In the midst of the winter storm we experienced one of our staff decided to get out for a wintry hike in the Gorge with his Fuji G617.  The G617 is a medium format panoramic camera that only gets four 6x17cm exposures per roll of 120 film.  It has a fixed lens (the GX617 is the more complex model with interchangeable lenses) with zone focusing.  One nice thing about a zone focusing camera like this is you can leave the lens cap on until the moment you are ready to make the exposure, whisking off the cap for the 1-2 seconds necessary and then replacing it before frozen spray from nearby icy waterfalls has a chance to build up on your lens.  

We thought we would share this image of his Fuji in the wild, the view through the viewfinder and the resulting image (plus a bonus horizontal take on the same scene).  Film used was Fomapan 100 - a sneaky fun B&W film that flies under a lot of radars.

The Fuji G617's enormous film gate makes other medium format cameras seem miniature. As its name suggests the G617 makes 6x17cm exposures -- 4 per roll on 120 film, or 8 on hard-to-find 220. These cameras combine the resolution capabilities of large format cameras with the convenience of shooting roll film. 

One of our customers recently loaned us the book "New York Vertical" by Horst Hamann, a German photographer living in New York City who has been photographing the vertical elements of the metropolis with his Linhof Technorama.   This book got us to thinking about shooting more vertical panoramas ourselves, and so it was that we found ourselves out with this Fuji G617 set up vertically. ⠀

We recommend this book, whether you are into cityscapes, panoramas, black and white photography, or just photography in general. Looking at a book of photography is a wonderful way to learn and be inspired and before you know it, you too may be out with your cameras operating in some new fashion or another.

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The Fuji 6x17. 

You guessed it - this camera makes a 17cm long negative on medium format film.  That is four exposures per roll!  The challenge comes in pairing this magnificent camera with the right landscape, one that feels as grand as the negatives you will create.

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We don't see these cameras pass through our shop too often. The Fuji G617 is an awesome camera: big, bulky but easy to use, and those 6x17 negs are gorgeous - especially if you are brave enough to put a roll of slide film through this camera. 6x17cm Velvia slides will make your heart skip a beat, trust us, it's a wondrous thing! 

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What do you get when you take out a Fuji G617 panoramic camera on a trip to the Canadian Rockies, loaded with Rollei RPX 25 black and white film, and then you positive process it through the DR5 lab in Iowa?  Well, this!  A page of captivating black & white slides. ⠀ ⠀

If you don't know about DR5, go look them up.  They process most b&w films as positive and they can do it in either a neutral monochrome developer or a warm-toned sepia developer.  Yes, sepia slides.  How lovely, indeed.

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On August 21st, 2017, we experienced a solar eclipse here in Portland, OR.  Check out this G617, laced in all of the incredible shadows cast by the cosmic event!  We hope you all got to experience the magic that was the solar eclipse.  One of the major perks about running a film photo lab is that we got the opportunity to relive this event over and over again through all of your film, one customer roll at a time. 

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