Fujica GL690

I’ve been using medium format film cameras for over thirty years – initially a (too brief) period with a Rolleiflex in the early 90s and since 2002 a Mamiya 6MF which I still enjoy using. My initial attraction to the format was the combination of portability, speed and simplicity of operation, and, of course, ‘real estate’! I loved the fact that from a good 6×6 negative or transparency you could make a print up to a metre square that contained sufficient resolution of detail to transport the viewer into another space-time continuum. All that extra visual information can turn an inspired capture from merely ‘wow’ into full-blown choir-of-angels transcendence. Then my recent experience with my grandfather’s ancient No. 1A Autographic Kodak Junior, with its vast 6x11cm frame size, sowed the seeds of desire for more! In a shameless and hubristic rejection of Lao Tzu’s timeless wisdom, I decided that enough was no longer enough! I wondered, how much additional awesomeness might be achieved with a rectangular format on roll film using a sharp, modern lens?