I must be the black sheep of the LF flock. I have one of these lenses and I don't particularly care for it. I don't have any shots with that lens that I'm happy with.
I'm not sure why I dislike it. The lens is certainly sharp and contrasty enough. Color rendition seems fine. I don't know, maybe the 240mm focal length doesn't agree with me.
When I wanted to try a lens in that focal length, I choose the Fuji A 240 because everyone here raved about it. Since then I have added 210mm and 300mm lenses. Now the Fuji 240 sits on the shelf.
Greg - the Fuji A and C lenses are excellent for color. The 240A has rather high contrast, so you have to be careful with films like Velvia unless you are working with
a diffused light scene. With 8x10 you get a little illumination falloff with the 240, the
usual wide-angle effect; not as bad as official wide-angle lenses - no need for a center
filter, but you still have to be aware of it with high contrast films. I routinely use these
lenses for everything: black-and-white, color trans of all types, as well as color negs.
How to properly scan different types of film is an entirely different topic.
I sold mine too, because I felt it was too flare prone pointed into the light, which spoiled several shots. These were not shots that a lens hood would have helped - for the record.
Mark - everyone sees things a little differently. I cut my teeth on a 210 lens for 4x5
but eventually found myself handling a 240 or 250 as my own instinctive version of
"normal" perspective. The 210/300 combination is a very logical one, as is the 240/360
which I personally prefer. For 8x10 I normally carry 240/360/450/ and sometimes 600.
In this case, the extra coverage of the 240 compared to 210 is rather important.
Steve - the only time I've personally had flare issues with "A" lenses is with very bright
open skies using the 360A on 4x5 without a compendium shade. The image circle for
the lens is truly huge. With 240 and 180 "A" lenses never a problem. The multi-coating
is superb, and I don't know how you'd improve upon this with going to fewer air-glass
interfaces, i.e., a multicoated tessar like Nikkor M or one of the rare multicoated late
dagors. The "A" lenses have actually performed much better for flare than any of my
medium-format lenses. Maybe you could elaborate. You must like really into-the-sun
shots! (Upward reflections from bright snow can also be tricky)
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