Fuji-itis

[tim atherton]

Has anyone else come across Schneideritis in Fuji Lenses? (maybe they were kept in the same bag as an infected one...).

It's the first time I've seen this in Fuji lenses and have some across it twice in the last week - once on an otherwise pristine 125 W lens sold as a bargain because of it.

Anyone know if it is basically cosmetic in Fujinon lenses, as seems generally the case with Schneideritis?

[Ed K.]

Hi Tim -

Is there any way you might post a photo of the "itis" ? I recently purchased a 90 SWD 5.6 Fujinon at a bargain price. It looks and functions as brand-new otherwise but cost about 1/2 market price. It has little white dots visible near the edges here and there, however none of them are in the imaging part - just outside where elements are mounted and not right at the edge either. In my case, the lens works marvelously - no issues whatsoever - it's a great lens, and at the price I can't complain. It looks more like a part of the regular manufacturing process and purely cosmetic. Does my lens have the "Fuji-itis" you're talking about?

[tim atherton]

sounds like just the same as mine.

it looks identical to the Schniederitis I have seen (had a 210 Symmar-S for years that had it and it never seemed to effect the photos).

Schniederitis is a fault in the paint (I think) of the barrel where the elements are mounted and/or cemented in (?) - something like that anyway. According the Schneider it's purely cosmetic. This Fujinon looks exactly the same (although it's milder than most of the Schneider cases I have seen).

What it tends to lead to is lenses with perfect glass and bodies going for 1/3 to 1/2 under their normal used value.

[Ed K.]

Tim, mine looks like it will never change, especially given the mild California weather I have. I've shot my 90mm at night ( extreme flare testing! ), wide-open, and stopped down to various reasonble stops. I'm very picky about lens performance in this type of lens, and for what I can tell, it's about as good as slow speed 4x5 film can deal with or better - a superb performer with a great image circle and the usual well controled flare response that Fujinons have. I figured that even if it did start to go south on me, I'd get several years using a great lens first. No signs of problems - and a great modern fast as new shutter. If it's half under price and the rest of it is good, it might be worth trying it out. I know that I'd have trouble selling it though, but I want to use it, not invest in it as a resale. Considering that 125-135mm lenses are usually pretty inexpensive in the first place, 1/2 off a good deal used sounds like not much more than the price of a crisp new shutter and a pair of genuine lens caps.

I'm curious what the lens experts have to say...

[E. von Hoegh]

Schnieder-itis Fuji-itis AND now Goerz-itis:
This is a bubbling of the blacking applied to the cells, at least in S and (ONE) Goerz lens I have seen. I once purchased a 300mm Symmar (Dagor type) described as being coated (bloom) and having separation(Schneideritis in the 1920s). Traded said Symmar for a 30cm Goerz Berlin Dagor that had the only case I have ever seen of blacking problems on a Goerz lens. Now my 150 Symmar convertible & the 90 Angulon are exhibiting the itis, the 270 Tele Arton is fine, so far .
I re-blacked the 300mm Symmar and the 30cm Dagor with RustOleum gloss black followed by a coat of flat black RustOleum. Sofar so good- I cannot reccomend this treatment, however both lenses are happy after 19 years for the Schneider and 17 years for the Goerz.

[Dan Fromm]

Happens with Rodenstock lenses, e.g., my 58/5.6 Grandagon that also has separations, and Boyer lenses.

[tim atherton]

Dan - are you talking about sperations within the glass cells? or just cosmetic white spots/bubbles in the blacking/paint?

[David A. Goldfarb]

I happens with Canon lenses, too. I think the reason that this problem has unfairly been associated with Schneider has to do with the way the lens elements are beveled, particularly in Schneider's wide lenses, so that you can see the edge of the lens element from the front of the lens. If the elements were cylindrical, this fault would surely be called someone-else-itis.

[Dan Fromm]

Tim, I know the difference. *S*E*P*A*R*A*T*I*O*N*S* And the paint on some, not all, of the elements' edges has bubbled too.

As far as I can tell, most 58/5.6 Grandagons have separated elements. The separations manfest in at least two forms. Silvery patches extending inwards towards the center from the elements' periphery and isolated silvery patches not in contact with the edges.

Early this year s a 100/5.6 Sironar with the same symptoms was offered on ebay.fr

I've seen separations manifest in a third way, as Newton's rings. One of my 25 - 15 mm w/a adapters for 25/1.4 Cine Ektar II has Newton's rings all the way across it. Pretty rainbows that ruin it for filming.

Cheers,

Dan

[tim atherton]

thanks for the confirmation dan - introducing separation into the thread is just confusing the issue. The one often causing some form of image degradation the other (schneider/fuji-itis)apparently considered not to