Fuji GA645Wi Professional
Fuji Photo Film · Fixed lens · 56 × 41.5 mm (Mike Eckman: 41.5 × 56 mm actual) on 120 or 220, framed in portrait orientation when the camera is held normally; automatic 120/220 switchover. · 1997
Also known as: Fuji GA645Wi · Fuji GA645Wi Professional · Fujifilm GA645Wi · Fujifilm GA645Wi Professional · Fuji GA645Wi Pro · Fuji GA645 Wi · Fuji GA-645Wi · Fuji GA645Wi 45mm f/4 · FUJI GA645Wi Professional 45mm F4 · Fuji GA645Wi Limited · フジ GA645Wi · フジ GA645Wi プロフェッショナル · フジフイルム GA645Wi · 富士フイルム GA645Wi Professional
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuji GA645Wi Professional | Fuji fixed | 1997 | — | — |
| Fuji GA645Wi Professional Limited | Fuji fixed | 1998 | — | — |
- Lens — 固定鏡胴の5群7枚スーパーEBCフジノンW45mmF4, 0.7 m, φ52 mm screw-in — is Japanese Wikipedia's entry for this camera; Mike Eckman's specification and antiquecameras.net's table repeat 45mm f/4 in 7 elements and 5 groups and 0.7 m.
- Weight: 880 g is Eckman's specification and may include the two CR123A cells; antiquecameras.net gives the GA645W as 835 g and the GA645 as 815 g. Dimensions were not stated by any source read.
- Shutter, finder, meter and flash figures are Eckman's specification, which matches camera-wiki.org's GA645 list except for the finder magnification (see disputed).
- The $1,259 is a dealer's advertised price in October 1999, two years after launch, not a Fuji list price; Eckman found other advertisements near $1,200 in Google Books and guesses a list of about $1,600.
How to tell them apart
- GA645 body with Wi after the model name, a fixed 45mm barrel that does not retract, a second shutter release on the front of the grip and a barcode reader in the film chamber
- A 28 mm-equivalent field (Eckman; antiquecameras.net); Dante Stella calls it a 24mm equivalent
- Pop-up flash in the centre of the top plate, LCD on top, mode dial on the back; no PC socket (the GA645Zi moved all of these)
- Not a GA645W: that camera has one release and no barcode reader. Not a GS645W: that camera is manual, f/5.6, with LR44 cells
Fuji GA645Wi Professional:
- Wi after GA645 on the body; a 45mm Super-EBC Fujinon W in a fixed, non-retracting barrel (Japanese Wikipedia: 固定鏡胴)
- Second shutter release on the front of the grip and a barcode reader in the film chamber, the two changes of the i generation
Fuji GA645Wi Professional Limited:
- Limited on the body; camera-wiki.org's table lists a 'Limited SE' colour for the i-generation cameras
- Fuji GA645Wi Professional: Japanese Wikipedia calls it the wide-angle-lens version of the GA645i, released the same month, July 1997. Dante Stella describes it as GA645i features on GA645W basic specifications; Mike Eckman records no change to the lens from the W.
- Fuji GA645Wi Professional Limited: Dated March 1998 by Japanese Wikipedia, with no description of the finish or the quantity; nothing else read mentions it.
Specifications
- Format
- 56 × 41.5 mm (Mike Eckman: 41.5 × 56 mm actual) on 120 or 220, framed in portrait orientation when the camera is held normally; automatic 120/220 switchover. · 16 on 120, 32 on 220 exposures
- Finder
- Illuminated bright-frame finder in portrait orientation with automatic parallax correction and a central AF target · 0.5× magnification · automatic parallax correction · 93% coverage · no rangefinder image
- Shutter
- Electronically controlled #00 leaf shutter in the lens, driven by a stepper motor · B and 2 s–1/700, limited to 1/400 from f/4 to f/9.5 (Eckman's specification) · flash sync All speeds (leaf shutter); hot shoe; no PC socket · self-timer
- Film advance
- Motorised; automatic loading from a film-start sensor; the barcode reader sets film speed for Fuji films as the roll loads
- Back
- Hinged; LCD on the top plate; date back imprinting outside the picture area
- Meter
- Silicon photodiode, centre-weighted, reading through the finder window; aperture-priority and programmed auto exposure plus manual; ±2 EV compensation
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — Advance is built in and motorised
- Weight
- 880 g
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- US$1,259 advertised by Focus Camera (Honest Abe's, Brooklyn) in Popular Photography, October 1999 (Mike Eckman); Eckman's guess at the list price is about $1,600, with other dealers near $1,200 (today $2,370)
- Accessories
- GA Strobe and GA Bracket (camera-wiki.org) · 52 mm screw-in filters
0.5× and 93% are Mike Eckman's specification for the Wi; Dante Stella gives the GA645W finder as 0.4×. Eckman notes that the finder gives no focus confirmation in either auto or manual mode.
Where sources disagree
- Magnification
- 0.5× with 93% coverage — Mike Eckman's specification for the GA645Wi
- 0.4× — Dante Stella, for the GA645W
Either the Wi finder differs from the W's, or one figure is wrong; no source gives both cameras' finders.
- Weight (grams)
- 880 g — Mike Eckman's specification
- 835 g — antiquecameras.net for the GA645W, the same body
Better supported: 880
Eckman's figure may include batteries; it is carried because it is given for this camera.
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (mikeeckman.com) (blog) — Solid build despite the plastic, a "grippy" matte body with good heft, and a "very sharp" lens whose 28mm-equivalent field was the best thing about it; but inconsistent autofocus that softened his infinity shots and missed a mirror selfie three times, no focus confirmation in the finder, and after two rolls a feeling of being underwhelmed — "I just don't think I would have ever bought one" at about $2,200 in today's money, while conceding it suited the wedding and portrait professionals it was made for.
- Dante Stella (dantestella.com) (blog) — Technical notes on the line: the Wi is GA645i features on GA645W specifications, with a 45mm he calls Biogon-style, the 900-step hybrid AF, a finder-window meter that leans under in bright light and a "wimpy" flash; a "painless way to shoot medium-format".
History
The GA645Wi of July 1997 is, in Japanese Wikipedia’s phrase, the wide-angle-lens version of the GA645i: the GA645 body with the i generation’s two additions — a second shutter release on the front of the grip for landscape framing and a barcode reader that sets film speed from Fuji’s own 120 and 220 films — and the 45mm lens of the GA645W in place of the 60mm. The lens is a Super-EBC Fujinon W 45mm f/4 in seven elements and five groups, in a fixed barrel that does not retract as the 60mm cameras’ lens does, focusing to 0.7 m through a 52 mm filter thread; its field is that of a 28mm lens on 35mm film. The rest is the line’s standard equipment: the stepper-driven #00 leaf shutter of 2 s to 1/700 with 1/400 the ceiling from f/4 to f/9.5, the centre-weighted silicon cell reading through the finder window, Program, Aperture-priority and Manual, the GN 12 pop-up flash and hot shoe, motorised loading and advance, a date back printing outside the frame, and two CR123A cells. Mike Eckman’s specification gives 880 g and a 0.5× finder showing 93%; Dante Stella’s 0.4× for the W finder may or may not describe the same part.
A Limited version came in March 1998, a month before the GA645Zi, dated by Japanese Wikipedia and described by nobody. antiquecameras.net marks the Wi as “not easily found”, and it is the dearest of the four fixed-focal-length GA645s in that dealer’s table. Its period price is known from an advertisement rather than a list: Focus Camera offered it at $1,259 in Popular Photography of October 1999, two years after launch, and Eckman, finding other dealers near $1,200, guesses at a list of about $1,600 — around $2,200 in 2020s money, which is the figure his verdict turns on. Eckman has the line discontinued within a few years of 2000.
His is the one full review of the camera found. He liked the build — heavy plastic that nonetheless feels solid, a matte body that is “grippy”, good heft — and the lens, “very sharp”, fitting a great deal into each frame, with vignetting slighter than he expected of a seven-element wide-angle. He did not like the autofocus, which left his infinity shots soft and missed a mirror self-portrait on all three tries, and he found that the finder confirms focus in neither auto nor manual mode. After two rolls he was underwhelmed, and his conclusion is that he would never have bought one at its price, while allowing that the wedding and portrait photographers Fuji made it for were using it as he had not. Stella’s notes supply the rest: a 900-step hybrid autofocus, a meter that reads a third to half a stop under in bright daylight, a flash useless beyond ten feet, and a line that is, for all that, a painless way to shoot medium format.
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.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Fuji GA645Wi Professional? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.