Originally Posted by
Joseph Kashi
Several months ago, I refurbished the rather similar Meridian 45B, which also uses a side-mount Kalart rangefinder. Originally, I planned to use one of my 150 mm Fujinon NW multicoated lenses on that Meridian.
However, if I recall correctly, the 150NW was close to, or just beyond, the published working focal length range of the Kalart RF and I was very unclear that the Fujinon 150 NW would reliably calibrate and sych with the RF. Same with the 6" AOC Dagor in an Acme 3 shutter that was my backup option. The Meridian would physically close with the Dagor, though I am not sure about the 150mm Fujinon NW.
My solution that would clearly work within the RF spec was to buy a first-generation single-coated 135mm Fujinon W. That folded nicely into the camera, synched to the Kalart RF, and turned out to have very good optical performance, comparable to the later EBC-coated 150MM NW.
These older 135mm Fujinon W lenses with the inside lettering are currently not very expensive and cover 5x7 with a bit to spare. They're a 6/4 Plasmat construction, while the later multicoated 150NW series is usually a 6/6 modified Plasmat. Both are more than good enough.
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