Fuji GW690III Professional
Fuji Photo Film · Fixed lens · 6×9cm on half-length 120, 120 or 220 roll film (manual); the film selector sets the counter for 4, 8 or 16 exposures (manual, Fig. 6). The manual's actual picture size for the 6×9 reads 56 × 8_mm in the scan, the last digits illegible. · 1992
Known as “Texas Leica”
Also known as: Fuji GW690III · Fuji GW690 III · Fuji GW690III Professional · Fuji GW690 III Professional · Fujifilm GW690III · GW690III 6x9 · Fuji GW690III 90mm F3.5 · Fuji GW690 Mark III · Fuji GW690 3 · フジ GW690III · フジ GW690 III · フジGW690IIIプロフェッショナル · Texas Leica
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuji GW690III Professional | Fuji fixed | 1992–2003 | — | Not published |
- Finder, shutter, lens, dimensions and weight are the GW690III column of the shared GW690III/GSW690III/GW670III owner's manual (Butkus scan), specifications p.7, read from the page image; the left margin of the scan is clipped, so the 6×9 picture size is recorded only as 56 × 8_mm.
- Weight: 1,460 g (manual). Japan Camera Hunter and 35mmc both print 1,510 g, which is the manual's GSW690III figure; the manual's 1,460 g is 20 g above the GW690II exactly as camera-wiki states, so it is the stronger figure.
- Body construction (die-cast JIS AD12 aluminium frame, ABS exterior with rubberised coating) is camera-wiki's; it adds that forum complaints of a 'plasticky' feel are belied by the III's higher weight. JCH's review makes the same complaint.
- Lens: EBC Fujinon 90mm F3.5, 5 components, 5 elements, 1 m nearest focus, F32, screw-in filter 67mm (0.75mm pitch, 70mm outer diameter), 58° covering power equivalent to a 39mm on 35mm, built-in retractable hood (manual). See the lens page.
- The shutter-actuation counter under the body counts in tens; the manual devotes a maintenance paragraph to it, and camera-wiki quotes Chatani on a 10,000-exposure design life.
How to tell them apart
- The curved, rubber-covered 6×9 Fuji with 'FUJI 6×9 Professional' on the front, a spirit level in front of the wind lever and push-button spool release; EBC Fujinon 90mm f/3.5 behind a built-in hood, 67mm thread, no meter, no battery
- Front release with an L lock and a second release on the top plate; hot shoe; sync socket under a cover on the body end
- Odometer-style counter on the base plate reading in tens of exposures, as on every generation
- Squared metal body with ribbed or chequered grips and no level: a GW690 or GW690II. '6×7' or '6×8' in the front legend: a GW670III or GW680III on the same body
- Listing trap: 'GW690' alone is written for all three generations, and the 65mm GSW690III is sometimes listed as a GW690III; the lens name on the front ring settles it
Fuji GW690III Professional:
- Curved body with rubberised ABS panels over a die-cast JIS AD12 aluminium frame, in place of the squared metal body of the GW690 and GW690II (camera-wiki)
- Small single-axis spirit level on the top plate in front of the wind lever (camera-wiki; manual's parts list, 'Level')
- Push-button spool-knob release for loading (camera-wiki; manual, 'Spool Knob Release Buttons')
- Two shutter releases, on the top plate and on the front, the front one with an L lock (manual)
- 'FUJI 6×9 Professional' on the front plate (manual, Names of Parts drawing)
- Hot shoe, sync socket under a cover, strap lug at each end, shutter-actuation counter on the base (manual, parts list)
- Fuji GW690III Professional: The only form of the camera, and by camera-wiki's account the commonest of the 6×9 Fujis. The manual gives 119 × 201 × 129mm (H × W × D) and 1,460 g, which is 20 g above the GW690II as camera-wiki states. Japanese Wikipedia notes only that the wind lever was made smaller.
Serial-range notes
- No published scheme
- No source records serial blocks or a serial-to-year table for any GW/GSW body. The III is told from the II by its body, not by number.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×9cm on half-length 120, 120 or 220 roll film (manual); the film selector sets the counter for 4, 8 or 16 exposures (manual, Fig. 6). The manual's actual picture size for the 6×9 reads 56 × 8_mm in the scan, the last digits illegible. · 8 on 120, 16 on 220, 4 on half-length 120 exposures
- Finder
- double-image coupled rangefinder/viewfinder with a bright-line frame for the 90mm, parallax-corrected · 0.75× magnification · 90mm framelines · one frame, fixed · automatic; the bright-line frame moves as the lens is focused (manual, p.10) parallax correction · 92% coverage
- Base length
- 59 mm
- Effective baselength
- 44.3 mm
- Shutter
- #0 interlens leaf shutter, self-cocking with the advance, double-exposure prevention, shutter-release lock (manual) · T, 1s–1/500, X sync (manual). No B: in T the shutter opens on the release and closes only when the speed ring is turned back toward 1 or the film is wound (manual, p.12; 35mmc) · flash sync X at all speeds; hot shoe and a sync socket with cover (manual) · no self-timer
- Film advance
- Lever on the top plate, two strokes, the second depending on the roll diameter; self-cocking; double-exposure prevention (manual)
- Back
- Hinged, with a camera-back lock and a reversible pressure plate for 120 or 220; film-reminder slot on the back (manual, parts list)
- Meter
- None
- Motor drive
- Not compatible
- Weight
- 1460 g
- Dimensions
- 119 × 201 × 129 (H × W × D, manual); JCH measures 119 × 201 × 132, the GSW690III's depth mm
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- ¥179,000 (February 1992; camera-wiki's table), against ¥197,000 for the GSW690III (today ¥206,000)
- Accessories
- Shoulder strap with buckles, soft case, lens cap, eyepiece (−1 diopter, fitted) listed in the manual's readying-the-camera section · 67mm screw-in filters behind the built-in hood (0.75mm pitch) · Hot-shoe flash or a flash on the sync socket; cable release in the front release
Manual figures: 0.75× magnification, 95% field of view at 1 m and 92% at infinity, 59mm base line, 44.3mm effective base line. A yellow rangefinder spot in the centre; the manual warns that the spot and the frame cannot be seen together if the eye is off centre. Reviewers find the spot small and dim in bright light (JCH) or easy and round (35mmc). Camera-wiki prints 0.45× and 93%/90% for the III finder; those are the GSW690III's figures in the same manual (see disputed).
Where sources disagree
- Magnification
- 0.75×, 95% at 1 m, 92% at infinity, 44.3mm effective base — GW690III column of the owner's manual; Japan Camera Hunter prints the same 0.75×, 95% and 92%
- 0.45×, 93% at 1 m, 90% at infinity — camera-wiki, for the III finder
Better supported: the manual: 59 × 0.75 = 44.3mm matches its effective base, and camera-wiki's 93%/90% are the manual's GSW690III figures
Camera-wiki appears to describe the GSW690III finder and present it as the III generation's.
- Weight (grams)
- 1,460 g — owner's manual, GW690III column; 20 g above the GW690II per camera-wiki
- 1,510 g — Japan Camera Hunter and 35mmc, which is the manual's GSW690III figure
Better supported: 1,460 g (manual)
- Dimensions (mm)
- 119 × 201 × 129 — owner's manual, GW690III
- 119 × 201 × 132 — Japan Camera Hunter, which is the manual's GSW690III depth
Better supported: manual
What reviewers say
- Michael Nguyen, Japan Camera Hunter (blog) — 'A good bang for your buck medium format camera for the purists', suited to deliberate landscape and travel work: huge negatives, a sharp lens with a 3D quality, a clear contrasty finder and a robust, balanced body, against a small dim rangefinder patch, a shutter that clangs like a dropped pan, a plasticky feel and a 1 m close focus that makes portraits hard. He still wants a Makina or a Mamiya 7.
- Benoît Felten, 35mmc (blog) — 'For me, this is a keeper' and 'in terms of quality to price, it's a steal', though not the perfect medium-format camera: the round focus patch is easy and the lens sharp with pleasant blur, but the aperture and speed rings move together, the film selector shifted mid-roll once, and in T the shutter closes only from the speed ring or the wind lever, which streaked some of his long exposures.
History
The Fuji GW690III Professional of February 1992 is the third and last body of the GW line and the one most often sold today. Fuji kept the fixed EBC Fujinon 90mm f/3.5 and the #0 leaf shutter and rebuilt everything around them: a die-cast JIS AD12 aluminium frame carries the rangefinder and the lens, and ABS panels with a rubberised coating give the curved, soft-cornered shape that replaced the squared metal body of 1978 and 1985 (camera-wiki, which notes that forum talk of a plasticky camera sits oddly with a body that gained weight). A single-axis spirit level sits in front of the wind lever, the spool knobs release by push-button for loading, and there are two releases, one on the top plate and one on the front with an L lock. The manual gives 119 × 201 × 129mm and 1,460 g; the price was ¥179,000.
The manual is the only document found that specifies the finder: a double-image coupled rangefinder/viewfinder of 0.75× with a 59mm base, 44.3mm effective, showing 95% of the picture at 1 m and 92% at infinity, with a frame that moves for parallax as the lens is focused. Camera-wiki’s 0.45× and 93%/90% are the figures the same manual prints for the GSW690III, and the two reviews read here also carry the GSW690III’s 1,510 g and 132mm depth for this camera, so the published numbers need sorting by column before use. The shutter runs T and 1 second to 1/500 with X sync at every speed through the hot shoe or the covered sync socket. There is no B: on T the shutter opens at the release and closes only when the speed ring is turned back toward 1 or the film is wound, which Benoît Felten found streaked some of his long exposures. The film selector counts 4, 8 or 16 frames for half-length 120, 120 and 220, and the odometer-style shutter counter under the body still reads in tens.
Two reviews describe the camera in use. Michael Nguyen at Japan Camera Hunter calls it a good-value medium-format camera for purists, right for deliberate landscape and travel work and wrong for anything quick: the negatives are huge, the lens sharp with a three-dimensional quality, the finder clear and contrasty, the body robust and well balanced, while the rangefinder patch is small and dim in bright light, the shutter clangs like a dropped pan, the aperture and speed rings sit too close together and the 1 m close focus makes portraits awkward. Felten at 35mmc keeps his, ‘a steal’ for the quality, with the same complaints about the rings and the T setting and one about the film selector shifting mid-roll.
The GW670III and GW680III are this body with 6×7 and 6×8 gates, the first sold for export only and the second, per camera-wiki, probably only in Japan; the GSW690III and GSW680III carry the 65mm f/5.6. The Japanese product list ends the line in 2003. What remains open: the 6×9 picture size in millimetres, clipped in the manual scan; a serial scheme; and a production figure.
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 GW690III Professional? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $40 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half $40–$40). First day tracked.
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
- Fuji Professional GW690III GW690II GW670III Winding Cam
- Fuji Professional GW-670III GW690III Light Shielding Mask
- Fuji Professional GW690 III GSW690III GW670III Shutter Speed Selector
- Fuji GW690III
- 【最速発送】FUJIFILM GW690 III Professional【難有】
- 【返品保証】並品｜FUJIFILM GW690III Professional 6×9 EBC FUJINON 90mm F3.5 中判フィルム #C260820-09
- フジ Fuji GW690 III Professional EBC FUJINON 90mm f/3.5
- フジ Fuji GW690 III Professional 6x9 EBC FUJINON 90mm F3.5
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