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

Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5 (G690)

Fuji Photo Film · Fuji G690 · 1968

Also known as: Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5 · Fujinon S 100mm F3.5 · Fujinon 100mm f/3.5 · Fujinon 100mm F3.5 G690 · Fuji Fujinon S 100/3.5 · Fujica G690 100mm f/3.5 · Fujica GL690 100mm F3.5 · フジノン S 100mm F3.5 · フジノンS 100mm F3.5 · フジノン 100mm F3.5 · フジカ G690 100mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, ribbed ring (1968–73) Fuji G690 1968–1973 — —
Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, rubber grip (1974–78) Fuji G690 1974–1978 — —
  1. Elements and groups (4/3, Tessar type) are camera-wiki's and Japanese Wikipedia's; 1m closest focus and φ72mm from Japanese Wikipedia; 740 g (1968) and 605 g (1974) from camera-wiki's lens table. The family weight is the 1968 lens's. No source gives the minimum aperture, length or diameter.
  2. Lallement's history lists the first-generation normal lens as 'f/5.6 100mm'; every other source, and his own later references to the Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, give f/3.5, so the f/5.6 is taken as a slip.
  3. The 1978 end date is the end of the GL690/GM670 (Lallement: November 1978); no separate discontinuation was published.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The lens behind the body finder's larger brightline: the only G lens besides the 150mm that needs no shoe finder
  • 72mm filter thread and screw-in hood; Seiko No. 0 shutter with B and 1–1/500 on the lens; scales in metres and feet with infinity at the anticlockwise end (camera-wiki)
  • Ribbed ring and 740 g: 1968–73. Rubber grip and 605 g: 1974–78. 'A' on the speed ring, a CdS window behind the filter and EBC on the name ring: the AE lens, a separate family
  • The GW690's EBC Fujinon 90mm f/3.5 is a different focal length fixed to its body; the Fujinon W 105mm f/5.6 and similar are large-format lenses in Copal shutters

Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, ribbed ring (1968–73):

  • Ribbed metal focusing ring (camera-wiki); 740 g
  • Silver finish on lenses sold with the 1968 G690 (camera-wiki; Lallement: 'chrome finish only'); black on those sold with the G690BL from October 1969
  • Composed in the body finder's 100mm brightline; no accessory finder

Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5, rubber grip (1974–78):

  • Black barrel with the textured rubber focusing-ring insert of the 1974 generation (camera-wiki; Lallement)
  • 605 g against the 1968 lens's 740 g (camera-wiki)
  • Still a manual lens with the Seiko No. 0 mechanical shutter: no 'A' on the speed ring and no CdS window, which mark the EBC Fujinon AE

Specifications

Formula
Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups (camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia: 3群4枚 テッサー型)
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5
Shutter
Seiko No. 0 leaf shutter in the lens, B, 1–1/500 s; M and X sync
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
740 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1968–1978
Country
Japan
Original price
¥78,200 as the Fujica G690 set (1968); ¥86,600 as the G690BL set (1969); ¥140,400 as the GL690 set (1974) — camera-wiki; no price for the lens alone was found

What reviewers say

History

The Fujinon S 100mm f/3.5 is the standard lens of the whole Fujica 6×9 system: it was sold as a set with the G690 in 1968 at ¥78,200, with the G690BL at ¥86,600, and with the GL690 in 1974 at ¥140,400 (camera-wiki). It is a four-element Tessar type in three groups, focusing to 1m, with the 72mm filter thread and Seiko No. 0 shutter of every lens in the line, and it is composed in the body finder’s own 100mm brightline, which moves for parallax and shrinks for field of view as the lens is focused. On 6×9 it gives roughly the view of a 43mm lens on 35mm film.

There are two barrels. The 1968 lens has a ribbed metal focusing ring and weighs 740 g; the earliest were chrome-finished to match the G690’s silver trim and the rest black, from the G690BL onward (camera-wiki; Lallement). The 1974 lens, made for the GL690 and GM670, has a black barrel with a textured rubber grip and weighs 605 g; Japanese Wikipedia gives it the same three-group, four-element construction, so it is a re-barrelling and not a new design. The EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 of the same year, with an electronic shutter and its own CdS cell, is a different lens despite the shared specification and is catalogued separately.

Simon Foale, running two GL690s, found the centre excellent at f/3.5 with edges that are softer but not blurry, and the whole frame sharp at f/11, which he says is all he needs; with the 65mm f/5.6 it made an outfit he called “very impressive, even a half a century after they first hit the market”. With the 65mm it was one of only two lenses in the system that sold in quantity, and the focal length the GW690 of 1978 replaced with a fixed 90mm, which Lallement finds less suited to portraits.

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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 S 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: EBC Fujinon AE 100mm f/3.5 (G690) · Fujinon TS 150mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon TS 180mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon 50mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 (G690) · Fujinon SWS 65mm f/8 (G690) · EBC Fujinon 90mm f/3.5 (GW690)

Sources (4)

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.