Fujinon 180mm. f/9 - Curious about some specs.

[Bernice Loui]

Yes Drew, the entire Fujinon A series makes very good outdoor lenses at f16 and smaller taking apertures. They are indeed in many ways better than the common f5.6 Plasmat due to their smaller size / light weight due to their full aperture of f9 (not a lot of trade offs over f5.6 and these are a LOT bigger than the Fujinon f9 A series). The Fujinon becomes not so desirable if the taking apertures are typically f8_ish... which a 7-1/2" f4.5 Ektar ~Just~ covers 5x7 with zilch camera movement, the 180mm f9 Fujinon still allows some camera movement on 5x7 stopped down to f16 or more.. as previously mentioned, surprising for such a small lens.

~Lens choice becomes driven by image goals.



Bernice

Nikkor M's up to 300mm rival or exceed these for compactness and sheer resolution, but not in terms of image circle or close-up performance. Please keep in mind that I am speaking from the viewpoint of primarily an outdoor photography, and one who has already done my boot camp years of lugging around huge fast studio lenses in my backpack, and will do so never again. I might still be stupid enough to be my own pack mule; but at least I've learned to lighten my load somewhat. But in terms of sheer image quality, it's actually improved.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah, I certainly agree with everything you just stated, Bernice. Fuji A's are best stopped down f/16 or lower. I tend to use the 180 itself most at f/16 to f/22 for 6X9 roll film purposes, and f/22-f/32 for 4x5 film. It's circle of illumination is so big that it actually fully covers 8x10 film head-on, although everything out toward the corners more than approximately an inch beyond 5X7 proportions is useless definition-wise, unless, of course, someone is deliberately after a funky look.

The 360 Fuji A is my most-used 8x10 lens, though I have other options when it comes to portraiture. But it too is so sharp that at times I've used it even for fussy roll film applications. No - not quite in the same precision league as my 360/9 Apo Nikkor, but a lot more practical and versatile in the field, and with a more generous image circle.

[Ig Nacio]

Hi,

Thank you for your messages : )!!!

Very interesting to read you guys!

I didn't know as well about Maxwell Precision Optics,
that makes screens.

Perhaps is something to consider. I wonder if Maxwell
screens are as bright as this one, for example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/32483075701...saAvufEALw_wcB

I am looking for a lens whose focal length is between
180 and 250mm., but whose overall length may not
be too long. I have considered to buy this very lens, or
the Geronar 210mm. f/6.8 Do you know any other
lens(es) whose overall length may not be longer than
59mm. and can perhaps be kept in a folding camera.
This 180mm. is 45mm. in length, as it was kindly
mentioned, and the Geronar 210mm. looks to be of
of similar length. Is/Are there any other(s) you
may know of?

Thank you, kind regards!

Ig

[Dan Fromm]

150/5.6 Xenar, 35.5 mm front to back; 210/6.1 Xenar, 49.7 mm. These are more or less the last of the f/6.3 tessar types and are supposed to be the best.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I didn't know as well about Maxwell Precision Optics,
that makes screens.

Perhaps is something to consider. I wonder if Maxwell
screens are as bright as this one, for example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/32483075701...saAvufEALw_wcB...

I have no familiarity with that screen, but suspect Maxwell's are substantially brighter. They'd better be, since they cost 12 times as much!

It seems I never answered part of your initial question. The 180mm f/9 Fujinon A measures 45mm from front to back. The 180mm f/5.6 Apo Sironar N I recommended as a better alternative measures 57mm from front to back. It takes 58mm filters.

[Drew Wiley]

Geronars were classified as low-budget student grade lenses. If you want top end lenses especially petite, besides the Fuji 180 A, I'd look into the 210 G-Claron and especially the Nikkor 200/f8 M, which is only 43mm long and accepts 52mm filters.

Screen brighteners and fresnels on "longer-than normal" perspectives might very well prove counterproductive because it makes it harder to achieve acute focus in many cases. I often work with f/12 lenses which give me no problem outdoors.

[helios]

There is a lot of praising of Fuji A 180mm on the Internet. For its weight it's a gem for traveling and carrying around. I got one and it delivered immaculate images until I needed full 45mm rise on my 4x5 camera, which is well within the image circle spec of the lens (252 mm). At f22 loss of sharpness close to edge area was quite significant. Image link is below - check the sharpness in the middle of the building and see how it gradually worsens towards the top of the roof and the cross. Of course, it could be that I just got some bad exemplar. I intend to test it again on the same location at f22 and smaller apertures and see what the results are.

I wonder if anyone who shot with this lens got similar experience when pushing the image to the edge of lens coverage?

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...NZyodyJMIgEVwP

[Steve Goldstein]

Another fairly compact lens is the 203mm f/7.7 Ektar. Sorry, but I don’t the overall length.

[Drew Wiley]

Helios - at f/22 loss of sharpness is ZILCH with the 180. If you were running out of rise, stopping down even further to f/32 would have improved the resolution of the nether region of the usable image circle, not diminished it. It's a full 80 degree lens at f/22, and covers even more at f/32, but is obviously not a substitute for a wide-angle design when that it realistically called for. I cannot retrieve the image you linked; but there must have been some other factor involved. The odds of getting a defective modern Fuji lens is awfully low, unless someone fiddled with it before re-selling it to you. Make sure both front and rear elements are screwed in all the way.

Also potentially relevant to this conversation is how a number of forum members just automatically assume that black and white performance is only what is in question, because that's all they do. And that fact sometimes weeds out certain older lenses which were not ideally color corrected, if color applications are in mind.
Lenses like Fuji A's, Nikkor M's, and probably all post-60's general-purpose plasmats and airspaced dialytes, tend to be excellent with color, though some are slightly better than others.

[Bernice Loui]

Root of this lens question is... what are the image goals?

~Field folder camera doing landscapes _?_

~Portraits _?_

~Table top, still life _?_

~Commercial products _?_

~Architectural photography outdoor/indoor _?_

~Urban cityscapes _?_

These few are only the beginnings of what lens, what image goals and .. which drives lens requirements than camera goals.
Unless the image needs are narrowed down, trying to decide on a view camera lens based on physical size alone is not wise or have some ability to meet the image goal requirements.

Fine texture ground glass often works good, adding a fresnel is often not good. While a fresnel does improve GG image brightness with wider than normal to longer than normal focal length lenses, the viewer needs to be essentially on axis with the fresnel lens for them to be effective. The effective brightness comes from "concentrating" the GG image light to the viewer. Fresnel lenses with GG can become a very real problem with wide angle lenses.



Bernice

Hi,

Thank you for your messages : )!!!

Very interesting to read you guys!

I didn't know as well about Maxwell Precision Optics,
that makes screens.

Perhaps is something to consider. I wonder if Maxwell
screens are as bright as this one, for example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/32483075701...saAvufEALw_wcB

I am looking for a lens whose focal length is between
180 and 250mm., but whose overall length may not
be too long. I have considered to buy this very lens, or
the Geronar 210mm. f/6.8 Do you know any other
lens(es) whose overall length may not be longer than
59mm. and can perhaps be kept in a folding camera.
This 180mm. is 45mm. in length, and the Geronar 210mm.
is of similar length. Is/Are there any other(s) you
may know of?

Thank you, kind regards!

Ig