The Fujifilm GA645Zi - Now this is what I call Point and Shoot Camera....

May I present my new love, the Fujifilm GA645Zi. After several years of wanting a Fujifilm medium format camera, I finally bit the bullet and bought this beauty. The real debate for me had been which model to buy. Fujifilm and made many flavors of medium format cameras over the years in 6x9, 6x7 and 6x4.5 format. Most of their models are rangefinders with normal or wide angel fixed lenses. My life long love affair with rangefinder cameras is what first drew me to the Fujifilm cameras, but as I researched these cameras, this model slowly won me over. The GA645Zi is not a rangefinder camera. It is an auto-focus, zoom lens packing, built in flash, auto film advance, auto exposure master work of late 1990's film camera technology. The camera packs the best features of a high end 35mm point and shoot into a medium format shooter that is not much larger or heavier than a typical 35mm SLR. Though large, the camera handles like a dream with most controls easily operated with your right hand, aided by the ample rubberized grip. The GA645Zi can be used as a fully automatic, point and shoot camera, but there are option for Aperture Priority and Shutter priority automatic as well as fully manual exposure control. Manual focus is also possible, but is limited to a "guesstimation" presetting method, with no focusing aid. If it only had a rangefinder driven manual focusing system, this camera work be perfect.

Images from this camera to come...

Complete Specifications:

CAMERA: Fujifilm GA645Zi 

TYPE: Autofocus 6x4.5cm lens-shutter camera 

LENS: Built-in EBC-Fujinon 55-90mm f/4.5-6.9 power zoom 

FOCUSING: Hybrid active infrared/ passive phase-detection single-shot AF; manual zone focusing 

METERING: Non-TTL center-weighted 

EXPOSURE MODES: Programmed AE, aperture-priority AE, metered manual 

SHUTTER: Electronically controlled lens shutter with speeds from 2 sec. to 1/700 plus B 

FILM SPEEDS: ISO 25-1600 automatically set with Barcoded films; can also be set manually 

FILM TRANSPORT: Automatic threading, single-frame advance and wind to end of roll 

FLASH: Built-in pop-up autoflash (ISO 100 GN 39, in feet) covers angle of view of 55mm lens; hot-shoe provided for accessory dedicated flash units; PC terminal for studio flash; sync up to 1/700 

VIEWFINDER: Transparent liquid crystal "bright frame" zoom type shows at least 88% of actual image area; 0.4-0.58X magnification with zoom lens at infinity 

VIEWFINDER INFORMATION: Flash on/off, shutter speed, aperture, focusing distance, exposure compensation, exposure status, shutter released 

LCD PANEL: Displays shutter speed, aperture, frame number, film speed, flash status, battery status, film length, exposure compensation, self-timer, focusing distance, MF mode, date, time 

SELF-TIMER: Electronic, 10-sec. delay 

POWER SOURCE: Two 3V CR123A lithium batteries 

DIMENSIONS: 6.4x4.3x2.9 in. 

WEIGHT: 31.2 oz.