Fujinon 450mm F12.5 Lens

The 450mm F12.5 from Fuji has great reputation as an excellent LF lens. But at F12.5, how can you focus? Can someone who owns this lens share his experience? Thanks

I've had the lens for years and never think twice about it being f/12.5. Easy to focus. Small. Always room for it in the bag. Not like a wide angle or normal lenses where there is so much scattering you need lots of light. A very fine lens. Get the 300mm, too, if you need one.

I saw the image from this lens on a 5x7" Arca-Swiss besides my 480/9 Apo-ronar on regular mate glass, and they were very similar.

You do not need the f/4 of a 65mm! as you can see all of the image from close distance.

The smaller, the better - buy it!

Øyvind:D

It is a fine lens but no tthe only lens to consider in the focal length. As an earlier poser mentioned there are also a variety of Apo Artars and, in current lenses, you may alsoo want to consider the Nikkor 450 M an f9 lens.



I have never done a side-by-side comparisonof the various offerings in the 450 480 range so I can't tell you if you will be able to focus the Nikkor f 9 with any more ease than you will w=the Fujinon f 12.5. I can tell you that I used to own a Schneider f 11480 Apo Artar and had no trouble focusing it. I now own the Nikkor 450 M. BTW the Nikkor is a larger and heavier lens than the Fujinon.

I have used the 450 Fuji for about the past 5 years on 4x5, 5x7, 4x10 and 8x10. No trouble with focusing. I do have a fresnel on the 8x10 but I have used the 450 Fuji without it and no real problem.

It's not the f-stop per se, but the amount of light arriving at the GG and its "directionality". A 450 at f/12.5 has an iris opening of 36mm (450/12.5) with the light arriving on the GG, with much less angle of divergence from the nodal point since it is at least 450mm from the GG, than a shorter focal length. A 90mm at f/5.6 has an iris opening of only 16mm (90/5.6), less than half of the 450 at f12.5 and the light arrives much less "parallel" (more widely diverging from the nodal point) because of the closeness of the nodal point to the GG. The ratio of the amounts of light from these two examples will be proportional to the square of the ratio of the iris openings ( (36/16) squared). A 450/f12.5 wide open is *much* easier to focus because its image is brighter on the GG than a 90mm at f/5.6. To guage "ease of focus" one must divide the focal length by the maximum aperture (= the iris diameter) and factor in the distance from the GG (also a function of focal length).

I have used the 450mm C since 8 years now, and focusing is no problem at all. As Eric mentioned its different for wide angles, but the longer the lens the easier it gets. I used the 450mm Nikkor M before the Fuji, and I gladly traded the (small) difference in brightness for the significant weight saving.

Hi Michael,

I use the Fuji 450C f12.5 on a 4X5 Ebony. Since this lens has a 486mm image circle, it will cover a much larger format. When I focus, I am only using the bright center area of that image circle. My camera has a Fresnel "brightening" focusing screen. There is no noticeable loss of brightness when composing and focusing at the maximum aperature of f12.5, compared with my other lenses that have a maximum aperature of f5.6, or f8.

The loss of brightness at f12.5 probably would be noticeable if I were using the lens on an 8X10, or larger, format camera, even with a Fresnel screen.

I now have and like very much a Fujinon 450 C, which I use on my 4x5. I also had, and sold after I bought the Fujinon, a Nikkor M 450mm f/9.0. During the short time I had both lenses, I compared their brightness on the groundglass by viewing the same scene through both lenses. The difference in brightness was not very discernable, at least not to my eyes. Certainly, any difference was more than overcome by the difference in size and weight between the two lenses. Both lenses are excellent tools. I have some photos I like very much that I took with that Nikkor. The same is true of the Fujinon. Its just that the Fujinon is so much lighter, and uses the same 52mm filters that fit on most of my lenses.

I've shot it on both 4x5 and 8x10. No problems on 8x10 either.

Steve