Review: Why the Fujica GL 690 might be the best shooter’s camera…of all time

I should point out that I’ve been binging on old Top Gear episodes lately, and this may have influenced my presentation of this review a bit, but bear with me, I really do think that this heavy, large, light meter free camera is truly a shooter’s dream, and if Fuji are smart, they’ll take a close look at this nearly forgotten bit of their rich legacy before designing the next heir to the x100 line of cameras.

First off, the GL 690 sports a 6×9 negative size, a full range of interchangeable lenses, a dead-on accurate rangefinder and some of the best glass going from any era of lens making.  It’s nickname is the Texas Leica and the GL690 lives up to the moniker in nearly every sense including build quality.  Mine is rocking the 100mm f/3.5 “normal” lens most commonly found with the body.  It is crisp from corner to corner without a hint of chromatic aberration, ideal for color slide film.

While large and heavy (two descriptors that can also be used to describe the author), it fits the hands well (both hands…I warned you, it’s heavy), and doesn’t keep you hunting for dials and settings…because it doesn’t really have any.  The shutter and aperture are both on the barrel of the lens confounding 35mm adoptees and digicam convertees alike.  Not only that, the two dials counter rotate, as in one scale runs to the left, the other to the right…weird, right?

But lo, set it to 125 at f/16, grab both rings and turn them together and the shutter/f stop combinations let in the same amount of light, letting the shooter set a fast shutter speed to freeze action, or dial in a small aperture to control the field of focus without doing the math in his or her head.  Speaking of which, being fully mechanical, the lens barrel has the full compliment of distance scale, depth of field scale and IR focal shift markings etched clearly on the barrel making them quite useful and accessible.

Top View; note the padded (!) strap attached to Hassy/Mamiya style strap lugs.

The top of the camera body features an accessory shoe, a dial for selecting the roll type (120, 220 and short roll) and film advance lever with shutter release.  Short rolls were used extensively by Japanese pro photographers who would often use runners to expedite the film’s processing and return prints  to the client extremely quickly.  The film advance is a double-stroke which has the side affect of increasing Leica-osterone in 9 out of 10 subjects tested.

Bottom view

The bottom has fold-flat pull knobs for opening the back and retracting the spindles for loading film.  The larger silver knob is for deploying the curtain in order to change lenses mid-roll.  It contains an interlock that prevents changing lenses without the curtain deployed regardless of weather or not there is film loaded. There is also a 1/4 20 threaded bushing at the base of the lens mount, and a PC socket on the lens for flash sync.

Speaking of sync, the GL690 does not use a focal plane shutter, but instead uses a leaf shutter in the lens barrel.   There are three big advantages over focal plane shutters, which you find in all but the most expensive digital cameras (with the notable exception of Fuji’s x100/s/t).  First is that they never distort fast moving subjects (helicopter blades showing as blurred boomerangs).  The second is that leaf shutters sync flash at all speeds.  The shutter in the 100/3.5 lens goes up to 1/500 which, paired with slow film, which I prefer anyway, can tame direct sunlight with a fast shutter speed and the lens wide open (creamy out-of-focus backgrounds!) while keeping fill flash to a minimum.   Lastly, leaf shutters tend to be quiet, nearly silent, especially compared to anything with a mirror slapping around.

Through the unified, parallax corrected viewfinder with rangefinder patch in the center

The viewfinder has parallax-corrected brightlines for the 100 and 150 lenses, all other focal length lenses came with external viewfinders fitted for the accessory shoe.  The rangefinder patch is in the center and is the usual double-image projection type.  Place the patch over your subject, merge the two images into one, frame and shoot!

Steam Plant, Kinzers, PA

Now, as I’ve said, this camera shoots like a dream once you get over your initial need to meter for every shot.  With practice, I have gotten to the point that I can show up at an event like the one the sample shots in this article were taken, set the camera for sunny 16 (I was using 100 speed film, so I set up to 125 at f/16 as my base) and shoot away accounting for shade (1-2 stops) or deep shadow (2-3 stops) on the fly…which is precisely how I got these shots.

Antique Auto, Kinzers, PA

This approach even works, with much less margin for error with color reversal film like Fuji Velvia 50.

Hybrid John Deere/Farmall Tractor, Kinzers, PA

Believe me, there is nothing quite like looking at (or scanning) a 6×9 slide, unless perhaps a 4×5 sheet.  6×9 is even big enough to go hand held in low light if you’re careful, and lean against something solid.

R&T Blacksmith Shop, Kinzers, PA

Finally, and often overlooked by designers and photographers alike, is the locations of the shutter releases (yes, that’s plural).  The primary release is where you would expect it, on top covering the fulcrum of the film advance lever.  Where everybody tends to stick theirs, and positively the worst spot for tripping the shutter on a handheld camera.  The second release, by contrast is in the best spot I’ve ever experienced.  I cannot imagine why this design feature never found it’s way onto any other cameras than the direct, fixed-lens descendants of this line, the GS line.
Look on the front of the camera, just to the left (facing the front) of the lens and you’ll see it.  Pick up the camera, and put your right finger on it, and you will notice your right thumb will automatically want to go almost directly behind it on the back of the camera.  You are now set to squeeze the trigger, rather than relegated to only pulling it using the standard release.  Ask anyone whose life has depended on their small arms training…you want to squeeze.

It was designed to facilitate vertical shooting, but “the squeeze” works horizontally or vertically, and as such I use it exclusively when shooting hand held.  Both releases are standard-threaded for cable and bulb releases.  I doubt, seriously doubt, that the darker shots above would have been sharp pushing the top (normal) shutter release.

So, when you take into account the ease of accurately fucusing, speed of shutter combination changes, superior trigger location, everything clicks nicely so I never have to look at it to make adjustments, the lens can be zone focused (set for hyperfocal in the dark, for instance), easily adjusted for IR photography which, BTW, you’ll also be able to see while you frame because you’re using a rangefinder; flash sync at all speeds, and creamy, dreamy out-of-fucus elements you have the absolutely best shooter’s camera.  Ever.

Or is it?

Could it be that Fuji, Nikon or Leica have something that shoots like that, and gives those results?

I think not…

From what I read*, Leicas are superb cameras, with awesome glass and a legendary price tag.  They are all focal plane 35mm (film or digital, the size is 35mm or smaller) cameras whose practicality is pretty low when measured by the buck.  Really Fuji have the camera closest to the GL690 in the x100t*, but again there is the sensor size (small…i think APS-C), and I’m not keen on fly-by-wire for focus because you lose the computational assist markings and capabilities and remove my sense of feel from the equation.

What would be great would be for the Fuji engineers to find an old GL690 remove the back, and stare into the back of the camera until they realize that a sensor manufactured in that size would not need to be as densely packed as an APS-C sensor.  Long enough to realize that if they managed to bodge a 6×9 sensor together, and cobbled it to the back of a GL690 they will have made the best shooter’s camera ever.

Better.

And on that bombshell, I’ll end the article, good night!