Your experience with Fujica G/GL690 with 100mm Auto Exposure lens

[Trask]

I've got a Fujica GL690 with the "normal" 100mm f/3.5 Fujinon-S lens, and have just come across a relatively-rare Fujinon Auto Exposure 100mm lens f/3.5 -- the one that has a meter built into the lens that will automatically set the "correct" shutter speed according to the meter reading. I can pick it up for around $350, which strikes me as a reasonable price, but the question I have is whether the results from having this auto-exposure lens are any good, i.e., as good as I can presently get by metering with an external meter and using my normal manual 100mm lens. I don't want to lay out $350 for the lens if the results aren't likely to be at least as good as results I presently get. Obviously the AE lens is a more "spontaneous" lens in that it's auto-exposure, but if the AE results are worse it might not be worth it -- this IS 1974 technology we're talking about here, after all. So....anyone with hands-on experience who can share their assessments and, hopefully, some examples of your results? Thanks!

 

[abruzzi]

Are those really rare? When I bought my GL690 half of the ones on eBay had that lens. I intentionally avoided it and got the normal 100 since I didn't want the AE, so I cant help you on the function of the lens itself.

 

[loccdor]

as I can presently get by metering with an external meter and using my normal manual 100mm lens

Compared to an incident meter definitely not going to be as good, even if it's working perfectly. Tricked by dark or light colored subjects, backlighting, etc.

Guessing because it's old it won't have a very impressive EV range, and typical 6x9 usage (slow photography) may make it a bit pointless for most users.