p.1 #1 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
I’ve been cycling through old film stock and safe dwelling 35mm cameras trying to get a feel for color film. I really thought that I had applied my long used film cameras skills (as if) to digital, but going back to shooting film cameras shows this to be a self promoting lie. This revelation alone piques my interest in shooting film.
The Bronica RF645 (65mm & 45mm) looks like a viable candidate as a small(ish) medium format camera for travel..the kind where all of your gear (M11M & Bronica) goes as carry-on. The obvious down side is that It is an old camera with electronics and no repair options. That said, the single lens solution of the Fuji GS645S provides another option with fewer features and supposedly stellar lens. The GS series only relies upon electronics for the metering.
Anyone have experience with both of these cameras?
p.1 #2 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
Had RF645 for half month, mine had infinity focus issue.
Other than the focus issue I had no complain, but most of the ppl don't like the sound of shutter which is not so important to me.
BTW. the film advance is common issue of the RF645
Never used GS645S but I know it is very fragile as well.
p.1 #3 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
zi464 wrote:
Had RF645 for half month, mine had infinity focus issue.
Other than the focus issue I had no complain, but most of the ppl don't like the sound of shutter which is not so important to me.
BTW. the film advance is common issue of the RF645
Never used GS645S but I know it is very fragile as well.
Your experience was unfortunate and given the cost of replacement, it isn’t surprising that you decided not to repurchase the camera.
Tamron produced the RF645 over a very short period of time. Evidently, this was also a time when Tamron was going through some tough times. I don’t believe that there was any refinement over the initial design, other than calibrating individual cameras to work with their 100mm lens. The camera still commands a premium price due to its unique feature set, but repair is not an option and replacement is financially punishing.
The GS645S did have complaints of fragility, but it had many owners pushing back on this claim. It certainly was not a Leica M3, nor the photographic version of the Yugo. It is also a fully manual camera that predates the Bronica by over a decade.
p.1 #4 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
My two cents -
My RF645 was really nice - sharp images, meter is very good, no issues with the winding (which is where these cameras have problems). I did notice that the supply side spindle would tighten over time, which is apparently what causes the winding mechanism to fail eventually. There are youtube videos and various blogs showing how you can monitor this tightening, and how to loosen it properly. Other than that, the camera was fun to use and very compact for travel (I had the 45 and 65mm lenses).
The Fuji also makes great images, but...the bellows are made of very thin material, so get one with a replaced bellows. Also, the shutter linkage often goes bad on these. The build quality is not as good as the Bronica.
p.1 #5 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
bwcolor wrote:
Your experience was unfortunate and given the cost of replacement, it isn’t surprising that you decided not to repurchase the camera.
Tamron produced the RF645 over a very short period of time. Evidently, this was also a time when Tamron was going through some tough times. I don’t believe that there was any refinement over the initial design, other than calibrating individual cameras to work with their 100mm lens. The camera still commands a premium price due to its unique feature set, but repair is not an option and replacement is financially punishing.
The GS645S did have complaints of fragility, but it had many owners pushing back on this claim. It certainly was not a Leica M3, nor the photographic version of the Yugo. It is also a fully manual camera that predates the Bronica by over a decade....Show more →
I have Pentax 645N and Mamiya 645 but was tying to get a compact / light weight 645 for travel.
Why I was looking for 645. Of course it is because 645 can takes 16 photos.
There are not to many options as you know, both RF645 and GS645S were on my list as well. I had my eyes on GS645 after I returned the RF645 to my friend due to the focus issue, but there are so many posts and my friends told me stay away since it is very fragile.
I purchased Rollei 3.5F instead and I'm happy with that.
There are many compact / light weight 6*6 MFs from cheap to expensive, only 4 photos less than 645 which is not too bad.
6*6 is my main travel MF camera nowadays.
p.1 #6 · ?? Fuji GS645s vs Bronica RF645 for Travel Photography. ??
My motivation for posting this resulted from the Bronica’s removal from my safe. After 15 years of disuse, it still had Tri-X loaded…. I never had an issue with the camera, but after placing new batteries in the camera I advanced the film and listened to the sickest shutter sound that I’ve ever heard. A big ‘X’ appears in the viewfinder, which indicates that the film isn’t advanced properly, or lens isn’t mounted.
I looks like there is a film advance sensor/switch that commonly gets stuck when the camera isn’t used. I can trip the shutter when I press the multiexposure button, but otherwise it will only trip for frame #1 of a roll of film. So, the body needs a simple repair, or disposal.
