Fujinon-SF 250 mm lens

[Diane Maher]

I just bought a Fujinon-SF 250 mm lens on ebay and after I received it, saw that there are several different aperture scales on it. One is in the normal white lettering, one is in red and the third is in yellow. What are the red and yellow scales for?

There is also a large screw in separator for use between the shutter and the board, I presume. When using the lens for portraiture, should this separator be used?

[resummerfield]

This lens should have diffusion disks, one with a yellow dot and the other with a red dot, to adjust the softening or diffusion of the image. The colored aperture scales are used when the appropriate disk is in place.

[Diane Maher]

I see. Thanks Eric. I seem to have only gotten the disk with the yellow dot on it.

[BrianShaw]

If you want to get a red aperture plate, Diane, contact Jim Andreki (probably mis-spelled) at Midwest in Columbus OH. He had some earlier in the year (or maybe it was last year) for sale at about $35 each.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Here is a scan of the original English instructions which came with the Fujinon-SF, explaining how to use the disks.

[Diane Maher]

Thanks Brian and Jason.

[Diane Maher]

Jason,
In those instructions, did it say anything about mounting the lens? It seems to have a rather large spacer that screws into the rear of the shutter in addition to the retaining ring. Should this spacer be mounted on the front or the rear of the lens board?

[BrianShaw]

I don't remember having both a spacer and retainer ring when I mounted my 250SF. I mounted it with just the retainer ring on a Calumet/Cambo board. The screw that protrudes from the back of the shutter is to keep the lens from rotating. You can either remove it or notch the board so the screw fits into the notch and the shutter sits flat on the board. There have been numerous threads on this issue both here and on APUG. The overall consensus is that it is not needed and can be removed. I notched mine only because I couldn't get it out.

Brian

[Michael S. Briggs]

It is necessary for some small lensboards (e.g., Linhof Technika) to use the spacer in front of the board to make it possible to mount the board with the large Copal 3 shutter onto the camera -- spacing the shutter forward gives a necessary clearance. With the spacer in front of the board, the projecting screw won't reach the lensboard and there is no need to remove it.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

As Michael mentions, the spacer ring can goe either in front or back of the lensboard, depending on if you need it or not. It is not mentioned in the instructions because it is part of the shutter not the lens.

[Diane Maher]

Thanks! I am going to have a board drilled today so I wanted to make sure that it got done right.

[drunken_prawn99]

Hi Jason,

Reviving this ancient thread and created an account on his forum because I've just purchased this lens with both disks (how lucky of me!) and I'm keen on finding the instructions on how to best use the lens. Do you still have a copy of the instruction manual somewhere by any chance?

[MartyNL]

There is a link on this page.
https://www.kennethleegallery.com/html/lenses/

[Vaughan]

I have this lens and have used it a couple of times.

If you want to use the lens for soft focus work, leave the lens wide open or one stop closed down. Maximum soft-focus effect is no strainer, the yellow strainer gives a stronger effect than the red strainer. The effective f-number is indicated by the coloured numbers that match the strainer dot, the white scale is no strainer.

To decrease the soft-focus effect close the aperture down a stop or two. The soft focus effect is produced by light from the outer edges of the lens, which is under the strainer holes if one is fitted. If the lens is stopped down to the point where these holes are covered by the aperture blades then it behaves like a normal lens: it's sharp in the centre – about the same as a tessar lens – and covers 8x10 though the corners will be a bit soft.

Fuji recommend focussing the lens at the working aperture and viewing the soft-focus effect on the ground glass, because focus will shift when the lens is stopped down.

[drunken_prawn99]

Thank you so much @MartyNL and @Vaughan for the replies. Did not expect anyone to reply frankly. I will try it with the yellow strainer first, but now that I understand how the strainers work it should be smooth sailing!

[drew.saunders]

Thanks to this thread being revived, GAS overtook me, and I found a 180/5.6 Fujinon SF on eBay and it just arrived today from Japan. Although it only has the yellow strainer, it was shown with a black ring Copal shutter, and looked nearly new in the photos. Other than the disk being inserted backwards, and the previous user not knowing to remove the tiny screw on the back of the shutter (it was a bit loose in the provided Technica-sized no name lensboard, easily fixed), it really does look unused. I just tested the shutter with my venerable Calumet tester, and the shutter speeds from 1" to 1/60 are dead on, and only the top 3 speeds are a bit slow, and I have lenses I bought new in the past 20 years that have less accurate top shutter speeds! I'm guessing it could be from one of the last batches made new.

I think I'll mostly use it without the strainer, so I didn't mind that it lacked the red strainer. With my Imagon, I only use the H5.8 grid anyway. If I end up really liking it, I may just have to augment my 250 Imagon with a 250 Fujinon. Dang GAS!

Unlike my Imagon, I can use my Lee filters on it (it uses a 46mm filter, and I don't have a 46mm Lee adaptor, but I have a 46-49mm step up ring and a 49mm Lee "ring"), which means I can use the ND filters and color filters. Soft Focus and polarizer, hmm...

[xkaes]

Here's the Fuji user manual jn PDF format:

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/lensmanual.pdf