EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3

Fuji Photo Film · Fuji GX680 · 1986

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: EBC Fujinon GX 300mm f/6.3 · EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3 · Fujinon GX M 300mm F6.3 · Fujinon GXM 300mm F6.3 · Fuji GX680 300mm f6.3 · Fujifilm GX680 300mm F6.3 EBC · EBC FUJINON GX M 300mm 1:6.3 · Fujinon GX 300/6.3 · フジノン GX 300mm F6.3 · フジノン GX M 300mm F6.3 · フジ GX680 300mm F6.3 · EBC フジノン GX 300mm

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
EBC Fujinon GX 300mm f/6.3 (1986–1997)	Fuji GX680	1986–1997	—	—
EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3 (1997–2007)	Fuji GX680	1997–2007	—	—

Launch year: no source dates the 300mm. 1986 is the earliest documented year, the GX680's release, which Japanese Wikipedia puts at April 1986 and English Wikipedia at 1987; the page carries the single-source flag for that reason. The variant split at 1997 follows English Wikipedia's statement that the GX M lenses arrived with the GX680III, which Japanese Wikipedia dates to December 1997 and English Wikipedia to 1998.
Optical construction is disputed: Japanese Wikipedia's product list gives 5群6枚 (6 elements in 5 groups), English Wikipedia's table, drawn from Fujifilm's Japanese lens page, gives 5/5. Both agree on 5 groups, so the group count is given and the element count left empty. Closest focus (3.45 m) and the 82 mm filter are from Japanese Wikipedia; f/6.3–64, 101 × 107 × 139 mm, 1,100 g, a 137 mm f/2.9 equivalent on 35 mm film and the ¥229,000 list price are from English Wikipedia. The dimensions are width × height × length of the lens on its board, so no diameter is given.
Price: ¥229,000 is the list price on Fujifilm's lens page as recorded by Wikipedia, with no year attached. Fujifilm's page listed the GX M lenses, so the price belongs to the GX M years; 1997 is used as the price year for that reason.
End date: Fujifilm's list of discontinued interchangeable lenses gives 2007年5月出荷終了 (shipments ended May 2007) for the GX M 300mm 1:6.3 and the GX M 500mm 1:8; every other GX680 lens on the list ended in March 2011.
Shutter: English Wikipedia says the shutter in every GX680 lens is electronic and made by Seiko, 8 s to 1/400 plus B, flash synchronisation at all speeds. No source gives a blade count.

How to tell them apart (expand)

A lens on a rectangular GX680 lens board with the GX bayonet, an electronic Seiko leaf shutter inside and no focusing ring: the body's bellows does the focusing (Danny Burk notes the lenses' 'lack of helical mounts'). A Fujinon 300mm in a Copal shutter with a focusing scale is a view-camera lens, and the T Fujinon 300mm f/8 is the GX617's interchangeable lens, not this one
82 mm filter thread, the standard size across the GX680 line; 139 mm long on its board (Wikipedia)
Marking GX (1986–1997) or GX M (1997–2007) on the front ring; the only difference is the M-series exposure counter read by the GX680III

EBC Fujinon GX 300mm f/6.3 (1986–1997):

Front ring reads EBC FUJINON GX 300mm 1:6.3 with no M after GX; no exposure-counter chip, so a GX680III shows no shot count for it (Wikipedia)

EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3 (1997–2007):

Front ring reads EBC FUJINON GX M 300mm 1:6.3; the M marks the electronic exposure counter read by the GX680III (Wikipedia)

EBC Fujinon GX 300mm f/6.3 (1986–1997): The first marking, for the GX680 of 1986 and the GX680II. No source dates the 300 itself, so 1986 is the earliest year it could have existed; the end year is the December 1997 arrival of the GX M marking on the GX680III. Optically the same lens as the GX M.
EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3 (1997–2007): Introduced with the GX680III of December 1997. Fujifilm's list of discontinued lenses ends its shipments in May 2007, four years before the rest of the line and the same month as the 500; only those two carry the 2007 date. It mounts on the GX680 and GX680II as well, where the counter is simply not shown.

Specifications

Construction: 5 groups
Aperture range: f/6.3–f/64
Shutter: Seiko electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 8 s–1/400, B; flash sync at every speed (Wikipedia)
Min. focus: 3.45 m
Dimensions: 139 mm long
Weight: 1100 g
Filter: 82 mm
Years manufactured: 1986–2007
Country: Japan
Coating: EBC multicoating, Fuji's Electron Beam Coating, as the name prefix states
Original price: ¥229,000 list (Fujifilm's lens page as recorded by Wikipedia; year not stated, GX M years 1997–2007) (today ¥254,000)

What reviewers say

Danny Burk, The Luminous Landscape (Fuji GX680III review, July 2002) (blog) — A system review written with a 300 among his seven lenses: 'each lens that I've tested is of stellar quality in every way'. He notes the long lenses are the slow ones, 'i.e. 300mm f/6.3 and 500mm f/8', against the f/5.6 of most of the line, and that the lenses stay light through 'their composite construction, slow speeds and lack of helical mounts'.

History

The 300mm f/6.3 is the longest GX680 lens that mounts without a support rail, for Fuji’s 6×8 studio reflex with view-camera movements on its front standard. Fujifilm’s figures, as carried by the Wikipedia tables, are f/6.3 to f/64, closest focus at 3.45 m, an 82 mm filter thread, 101 × 107 × 139 mm on its board and 1,100 g, which English Wikipedia renders as a 137 mm f/2.9 equivalent on 35 mm film. The construction is the one point the two tables dispute: Japanese Wikipedia says 6 elements in 5 groups, English Wikipedia 5 in 5, so the page gives the groups and leaves the elements open. The shutter is the electronic Seiko leaf shutter common to the line, 8 s to 1/400 plus B with flash synchronisation at every speed, and there is no focusing ring: the body’s bellows focuses it.

It was sold under two markings. The EBC Fujinon GX lenses served the GX680 of 1986 and the GX680II; the GX M lenses arrived with the GX680III of December 1997 and add an electronic exposure counter so that the III can show how many frames have gone through each lens. A GX M lens works on the earlier bodies without the counter, and a plain GX lens works on the III the same way. No source dates the 300 itself; the page uses the system’s launch year as the earliest it could have appeared. Fujifilm’s list of discontinued lenses ends its shipments in May 2007, the same month as the 500 and four years before the rest of the line went in March 2011; nothing found explains why the two longest lenses went first. The list price on Fujifilm’s lens page, ¥229,000, is recorded by Wikipedia without a year.

Danny Burk had a 300 in the kit behind his 2002 review of the GX680III and called every lens he had tested ‘of stellar quality in every way’, noting only that the long lenses are the slow ones, f/6.3 here and f/8 on the 500, where most of the line is f/5.6. Nothing in Fujifilm’s table restricts movements with it; only the 50mm, the 100–200 zoom and the 500 on its rail lose shift or tilt. No test or review specific to the 300 was found.

When buying, test the shutter on a body, because it is electronic and fires only with the camera’s power. Check the contacts on the board and the glass for haze, and read the front ring for the M if the counter on a GX680III matters. Left open: the launch year, the element count, the blade count, a dated price list, and why shipments ended in 2007.

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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.

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a EBC Fujinon GX M 300mm f/6.3? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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