Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 (G690)
Fuji Photo Film · Fuji G690 · 1974
Also known as: Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 · Fujinon 65mm F5.6 · Fujinon SW 65mm F5.6 · Fujinon SW S 65mm F5.6 · Fuji Fujinon SW 65/5.6 · Fujica 65mm f/5.6 G690 · Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 GL690 · フジノン 65mm F5.6 · フジノン SW 65mm F5.6 · フジカ GL690 65mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 (1974–78) | Fuji G690 | 1974–1978 | — | — |
- Elements and groups (8/4) and 610 g are camera-wiki's lens table; Japanese Wikipedia's product list gives 4群8枚, 1m and 1974. No source gives the minimum aperture, length or diameter.
- camera-wiki writes that this lens is widely believed to be optically the same as the EBC Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 built into the fixed-lens GSW690, and does not confirm it; the GSW lens is recorded as 6 elements in 4 groups against 8 in 4 here, so the two are separate families until a Fuji document says otherwise. Foale, who owns both, notes only that the G-mount lens needs an external finder and the GSW's does not.
- The 1978 end date is the end of the GL690/GM670 (Lallement: November 1978); no separate discontinuation was published.
- No list price was found in any source.
How to tell them apart
- Rubber-gripped focusing ring and f/5.6: the 1974 lens. Ribbed metal ring and f/8: the 1968 SWS
- 72mm filter thread and screw-in hood; Seiko No. 0 shutter with B and 1–1/500; scales in metres and feet with infinity at the anticlockwise end (camera-wiki)
- Breech-lock G bayonet with a rangefinder cam; the GSW690's EBC Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 is fixed to its body and cannot be mistaken for it once the back of the lens is seen
- Not an EBC lens: a forum owner reports the GL690-era lenses as single-coated apart from the AE 100mm, and neither camera-wiki nor Japanese Wikipedia gives this one the EBC prefix
Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 (1974–78):
- Black barrel with the textured rubber focusing-ring insert of the 1974 generation; the ribbed-ring 65mm is the f/8 (camera-wiki; Lallement)
- f/5.6 on the aperture scale; Foale's lens is engraved Fujinon SW, Lallement's caption reads Fujinon SW S
- Supplied with a reflected-frameline shoe finder of 0.39× (camera-wiki), adjustable for parallax (Foale)
- Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 (1974–78): The only version. Introduced with the GL690 and GM670 to replace the 65mm f/8 (camera-wiki; Lallement). With the 100mm the lens that sold.
Specifications
- Formula
- Angulon type, per Simon Foale's description; 8 elements in 4 groups (camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia)
- Construction
- 8 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/5.6
- Shutter
- Seiko No. 0 leaf shutter in the lens, B, 1–1/500 s; M and X sync
- Min. focus
- 1 m
- Weight
- 610 g
- Filter
- 72 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1974–1978
- Country
- Japan
What reviewers say
- Simon Foale, 35mmc (blog) — On a GL690, the Angulon-type 65mm is very good at f/8 and excellent corner to corner at f/11; part of an outfit he calls "very impressive, even a half a century after they first hit the market", with the one caveat that it needs an external finder the fixed-lens GSW690 does without.
History
The 65mm f/5.6 replaced the SWS 65mm f/8 when the GL690 and GM670 appeared at the end of 1973, one stop faster and in the new black barrel with a textured rubber focusing grip. Fuji’s literature gives it eight elements in four groups against the f/8’s six in four (camera-wiki), focusing to 1m and weighing 610 g, with the same 72mm thread and Seiko No. 0 shutter as the rest of the line. Simon Foale calls the design an Angulon type. The body finder has no 65mm frame, so the lens came with a reflected-frameline shoe finder of 0.39×, which Foale notes is adjustable for parallax; the rangefinder focuses it as it does every G lens.
With the 100mm it was the lens of the system that actually sold, which is why both focal lengths survived into the fixed-lens cameras of 1978–80: the GSW690’s EBC Fujinon SW 65mm f/5.6 is widely believed to be the same glass, camera-wiki says, while declining to confirm it, and the published element counts (six in the GSW lens, eight here) do not match. Foale, who runs a GL690 with this lens beside a GSW690, found it very good at f/8 and excellent corner to corner at f/11, and prefers the interchangeable camera for its true B setting; the only practical cost is composing through the shoe finder. Forum owners describe the GL690-era lenses other than the AE 100mm as single-coated, and nothing in Fuji’s naming gives this one the EBC prefix.
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 65mm f/5.6 (G690)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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