Fuji lenses

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Does anyone know if Fuji large format lenses are available in the US or Canada. I don't see them advertised anywhere. Has anyone used them? I have been very impressed with the quality of their rangefinder lens, on the 690GSW to be exact. It is much sharper than my 90 mm Super Angulon, and I am in the market for a 65 mm LF lense, or something around that length.

-- Jon Barnard (jcbarnard@powersurfr.com), February 28, 2000

Answers

Jon ; I don't know about the availability of Fuji lenses in North America, so my comments are limited to the Fujinon lenses I have picked up in Japan. The main lense I use is an SW 90 f/8, which I use most of the time ; it is easy to focus, is extremely sharp and contrasty, and is lightweight in the field. I am also increasingly using an SWD 65 f5.6, for which similar comments to the 90mm apply, but is slightly more difficult to use (because I have an old Toyo metal field, which requires the bed to be dropped and the front standard to be tilted back to avoid vignetting). I have not used the competing Rodenstock, Schneider or Nikkor lenses at these focal lengths, but I would be surprised if their performance was dramatically superior.

I also use a Fujinon 400T, and I am finding that I need to be very careful with focus, camera shake and the wind with this lense, or the results are less than sharp. This doesn't seem to happen with the Nikkor 300mm f/9, so I would like to compare the performance of the Fuji 400T with the Nikkor 360/500.

-- fw (finneganswake@altavista.net), February 28, 2000.


Jon:

Two US retailers import Fuji lenses (others might know of more): The F Stops Here in Santa Barbara, CA (http://www.thefstop.com/menu.html), and Badger Graphics in Wisconsin (sorry, I don't have its URL handy).

-- Greg Lawhon (glawhon@unicom.net), February 28, 2000.


Jon:

I have bought Fujinon's from Badger and from Midwest Photo Exchange. Badger is an excellent source of new Fujinon lenses at great prices. Contact Jeff there. http://www.badgergraphic.com

-- Glenn C. Kroeger (gkroeger@trinity.edu), February 28, 2000.


I also bought a SW 90mm f/8 a year or so ago from The F Stops Here in Santa Barbara. Excellent lens. Good shop/gallery, too.

-- Mike Sisk (mike@furfly.net), February 29, 2000.

Just to make your choice a little more difficult, and although I love my Fuji C 300, the 65mm f4!!! Nikkor SW I own is bitingly sharp. But has a minimum rise and fall possibility.

-- Paul Schilliger (pschilliger@vtx.ch), February 29, 2000.


A further question for Fujinon lens:

Fujinon lenses equipped on their medium format RF cameras are either EBC (electronic beam coating) or Super EBC lenses. Does anyone know if those LF lenses are also EBC or something equivalent offering the same optical quality. Say, the older W and the current CM-W lenses. But I see no EBC mark on any LF Fujinons. Thanks!

Dongyun

-- Dongyun Hao (hao@nibh.go.jp), February 29, 2000.


Since at least 1982, all of the Fujinon LF lenses except the LS (economy lens) and the SF portrait (variable soft focus) lenses are EBC coated. I have personally shot the 180A, 240A and 300C with excellent results. The 125NW has had excellent feedback on this forum, and is now replaced by the 125 CMW. A friend has the 105SW and loves it. The telephoto T series has had mixed reviews here, some love it but many have doubted its sharpness compared with Nikkor T lenses.

-- Glenn C. Kroeger (gkroeger@trinity.edu), February 29, 2000.

I have old (80's) Fujinon literature that shows the SWS, the 150 f6.3 WS, the 360 f10 AS, and the LS and SFS to be not EBC coated. Not too sure about the exact date of this literature.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@worldnet.att.net), February 29, 2000.

Same literature shows the SWD, 300 WS, 360 WS, the NWS and the TS lenses to be EBC coated.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@worldnet.att.net), February 29, 2000.

I bought a Fuji T 400mm from Lens & Repro a while back, but returned it after extensive test because I didn't like the color of the lens compared to my Symmars, and I seemed to me not be as sharp either.

This was pre-EBC coated lens, however, so maybe the newer ones are better, but since I have also heard from various people that the new coating doesn't make much of a noticable difference, I gave up on the idea of testing out a new one from Bad

-- Anthony Sanna (asanna@sacofoods.com), February 29, 2000.



Not a tele design, but the 600c f11.5 gives wonderful results for 8 X 10, and is getting a lot of use from me. Huge (612 mm) image circle, very light (for 8 X 10!) lens.

Nathan

-- Nathan Congdon (ncongdon@jhmi.edu), February 29, 2000.


Does anybody have access to the Fuji tech literature for the C series lenses? I would like to have access to all the info, to add to my spreadsheet. I'm looking for optical construction, flange focus, image circle, weight, length, shutter size, filter size.

-- Bruce Gavin (doc@compudox.com), June 10, 2000.

Bruce:

Some, though not all, of the information you are looking for is on the F Stops Here website: http://www.thefstop.com/equipment/new/fuji.html

-- Greg Lawhon (glawhon@unicom.net), June 11, 2000.


Theres a fair bit of info on Fuji lenses at www.largeformat.homepage.com. Hope that helps. DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), June 11, 2000.

I personally use the Fujinon 65mm f5.6 and find it remarkably sharp, especially at working apertures. I also use and like 65mm f4.0 Nikkor which is significantly easier to focus and I can not say is any less sharp at working apertdures.

Because the Fuji 400T sticks out so far from the board/rail (even more so than the Nikkor 360T) it is really easy to get unsharp photos due vibration. Even the simple act of firing the shutter with a cable release can result in vibration with this lens. My early photos (with this lens) were not so good until I Dx the problem.

-- Pat Raymore (patrick.f.raymore@kp.org), June 11, 2000.



In an offline email conversation with me, Glenn Kroeger described the optical construction as "the front element is plano-convex with a convex front surface. A small air spacing to the second element which is plano-concave with the concave surface facing the rear. So the air spacing is between two plane surfaces. Behind the shutter, the third element is mounted immediately behind the diaphragm and is concave- concave. The fourth element is spaced all the way to the rear of the lens and is convex-convex. The rear air-space is over 4 times as large as the front air-space."

This is about as descriptive as one can get about a lens drawing. To me, this does not meet the Tessar design criteria, but sounds more like a modified dialyte. MTF charts would really be a help here. Perhaps a reader in Japan can get MTF charts from Fuji...

In the ultra long market, the Fuji-C is about the only game in town that meets the "small and light weight" spec. Even if it is a Tessar type design and only sharp to 60% of the image circle, that 60% is still really huge.

-- Bruce Gavin (doc@compudox.com), June 12, 2000.


Pat, and what did you do to resolve your vibration problem?

-- Paul Schilliger (pschilliger@smile.ch), June 12, 2000.

Keep in mind that I use a metal Wista (SP) and Linhof (TK) field. Maybe if I used a Sinar mono rail vibration would not be an issue. Anyway, my present solution, which applies both to the Nikkor T and Fuji T, has been home made brace betweeen the top of the front standard and the top of the body. It is adjustable in length. It is very effective, but gives me one more thing to do before releasing my shutter. I am amazed that photographers use these telephoto lenses with rather fragile woodies and walk away with sharp photos. My testing, via bouncing a laser beam off the filter covered front end of these long lenses to magnify shake, revealed that they shake a lot if not stablized in some fashion.

-- Pat Raymore (patrick.f.raymore@kp.org), June 12, 2000.

I would be interested to find out how other people stablize their long lenses.

-- Pat Raymore (patrick.f.raymore@kp.org), June 13, 2000.

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