EBC Fujinon SW 105mm f/8 (G617)
Fuji Photo Film · Fuji fixed · 1983
single source, unconfirmedAlso known as: EBC Fujinon SW 105mm f/8 · EBC Fujinon SW 105mm F8 · Fujinon SW 105/8 · Fuji G617 105mm f/8 · Fujica G617 105mm F8 · Fuji Panorama G617 Professional 105mm · EBCフジノンSW 105mm F8 · フジ G617 105mm · フジカ パノラマ G617
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EBC Fujinon SW 105mm f/8, fixed to the G617 (1983–93) | Fuji fixed | 1983–1993 | — | — |
- Six elements in four groups is Andrew Whitehurst's specification on Emulsive; no second source has been found for the construction, and no layout drawing. Field of view 77.3° horizontal and 80.3° diagonal, about a 26 mm lens on 35 mm film (Whitehurst).
- Closest focus 3 m (Japanese Wikipedia; Whitehurst; Rask). Rask notes that at f/45 and the closest setting everything from 1.5 m is in focus.
- Fall-off: about a stop towards the edges of the 17 cm frame (John Aldred, from a search snippet), corrected with Fuji's 77 mm centre-graduated ND2 filter, 2× or one stop (Whitehurst; Rask). A Luminous Landscape review seen in search calls for two stops.
- No weight for the lens alone; the camera is 2.13 kg (Whitehurst).
How to tell them apart
- Engraved EBC FUJINON SW 1:8 f=105mm; the aperture runs f/8 to f/45 (Jonas Rask; Andrew Whitehurst)
- 77 mm filter thread, usually seen with Fuji's centre-graduated ND2 filter in it (camera-wiki; Whitehurst)
EBC Fujinon SW 105mm f/8, fixed to the G617 (1983–93):
- Fixed in the G617's body behind a bar-type lens protector with a spirit level on top; the shutter is cocked by a lever on the lens (camera-wiki)
- EBC Fujinon SW 105mm f/8, fixed to the G617 (1983–93): The only form of this lens, on the Fujica (1983) and Fuji (1985) G617. The GX617 of December 1993 offers an SW Fujinon 105mm f/8 as a removable unit in a Copal #0 shutter focusing to 1.2 m rather than 3 m; no source read for this page says whether the glass is the same.
Specifications
- Construction
- 6 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/8–f/45
- Shutter
- Seiko No. 0 leaf shutter, B and 1 s – 1/500, cocked by hand; X sync at all speeds, M at 1/30 (camera-wiki; Andrew Whitehurst)
- Min. focus
- 3 m
- Filter
- 77 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1983–1993
- Country
- Japan
- Coating
- EBC (Electron Beam Coating) multicoating
What reviewers say
- Jonas Rask (jonasraskphotography.com) (blog) — A sharp, contrasty lens with "incredible depth of field" — from 1.5 m at f/45 — whose edge fall-off the 2× centre filter offsets; the camera around it is slow and expensive to feed.
- John Aldred (DIYPhotography) (blog) — Minimal distortion and edge-to-edge clarity at f/8 or f/11, with about a stop of light fall-off near the edges of the frame.
- Andrew Whitehurst (Emulsive) (blog) — The lens's vignetting needs the centre-graduated ND filter, which took him three years to find; the fixed lens and the need for a tripod, meter and rangefinder are what sent him to a Horseman SW612.
History
The SW 105mm f/8 is the fixed lens of Fuji’s Panorama G617, the 6×17 roll-film camera of 1983–93: an EBC-multicoated wide-angle of six glasses in four groups, by Andrew Whitehurst’s specification, covering the 17 cm frame with a 77° horizontal field, roughly a 26 mm lens on 35 mm film. It sits in a Seiko No. 0 shutter with speeds from 1 s to 1/500 and B that must be cocked by hand before each exposure, stops down to f/45, focuses by scale to 3 m and takes 77 mm filters. Like every wide-angle made for this format it falls off towards the ends of the frame, by about a stop in John Aldred’s experience, and Fuji’s centre-graduated ND2 filter in the 77 mm thread is the standard cure.
In the field the lens is the camera’s strength. Jonas Rask finds it sharp and contrasty with depth of field that reaches from 1.5 m to infinity at f/45, and Aldred reports minimal distortion and edge-to-edge clarity at f/8 and f/11. The f/8 maximum keeps shutter speeds slow in anything but full sun, which is one reason the camera lives on a tripod.
The GX617 of December 1993 lists an SW Fujinon 105mm f/8 among its four removable lens units, in a Copal #0 shutter and focusing to 1.2 m instead of 3 m. Whether that unit carries the same glass as the G617’s lens is not stated by any source read for this page, and the construction figure above rests on one specification block; both are left open.
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 SW 105mm f/8 (G617)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
The listings collector hasn't run for this family yet — check back soon, or search the marketplaces directly meanwhile.