Medium format is quite popular amongst photographers who want a balance between performance and details. While there various types of medium format cameras around the world, it often becomes a challenge to choose between just one. To beat this, a design engineer decided to built a flexible medium format film camera, and it appears to hit the market in April. Have a look.
The camera came out of Garing’s own frustrations as a film photographer. After working through an RB67, several Fuji 6×4.5 bodies, and a vintage Takane Mine Six folder, he concluded that no single camera could fit every situation. His first prototype was purely a 6×17 panoramic — he took it through Germany and Denmark and fell in love with the format, but found four frames per roll and a single fixed composition too limiting. That experience directly inspired the adjustable mask system that became the VZ-6617’s defining feature.
Called the VZ-6617, the device is created by Francis Garing through his company Exposing Engineering. For those who have used a medium format, they are aware that to switch between a square portrait and a panoramic landscape, you will have to use different cameras. Garing, who was frustrated because he had to carry an RB67 Fuji 6×4.5 bodies, and a vintage Takane Mine Six folder, for different occasions, chose to solve this challenge on his own.
He created his first prototype, a 6×17 panoramic camera, but found four frames per roll and a single fixed composition too limiting. As a result, he worked around the challenges to build the VZ-6617.
The film camera removes the size constraint, thanks to the Variable Zone Film Gate. This is fully 3D printed articulating mask mechanism that lets photographers adjust the film gate continuously from 6×6 all the way to 6×17, all on the same roll of 120 film. To adjust the gate, one has to use the knob that has been designed for this. And all of this without the need of swapping film backs or inserting of masking plates. The design feels as natural as changing aperture.
Key specifications:
- Format: 120 medium-format roll film
- Frame size: 6×6 to 6×17, stepless via Variable Zone Film Gate
- Dimensions: 290mm W x 120mm H x 70mm D (body only)
- Weight: 925g body only; 1,850g with Fujinon-SW 90mm f8
- Lens compatibility: Most large-format view camera lenses with integrated shutters
- Field-tested lenses: Fuji Fujinon-SW 90mm f8, Schneider Kreuznach Super Angulon 90mm f8 and 75mm f8, Schneider Kreuznach Symmar 135mm f5.6 and 150mm f5.6, Nikon Nikkor-SW 65mm f4
- Interchangeable lens cones with integrated dark slide for mid-roll lens changes
- Lens cone-mounted focusing helicoid with printed zone focus scale
- 100mm x 150mm rectangular filter holder
- 3x cold shoe mounts and protective lens cage with bubble level
- Magnetically detachable cable release
- Multiple-series film backing frame counter windows
Sample Images
The use of these many lenses and formats now makes medium format photography accessible and far more liberating. This also makes the camera affordable, given that you are likely to only spend on the lenses and film. Either way, the introduction fo the device will make photographers shoot more, even when they are traveling.
The VZ-6617 will also be available on Kickstarter starting April 14, 2026. For more information, head to Exposing Engineering’s website.