Fuji GA645W Professional

Fuji Photo Film · Fixed lens · 56 × 41.5 mm on 120 or 220, framed in portrait orientation when the camera is held normally; automatic 120/220 switchover as on the GA645. · 1996

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Fuji GA645W · Fuji GA645W Professional · Fujifilm GA645W · Fujifilm GA645W Professional · Fuji GA645W Pro · Fuji GA645 W · Fuji GA645 Wide · Fuji GA645W 45mm f/4 · FUJI GA645W Professional 45mm F4 · フジ GA645W · フジ GA645W プロフェッショナル · フジフイルム GA645W · 富士フイルム GA645W Professional

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Fuji GA645W Professional	Fuji fixed	1996–1997	—	—

Weight (835 g), the 45mm f/4 lens in 7 elements and 5 groups, 0.7 m, the 52 mm filter and the two CR123A cells are antiquecameras.net's table line for the GA645W; the GA645 in the same table is 815 g. Mike Eckman's GA645Wi specification gives 880 g, which may include batteries.
The lens's maximum aperture is disputed. f/4: camera-wiki.org's specification and model table, Dante Stella ('45mm f/4 Biogon-style' for the W and Wi together), antiquecameras.net (f/4.0, 7 elements in 5 groups, the same line as the Wi), Mike Eckman (who records only the second release and the barcode reader as changes from W to Wi), and Adorama's listing title for a used body ('Super Ebc 45 f/4'). f/5.6: one line of camera-wiki.org's text, and a Kamerastore product page that a search snippet reports as '45mm f/5.6, 7 elements' (not read; the page refused the fetch). f/5.6 is the aperture of the manual-focus GS645W of 1983, and the two f/5.6 mentions read as that camera's figure carried over. f/4 is carried here, with the lens page recording the same dispute.
Shutter, meter, flash and film figures are the GA645's; no source read gives a separate specification for the W beyond the lens, the finder magnification and the weight.
Release year: Japanese Wikipedia alone gives a month (July 1996); the English-language reviews and tables say 1995 without a month. The Japanese list is month-dated throughout and is carried.

How to tell them apart (expand)

GA645 body with W after the model name and a fixed, non-retracting 45mm barrel; the same grip, top-plate LCD and rear mode dial as the GA645
One shutter release, on the grip; no front release and no barcode reader, which mark a GA645Wi
A 28 mm-equivalent field (Dante Stella; antiquecameras.net), which the finder shows at 0.4×
Not the GS645W of 1983: that camera has a 45mm f/5.6 EBC Fujinon W in 6 elements, scale focusing, an LED match-needle meter and two LR44 cells

Fuji GA645W Professional:

W after GA645 on the body; a 45mm Super-EBC Fujinon in a barrel that does not retract (Japanese Wikipedia describes the GA645Wi's barrel as fixed, 固定鏡胴, and no source has the W's lens retracting)
Single shutter release on the grip and no barcode reader — the GA645Wi of 1997 has both the front release and the reader
0.4× finder against the GA645's 0.5× (Dante Stella)

Fuji GA645W Professional: The only form. Japanese Wikipedia releases it in July 1996, a year after the GA645; Mike Eckman, Jen Golay and antiquecameras.net pair it with the GA645 in 1995. It was superseded by the GA645Wi in July 1997.

Specifications

Format: 56 × 41.5 mm on 120 or 220, framed in portrait orientation when the camera is held normally; automatic 120/220 switchover as on the GA645. · 16 on 120 and 32 on 220 (Dante Stella: every model after the first GA645) exposures
Finder: Bright-frame finder in portrait orientation with a moving parallax-correction frame and a central AF target, as on the GA645 · 0.4× magnification · automatic — the bright frame moves with the focused distance parallax correction · no rangefinder image
Shutter: Electronically controlled #00 leaf shutter in the lens, driven by a stepper motor · 2 s–1/700, with 1/400 the ceiling at the wider apertures (f/4–f/9.5 on the 60mm cameras); B in manual mode · flash sync All speeds (leaf shutter); hot shoe; no PC socket · self-timer
Film advance: Motorised; automatic loading from a film-start sensor
Back: Hinged; LCD on the top plate; data imprint outside the picture area
Meter: Centre-weighted silicon photodiode reading through the finder window; Program, Aperture-priority and Manual; ±2 EV compensation (the GA645 specification, which no source varies for the W)
Motor drive: Not compatible — Advance is built in and motorised
Weight: 835 g
Country: Japan
Accessories: GA Strobe and GA Bracket (camera-wiki.org), as for the GA645 · 52 mm screw-in filters

0.4× is Dante Stella's figure for the W finder, against 0.5× for the 60mm camera; Eckman's specification for the GA645Wi gives 0.5× and 93%, so either the Wi finder differs or one figure is wrong.

Where sources disagree

Related lenses (maximum aperture of the 45mm)

f/4 — camera-wiki.org's table and specification; Dante Stella; antiquecameras.net (7 elements, 5 groups); Mike Eckman; Adorama listing title
f/5.6 — one line of camera-wiki.org's text; a Kamerastore page reported by a search snippet (not read)

Better supported: f/4

f/5.6 is the GS645W's aperture; nothing read describes a redesign between the GA645W and the GA645Wi, and Eckman says the i models changed only the release and the barcode reader.

First

July 1996 — Japanese Wikipedia
1995 — Mike Eckman, Jen Golay, antiquecameras.net

Better supported: 1996

Only the Japanese list dates the camera to a month.

Magnification

0.4× — Dante Stella, for the GA645W
0.5× with 93% coverage — Mike Eckman's specification for the GA645Wi

The two figures may describe two cameras; neither source gives the other model's finder.

Weight (grams)

835 g — antiquecameras.net, GA645W
880 g — Mike Eckman, GA645Wi (possibly with batteries)

Better supported: 835

What reviewers say

Dante Stella (dantestella.com) (blog) — The one page read that handles the W itself: a 45mm with the field of a 24mm on 35mm film, a 0.4× finder, and otherwise the GA645's 900-step AF, finder-window meter and "wimpy" flash in a body whose ergonomics are "where you learn to love or hate it". His verdict on the line is a "painless way to shoot medium-format".

History

The GA645W is the wide-angle GA645: the same autofocus 6×4.5 body with a 45mm Super-EBC Fujinon in place of the 60mm, giving the field of a 28mm lens on 35mm film by antiquecameras.net’s reckoning and of a 24mm by Dante Stella’s. Japanese Wikipedia releases it in July 1996, a year after the GA645; Mike Eckman, Jen Golay and antiquecameras.net all pair the two cameras in 1995, and only the Japanese list gives a month, so 1996 is carried. The lens does not retract, which Japanese Wikipedia records for the GA645Wi’s barrel and nothing read contradicts for the W; the finder is 0.4× against the 60mm camera’s 0.5×; the body is heavier by antiquecameras.net’s figures, 835 g against 815. Shutter, meter, flash, loading and the two CR123A cells are the GA645’s, and no source read gives the W a specification of its own beyond the lens, the finder and the weight.

The lens’s maximum aperture is the one fact about this camera that sources do not agree on. camera-wiki.org’s specification, its model table, Dante Stella, antiquecameras.net, Mike Eckman and a dealer’s listing title all give f/4; one line of camera-wiki.org’s own text and a Kamerastore page known only from a search snippet give f/5.6. f/5.6 is the aperture of the manual-focus GS645W of 1983, whose EBC Fujinon W 45mm has six elements in five groups, and the two f/5.6 mentions read as that camera’s figure carried across a shared model letter. antiquecameras.net gives the W and the Wi the same 45mm f/4 in seven elements and five groups, which is also Japanese Wikipedia’s construction for the Wi, and Eckman has the 1997 i models changing only the shutter release and the barcode reader. The page therefore records the GA645W’s lens as a 45mm f/4, with the dispute kept on both this page and the lens’s own.

It was superseded after a year by the GA645Wi of July 1997, which added the front shutter release for landscape framing and the barcode reader that sets film speed from Fuji’s own 120 and 220 films, so the plain W is the shortest-lived of the five GA645 cameras and the least written about: Stella’s page is the only review read that deals with it directly, and his verdict is the line’s — a painless way to shoot medium format, with a finder-window meter that leans a third to half a stop under in bright light and a flash he found useless past ten feet. Eckman’s experience of the Wi’s lens, “very sharp” with slight vignetting and an autofocus that softened his infinity shots, is the nearest account of what this camera’s pictures look like.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

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