Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Fujinon 3.5cm f/2

Fuji Photo Film · LTM · 1954 · Double Gauss with an added rear element, 7e/5g

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Fujinon 3.5cm f/2 · Fujinon 35mm f/2 · Fujinon 35mm f2 · Fuji Fujinon 3.5cm 1:2 · フジノン 3.5cm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Fujinon 3.5cm f/2 LTM 1954 #200xxx – #2015xx (koiwide, from examples seen; no factory record) A little over 1,500, by the serial range seen — 200xxx to about 2015xx (koiwide)
  1. The whole account rests on koiwide's article, which is also the only source found that gives the serial range, the construction and the ten blades. Fujifilm's own history records the lens's existence; the figures are a collector's.
  2. A deep front ring makes screw-in filters and hoods vignette (koiwide); the dedicated hood is scarce and koiwide uses a Voigtländer Skoparex hood in its place.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The fastest 35mm lens in the world in 1954, from a film company: Zeiss's best was f/2.8, Leitz's f/3.5

Fujinon 3.5cm f/2:

  • Bright chrome with an amber coating; a gentle taper toward the front; aperture, focus and depth scales in three even rings
  • Distance scale in feet — koiwide has never seen a metric one; close focus 3.5 ft; 40.5 mm filter; ten blades, click-stopped f/2–16 at uneven spacing
  • One design throughout; no variations known

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss with an added rear element, 7e/5g
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1.07 m
Filter
40.5 mm
Years manufactured
1954
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

History

Fuji Photo Film sold two lenses in 1954 that had no business coming from a film company: the 5cm f/1.2 that joined the standard-lens race, and this, a 3.5cm at f/2, which in that year was the fastest 35mm lens in the world. The German makers, still the measure of everything, had a Biogon at f/2.8 and a Summaron at f/3.5; Leitz’s eight-element Summicron 35 would not arrive until 1958. koiwide, whose article is the only full account of the lens I have found, says plainly that this Fujinon is what set off the wide-angle race: Nippon Kōgaku answered two years later with the W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8, Zunow with a 3.5cm f/1.7, and Canon with a 35mm f/1.8 and then an f/1.5.

Seven elements in five groups — a double Gauss with one element added behind, a construction common in fast standards and rare at 35mm — in a small chrome barrel with an amber coating, a taper toward the front, ten blades, a 40.5 mm filter and a distance scale in feet only. Serial numbers run from about 200xxx to 2015xx, which koiwide reads as a little over fifteen hundred lenses. It draws softly, with low contrast and good colour, sharp at the centre and vignetting at the corners wide open, even by f/8; on the Leica IIf it was made for, it is tiny.

Fuji had no body of its own to sell it on and no name as a lens maker, and the lens is scarce for the same reason the 5cm f/1.2 is. It is on this page because the race it started is told at length in One tenth of a stop.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Fujinon 3.5cm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,000 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,500–$2,000). Tracked since 2026-09-10, 2 days: unchanged from $2,000.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$2,000$1,500–$2,0004
2026-09-10$2,000$1,500–$2,0004

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Fujinon 5cm f/1.2 · W-Nikkor(·C) 3.5cm f/1.8 · Canon 35mm f/1.5

Sources (1)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.