zi
Film: Ilford Pan F 50, Ilford HP5 pushed to 1600, Kodak Portra 800
Location: Nakameguro, Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan.
Be fairly warned. This video offers to waste half an hour of your life you'll never get back. It presents practically no useful information about the camera, GA645Zi. It presents mostly b-roll of people waling around on Tokyo streets, day and night. That is interspaced with photos taken with the camera, nearly all of which are pointless snapshots with no point of interest, apart from their exotic location in the eyes of an ex-pat Brit. Right up front, he starts his "walk-round" shooting an ISO 50 film on a dark overcast day using a camera with a 5.6 aperture lens, plus or minus a half stop depending on focal length. Then he complains about slow shutter speeds and motion blur. (Well, duh!) Of course, no information is offered as to the specific technical difficult that presented, except that such film was too slow. Then, he switches to an ISO 400 speed film, and I think, finally, he's got it right. Then he announces that he is pushing that to ISO 1600. I think that may show something about the film, but nothing about the camera (once again). He keeps saying that he'll discuss (demonstrate?) the sharpness of the lens later, but "later" never comes. Never mentions the unique "elephant in the room" with the GA645Zi, being that most units have partially damaged LED screens on the back panel, which impair the utility of the camera, how that damage occurs, or whether it can now be repaired after years of making the camera terminal. (It can be repaired.) Not sure just who was the intended viewer of this video. If you want to learn anything about the camera, skip it.
What you get is a biased an incomplete review of the camera focusing on three rolls of film shot in Tokyo as the title suggests. Thanks for watching - sounds like you enjoy your GA645Zi. Oh, and Greetings from Australia :)
Better guard that back door from being opened too far as you'll eventually stretch the flat cable and the readout will start failing. It will render it useless, unless you need a doorstop or paperweight ! Fujifilm unfortunately doesn't back their older cameras and fix their problems !
Sometimes it feels like I can hear it ticking like a time bomb when I hold it up to my ear!
Fun video! Sad to hear about the lack of available kidneys in your household. Thanks for the Japan inspiration, can't wait to return soon!
I just hope Portra 800 doesn't get any more expensive or the kids are in trouble.
I owned that camera,yr 2k, the shots were incredible, the money one spends to experiment ? It was fun anyway, thanks.
It's not a cheap proposition, particularly since the price rebound for film cameras over the last few years.
Love your videos. Both informative, very well-informed, and entertaining.
The lack of feedback is pretty unsettling. The resulting scans outperform my 5dsr....if the focus did its job (metering is SPOT ON tho). For street photography i would recommend figuring out the hyper focal settings. I heard good stories about handheld 1/15th... need to test both out.
Thanks for the tips. I haven't been brave enough to hyperfocal photography on this thing. Medium format isn't so forgiving with depth of field. I can imagine 1/15th still being a decent shutter speed with the Fuji given its leaf shutter.
@@patternsinsand same..will try and report back (may take a while)
a question thats always on the tip of my tongue.
🤣
As a regular Australian in Tokyo, I am in awe of how difficult this must have been to shoot in Nakameguro. Dude, we are even the same age! Subscribed!
Thanks! I'm very conscious that I'm a clumsy 6ft gaijin and the challenges of trying to capture things through my eyes, while still being respectful of Japanese etiquette and custom.
Another interesting and very funny video Mark. Your sardonic and self-effacing style really works on YT Videos. I actually owned 'Harvey' back in the 90s when I worked as a professional event photographer. You're right in everything you said, it was clunky, cumbersome, slow and ugly but I did have numeours images from it published in various UK magazines at the time.
I think I eventually traded it in for my first ever digital camera, a Canon D30, a change that transformed my life, professionally speaking.
The strange thing is that today, long retired and using the 'machine' which is the Sony a7iii, there is a part of me which longs to own and use a camera like the 645zi, not a film camera but maybe something like the Fujifilm X-Pro 2 which bears some similarity to the old 645zi. I'm even toying with the idea of a PenF after watching your Fun Mini/Pen F video but not sure if I want to go back to MFT which was my first mirrorless system 13 years ago.
Anyway, keep the videos coming Mark, you've got me as a new subscriber to your chanel.
Thanks for the comments and subscribe! I think you've touched on something really important, which is the tactile aspects of the craft of photography. As good as they are, many cameras try to remove you from the equation and it's good to be able to feel the cold metal of knurled knobs and dials of some of the more retro designs.
@@patternsinsand Or champagne plastic in the case of the 645zi !! 😁😁
I think I'll stick to the Voigtlander. The real question is, do they shave the dog before it goes in the stir-fry ?
Strangely enough I'm about to visit Singapore this week and have just packed my Voigtlander Perkeo. Going full manual as a counterpoint to the Fuji.
Just to correct one of many misleading remarks in the video, The external shell of the camera is not plastic, as stated several times. It is titanium, perhaps the most damage resistant material available for the use.
I acknowledge there is a thin skin of titanium on the top bottom and front but many commentators and reviewers have agreed about the plasticky nature of the camera in the hand. Check out the Japan Camera Hunter and www.japancamerahunter.com/2022/03/camera-geekery-fujifilm-ga645zi/ 'as good as plastic can feel' or Edwin Chang's comment about it being plastic 'dressed' in titanium edwardchang.me/blog-1/2022/1/16fujifilm-ga645zi-and-fujifilm-ga645w