Fuji GS645S Professional – how 6x4.5cm made medium format photography accessible to all

For a long time, making the jump up to medium format cameras from 35mm not only involved a good deal of expense, but also adapting to bigger, heavier and slower cameras – especially if you wanted an SLR.

While the 6x4.5cm format had been around for many decades (at least dating back to the 1920s), Mamiya introduced the first SLR system to exclusively use the image size in 1975 (the M645) and it sparked a revival.

There were subsequently dedicated 6x4.5cm SLRs from Bronica, Pentax and Contax, and rangefinder cameras from Fujifilm and Bronica – the former’s all fixed-lens models. The smaller frame size not only allowed for more compact camera bodies but, logically, also more frames from a roll of 120/220 film, making it more economical on a ‘per shot’ basis compared to 6x6cm or 6x7cm.

The smallest of the mainstream rollfilm formats is still 2.7x larger than a 35mm frame, so it’s not hard to see how 6x4.5cm became quite popular with enthusiast-level photographers as well as many professionals who appreciated the enhanced portability of the cameras (especially for applications such as weddings and on-location portraiture).

The 6x4.5cm image size is half a 6x9cm frame so, it ends up as a vertically-orientated frame on the film and with a 3:4 aspect ratio. Consequently, in the SLRs, the film transport ran up/down rather than left/right so that the framing on the film returned to landscape (i.e. 4:3 aspect).

The rangefinder cameras, however, had to retain a horizontal-travel transport, meaning that the frames remain vertically orientated as in a half-frame 35mm compact like the Pentax 17. If you want to shoot in the landscape aspect, you have to turn the camera on its side to "portrait" orientation. It’s a bit mind-bending at first, but not hard to get used to in practice.

A 120-length roll delivers 15 frames – or 16, depending on how the film transport works – compared to 12 for the 6x6cm and 10 for 6x7cm. The double-length 220 roll – made possible by only using backing paper on the leader and lead-out – delivers 30 frames.

This makes it an even more attractive proposition when shooting in the 6x4.5cm format. Unfortunately, there isn’t such a wide selection of emulsion types unless you’re happy to try out expired stock.

Fujifilm’s 6x4.5cm camera line began in 1983, when it was still using the Fujica branding, with the GS645 Professional – which was essentially a more modern interpretation of the old 6x6cm ‘folder’ design. It was fitted with a Fujinon 75mm f/3.4 lens (equivalent to 45mm in the 35mm format) mounted on bellows so it could be retracted into the camera body, making for an even more compact package.

This was followed by the GS645S with a rigidly-mounted Fujinon 60mm f/4.0 lens (equivalent to 35mm) and the GS645W with a 45mm f/5.6 lens (equivalent to 28mm). The GS645S – the last of this particular series and launched at the 1984 Photokina – has a distinctive curved ‘roo bar’ arrangement which protects the front rim of the lens from knocks.

It’s worth noting that Fujifilm labelled all its rollfilm cameras “Professional”, which obviously identified the target market but also looked impressive if you were an amateur shooter.

Practical classic

The Fuji GS645S Professional is reasonably close in size to the new digital Fujifilm GFX100RF, although still a bit bulkier overall and around 100g heavier. It’s additionally labelled “Wide 60” on the front panel. The construction is almost exclusively polycarbonate, both inside and out, but still feels solidly built, as it’s pretty much a one-box shell.

The camera back is conventionally hinged with a single-action film advance lever, which automatically recocks the shutter. As noted earlier, the film is loaded left-to-right, and the pressure plate is manually adjusted to either 120 or 220.

You need to do this because, without the backing paper, the longer length film is obviously thinner, so a slight increase in pressure is needed to ensure that it’s kept absolutely flat in the film gate.

A switch on the camera back sets the frame counter to run to either 15 or 30. The hubs for locating the feed and take-up spools are spring-loaded and released via a small red button alongside each one, which makes both loading and unloading largely fumble-free.

Beyond the film advance lever and the shutter release (which is lockable), all the settings are made on the lens – namely apertures, shutter speeds and film speeds. Commonly during the 1980s, medium format cameras tended to be fully manual and mechanical, even though electronics and automation were making significant inroads into the 35mm world.

The notable exceptions were the 6x6cm Rolleiflex SLX (1976) and the 6x4.5cm Pentax 645 (1984), which both offered automatic exposure control (the full ‘PASM’ selection in the case of the latter). The Pentax was launched in the same year as the GS645S – as was Rollei’s successor SLX, the 6006, which added TTL flash metering and aperture-priority auto to the earlier camera’s shutter-priority control.

All these models had motorized film transports as well, but it wouldn’t be until 1995 that Fujifilm offered such luxuries in a 6x4.5cm fixed-lens camera.

A big plus, however, is that the GS645S has built-in metering, which uses a GPD (gallium arsenic phosphor) photocell located inside the viewfinder, giving centre-weighted average measurements with a sensitivity range of EV 4-18 at ISO 100.

It’s linked to a simple under/OK/over LED display, but it’s all you need if you know what you’re doing with exposure control. The meter is powered by a couple of 1.5-volt button-type alkaline cells (LR44 or equivalents) that are housed in the camera’s base.

The shutter is a leaf-type Copal #00 mechanism in the lens and has a speed range of 1/1/500 second plus a ‘T’ (time) setting for long exposures. The advantage of ‘T’ over ‘B’ is that the shutter is opened with one press and closed with a second, rather than needing to be held – or locked – open for the duration of the exposure.

The GS645S still has a cable-release socket in the shutter button, but here you’d use one to help minimize any vibrations. The lens’ aperture range is f/4.0 to f/22, but with only full-stop adjustments.

The film speed range is from ISO 25 to 1600 – the G645S obviously arriving before Kodak’s T-Max 3200 (P3200) or Ilford Delta 3200, but it’s not hard to adjust manually if you really wanted to shoot with these high-speed films films (although P3200 is no longer available as new stock).

Focusing the GS645S is done via a double-image rangefinder, and its spot is quite small and so consequently can be hard to see in some situations. The minimum focusing distance is one meter, and the lens has depth of field markings for f/5.6, f/11, f/16 and f/22.

The depth of field is pretty wide at the smallest aperture settings so, if you are having difficulty with seeing the RF spot, you can easily work out what’s in focus using the lens markings. For example, if you set the focusing distance to five meters, everything from two metres to infinity will be in focus.

The viewfinder is a Reverse Galilean type with a brightline picture frame, which provides automatic parallax correction when shooting at the shortest focusing distances.

Simple pleasures

Simplicity is the name of the game with the GS645S Professional and it’s back to basics with everything, but this makes it very involving to use, with the reward of nice big negatives or transparencies. The lens is nicely sharp, contrasty and well-corrected so the image quality is truly exceptional especially when shooting with the slower, finer-grained films.

Even if you’ve never used a rollfilm camera before, the loading procedure is very straightforward and, after that, the GS645S works like any mechanical / manual 35mm camera from the same era – with the advantage that you don’t have to rewind the film at the end, you just wind off the end paper, open the back and remove the full spool.

However, this is always best done in the shade with the exposed spools subsequently stored somewhere dark (back in the original carton is good enough) until you can get them processed.

The main attraction, as with the digital GFX100RF, is that it’s a medium format camera that’s both compact and lightweight, so it’s easy to carry around even on longer treks. The 35mm equivalent lens is versatile, but if you’re predominantly a landscape shooter then the GS645W Professional with its 28mm equivalent is probably the better choice (although it doesn’t have rangefinder-assisted focusing).

It’s worth noting that these cameras are now over 40 years old and, being largely plastic, things can break – which needs to be considered when shopping around for one (check both shutter and rangefinder operation in particular).

They were never built in big numbers in the first place, but are still reasonably easy to find on the second-hand market with prices typically around $560-600 / £430-500 / AU$1,000-1,200 for the GS645S if it’s in mint or near-mint condition.

The GS645W is a little less common – the wider-angle lens perhaps makes it more of a ‘keeper’ – but the preloved prices are pretty much the same as those for ‘S’ model. In either case, go for best possible example that you can afford.

Verdict

The Fujica/Fuji GS series 6x4.5cm fixed-lens cameras now represent one of the most affordable routes into medium format film photography. They’re certainly more capable than any of the ‘toy’ cameras, such as a Holga, and both more compact and easier to use than the affordable TLRs such as the YashicaMat models.

Additionally, the 6x4.5cm frame size delivers a good combination of image quality and economy – so it only depends on whether you’re happy to go down the fixed-lens route.

The main alternatives with interchangeable lenses are Mamiya’s 6x4.5cm SLRs – of which there are many models and generations supported by comparatively extensive lens systems – or Bronica’s ETR models. It must be said that the higher volumes of both these lines over their various generations mean that the second-hand prices are quite attractive.

Also from Bronica is the much rarer RF645 interchangeable lens rangefinder model. This is a highly desirable camera, given its compact size and feature set, but there are only a handful of lenses available and second-hand prices are significantly higher – making the Fuji GS645S Professional look excellent value for money.

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