My 6x9 Story

[Comments have been added.]

Photo of a Fuji GW690III by Benjamin Balasz

Every now and again someone mentions the "Texas Leica"—the nickname for the oversized Fuji 6x9. It and several other medium-format rangefinders once made by Fuji were the ancestors of the current GFX 50R. I'm too lazy to go research the various versions, but I think there were three of them, the GW690III being the last. They were rangefinders that took 6x9 cm negatives on 120 or 220 film. The GW690III wasn't really very Leica-like, since it had a fixed 90mm lens and no built-in light meter. (The Leica of the time, the M6, had a non-AE light meter and of course allowed for interchangeable lenses.)

I used a Fuji 6x9 once, although I don't recall the circumstances now—I probably had it on loan, or deposit, you might say, from Josh Hawkins at Oak Park Camera in Oak Park, Illinois. I lived over and down six or eight blocks, in Forest Park.

My overriding memory of the camera was that it drew attention like a flashing red light. For some reason, whenever I had the thing in my hands, people would react like I was waving a gun around, staring at me and giving me a wide berth, hiding their faces if I pointed it in their direction.

Well, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it felt like it. I felt totally exposed when I was using it.

I think part of this is me—I'm not particularly "invisible" when I shoot. I guess I get anxious or something, and people pick up on it. I'm never up to no good, but people are suspicious anyway. I'm a bad "candid" photographer. I do better when I have permission. Inevitably, if I point a camera anywhere, whoever is in the frame, whatever they are doing and no matter how far away they are, will look at me. Usually with a glare.

Maybe I just remember the occasions when they do, I don't know. That could be it.

I wrote about this on the old site, telling a story about how, when I got the Panasonic GF1, I was driving down the road pointing the camera out the window at a motorcycle rider I was passing. Of course I was watching the road and shooting blind, not the other way around. Surely, in that situation, the motorcyclist wouldn't notice me?  The camera was inside the car. And he'd have his eye on the road too, presumably. But when I got back to the computer, the one picture that almost included him in the frame and happened to be in focus showed him looking right at me! With a narrowed, suspicious glare. Funny.

Don't look
Anyway, I made several sorties out and about with the Texas Leica, molesting passers-by, invading peoples' privacy, and flustering innocent pedestrians. It was feather-ruffling for all concerned, me included. A few days later, having let the big beast rest for a day or two on the shelf, where it was harmless, I found myself contemplating it and thinking, well, there has to be something I can shoot with this dang thing. I concluded that maybe I just needed to be farther away from people.

So I performed a little experiment. I was living at the time in a loft in a former warehouse in West Chicago, a beautiful and impractical home that was one of the most interesting places I ever lived. I was on the fourth floor, higher than most of the surrounding buildings. When it was being built, the contractor put in a sliding glass door. The idea was that buyers would pay $5,000 extra to have a small metal balcony installed outside the door. Since I suffer from acrophobia, and would have gotten the heebie-jeebies suspended in the airspace above the alley, I declined to buy a balcony, so my sliding glass door just had bars on the other side of it so I wouldn't, you know, mosey out of it by mistake and plummet four stories to the concrete.

They were building new condos across the street, and I had occasionally been observing the construction, opening the sliding glass door and leaning with my elbows on the top bar of the barrier. Never once had I noticed any of the workers looking at me; they were quite a distance away—I would estimate 200 feet or so—that's two-thirds of an American football field—and of course they were always going about their business. And it was Chicagoland. The Chicago metropolitan area—Chicagoland—is now getting close to having twice the population of the entire State of Wisconsin. So there were cars going by, airplanes in the sky, pedestrians. Trains passing on the nearby L. I had a great view of the L tracks from my front windows.

I put the Fuji around my neck and watched the workers for a few minutes. Casually, I slowly brought the Texas Leica to my eye.

And as soon as I looked through the viewfinder, the construction worker in the center of the composition turned around, stared right at me, and glared.

How had he noticed me? It's almost uncanny, as if I radiate some telepathic signal or something. I've never understood this. I took the picture anyway, but, as always, I felt awkward, as if I had imposed on the guy and annoyed him.

I recall thinking, gee, if I ever took this thing to the beach, I'd probably get arrested.

Anyway, that was it for me and the Texas Leica! If OPC was where I got it, back it went.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Tex Andrews: "Oh, be still my heart! My favorite film camera of all—the GSW690II. It was with this camera that I started to consistently shoot better, and oddly fell into my current and long time project, going on about 15 years now. To get my current camera that owns my heart, my 645Z, I had to trade in a bunch of gear to get the price down to 'only excruciating.' Almost all of the trade-ins hurt, but this one was by far the one that really made me sad, and does to this day. I'll get another one one day, but when I traded it in it actually felt like a betrayal, that camera had been so good to me. I felt faithless."

John Hufnagel: "If I recall correctly, the Graflex Combat Graphic was the first camera colloquially known as the Texas Leica. It even looks like a Leica."

Tom Duffy: "I really like my Fuji GW690III. The loud 'Ping!' when the leaf shutter goes off is about as un-Leica as you can get. 23 years ago, I brought it with me to Disney World on a family vacation and shot many rolls of Kodak 400 speed color negative film in 220 format. I came back with a large number of good pictures. My hit rate was actually way higher than my average. I've heard it described as 'everyone's second favorite camera.' Except yours, evidently.  :-) "

Steve C: "I watch Joel Meyrowitz's Masters of Photography course (which is excellent by the way), and he walks around shooting in the street looking like a seven-foot-tall Star Wars villain and nobody seems to notice. Ashley Gilbertson is the same, looking like a rock'n'roll guitar tech or perm'd biker, but gets the most incredible, up close, essence of humanity pictures."

Mike replies: Yeah, I really think it's a matter of personality and social adeptness. It's what you project to other people. And how you feel about yourself.

s.wolters: "It’s not only the camera, it’s the camera in combination with you. With my Pentax 67 I had the same kind of experience as you had with that Texas Leica. With my Rolleiflex people always reacted positively and sometimes tried to make contact or even wanted to pose.

"I envy some female photographers. A few months ago I was at a tourist hotspot where fifty people tried to photograph an overwhelming landscape with their smartphone in vertical mode. Only three or four had a proper camera. One of them, a pretty girl with very short pants and very long legs drew all the attention. Her rucksack full of equipment would have made any paparazzo jealous. As it happens when traveling around I also saw her at some other places. Because of her appearance she always made contact with anyone within minutes, using her bulky Canon 7D combination as a conversation piece. A Texas Leica would probably worked for her as well, but a phone camera or point and shoot not because those aren’t special enough to start a chat. One of the reasons I’m using Micro 4/3 is that think I look rather harmless with it. With a FF DSLR I feel that one day I will get lynched by an angry mob."

Robert: "I have almost the exact opposite experience. I‘ve taken thousands of pictures of strangers and hardly any of them have bothered to look. Most were taken with Leica rangefinders rather than a Texas Leica, admittedly, but many were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 24–105mm on it, some even with a Rolleiflex. I remember one day in London where even when getting very close no one seemed to be bothered, and another in a small town in Germany, and the same thing. Same with all over Asia, except there people often do look then smile widely after the picture is taken. I am not usually furtive. So maybe it's the U.S.—I've never shot there."

Ilkka: "Maybe the problem was that you thought of it as Texas Leica instead of New York Linhof. A big handheld camera instead of a more convenient and faster 4x5 replacement."

John Krumm: "I have similar results shooting strangers, at least in the Midwest. Here in Duluth people see you coming from a mile off. They don't usually think you are actually taking a photo of them. What usually happens is they stop walking or even stop their car so that you can take your shot without them in the way. Nowadays I pretty much never see anyone else with a camera around the neck. I'm the only weirdo in a town of 85,000 who does that, it seems (I know there are a few others, just not when I am out and about). That's why so many of my people shots are from a distance...."

Hugh: "It’s a person thing, not a camera thing. Not a criticism really. I never had any problem doing street photography with a Pentax 67. Same size, much more noise. Speed, confidence, and a friendly smile when people notice."

Stan B.: "Come to think of it, Tod Papageorge did some exemplary B&W street with it...."

Mike replies: He certainly did.

David L.: "Regardless of the comments, putting a 6x7 or 6x9 negative in an enlarger and printing it on fiber-base paper is a sublime experience. I had Fuji 6x7 and 6x9 cameras and regret letting them go."

Martin D: "I loved l, loved, loved that camera. Had both the 90mm and the 65mm 6x9 versions. For me, the very size and monstrosity of the thing made me invisible, like wearing a hi-viz jacket and helmet—people just took me for someone from a different world and ignored me. This is the camera to take Walker Evans-style shots of everyday life. I used Agfa Scala B&W transparency film—wow, how those massive transparencies came to life on the lightbox. Took the best portrait of my father with it. One roll of 120 only gives eight shots, I metered carefully and used only one shot for my father, it was perfect. Boy, I miss this camera."

Mike replies: Did you know that film was just plain old Agfa APX 100 with reversal processing? True.

Eric Brody: "The closest I ever came to the 'Texas Leica' was the Mamiya 7II, a fabulous lightweight rangefinder with some of the sharpest lenses I've ever used, and I've used a lot of lenses. Even though each lens had its own, almost silent, leaf shutter, I never used it for people, so I never got to scare anyone. What interests me about this conversation is how people seem to sort to two groups, those with the 'courage' to do street work and those, like me, who are irrationally afraid of it."

Comments

[Thomas Walsh]

Reading this, I couldn't help thinking about Vivian Maier doing street photography with her Rolleiflex. Perhaps she also received the glares, and may have also felt some apprehension? But, a Rolleiflex would seems to invite attention. Or maybe it is simply a matter of the photographer's personality?

[Stan B.]

Worst camera review ever! Sorry, couldn’t help it...

Generally, I find the sooner I get my eye to the viewfinder, the quicker the anxiety dissipates- as if I’m watching a movie.

[Dave]

Mike,

It's as if that Fuji were the Hope Diamond with all the problems it caused. (Most of the accounts of the curses appear to be exaggerated, according to wikipedia.)

It's a good thing the camera wasn't any smaller. The model name wouldn't have fit.

Catching the eye of the construction worker hundreds of feet away? That lens had to be the most reflective surface ever built at the time! A good, entertaining story.

[Doug]

I wonder it it's any bigger and/or more alarming than the Rolleiflex that Vivian Maier et al used to walk around with and point at folks.

[Aaron]

I had both the wide and 'normal' version of the Fuji cameras. Lots of fun to shoot with and produced a big negative/transparency. I only used them for nature/landscape, though.

I wonder how the pervasiveness of cell phone cameras and the ease with which photos and videos can be shared on social media has changed people's responses to photographers? On the one hand, you'd think people would get used to it since imaging devices are everywhere now. On the other hand, that may be exactly why people seem more concerned about strangers taking their pictures (at least, that's my impression). I know I wouldn't like strangers photo/videoing me in a public place simply because it's so easy for them to upload that photo or video of me and it be available worldwide. I don't recall if it bothered me pre-camera cell phones and social media. I can't remember that world of so long ago.

[Mike Ferron]

I had a Fuji 645s pro, you know the one with the crash bar around the lens? It was purchased used years ago and when it arrived I was shocked what a plastic fantastic wonder it was. Even the crash bar! The shutter sounded like it was designed in a partnership with Cracker Jacks. But that 60mm lens was quite good. The memory of a moody photo of an old graveyard I took with that camera stays in my mind. I have been tempted to repurchase this camera based on the memory but thoughts of hard plastic combined with insane asking prices of $500+ will keep those memories as just that.

[By coincidence, the picture of mine that I particularly remember that I took with the GS645s Pro was also of a moody graveyard. --Mike]

[Rick Denney]

I never owned a Texas Leica, but always liked the idea of it. For me, it was too expensive for a camera with a fixed lens, and the GSW model with the 65mm lens was barely wide enough for the stuff I'd have used that camera to photograph.

And, it must be said, while the idea of a rangefinder camera always seemed attractive, every time I actually used one I found myself happy to go back to an image projected onto ground glass. (That's what keeps me from being tempted away from my Pentax 645z by the Fugi GFX cameras, despite that they do offer some advantages, and despite that the Fuji would still be showing me a projected image. Ground glass is just better for me.)

So I never got one, either.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't photograph people candidly and get it right. Either I have to move too fast for them to react, in which case my photographs lack anything of careful composition (ala Friedlander) or decisive moment (ala Cartier-Bresson), or the photo I get includes them offering a visual opinion of the exercise ranging from an annoyed expression to an upraised stiff middle finger. I'll stick with my pretty rocks.

[Rob de Loe]

I am so bad at candid people photography! As I read your post, every memory of every time I've tried came rushing back. These are not good memories. One time the busker I was photographing actually stopped what he was doing and glared at me. A busker! Apparently I violated the "Code of Photographing Buskers".

I enjoyed my brief time with a Texas Leica. The lens is exceptionally good. One thing that fools people is the roll counter. They buy a used one that says 107 and think they scored a low use camera. Little do they know it resets to zero when you load the next roll after 999. Most of the ones you can buy have reset to zero any number of times after years of service taking pictures of tourists hopping off the bus at Mount Fuji.

[We should get together to trade tales of woe. Bike messengers in DC used to congregate at DuPont Circle after the day shift was over, and I got hassled trying to take pictures of them once. One very aggressive young woman with a volatile temperament who the others thought was entertaining. She even threatened me physically! So apparently there is also a "Code of Photographing Bike Messengers." --Mike]

[Andrew Kochanowski]

I find that having a big, obvious camera helps to disarm people these days. But then I'm a warm, friendly, average guy.

My history with the Texas Leica is using one to shoot professional boxing for a few days. I'm too modest to post a link but it's on my site and a few other places. It was probably like trying to paint with a baseball bat, but the results came out pretty decent.

[Andrew Kochanowski]

OK, I'm not that shy,
http://akochanowski.net/ringside is mostly shot with the Texas Leica.

[PWL]

Maybe you should’ve used a real Leica instead....😁

[Earl Dunbar]

I’ve thought about this, since I will be acquiring a GL690. I think it might have to do with not only the absolute size of the camera, but also that it obstructs so much more of the photographer’s face. It’s as if you’re hiding for some nefarious purpose.

What I have learned about “street”/people photography is that it most often is about engagement with the subject. Looking at Peter Turnley’s work in Paris and New York has taught me a lot. He almost always has a story of the encounter, including the name(s) of the subject(s). It’s one reason I like the Rolleiflex - it elicits smiles and often a pleasant conversation.

[Speed]

How had he noticed me? It's almost uncanny, as if I radiate some telepathic signal or something.

Perhaps you were concentrating so hard on the subject that you didn't notice his buddy standing a few feet away saying, "Why is that guy across the way taking your picture?"

[Crabby Umbo]

Owned both the Fuji GS645s, and the Fuji GW670. Both outstanding cameras with sharp lenses. Both sold because I never could cozy up to them. The 645 had a meter, which was a drag to set through the tiny rangefinder, and the rangefinder was hard to focus because of the barely see-able dot. The GW670, was a drag to use because you had to use a secondary meter, which defeated the purpose of shooting larger format film "on-the-fly".

The bigger camera got a lot of response from everyone! You say "Texas Leica", I heard repeatedly "Playskool" and "My First Camera".

By the time the camera I really wanted, the GF670 came out, with aperture priority auto exposure, paying close to 3K for a one lens film camera in semi-retirement seemed silly. (BTW, I've seen pristine used copies for way over 3K used).

[Bob Keefer]

I've had a related experience shooting with a big, boxy Mamiya C3, but managed at times to play it to my advantage. Even back in prehistoric (i.e., "film") days, it was a whale-like oddity of a camera in public. What I liked was it drew people in. "Is that an antique?" "How does that camera work?" "That's really a camera?" All that curiosity broke the ice and made for some nice portraits.

[Howard Sandler]

So I guess these are out of the question for you.

[Matt Kallio]

The designers at Fuji must have hated smooth surfaces, as the camera seems to have a change in elevation between every component, whether it makes sense or not; it's crammed with wrinkles and ridges. Maybe that's why it attracted attention. It looks like a weathered old man. But really, this camera was not intended for street photography, was it?

[Jeff in Colorado]

I have fond memories of my GSW690 III: In my hands, it seemed to amuse bystanders, as if I were playing with an oversized movie prop or toy! Maybe yours could have benefited from a strategically placed Hello Kitty sticker.

[McD]

Sold mine.
The sound of the shutter put me off.
Good results though.

[Jim Arthur]

Your biker is riding an expensive custom bike that is anything but subtle. I can’t believe he’s never had a camera pointed at him. The bike screams look at me! It appears to me that he’s just checking out the cager who’s shooting blind and hoping for the best which is not an everyday occurrence. In this case I think it’s all in your head.

[Sharon]

Andrew, this series is amazing! Glad you weren't shy. http://akochanowski.net/ringside/w8y3luwl24mm2x3fysynckogoqlwpq

[Stan B.]

Nice boxing essay, Andrew!

[Ramón]

I like the idea of having one. Especially the 6x9 model. If I ever can get a great deal on one, I will get it. I even have a box of roll film in the fridge waiting for the last 2 years. I’ve never held one. So we will see how I feel once it’s in my hands.

[Herman Krieger]

With my Fuji 6x9 and 6x7 cameras
http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/fuji.jpg

[psu]

I used a Mamiya 6 for a while back in the day. It was great. But kept breaking.

This is one of my favorite pictures though... shot on a cold night with the 6.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/79904144@N00/38497286034/in/photolist-21DSDUW-7oLiyr

[Dillan]

That sounds like how I feel when I attempt any kind of street photography. That's why I mostly wander the woods with my camera. Well told!

[Christopher May]

If the various Fuji incarnations are "Texas Leicas", does that make 4x5 converted Polaroid 900/110A/110B cameras "Alaska Leicas?"

One of my great regrets in life was foregoing an opportunity to get on the waiting list for a Razzle, a particularly nice 4x5 conversion of a Polaroid by the late Dean Jones. By the time I had rethought that mistake, Dean had passed on and none of the other 4x5 Polaroid conversions have ever stirred my imagination the same way.

[mike r in colorado]

I had a gw690iii, loved it. Fell off a tripod head twice. Cheap Bogen head, I should have known better, especially before the second time. Fixed once, now deceased. Went back to my Mamiya TLR. Bought a 'ii' a few years later. The lens is great, the body is OK. Durable enough, but not bulletproof. I "see" more like a 75-90 (35mm equiv) lens, but when the "not very wide" will work I'm happy with the Fuji. I call it my "clown camera".

[Stephen Scharf]

Hmmm....lot of reminiscing on TOP lately, what with this post, the article on Fotomat, the film photography and film cameara posts, etc.

Swinging back to the 2nd decade of the 21st Century, and looking forward just to change things up a bit, it appears Fujifilm will be releasing not one, but two X-H2s, one 40mpixels and one 26 megapixels.

My X-H1 is still my pro workhorse, now almost 4 years on, and still one of the three best cameras I've ever used, so it will be interesting to see what the X-H2 will bring from a real-world, "practically significant" perspective.

Happy Anniversary.

[By coincidence, I went to FujiRumors to see what you're talking about, and the top post at the time was about the new Fuji Neopan 100 Acros II film. :-)

Anyhow, I'm sure you can find exceptions, but *generally* I don't like to post about rumors. The most recent time I got my ass bit doing so was with the supposedly upcoming A6600 replacement. Oops. Although I seem to keep to have to keep learning it over and over again, it's a lesson I first learned posting about the then-rumored N8008 replacement. I did it again with the Leica digital M way back when. Which did indeed eventually arrive, even though it seemed to take, let's just say, a long time. The "X-H2" has been rumored for at least three years now. We'll no doubt talk about it if and when it gets here, though. In fact, you could even review it if you want to Stephen.... --Mike]

[Trevor Small]

Yeah, I dunno about your "glare" theory.
Pretty sure that's how I look on the bike whenever I see something unusual, or moving, or interesting, or shiny, or just present.
A biker who doesn't look at things carefully has a fairly short life expectancy.

[Mike]

I used to shoot on the street with a Hasselblad 2003FCW, with and without the winder. Mostly with either a 50, 80 or 110 lens. My friend Matt Weber used to call it the Scandinavian Howitzer because the sound of the shutter was pretty loud. Even on the streets of NYC you could hear the thing. That said, I was able to get pretty close to people and still make candid photos. https://www.mikepeters-photography.com/Category/The-Dream

[Yes, but you, Sir, have a totally unfair advantage. You are a better photographer than I. --Mike]

[David Dyer-Bennet]

What a bizarre choice of test subjects for that kind of camera, though!

I think I've mentioned my bad experience with the GS645, where every roll I ran through it had many shots ruined by bellows pinholes, even after I taped over the first batch. (I think the bellows got compressed too much in the storage position, so the corners tended to fail.) I loved the idea, but the reality is that it ruined a lot of opportunities.

[Andrew]

Fuji GW690III, HP5+ and Sekonic light meter set to incident reading. If someone can't make a decent photo with that what hope is there?

[Doug C]

I guess I am a slave to interchangeable lenses. I bought the earlier series with three lenses.

It seemed like a great idea, but it was so heavy I never really used it.

So I got a Mamiya 6, but never used that much either. I guess there wasn't much between 35mm and 10" film that I figured out how to use until I got a couple of RoundShots and a Wideux 1500.

[Jack Mac]

Most construction workers worry that a photographer is from the City or State Inspections. So I used to shoot with super telephotos and you experienced, they still see you. Then I went shooting on a construction site with a female National Geographic photographer who talked to them and encouraged them to show off and mug for the camera with a big smile. “Say Cheese” is what the photographer should tell themselves. Most photographer can’t crack a smile.

[Patrick D Perez]

One thing I learned during my brief 6x9 format time is that as a format, it varies in actual dimensions. I seem to recall some were only ~84mm on the wide end. I briefly owned a Brooks Veriwide camera, whose image area was 56x90. The camera had a Schneider Super Angulon 47mm lens, making the FoV something like over 100 degrees. That's when I learned that 24mm on 35 is about as wide as I can work well with. I think it worked out to 18mm equivalent in 35 format.

Patrick

[Robert Stahl]

Speaking of cameras that call attention to themselves I give you the
3D World TL 120-1 medium format stereo camera. Big and bulky, this
made in China camera was the very antithesis of stealthy but oh how
wonderful the two 6x6 transparencies were! And when they were
paired up with the enclosed stereo viewer one was transported to
an amazing, magical world!