Fuji GX680 repair & common faults
Excellent coverageThe Fuji GX680 is a medium-format studio SLR introduced in the late 1980s, shooting 6x8cm on 120/220 rollfilm through interchangeable lenses that each carry their own electronic leaf shutter. It is bellows-focused with front-standard movements for tilt and shift, and it is fully electronic, so nothing on the camera works without a healthy battery pack.
Fully electronic bellows-focus SLR · Interchangeable leaf-shutter lenses · Rechargeable NiCd battery pack · Motorised film advance and mirror · 6x8cm rollfilm format
Common Fuji GX680 faults
Fuji GX680 won't power on
Everything on this body runs off the battery, mirror motor, shutter cocking, film advance and metering, so a dead pack looks exactly like a dead camera. These packs can hold a false charge and collapse the moment the motor draws current, so a level indicator alone does not confirm health. Try a freshly charged pack first. If the camera still shows nothing, the fault has likely moved into the body's own power circuit.
Fuji GX680 shutter won't fire
The shutter lives inside each lens rather than the body, so a no-fire fault can sit with the lens, the body's release circuit, or the electronic contacts joining them. A lens that fails across several bodies points to that lens, while several lenses failing on one body points to the body itself. Check the battery is properly charged before assuming anything more serious.
Fuji GX680 bellows letting light onto the negatives
The bellows carry the focusing and movement travel on this camera, and decades of folding thin and split the material at the corners and pleats. A leak usually shows as fogging or a streak concentrated at one edge of the frame, matching where the bellows sit relative to the film plane. A few small pinholes and bellows that have gone generally brittle are different problems, worth telling apart before assuming the worse of the two.
Fuji GX680 mirror stuck up or slow to return
The mirror is driven by the same motor as the film advance, so hesitation or a stall partway through the cycle usually points at power or the mechanism rather than anything optical. A weak or ageing battery pack is the single most common cause of a sluggish mirror on this body and worth ruling out first. A motor that audibly labours rather than runs smoothly suggests mechanical drag inside the mirror box.
Fuji GX680 lens fires but the aperture doesn't stop down
Aperture control passes electronically between lens and body through the same contact ring used for the shutter release, so a lens that fires but leaves the aperture wide open, or gives inconsistent exposures, usually points at that interface rather than the lens itself. Whether the fault travels with the lens or stays with the body decides where it actually lives. Dirty or corroded contacts are the most common and least serious cause.
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Try it now ›Scatto is a reference tool for people who service film cameras. It explains mechanisms and quotes service data, but it cannot see your camera at the bench, so verify anything load-bearing before you act on it.