As a young man in the early 90s I shot mainly with a Nikon F801s and a Seagull 6×6. Always wanting a “proper” medium format camera the nearest I got was picking up a brochure for a Fuji GW670III (probably from the long gone City Camera Exchange in Western Rd, Brighton).
Fast forward 25 years and amongst old magazines in my loft I found that old GW670 brochure – which led me back to film, a Lubitel, an Ensign Selfix 16-20, and finally, I’ve scratched that medium format Fuji itch last month, when I bought a battered old eBay GW690 from Japan.
This coincided with a holiday to Wales (staying at the highly recommended tybeic.com), so I crammed some Cinestill 50D, Provia 100F & Portra 160 in my new film case (again, highly recommended from zaidmade) and set off. I’d cycled over the beautiful Hirnant Pass previously, and thought it would be an ideal testing ground for my GW690 and some Cinestill 50D, intrigued how its motion picture film stock emulsion would render all that green.
With tripod, hotshoe spirit level, iPhone light meter and a miniature dachshund for distraction (don’t even ask), I wasn’t quite sure what would emerge.
An initial exposure with the lens cap in place (rangefinder newbie error!) meant only 7 6x9cm negatives left on the 120 roll (bought from Zoing Image and processed and scanned by Colourstream in Brighton). Here are my 5 favourites – the GW690 and Cinestill are both here to stay.
Copyright: Irv Bartlett 2018
Copyright: Irv Bartlett 2018
Copyright: Irv Bartlett 2018
Copyright: Irv Bartlett 2018
Copyright: Irv Bartlett 2018
Web: www.irvbartlett.com
Twitter: @irvbphoto
Instagram: @irvb & @beautiful_brutalism
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Reinhold on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 31/08/2018
Comment posted: 31/08/2018
John on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 31/08/2018
Best
John
Comment posted: 31/08/2018
Stu on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 01/09/2018
carlos albisu on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 01/09/2018
Matt Williams on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 08/09/2018
Question though: are these cropped photos? All of them appear to be 4:3 aspect ratio, aside from the second which appears to be 16:9. So the 4:3 photos are much narrower than they should be and the 16:9 is much wider. Is there a reason for this? I'm just curious, because I found it strange that all five example photos from a 6x9 medium format camera were cropped in some way.
Comment posted: 08/09/2018
Dean Dent on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 07/10/2018
Adam Laws on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 07/10/2018
George on 5 frames with a Fujica GW690 and a roll of Cinestill 50D – By Irv Bartlett
Comment posted: 15/11/2020