Fujinon 250 Soft Focus instructions

[Nacio Jan Brown]

I have a Fujinon 250mm Soft Focus lens that came without Fuji's guidelines as to aperture selection, the particulars on the use of the two perforated disks, and the focusing procedure. I would be happy to trade a copy of a book I did ("Rag Theater") for a pdf, a fax (510.217.2410), or hard copy of Fuji's original instructions. njb

 

[BrianShaw]

I fax'd it to you. If you want PDF, see your PM.

Brian

 

[eumenius]

Hello,

I am constantly using this lens, and, in fact, I love it much more than Imagon - especially when shooting color. I have got only one disk in set, and i am much more happy without it - its concentric structures appear in the highlights, and the soft halo around objects looks "layered" when the disk is in place. The shutter's aperture works in a way more pleasing way, without a trace of double-edged bokeh that Imagon is capable of with circular aperture. My opinion is that the disks were included just as a mean of standartization for studios with constantly set light, not for much more.

Zhenya

I have a Fujinon 250mm Soft Focus lens that came without Fuji's guidelines as to aperture selection, the particulars on the use of the two perforated disks, and the focusing procedure. I would be happy to trade a copy of a book I did ("Rag Theater") for a pdf, a fax (510.217.2410), or hard copy of Fuji's original instructions. njb

 

[Nacio Jan Brown]

Thank you Brian Shaw!

Thank you Brian Shaw!

 

[Doug Webb]

I have the instructions but didn't find them as helpful as I would have liked. A couple of things I have found with this lens are that I am unable to focus with accuracy at an apperture more open than 8.0. Soft focus and out of focus are not the same thing and you can get an effect with this lens of, for example, sharp eyes and glowing skin. I focus at 8.0 and then set the apperture at the setting I want to make the exposure. I do like the inserts, I have both and usually use the yellow insert instead of the red one. Most people I have talked to decided that they liked the effect of either of the inserts or no insert and settle down to using the lens that way most of the time. If you look at the lens from the front with the inserts mounted, you can see that they will have no effect after the lens is stopped down to the point that the opening in the apperture is significantly smaller than the opening in the center of the insert. Stopped down to f22 or so, this lens will produce sharp images with no soft focus effects. It takes a while to get the hang of this lens and to get the lighting the way you want it to produce an image you like. I got my lens from someone who had not really given it much of a chance and was disappointed with it. I really like the lens for portraits. It is incredibly flattering when you use a fairly open apperture and one of the discs with the right lighting. Lots of the minor skin imperfections that can be painfully obvious in a large format portrait just disappear.
Good luck,
Doug Webb