Fujinon-SW120mm- buying recommendations

Grafmatic · Apr 3, 2025

Wanted some advice. I’ve been searching for a 120 mm F8 wide angle for the 4 x 5 I have on order. I have been looking at Schneider, Nikkor, and Fuji. Mainly at the Fuji because the Nikkors seem to be the most expensive by quite a bit, followed by the Schneiders, with the Fujis being the best value (assuming they are good lenses, which I hear they are)

So here’s my question. I have already a 180 mm Nikkor W. It’s multi coated. I have the opportunity to get a Fuji 120 mm F8. SW at a very favorable price. I also have an opportunity to wait and find one of the multi coded versions, which cost about $100 more as far as I can tell so I’m trying to decide whether to hold out until I find one of the multi coated ones which would simplify processing because of its greater contrast compatibility, or buy this lens which will help me with my goal of keeping the budget down? Would I really be giving up that much by choosing this lens? What would you do? I have a seller offer for 269 which includes shipping and the Linhof Lynn board, which has the bonus of fitting the camera I have on order. Here is the link from the listing.

Fuji Photo Fujinon SW 120mm f/8 Seiko LS-29 Large Format 4x5 Camera Lens JAPAN | eBay

THIS LENS IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION. DESIGND FOR 4X5. THE GLASS ON BOTH SIDES IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AND IS SCRATCH AND SCUFF FREE. TESTED AND WORKS. INCLUDES 1 LENS CAP AND 1 77MM BLACK PRO MIST FILTER.

www.ebay.com

TIA

ps, I have heard of Seiko shutters, but don’t have any idea what a LS 29 is or whether it matters

ags2mikon · Apr 3, 2025

I have one of those and it works fine. It even covers 5x7 well, so you will have plenty of movements at your disposal. I have found that all of the Fuji lenses are about the best value out there.

abruzzi · Apr 3, 2025

Seiko shutters are fine and pretty common on the earlier Fujinon lenses, but I don't know if there are as many people out there that can work on them if you need CLAs. The main issue with the older lenses is single coating vs. multi coating. I don't know how much single coating will be an issue to you. It isn't much of an issue to me (a compendium hood is nice to have!)

xkaes · Apr 3, 2025

Grafmatic said:
I also have an opportunity to wait and find one of the multi coded versions, which cost about $100 more as far as I can tell so I’m trying to decide whether to hold out until I find one of the multi coated ones

Fuji made an EBC Multi-coated 120mm lens????? Perhaps you are confusing it with the 125mm f8 which WAS multi-coated.

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/byfl.htm

abruzzi · Apr 4, 2025

BTW, @B.S.Kumar has one for sale in the classifieds here:

For Sale - FS: Fujinon-SW 120mm f/8 Lens

For sale is a Fujinon-SW 120mm f/8 Lens in excellent condition. This is the older single-coated version with an image circle of 290mm, just short of covering the 8x10 format. The glass is clean and the Seiko #0 shutter is working properly. There are some minor cosmetic marks on the barrel. Both...

www.photrio.com

I've generally had very good experiences buying from him, and his prices are very reasonable.

xkaes · Apr 4, 2025

One could read that listing and easily conclude that there was a later 120mm that was multi-coated. What it means is that it is an SW lens -- which was an earlier lens series -- and all of the SW lenses were single coated. The later NSW lenses (there were only three of them) -- were EBC coated, but the SW 120mm was replaced by an NSW 125mm.

Grafmatic · Apr 8, 2025

Just waiting to resolve a little financial dispute involving employer and insurance before pulling the trigger on a 120.

I found a list and specs of the Fuji lenses here:

Will Wilson Photography

www.willwilson.com

And the Nikkors here (in the form of a Nikon brochure dated 2002–2004) :

https://www.kennethleegallery.com/pdf/Nikkor_LargeFormatLenses.pdf

One of many things I’ve gotten educated about in this process is that I had thought that the Fuji and Nikon lenses were basically Super Angulon clones but apparently not. The front dimensions of the Fuji are different and the Nikon is eight elements whereas the SA is six. I guess that is why the Nikon seem to be bringing the highest prices out of all of them; in theory the additional elements should support even better corrections.

I wonder if there’s anyone here who has experience with both lenses and something to say about the difference in optical results, if any. You might have to make poster sized prints to see any difference.I don’t, but some do .Of course, my Powerball lens would be the 110 mm Super Symmar which contains aspheric element(s). The $2300 price tag is just a little bit over my budget though.

I had a 115 Calumet (re-branded Rodenstock) but they seem to be almost nonexistent in the used market. The 90 was extremely sharp.

Looking forward to getting a lens once the $ snafu is worked out.

xkaes · Apr 8, 2025

Grafmatic said:
I found a list and specs of the Fuji lenses here:

Will Wilson Photography

www.willwilson.com

For a much more complete list of Fuji's lenses check out this website. It even has pictures of each lens.

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/

Grafmatic · Apr 8, 2025

xkaes said:
For a much more complete list of Fuji's lenses check out this website. It even has pictures of each lens.

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/

Hey Thanks!

Dan Fromm · Apr 8, 2025

Grafmatic said:
Hey Thanks!

OP, you may not be aware of other sources of information of interest to LF photographers. https://www.largeformatphotography.info has articles and FAQs and has a forum at https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/.

That site has another source of information that you should be aware of. The first post in this https://www.largeformatphotography....to-look-for-information-on-LF-(mainly)-lenses discussion has a link to an annotated list of links to sites etc. of interest to LF photographers. The list's links point to sites that have information of cameras, lenses, a little technique, ... Try it out.

Grafmatic · Apr 8, 2025

Dan Fromm said:
OP, you may not be aware of other sources of information of interest to LF photographers. https://www.largeformatphotography.info has articles and FAQs and has a forum at https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/.

That site has another source of information that you should be aware of. The first post in this https://www.largeformatphotography....to-look-for-information-on-LF-(mainly)-lenses discussion has a link to an annotated list of links to sites etc. of interest to LF photographers. The list's links point to sites that have information of cameras, lenses, a little technique, ... Try it out.

I Tried…and tried…and tried,,, to join that site, to no avail. It was a complete fustercluck.

Dan Fromm · Apr 9, 2025

Grafmatic said:
I Tried…and tried…and tried,,, to join that site, to no avail. It was a complete fustercluck.

You don't have to join LFPF to read posts. Just click on the link i posted to get to the discussion, then click on the link in the first post.

Grafmatic · Thursday at 8:21 AM

That;ll have to do, because even contacting a moderator directly didn't help. Too bad. because there's a obviously a deep pool of knowledge there... But that's true of this forum too.

Fujinon-SW120mm- buying recommendations

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