Any info on FUJINAR-E 1:4.5 f=5cm enlarging lens?

[gamincurieux]

FUJINAR-E 1:4.5 f=5cm.... with the brown aperture ring & black aperture locking ring..... not much info at all out there about these. Anybody have any info on these?

 

[gamincurieux]

Guess I'm wondering if anyone knows of it, what it's reputation is compared to other more famed lenses. This one was 'acquired' from a now-defunct Belgian newspaper, so I'm figuring if a newspaper had it in their darkroom it is probably considered a good one! I just never heard of Fuji enlarger lenses before it landed on my lap.

 

[Anscojohn]

Never heard of it. But Fuji lenses are not well known, but always seem to offer a lot of bang for the buck. How many elements. Probably three. If it is four, you can bet that, being that slow, it should be quite sharp. Count the reflections.

 

[Randy Stewart]

The Fujinar 50mm 4.5 is a very old lens; my guess would be 30-40 years old and made to target low price shoppers. I would not waste my time or supplys on it. Although they never seriously marketed them in the USA, Fuji sold several levels of "quality" in its enlarging lenses. The Fujinar was replaced by the "ES" models. The top-quality lenses were originally the "EP" lenses, which were later superceeded by the "EX" lenses, which were basically the last style EP lenses remounted with more modern controls and features. I have used El-Nikkors since the 1970s; the Fujinon-EX models are at least their equal. I much prefer the 90mm EP or EX Fuji lenses for medium format work over the 80mm El-Nikkor for both B&W and color work. The Fujis may still be sold new in Japan; I last checked their website a few years ago. they haven't been sold new in the USA for many years.

 

[gamincurieux]

Thank you for the info.

Can't say I'm wasting anything on it, because I've already got it

Now, if I could just find an ES or EP or EX version, I think I'd like to try them & compare them to my others.