Fujinon 1200mm F24 Lens Found!!!

[Carsten Wolff]

.....At the other end of the spectrum: My ~800mm 8x10 Telephoto lens cost me all of 20 bucks for a teleconverter (on my 450mm Fujinon-C).
(PS: .....still takes 52mm filters, adds about 60g to my camera pack weight and needs no increase in bellows extension (insert Dr Evil laugh)).
- But of course, I'm no collector.

[Dan Fromm]

Carsten, which TC do you use with your 450? I ask because I recently came across a Horseman 2x that seems to work properly only with a 150 mm +/- lens.

[GPS]

It is not a lens that would be too difficult to focus (too dark) - with its f24 it is not far from the Fine Art Schneider 1100mm /f22. The fact that the rays angular spread is not extreme helps.
Fujinon often beat the other lens manufacturing firms with an edition of smaller and lighter lenses. In this aspect this lens beats Nikon 1200mm /f18 because of its f24 aperture. It was a clever strategy that gave us some excellent lenses.

[Carsten Wolff]

Carsten, which TC do you use with your 450? I ask because I recently came across a Horseman 2x that seems to work properly only with a 150 mm +/- lens.

Hi, Dan,
I use an Olympus C-180. I added a slip-on adapter ring to the front to be able to use filters, as the C-180 hasn't got a front filter thread.

Best,
Carsten

[LH1H17]

Focus should not be too difficult due to the long focal length and larger format (thus ground glass) of the camera that should be paired with this monster.

My Fujinon 600C and 600A lenses work fine on 8x10

[Dan Fromm]

Carsten, thanks for the reply. What an evil mind you have! How well does the Oly TC work on y'r Fuji?

You've given me the idea of digging out my 1.4x 67 mm Canon C-8 TC, made for the 814 XL-S and 1014 XL-S, and trying to adapt it to a few of my longer lenses. If I wasn't clear about it, the Horseman TC goes behind the lens, the front of its mount adapter replaces the shutter's retaining ring. With it spacing matters a lot.

Cheers,

Dan

[Carsten Wolff]

Dan,
what can I say? I don't notice any big difference in pic quality, although If I looked closely enough there MUST be SOME, right? Well, perhaps an almost imperceptible loss in contrast, but that may well be inception .
The only thing that becomes more critical has to do with the focal length and that is: I try not to do windy days with long lenses and have a lens support (Manfrotto 359) / and even wind deflector (umbrella on stand) handy. For that reason (and others) I mostly shoot 5x7" and 6x17cm (color trannies and b/w negs) these days, but briefly used the TC/Fuji combo when I still had the 8x10, initially as a lark, but then it worked so well, I stuck with the TC option.

PS: I popped it onto some other glass on a lazy Sunday; However, didn't seem to work that well on my 300mm Nikkor-M and neither on an 105/2.5 AI-S Nikkor (- absolutely awful there, with flat contrast and dark corners)....perhaps the Oly just doesn't like Nikon?

[Michael Jones]

Telephoto?

"A" series Fujis are not telephoto lenses. You need full bellows length.

Mike

[Mark Sampson]

Long lenses, Cadillac prices, Ferrari prices... reminds me of a photo magazine article in the late '80s that announced a new Leica super-telephoto, 800mm or 1200mm? The article stated that if you ordered this lens, Leica would include as a bonus a new VW Fox automobile, then costing around $8k. Price for the lens/car package was not mentioned. Wonder if they ever sold one?

[ampl]

Quick stats:

Fujinon A 1200mm f/24, 6 lenses in 4 groups, 50 degree coverage for 1120mm image circle, in Copal #3, 102mm front filter size and single coated.

I currently own three samples of the A 600mm f/11 lens but this is the first time I've seen the 1200mm! The only one left on my watch list now is the 300 SW.

How's the optical quality of the A600/11? Comparing to XXL 550/11?
By the way, image circle of A1200 covers much larger than 20x24 film, is it necessary to own this lens?