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Hello Everyone,

I hope all's well with all of you, and I hope you're enjoying your Fuji rangefinders as much as I love mine. I'm writing to ask for Sebastien's and everyone's advice/suggestions on places to look for the ellusive Auto-Up for the GL690/GM670 (I know from RFF where I'm a member, that Sebastien's made some striking portraits using his) and the perhaps only slightly less hard to find 180mm lens for the GL690.

I realize I should keep watching e-bay and keh.com (and reading Walter's info has helped) but I thought I'd check to see if anyone here has any tips.

Thanks in advance for your help and all the best to everyone,

Andrew

andrewroy wrote:I'm writing to ask for Sebastien's and everyone's advice/suggestions on places to look for the ellusive Auto-Up for the GL690/GM670 (I know from RFF where I'm a member, that Sebastien's made some striking portraits using his) and the perhaps only slightly less hard to find 180mm lens for the GL690.

I realize I should keep watching e-bay and keh.com (and reading Walter's info has helped) but I thought I'd check to see if anyone here has any tips.

Thanks in advance for your help and all the best to everyone,

Andrew

Andrew,

I have never seen the close-up attachment on eBay or Keh. It is a rare item and maybe it was never sold in the US. You might want to try your luck on Japanese, European or Australian auctions sites and used cameras dealers.

For Japan, the main source is Yahoo Japan. Usually, Japanese sellers won't ship abroad so you'll have to use a Japanese friend or some kind of internet middleman like Japan Auctions.

For France, try Occasion photo-video-cine-pixels, a site with ads from many used cameras dealers. Right now, there is a Fujica GM 670 Pro + 100/3.5 AE for sale for 700 euros (prices tend to be rather expensive in Europe, especially with the strong Euro).

I have a 180mm lens that I might be willing to sell but I don't have the viewfinder for this one. I bought it a few weeks ago from Keh, where it was advertised as a 150/5.6 lens!

Cheers,

Sebastien

Hi Sebastien,

Thanks for your message and I figured that the Auto Up was a long shot at best - I doubt anyone who has one would be willing to part with it. Still, those portraits you made were/are great, and I like the images I've shot with the Koni Auto Ups. I'll try the sites you listed and just keep looking. Eventually I'll get tired of looking or perhaps get lucky. Either way is fine with me.

As for the 180, it's funny I thought I saw a 150 listed on KEH for about one day, but I thought it must just be a mistake (the price was close to what I paid them for my 100mm - even in Bargain condition I figured a rare lens like that would be much more $). Then it was gone, and I figured it was a typo - I guess you're quicker to react and act than I am. If you are willing to consider selling it, please e-mail me at: andrewiroy @ yahoo . com (just remove the spaces) to discuss specifics (I have no idea what shipping/customs and all that would be, but I am interested). I don't have the finder for 65mm but I do have the Koni 60mm which seems wider than a 28mm (more like a 25mm) I've been using. I'm guessing I could try to find some sort of 75mm or similar finder and just use that (there's always a way).

Thanks again for your great site and all of your help here and at RFF (I'm andrew over there, and your posts and Dante Stella's site helped convince me to take the plunge into 6x9 after dipping my toes with an old Zeiss Ikon Nettar).

Have a good night,
Andrew

andrewroy wrote:As for the 180, it's funny I thought I saw a 150 listed on KEH for about one day, but I thought it must just be a mistake (the price was close to what I paid them for my 100mm - even in Bargain condition I figured a rare lens like that would be much more $). Then it was gone, and I figured it was a typo - I guess you're quicker to react and act than I am.

Yes, the 180 was listed as a Fujinon Tilt & Shift 150mm lens on Keh's website! I guess it comes from the complete reference of the lens, which is "Fujinon TS" As I am familiar with the funny listings at Keh, I figured out that it was in fact a Fujinon TS 150mm, and I bought it quickly before someone else noticed. But it was a wrong guess...

They probably have some kind of macro at Keh to automatically expand the abbreviated listings of their catalog to put on their website. Any listing containing the letters "TS" turns into "Tilt & Shift." Similarly a "Pentax *ist DS" (a digital SLR) magically becomes a "Pentax *ist Double Stroke", a modern clone of the famous Leica M3 DS, which must be very sought after by the collectors...

Cheers,

Sebastien

andrewroy wrote:I'm guessing I could try to find some sort of 75mm or similar finder and just use that (there's always a way).

That part is easy (and not so expensive): the Cosina/Voigtlaender 75mm finder.

Thanks, Peter, I was thinking that this would probably be my best bet.

Now I just need to find a lens. All things in time. Have a great day,

Andrew

Hey guys,

Surprised you all missed it, but KEH has had an Excellent finder for the 180mm lens for quite some time (months). It's listed as "G690 180 F5.6 T FINDER." Always comes up when I do my standard periodic search for "690" stuff.

I'm not sure why I'm hanging around here as I've pretty well decided to give up on putting together a G690 outfit since the 50mm lens seems to be so exceedingly rare...

...but anyway thought I would help the cause.

jt

Hey Jt,

Thanks for the heads up - I did end up seeing this one but once again, I lack the lens for the finder - there's one on e-bay now but it's already more expensive than my budget permits (and still a ways from the last second snipers) so I guess I'll just wait and watch. Eventually I'll probably come to the same conclusion as you, but I think the 180 is more common (and, hopefully, cheaper) than the 50mm.

Thanks again, and have a good weekend,

Andrew