Why Fujinon lenses are cheap compared to others?

[Drew Wiley]

Alan - When I was a kid and my brother a commercial photographer via Tecknika, SL66 etc. He had a buddy who routinely won
national and even international slide competitions (pro careers were often perked by such things back then), and he would
only use Leica/Zeiss optics. Not the best thing for closeups - but if you were into serious projector competitions, everyone
swore you could see the difference. When I got financially on my own feet and could afford my own color darkroom, I actually
preferred (for printing) the lower-contrast Kodachromes I got with my humble early Pentax lenses. That little camera wore out
long ago, and I soon moved on to LF, but I kept the lens, just in case I stumble onto a mint old Pentax body! My super-duper Nikon lenses have whole different look to them. Same nuance distinctions in LF. Even though I have a deadly crisp
360 Fuji A, and a classic Kern dagor in the same focal length, I also covet a 14"Ektar for just a little different flavor.

[Alan Gales]

Wow, Drew! Your brother's friend is quite impressive. What an accomplishment!

I used to shoot Contax and owned five Zeiss lenses. I got an unbelievable deal on a Minolta once when I was young. I put a roll of print film through it and offered to sell it to a friend for a modest profit. Hey, after all I was a poor college student who needed film money! He swore that my 4x6 photos were shot with my Contax and not the Minolta. I finally convinced him and he bought the camera and was very happy with it. Like you can really see a huge difference in a 4x6 machine print!

Sure there are subtle differences in lenses. I just think that some people make a huge deal out of these differences when it's more the photographer than anything else. I just bet your brother's friend would have still won all those contests shooting Canon, Minolta, Pentax, etc. glass instead. The man had talent.

[Colin D]

Not that I'm an expert but you don't seem to get the same degree of variation in LF lenses as you do in 35mm. After owning multiple Japanese 35mm cams I ended up with a Leica M and a number of Leitz lenses. Absolutely no doubt they had a unique look and appeal to them I never saw in my Nikon, Pentax, Konica or Olympus.

I have a Fujinon 250 W f6.7 in Seiko shutter and it performs perfectly well for me, wouldn't trade it.

[John NYC]

Not that I'm an expert but you don't seem to get the same degree of variation in LF lenses as you do in 35mm.
...
I have a Fujinon 250 W f6.7 in Seiko shutter and it performs perfectly well for me, wouldn't trade it.

Just to clarify my earlier post... The variation between the "big four" is slight for sure. My comment about my 150mm Schneider being subtly the best late modern lens I have owned could just as easily have to do with sample variation, I would suppose. On 8x10, my best late modern lens was my Fujinon 250W f/6.7!

[ImSoNegative]

I too have often wondered about the price differences, I have 3 myself and I think they are great

[Drew Wiley]

Alan - this was back in the 60's and Zeiss lenses did make a difference in a pro slide show. I presume most of the subject matter back in that era was relatively corny blatantly "colorful" contest stuff anyway, but that's what those competitions were all about. And when they printed something, it was always dye transfer, which has still never been excelled for sheer color pop. Not all new large format lenses offered by companies even like Schneider were fully color corrected, and Commercial Ektars were carefully selected for critical color response. Today it would be quite difficult to distinguish shots taken by comparable focal length "normal" plastmats from any of the big four.

[Alan Gales]

Hello Drew,

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. It's also very interesting.

I didn't start shooting 35mm until the early 1980's so of course my experience was quite different.

[JeRuFo]

I have mistrusted my fujinons when I first got them, just because of the price. My 150 I got very cheap and my 135 was part of a deal, but I got it almost for free. The 135 is probably my most used landscape lens on 4x5 now.

[tenderobject]

ok, so i got a fujinon 250 6.7. what would be the next focal length for me to buy for my 8x10?

[Alan Gales]

ok, so i got a fujinon 250 6.7. what would be the next focal length for me to buy for my 8x10?

How about a 14" or 360mm? After that you will probably want a long lens like a 450mm or 480mm or maybe you will want a wide lens like a 150mm or 165mm.

See what you started by buying that first lens?