Fujica GL690 Professional (1974)

This is a Fujica GL690 Professional an interchangeable lens medium format rangefinder camera made by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. starting in January 1974 in Tokyo, Japan.  The GL690 was the successor to the earlier G690 which was first released in 1968.  This original camera is said to have been inspired by the design of the Graflex Combat Graphic and the Leica M-series.  Because of its oversized resemblance to the Leica M3, all cameras in this series are often nicknamed the “Texas Leica”.  The GL690 improved upon the G690 by adding a second shutter release, support for short rolls of film, an improved viewfinder, different strap lugs, and support for additional lenses.  A version of this camera called the GM670 Professional was also released which shot 6×7 instead of 6×9 images.

Film Type: 120 and 220 Roll Film (sixteen, eight or four 6cm x 9cm exposures per roll)
Lens: 50mm f/5.6 Fujinon SW S coated 8-elements in 6-groups
Lens Mount: Fujica G-series Breech Lock Bayonet
Focus: 3.3 feet / 1 meter to Infinity
Viewfinder: Coincident Image Coupled Rangefinder w/ Automatic Parallax Correction, 0.75x Magnification
Shutter: In-Lens Leaf Shutter
Speeds: B, 1 – 1/500 seconds
Exposure Meter: None (Optional AE using Fujinon-AE 100mm f/3.5 lens)
Battery: None
Flash Mount: Cold shoe and M and X Flash Sync
Weight: 1894 grams (w/ lens and aux viewfinder), 1172 grams (body only)
Manual: https://www.cameramanuals.org/fuji_pdf/fujica_gl690_gm670.pdf

Back in the 1960s, more and more professional photographers were turning to 35mm cameras like the Nikon F and the Leica M3, and turning in their Rolleiflex TLRs and other 6×6 or larger folding cameras.  The ease and convenience of 35mm cameras was undeniable, but for discerning photographers who demanded the highest quality images, medium format still had an appeal.

Around this time, Japan had a thriving tourism industry and pro photographers found themselves at a crossroads, either they could give up their medium format cameras and switch to something smaller and easier to carry, or stay with larger negative cameras, but deal with the bulk and inconvenience of a folding camera.  But what if they could have both?  This was the question that Fuji asked the head of their design department, Yamamoto Katsuhiko to come up with an answer to.

For inspiration of what a more convenient medium format camera would look like, he was inspired by the Leica M3 with its rangefinder looks and interchangeable lens mount, but when it came to size, he also looked at the Graflex Combat Graphic, a military use camera designed for the United States military in the 1950s.  If he could create an all new camera with the ruggedness and build quality of the Combat Graphic and the modern ergonomics and appearance of the Leica M3, perhaps these professional photographers could have their cake and eat it too.

In March 1968, Fuji revealed a prototype camera in March 1968 at the Tokyo Camera Show.  This unnamed camera supported both 6cm x 9cm and 4.5cm x 6cm images and had a complex viewfinder with a low magnification ratio and multiple frame lines.  By the time the camera was revealed in September of that year, it dropped the 4.5cm x 6cm feature and went with a simpler, but larger viewfinder with frame lines only for 100mm and 150 lenses.  The camera would go on sale three months later in December 1968 as the Fujica G690.

In the United States, the Fujica G690 sold body only for $205 or with a 100mm f/3.5 kit lens for $375.  Prices for additional lenses were $265 for the 65mm f/8 and 150mm f/5.6 or $295 for the 180mm f/5.6.  When buying the 65mm and 180mm lenses, an auxiliary viewfinder was included.  These prices, when adjusted for inflation compare to $1840, $3370, $2380, and $2650 respectively.

The original G690 was produced for less than a year and in October 1969 was refreshed as the Fujica G690BL, with the most significant change being the addition of an interlock which prevents removal of the lens until after the dark slide is in position.  Other changes were made to the door lock and the loss of some chrome trim around the front viewfinder windows.  This cosmetic change is the easiest way to spot an original G690 over the redesigned G690BL as only the G690 has the chrome trim.  Prices for the updated model were unchanged.

With the release of the G690 and G690BL, it was clear that Fuji was onto something as the cameras sold well, especially to professional photographers, so in the early 1970s, Fuji began to receive suggestions on how the cameras could be made better.  Yamamoto Katsuhiko, who was still in charge of camera development toured Japan talking to other pros, listening to their suggestions and concerns.  Development of a successor to the G690BL began quickly and the new model would be the first in the line to feature the word “Professional” in the name to signify that this was a camera designed by pros for pros.

The Fujica GL690 Professional would be released in January 1974 with some of the most noticeable changes being the addition of a second shutter release button on the front of the camera which was easier to use while holding the camera in portrait orientation as many photographers used the GL690 for that purpose.  Another portrait oriented change was to add support for short rolls of 120 which were half the normal length, offering half as many exposures.  The reason for this was that tourism in Japan was very high at the time, and many tourists would get their portraits taken and expect results back quickly, which when you have a roll of film loaded with eight exposures, you might not need the whole roll.  Instead, four exposure rolls were popular as they were less expensive to buy and allowed the photographer to more quickly turn around and offer prints to their customers.

Other changes were that the viewfinder’s magnification ratio was increased from .84x to .92x allowing for a more lifelike image seen in the viewfinder, a change from square to a round eyepiece on the back of the camera which matched that of the round eyepieces on Fuji’s 35mm SLRs like the ST801 and ST901, allowing the GL690 to share eyepiece accessories with those models.  The strap lugs also changed to a “mushroom” design which was the same as what Mamiya and Asahi Pentax were using on their medium format cameras.  A few minor cosmetic changes were made as well, including all black trim around the front windows, a large white “G” above the lens mount and that all new lenses had rubber focus grips instead of metal.

Finally, three new lenses were available, a superwide 50mm f/5.6, a faster 65mm f/5.6 (up from f/8) wide angle lens, and a revolutionary Auto Exposure 100mm f/3.5 lens.  The justification for an Auto Exposure lens with a built in meter was that instead of adding that capability to the camera and causing the price to go up even for those who didn’t need it, they could continue to offer the unmetered body for less money, but then give anyone interested in a metered lens the choice of buying it separately.

In my research for this article, I was unable to find any advertisements or marketing material which shows the GL690 or what it might have cost when new.  Surprisingly, the robust reference library at Pacific Rim had nothing about it.  Even stranger, a 1975 and 1976 Fuji Consumer Products price list didn’t mention it, suggesting this was either a Japan only camera, or that it was only imported into the US through specialty channels.  The best hint at its cost comes from camera-wiki who suggests that the earlier G690BL sold in Japan with the 100mm f/3.5 (non AE) lens for ¥86,600 and the later GL690 sold with the same lens for ¥140,400, representing a 62% price increase.  If this held true with US prices, using the US Fuji catalog price above of $375 for the earlier camera, the GL690 with 100mm f/3.5 lens would have cost around $600, which if that is true, with inflation, that price compares to around $3625 today.  Somehow, that doesn’t feel right, but until I find something more conclusive, that will be my best guess.

It is not clear for how long the Fujica GL690 Professional was produced, but its successor, the fixed lens Fujica GW690 Professional was released in November 1978, suggesting that perhaps the GL690 ended production at that time.  Continuing with their history of listening to their customers, all future cameras in the series would have fixed lenses.  Models featuring either 90mm or wide angle 65mm lenses would usually be offered simultaneously.  The switch from interchangeable to fixed lenses was that Fuji saw that sales of lenses other than 65mm and 100mm to be extremely low.  As nice as it might have been to have the ultra wide angle 50mm or 150mm and 180mm telephoto lenses, very few people bought them.  Another benefit to eliminating the interchangeable lens mount was that the camera could be made with less parts and for a lower price.

Fuji would continue to produce 6cm x 9cm rangefinder cameras until the 1990s, suggesting that their formula worked.  In an era dominated by 35mm SLRs, the need for a medium format rangefinder was small, but big enough to support the system for at least another decade and a half.

What is a “Texas Leica”? Today, you will often hear about Fuji “Texas Leicas” which are always some variant of the GL690 Professional from the very first Fujica G690 to the fixed lens/wide angle only Fujifilm GSW690III from the 1990s.  The etymology of this term certainly goes back to the original model’s design influence from the Leica M3 and how the general shape of the camera does sorta resemble a supersized Leica (for those of you not from the United States, there is a cultural belief that ‘everything is bigger in Texas’).

The ‘Texas Leica’ name is entirely fan based and was never used by Fuji to advertise their cameras, although I am sure they didn’t discourage it.  Since this is an unofficial title, I suppose any of Fuji’s medium format rangefinders could be Texas Leicas, but if you really want to break it down, Leica M-series cameras all had predominantly metal exterior finishes and they had interchangeable lenses, so later models in the GS and GSW series probably shouldn’t carry that nickname.  For me, a “Texas Leica” should be closer in design and function to the original G690, including the G690BL, GL690, and GM670.  If you don’t mind your “Texas Leica” having an externally plastic body and fixed lenses, I suppose the intermediate Fujica GW690 Professional and the nine similar models that followed it would count too, but in reality, it doesn’t really matter.

The Fujica GL690 and similar models are very well known in the film photography community and don’t need much of an introduction.  One had been on my GAS list for quite a while before I had the opportunity to shoot this GL690.  Perhaps even more special than the camera itself were that it came with the two most interesting lenses made for the system, the wide angle 50mm f/5.6 Fujinon SW S and auto exposure capable 100mm f/3.5 EBC Fujinon AE lenses.  I was most interested in the  8-element wide angle lens because I really like wide angle, but the idea of shooting a medium format 6×9 rangefinder from the 1970s that can also do auto exposure was appealing too.

I was well aware that any combination of lens mounted to this camera would be heavy beast of a machine and I was right.  At 1894 grams (~4.2 lbs) with the 50mm lens and aux viewfinder mounted, the Fujica GL690 is not something you’d want dangling from your neck for too long.  Although heavy, the rangefinder form factor somehow masks the weight of the camera compared to medium format SLRs like the Mamiya RB67 or Pentacon Six TL.  I have historically struggled with those cameras as I always feel like using them at eye level is like holding a square bowling ball to your face.  For me, medium format SLRs should be used at waist level or not at all.  Perhaps it is the ergonomic familiarity of the Leica-like rangefinder design, but I did not struggle with the GL690 nearly as much as those other heavier cameras.

Whether you agree with the repeated “Leica” comparisons, one area in which I have no problem connecting the two camera systems together is in build quality.  The Fujica GL690 is a very sturdy and well built camera.  There is an often believed link between how heavy something is and how well it is build, which isn’t always true.  Over the years, there have been many heavy cameras made with poor build quality, but with half a century of use to back up this claim, I believe the GL690 is not one of those cameras, it is both heavy and well built.

The top plate of the GL690 has a clean design, which combined with its large size, gives large swaths of empty surface area to admire.  The entire left size where you’d expect to see a rewind knob on a 35mm camera is where the camera’s name “Fujica GL690 Professional” is engraved and paint filled with bold white letters that stand out from the camera’s black paint.  In the middle is an accessory shoe, which if you’re going to use the wide angle lenses like I am, an auxiliary viewfinder would clip.  Next is a dial with three options for how many exposures you’ve loaded into the camera.  This dial has three settings, ’16 Exposures for 220 film’, ‘8 Exposures for 120 film’, and a curious ‘4 Exposures for 120 film’ setting which was used for a short lived “short roll 120” which was popular in Japan at the time.

In the 1960s, film was still very expensive in Japan.  In previous articles, I’ve attempted to come up with a modern day analogy using Konishiroku Sakura color film sold in Japan at the time and I came to the conclusion that a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film cost the equivalent of a half day’s salary for the average Japanese worker, which understandably is expensive.  The high cost of film was directly responsible for the resurgence in half frame 35mm cameras like the Olympus Pen, Canon Demi, and many other similar cameras that could double the exposures of a regular roll of film, improving the economy for photographers.  In the medium format world where shrinking the exposure size was not ideal, short rolls of 120 film gained some popularity which gave you six exposures for 6×6 cameras and four for 6×9 cameras like the GL690.

Next is the automatic resetting exposure counter.  The exposure counter is coupled to the film exposure dial, as it will allow the film advance to freely turn after the last exposure for whichever type of film you have loaded.  Next is the film advance lever which works exactly as those found on 35mm cameras except that sometimes you need to advance the lever more than one full movement to get to the next frame.  On top of the lever’s access is one of the GL690’s two shutter releases.  The other appears on the front of the camera and is more comfortable to use when in landscape mode.  Both shutter releases are threaded for a cable release.

The side profile gives a good sense for how massive the Fujica GL690 Professional is.  Even with the 50mm lens mounted, this is a huge camera that will not fit in anything resembling a normal pocket.  The sides have little to see other than the forward angled strap posts which were redesigned for the GL690.  The style used here were commonly used by other medium format camera makers of the time like Mamiya, but have the side effect of requiring an adapter to use with traditional neck straps.  Without that adapter, there is no way to attach a modern to it.

The back of the camera has a square film box reminder frame in the center of the door to help you remember which film is in the camera, and a round viewfinder eyepiece in the upper left corner.  The eyepiece was changed from the original G690 to make it more compatible with eyepiece accessories made for other camera systems, such as the Nikon F-series.  The camera’s serial number also appears on a small black plate near the bottom left corner.

Below the film advance tip is a round dial with the letters “R” and “S” on each side.  My particular camera still has an original sticker covering this up, which I imagine on most has been peeled off years ago.  The purpose of this switch is to deactivate the film transport for shooting sheet film.  The Fuji GL690 supports the use of single sheets of film without the use of a dedicated sheet film back like on most medium format cameras.  How it works, is you open the camera in a dark room or changing bag and insert single sheets of 6.5cm x 9cm film.  With this dial in the “S” position, winding the advance lever only cocks the shutter without trying to advance the film.  I suspect greater than 99% of GL690 cameras spent all their time in “R” mode.

On the base of the camera features a 1/4″ tripod socket located in the camera’s center of balance and three flip up locks.  The one on the side with the white arrow and the letter “O” is used to open the film back, however before you can do that, you must activate the camera’s built in dark slide which I’ll explain in greater detail below.  Opening the film compartment is done by rotating the lock near the edge in the direction of the letter “O”.  The third lock which is not indicated by any arrows is there to release the shaft which holds the supply film spool inside the film compartment.

With the left hinged film door open, we see the GL690’s film compartment.  In the image to the right, the dark slide is closed, which resembles a focal plane shutter.  You do not need to close the dark slide to change film.  Like 35mm cameras, film transports from left to right onto removable 120 or 220 spools.  As with most roll film cameras, a used up supply spool should be moved over to the right to be used as a take up spool.  To remove or reinsert any spools inside the camera, you must pull down on the locks on the base of the camera beneath whichever spool you are working with.  When loading in a new roll of film, you’ll want to manually advance the film until that film’s start mark lines up with a red dot near the upper right corner of the film gate.  This same red dot should be used for any of the three types of film this camera supports.  The GL690 uses a foam light seals which on this and probably every example out there will be degraded, so should be replaced before shooting the camera to avoid light leaks.

Looking at the inside of the film door we see the large metal film pressure plate which is covered in divots to reduce friction as film passes over it.  Also of note is either the number 120 or 220 which is engraved into the plate itself.  This is to indicate which type of film the camera currently supports.  In order to switch between 120 and 220 film, you must remove and flip over the pressure plate to the other side.  This is done by pressing your finger inside the oval and sliding the plate in the direction of the arrow.  Once you’ve slid it as far as it will, pull out on the plate and it will come off.  Flip over the plate so that your desired film type is showing and then insert it back into the camera opposite of how you removed it.  The pressure plate is correctly installed in the camera when it is perfectly parallel to the film door.

Looking down upon the 50mm lens closest to the body is the breech lock which holds the lens to the body and a large focus ring.  Focus movement is smooth with just the right amount of resistance to feel purposeful without feeling sloppy or too tight.  A full twist from minimum to infinity focus is slightly less than 90 degrees and can be done in one swift motion.  Next is the depth of field scale which takes a cue from Nippon Kogaku Nikkor lenses in which each hash mark is color coded to the corresponding f/stop on the aperture ring.  The aperture ring is next with available selections from f/5.6 to f/32.   Finally is the shutter speed ring, which is built into each lens in the system.  All lenses have the same range of speeds from 1 to 1/500 plus Bulb.  Both the aperture and shutter speed rings are close enough together so that you may change both at the same time to get faster or slower shutter speeds while maintaining the same exposure value.  The side of the lens has a PC flash sync port and a little switch which selects between M and X sync.

Starting to the left of the lens mount on the front of the camera is the second shutter release button which was a new feature on this model as this location made it easier to release the shutter when holding the camera in portrait orientation.  The earlier G690 model only had the top shutter release.  I actually prefer this front location no matter what orientation I hold the camera in.

Near the 3 o’clock position around the side of the lens mount is the lens release tab.  This tab is coupled to the dark slide lock on the bottom of the camera and cannot be pressed until the dark slide is closed.  Since the GL690 and other cameras in this series have an interchangeable lens mount where the shutter is inside the lens, when the lens is removed, there is nothing to block light from exposing film loaded into the camera.  As a result, an integrated dark side which resembles a cloth focal plane shutter must be closed in order to remove the lens.  Do this by flipping up the center lock on the bottom of the camera, and twisting it in the direction of the arrow until it won’t go any farther.

With the dark slide in position, you remove the lens by pressing in this release tab and rotating the breech lock collar nearest the body until a red dot on the collar lines up with a red dot on the mount.  With the two red dots lined up, the lens pulls off the body.  Be sure to support the lens when it is like this to prevent it from falling off and getting damaged.  Installation of a new lens is the opposite of removal.  When you are done changing lenses, you will not be able to fire the shutter until you remember to reopen the dark slide so light can pass through to the film again.  This is done by pulling out on a little metal tab near the bottom edge of the camera, right next to the dark slide lock.

A camera can’t invoke the name “Leica” without having an excellent viewfinder and the Fujica GL690 Professional’s viewfinder is pretty dang good.  Thankfully, the designers of this camera took the opportunity with making a large camera to also give it a large viewfinder which allowed me to easily see all four edges of the larger set of frame lines (with room to spare) while wearing prescription eyeglasses.

Peering through the standard viewfinder is an exciting experience, especially for those used to 35mm rangefinders.  The view is massive and the two sets of parallax corrected frame lines for 100mm and 150mm lenses and rectangular rangefinder patch are very easy to see.  At minimum focus, the 150mm frame lines disappear as that lens is not capable of focusing down as far as the 100mm or wide angle lenses are.  No frame lines for other wide angle or telephoto lenses appear in the built in viewfinder as those lenses would have come with their own accessory viewfinders.  Fuji did this because they estimated that the 100mm and 150mm lenses would be the most popular and that by adding additional complexity to the viewfinder, would have increased cost.

In the composite image above, I also include a look through the 50mm wide angle viewfinder which has a prominent fisheye effect.  This distortion is not visible in the images the lens makes as it is a characteristic of the design of the finder.  The frame lines in the 50mm finder do not automatically correct for parallax, but a ring around the rear eyepiece of the viewfinder can be turned to match the focus distance of the lens, which will tilt the viewfinder up or down to correct it.  Also note that inside the frame lines, two dashed lines appear on both the left and right side.  These lines are for shooting 6cm x 7cm images on the GM670 Professional which would have used this same viewfinder and lens.

Of all the lenses in the Fujica GL690 Professional system, the 50mm wide angle lens seems to be the least common and most desirable for good reason.  It is both optically excellent, but also offers a rare focal length for 6×9 rangefinder cameras.

If there was a second least common and most desirable lens, it would be the 100mm f/3.5 Auto Electro lens, which I am also fortunate enough to have.  For me to fully test this camera, I felt as though I should put both lenses through their paces, but first, a little information about the lens itself.

100mm f/3.5 EBC Fujinon Auto Electro Lens

In addition to the wide angle 50mm lens that was mounted to the camera for all the beauty images above, I also had the 100mm f/3.5 AE lens.  I often have multiple lenses for a single camera and don’t usually highlight other lenses, but in this case, this lens is unique in that it has a self-contained aperture priority automatic exposure system.  Since Fujica GL690 lenses have their own shutters, a self-contained AE system was possible, you just needed to add a metering cell somewhere in or on the lens, a battery compartment to power it, and some kind of way to monitor what the meter was doing.

The 100mm AE lens mounts to the camera like any other lens, but has a CdS meter above the lens, within the filter ring which means that it will adjust to any filters mounted to the lens.  Sticking out of the side of the lens is a box containing the meter’s electronics, a compartment for the 6v PX28/4LR44 battery, a match needle display on top, and two buttons on the side, one which is a battery check button and the other which activates the meter display.

The lens controls are similar to the non AE lenses.  Starting nearest the body is a thick manual focus ring with rangefinder coupled distances from 3.3 feet / 1 meter to infinity, an aperture ring with settings from f/3.5 to f/32, and a shutter speed ring with speeds from 8 seconds to 1/500 plus Bulb.  The 100mm AE lens is the only lens in the system with manually selectable shutter speeds longer than 1 second.  Unlike the non AE lenses, the shutter speed ring also has a red “A” setting which enables aperture priority AE, and closest to the front is an additional film speed ring with ASA settings from 25 to 800.

The analog display on the right is only active when the S.S.C. (Shutter Speed Check) button is pressed.  This is not necessary to do for the AE system to work, however it allows the photographer to preview which fast speeds from 1/30 to 1/500 it is recommending.  Speeds slower than 1/30 down to a full 15 seconds can also be used by the metering system, but when such slow speeds are needed, the needle will point to a yellow zone which is a warning that you’ll need to stabilize the camera.  If the needle points to the red zone, this means that the recommended exposure is beyond the physical limits of whatever speed film and f/stop you’re using.

For my first test of the Fujica GL690 Professional, I limited myself to only the 50mm wide angle lens and intended to test the 100mm AE lens later.  My first two rolls of film were a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X which had expired in the 1980s, and a semi-fresh roll of Kentmere 100 (or was it 400…I didn’t take good notes).

In addition to seeing what the Fujica GL690 Professional could do with the wide angle 50mm lens, I also wanted to test the 100mm f/3.5 Auto Electro lens.  Optically, this should be identical to the normal “kit” 100mm lens that would have been sold with this camera new, but with the added functionality of Aperture Priority automatic exposure, I wanted to see how the old lens performed.  The film I chose was a slightly expired roll of Cinestill 800T which I had bought years ago intending to get those “glowy” night time shots this film is famous for, but just never got around to doing.  The ASA film speed dial on the Auto Electro lens supported 800, so I figured that would be as good of a test as any, so I loaded it up and went shooting.

I had read on another online review of the Fuji GL690 with the 8-element 50mm Fujinon SW S lens that it was one of the sharpest lenses ever made, and while I don’t have the technical ability to measure lens sharpness, to my eyes, I cannot refute that statement.  The images I got from this lens compare to that of the best digital cameras today.  In fact, I would suspect that if I took 3 shots from this lens and 3 shots from my Nikon Z5 and resized them to the same pixel depth and asked people to tell me which one was film and which was digital, no one would be able to without guessing.

I tend to prefer wide angle lenses over telephotos as I like including as much visual information into my images as possible and with the large exposed image size afforded by 6cm x 9cm cameras, the combination of lots of information on a large print opens up some really cool possibilities.  If there was one con to this experience however is that I noticed my framing was off in a couple images.  Clearly I struggled with parallax in some images as the tops are cut off in the two images of the man holding a gun and the cannon.

Sharpness was perfect corner to corner with only the slightest bit of field curvature at the corners, but beyond that, vignetting and edge softness were non existent.  I did not shoot the 50mm SW S lens using color film, but I’ve seen results from others who have and they are every bit as good looking as the black and white images I got.

As for the 100mm f/3.5 Auto Electro lens, optical performance was good, but not as razor sharp as the 50mm wide angle.  For those of you counting elements, that the 100mm lens is a 4-element Tessar style lens shouldn’t surprise you that it wasn’t perfect.  I did miss focus on the bowling alley shot, but otherwise everything looked great.

More impressive than the optical performance was how well the auto exposure system worked.  In the gallery above of the eight images shot with this lens, seven of them were done indoors with poor lighting.  In every instance, the metering of the CdS cell was spot on.  I didn’t love the color cast of the expired Cinestill film, but that cannot be blamed on the lens.  With the 100mm f/3.5 Auto Electro lens mounted, the Fujica GL690 Professional turns into the largest point and shoot camera I’ve probably ever held.  Sure, you still need to manually focus it, and with huge swings in lighting, you may need to adjust the aperture, but otherwise, it was very strange to hold such a massive camera which required very little input from me!

The experience of shooting the Fujica GL690 Professional was great.  For such a large camera, the ergonomics were excellent with most of the camera’s controls in familiar locations where I expected to find them.  I definitely appreciated the addition of the front shutter release button on this model as the top plate location was a bit too far to the edge of the top plate for my finger to comfortably locate it.  For this very reason, I would wholeheartedly recommend this GL690 over the original G690 with its single shutter release up top.  The viewfinder is also excellent, with its large and bright view, it allowed me to see everything I needed even while wearing prescription glasses.  The projected frame lines and rangefinder patch have excellent contrast and were easy to use.  The 50mm auxiliary viewfinder was more basic, showing a distorted view and lacking in automatic parallax correct, but it worked as good as any clip on finder I’ve ever used.  Nearly everything about using this camera was almost as if you took a Leica M3 and increased its dimensions to “Texas-sized” proportions…hey wait a minute…

In all seriousness, the GL690 earns its reputation as a professional quality all mechanical medium format rangefinder.  In terms of cons, I have only a few small nitpicks.  The first being that no matter how “Leica-like” this camera’s ergonomics are, it is still very heavy and something that you’d struggle to use on long shooting sessions.  In addition to its size and heft, this is a camera that will get you noticed as there is nothing discreet about it.  The second being that while I understand the choice for strap lugs was to match that of what Fuij’s competition was using in the past, for today’s photographers, a more traditional strap loop would have been ideal.  You can still use the GL690’s “mushroom” lugs, but only with an adapter.

Beyond that though, this is a really terrific camera and one that I completely understand why every review you’ll find for it online heaps a great deal of praise on it. This is not a “hype camera”, this is a model that can backs up all of the positive things people say about it with aplomb.  Both the 50mm and 100mm AE lenses are not easy to find today, and even if you do, they’re extremely expensive, so if you’re going to buy one of these cameras, you’ll likely experience it with the non-AE 100mm lens, and although I didn’t shoot mine with that lens, I have complete confidence you’ll walk away from that experience with the same positive feelings I have.  Highly recommended!

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External Links

https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Fujica_G690#GL690_Professional

https://www.dantestella.com/technical/g690bl.html

https://www.35mmc.com/13/04/2023/fujica-gl690-with-fujinon-s-100mm-f3-5-fujinon-sw-65mm-f5-6-by-simon-foale/

https://randomphoto.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-fujica-gl-690-professional.html

https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2017/03/03/film-friday-the-fuji-gl690-a-review-by-dirk-dom/

https://www.lallement.com/pictures/lenses.htm