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

EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 (G690)

Fuji Photo Film · Fuji G690 · 1974

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 · EBC Fujinon AE 100mm F3.5 · Fujinon AE 100mm F3.5 · Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 · Fuji EBC Fujinon AE 100/3.5 · Fujica AE 100mm G690 · Fujinon AE 100mm GM670 · EBC フジノン AE 100mm F3.5 · フジノン AE 100mm F3.5 · フジノンAE 100mm F3.5 · フジカ GM670 AE 100mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 (1974–78) Fuji G690 1974–1978 — —
  1. Elements and groups (4/3), 1m and 1974 are Japanese Wikipedia's; 700 g, the ¥83,000 price, the ¥2,000 hood, the ISO range, the 1/500 fallback and the silver battery are camera-wiki's. The 8 s slow limit is reported for the AE shutter in the research behind this entry but was not seen in the camera-wiki text consulted, so it rests on one source; the mechanical G lenses stop at 1 s.
  2. The 1978 end date is the end of the GL690/GM670 (Lallement: November 1978); no separate discontinuation was published.
  3. No source gives the minimum aperture, length or diameter.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The one G lens with electronics: a battery, a CdS window behind the filter and an 'A' on the speed ring. A Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5 has none of these and a plain mechanical Seiko No. 0
  • 72mm filter thread, but a push-on hood; the body's 100mm brightline frames it, so no shoe finder
  • Fits the G690 and G690BL mechanically, but its automatic exposure needs nothing from the body, so it works the same on all four bodies
  • Not the GW690's EBC Fujinon 90mm f/3.5, which is fixed to its camera and has no automatic exposure

EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 (1974–78):

  • 'EBC' and 'AE' on the name ring; a CdS cell behind the front filter, reading the scene through the filter rather than through the lens (camera-wiki)
  • 'A' position on the shutter-speed ring for aperture-priority automatic; film-speed setting on the lens, ISO 25–800 (camera-wiki)
  • Push-on hood where every other lens of the line takes a screw-in one (camera-wiki)
  • Silver-oxide battery, not mercury (camera-wiki); X sync only (Lallement)
  • Black barrel with the rubber-gripped focusing ring of the 1974 generation

Specifications

Formula
Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups (Japanese Wikipedia: 3群4枚)
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5
Shutter
Seiko electronically timed leaf shutter in the lens, 8 s–1/500 s, aperture-priority automatic at the 'A' setting; falls back to a fixed 1/500 when the battery is dead or the circuit fails; X sync only
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
700 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1974–1978
Country
Japan
Coating
EBC (Electron Beam Coating) multicoating — the only EBC lens of the system
Original price
¥83,000 (1974, camera-wiki); push-on hood ¥2,000; ¥147,800 as the GM670 set (today ¥189,000)

What reviewers say

History

The EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 arrived with the GL690 and GM670 at the end of 1973 and is the one lens of the Fujica 6×9 system with electronics in it. The body has no meter; this lens has a CdS cell behind its front filter, a Seiko shutter timed electronically from 8 s to 1/500, and an ‘A’ position on the speed ring that gives aperture-priority automatic exposure for films of ISO 25 to 800. The meter reads through the filter, not through the lens, so a filter on the front is allowed for automatically. If the silver-oxide battery dies or the circuit fails the shutter fires at a fixed 1/500 (camera-wiki). Japanese Wikipedia spells out the name: AE for Auto Electro, an electronic shutter with an external-light meter. Flash is X only (Lallement), and the hood pushes on where every other G lens takes a screw-in one.

Optically it is the same specification as the Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, a four-element Tessar type in three groups focusing to 1m, but multicoated with Fuji’s EBC, which no other lens of the line received, and 700 g in the rubber-gripped black barrel of 1974. It cost ¥83,000 on its own, ¥2,000 more with the hood, and was the standard lens of the GM670 set at ¥147,800 (camera-wiki). It is framed by the body finder’s 100mm brightline and needs no shoe finder.

Lallement calls the GL690 with this lens “the first and only 6×9 camera offering auto-exposure and auto fill-in flash”, and camera-wiki reports that Fuji built GL690-era prototypes with a CdS meter in the body and with date recording and dropped them once the lens could carry the electronics. Mike Eckman, using one on a GL690, found it slightly softer than his 50mm but accurate in its metering indoors. Lallement ranks it with the 50mm as the most desirable lens of the system and the hardest to find; a buyer should confirm that the automatic mode still times correctly, since the 1/500 fallback will make a dead lens look as if it works.

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 EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 (G690)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Fujinon 50mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon SWS 65mm f/8 (G690) · Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5 (G690) · Fujinon TS 150mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon TS 180mm f/5.6 (G690)

Sources (5)

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.