Fujinon 250mm Soft Focus

**diversey** · 14-May-2015, 06:04

How to use Fujinon SF lenses
The spherical aberration of these lenses has been retained to enable them to produce the desired effects. Through acquaintance with the effects they will produce is therefore necessary in order to make the most of what they can offer because the picture will turn out differently depending on how they are focused or defocused as well as on the aperture used and on whether or not the picture is taken with the grid on or off and the type of grid used.

Focusing
The intended effects may not be possible if the lens is first focused with the aperture fully open then afterwards closed down to take the picture. The correct focusing procedure is outlined below

1 Focusing the lens with the aperture set for exposure. With soft focus lenses the case is not the same as other type of lenses in terms of focusing. It is advisable to adjust lens while watching the soft effect it will produce

2 Focusing the lens with the aperture closed down. The aperture is set for exposure then closed down by 1 or 2 stops for focusing the lens on a vital point of the picture, e.g. on the catchlight in the case of portraits. The aperture is then reset for making the exposure.

How to use grid
The grid enables the Fujinon SF Lenses to yield maximum soft effect picture
1. To mount a grid on the lens
2. Normally, the standard soft effect is produced at F9 using the Yellow grid or F10 using the Red grid
3. The grid requires the use of aperture differing from those for normal aperture.

**mdarnton** · 14-May-2015, 06:08

The grid I'd like to see is one with a big dark spot right in the center. I thought about seeing if I could get a UV filter in there with a dot in the middle. That might bring it in line with something older, if you don't mind doughnut highlights. :-)

**BrianShaw** · 14-May-2015, 06:38

me too. that should not be too difficult to make.

I've also wondered about making one with lots and lots of teeny-tiny holes like on the MF version.

**BrianShaw** · 14-May-2015, 06:43

Originally Posted by diversey

How to use Fujinon SF lenses
(snip)

(source: transcribed from the instructions. thanks!)

The one topic the instructions don't discuss could be part of the issue being discussed. Lighting. The pic I posted on page 1 is soft and diffused, but very different from the pics posted on page 2... even though I believe they use the same disk and aperture. That could be a lot of what causes the "glow" that TAG is describing, even when no disk is present. I'm more interested in mild soft and diffuse effects than a profound "glow" so never lit to achieve that look, whether using a SF lens or any SF filters..

**Peter De Smidt** · 14-May-2015, 06:52

I have the 190mm version for the GX680 system. It uses the same type of "strainer" as the LF lens. It is a very hard lens to focus, even with an 8x loupe. I tested this with a good ruler from Lee Valley. First, I focused on a specific mark on the ruler with my 180f/3.2 lens at f/3.2. The developed film showed that the focus was right on. With the 190SF, I focused at the taking aperture, starting with wide open, and then doing exposures stopped down, refocusing each time. The results showed that sharpest focus was about 3/4 inch behind what I was focusing on.

**BrianShaw** · 14-May-2015, 10:43

Very interesting speculation. I've never seen a Japanese version of the instructions. Just that one, which does seem to have some peculiar translation.

**diversey** · 14-May-2015, 10:53

I did not translate this instruction, just retyped it from the instruction Michael Jones posted on page 2 in this thread, although sometimes Japanese-English translation is funny.

Why don't we do an experiment? Shoot a scene with and without yellow/red strainers.

Originally Posted by TAG

Could there be something lost in the translation from Japanese to English here? I've seen more than a few Japanese products come with instructions that have pretty funny translations. The phrase "to yield maximum soft effect picture" might perhaps more accurately be translated as "to yield the most effective soft effect picture" or something like that. The word maximum implies that the soft effect is greatest when a disk is used, and at least in my experience, this is not the case. Perhaps someone who speaks proper Japanese and has a Japanese language owners manual can offer their thoughts on this.

**BrianShaw** · 14-May-2015, 11:17

Originally Posted by diversey

...

Why don't we do an experiment? Shoot a scene with and without yellow/red strainers.

Yellow strainer vs no strainer only:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...l=1#post934142

**mdarnton** · 17-May-2015, 08:52

I did the experiment I mentioned earlier: I drew a 20mm black dot on the adhesive end of a post-it note and stuck it to the back of the 250mm Fujinon SF's front element. On a different camera I had my 11.5" Verito. Even with the center of the Fujinon blocked, there was just no comparison--the Verito was both sharper and at the same time had more halo.