Yesterday, I read Ansel Adams’ Chapter 3 on medium-format cameras—and instead of sending me down a gear rabbit hole, it sent me somewhere more personal.
Because Adams frames medium format in the only honest way: it isn’t “better,” it’s a compromise you choose on purpose.
And that idea hit me harder than it should have, because I realized something: I don’t just respect medium format.
I love it.
I’ve been here before: my Fuji GSW690 days
In my film years, I owned a Fuji GSW690—a 6×9 roll-film camera with a fixed 65mm f/5.6 lens.
In 35mm terms, that lens is widely treated as roughly a 28mm equivalent field of view.
That camera was my go-to for the same reason my GFX100RF is my go-to today:
It matched how I naturally see.
Not “wide for the sake of wide.”
Wide in a way that feels honest. Wide in a way that demands proximity. Wide in a way that makes you responsible for what’s in the frame.
The 28mm thread that never broke
I’ve shot other focal lengths. I’ll keep shooting other focal lengths.
But 28mm has always been my sweet spot.
It’s the field of view where composition becomes instinct instead of negotiation—where I stop thinking about the lens and start thinking about the moment. It’s the easiest I’ve ever felt inside the frame, and the hardest I’ve ever been able to lie.
And when you pair that 28mm way of seeing with medium format—whether it’s a big 6×9 negative or a modern digital file—you get the same working sensation: More headroom. More tone. More room to finish the photograph without it falling apart.
Adams’ “middle format” idea explains the feeling perfectly
In my Chapter 3 write-up, I summarized Adams’ point that medium format sits between two tempos: the fast, reactive flow of small cameras and the slower, deliberate control of large cameras.
That’s exactly why it keeps pulling me back.
Medium format lets me work seriously without turning photography into a ceremony. It’s mobile enough to move, but substantial enough to slow me down—in the best way.
Why it matters to my practice right now
This ties directly into something I’ve been hammering lately: making, not taking—showing up with intent, constraints, and a process you can repeat.
Medium format (for me) is a constraint that creates clarity.
- It makes me shoot fewer frames.
- It makes me commit to a distance and a composition.
- It makes editing feel like finishing, not rescuing.
And if I’m building bodies of work—not just collecting decent singles—that mindset matters more than specs.
Same love, new era
The GSW690 was my film-era “this is how I see” camera.
The GFX100RF is that camera again—modern, digital, and still rooted in the same 28mm truth.
Different tools. Same discipline. Same sweet spot.
And thanks to Chapter 3, I’m reminded that the point was never “medium format is better.”
The point is: this is the compromise that fits the way I want to work.
One chapter a day
That’s still the project—one chapter a day through all three books. And next up is Chapter 4: Large-Format Cameras.
But today’s takeaway is simpler:
- Sometimes a chapter doesn’t teach you something new.
- Sometimes it just reminds you what you’ve always loved.