EBC Fujinon GX M 500mm f/8

Fuji Photo Film · Fuji GX680 · 1999

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: EBC Fujinon GX M 500mm f/8 · Fujinon GX M 500mm F8 · Fujinon GXM 500mm F8 · Fuji GX680 500mm f8 · Fujifilm GX680 500mm F8 EBC · EBC FUJINON GX M 500mm 1:8 · Fujinon GX 500/8 · Fujinon GX 500mm f/8 · フジノン GX M 500mm F8 · フジノン GX 500mm F8 · フジ GX680 500mm F8 · EBC フジノン GX M 500mm

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
EBC Fujinon GX M 500mm f/8 (1999–2007)	Fuji GX680	1999–2007	—	—

The 1999 introduction rests on English Wikipedia's lens table alone, which it says is drawn from Fujifilm's Japanese lens page; Japanese Wikipedia dates no individual lens. The page carries the single-source flag for that reason. The year sits after the GX680III of December 1997, which is why the lens exists only as a GX M.
Optical construction (6 elements in 6 groups), closest focus (5.9 m), the 82 mm filter and the note that movements cannot be used (アオリ使用不可) are from Japanese Wikipedia's Fujifilm product list; English Wikipedia gives the same construction, f/8–64, 101 × 107 × 245 mm, 1,660 g, a 229 mm f/3.7 equivalent on 35 mm film and a list price of ¥395,000. Danny Burk gives 'about 3.5 pounds/1.6kg'. The dimensions are width × height × length of the lens on its board, so no diameter is given.
Price: ¥395,000 is the list price on Fujifilm's lens page as recorded by Wikipedia, with no year attached; the launch year is assumed.
The rail: English Wikipedia calls it 'an optional mounting rail' that is nonetheless 'supplied' with the lens, and says it 'prevents camera movements entirely'; Burk says Fuji 'insists' it be mounted under the body and that the ring-and-roller fitting lets the lens 'roll along the rail during focusing', which 'eliminates the possibility of tilt or other movements'. The 100–200 zoom's support rail and ring, by contrast, are an option not supplied with that lens.
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 500mm 1:8 and the GX M 300mm 1:6.3; 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)

The longest GX680 lens, 245 mm on its board, with the standard 82 mm filter thread and no focusing ring: the body's bellows focuses it, the front of the lens riding on its rail (Wikipedia; Burk)
A rectangular GX680 lens board with the GX bayonet and an electronic Seiko leaf shutter inside. A Fujinon 500mm in a Copal shutter with a focusing scale is a view-camera lens, not this one
GX M marking only; there is no plain GX 500

EBC Fujinon GX M 500mm f/8 (1999–2007):

Front ring reads EBC FUJINON GX M 500mm 1:8; made only in the GX M marking, so every copy carries the exposure-counter chip read by the GX680III (Wikipedia)
Supplied with its mounting rail, which fits under the camera body, and a ring-and-roller fitting on the front of the lens that rides along the rail as the bellows focuses (Danny Burk); a copy without the rail is incomplete

EBC Fujinon GX M 500mm f/8 (1999–2007): The only version: introduced in 1999, after the GX680III, so it never existed in the plain GX marking. Fujifilm's list of discontinued lenses ends its shipments in May 2007, with the 300, four years before the rest of the line. The rail it comes with stabilises the lens and rules out every movement.

Specifications

Construction: 6 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range: f/8–f/64
Shutter: Seiko electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 8 s–1/400, B; flash sync at every speed (Wikipedia)
Min. focus: 5.9 m
Dimensions: 245 mm long
Weight: 1660 g
Filter: 82 mm
Years manufactured: 1999–2007
Country: Japan
Coating: EBC multicoating, Fuji's Electron Beam Coating, as the name prefix states
Original price: ¥395,000 list (Fujifilm's lens page as recorded by Wikipedia; year not stated) (today ¥437,000)

What reviewers say

Danny Burk, The Luminous Landscape (Fuji GX680III review, July 2002) (blog) — One of two lenses he singles out: 'amazingly light at only about 3.5 pounds/1.6kg', supplied with a rail that 'Fuji insists must be mounted under the camera body' and a ring-and-roller fitting at the front that rolls along it as the bellows focuses, which rules out tilt and every other movement. Used that way on Clingman's Dome, 'every frame was razor sharp, even at slow speeds'.

History

The 500mm f/8 is the longest lens made for Fuji’s GX680, the 6×8 studio reflex with view-camera movements on its front standard, and the one lens of the line that gives those movements up: it comes with a rail that fits under the body and a ring-and-roller fitting at the front of the lens that rides along the rail as the bellows racks, so there is no shift, tilt or swing with it. Fujifilm’s figures, as carried by the Wikipedia tables, are 6 elements in 6 groups, f/8 to f/64, closest focus at 5.9 m, the line’s standard 82 mm filter thread, 101 × 107 × 245 mm on its board and 1,660 g, which English Wikipedia renders as a 229 mm f/3.7 equivalent on 35 mm film. 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.

English Wikipedia dates its introduction to 1999, a little over a year after the GX680III of December 1997 brought in the GX M lenses with their electronic exposure counters, which is why the 500 exists only as a GX M: there is no plain GX version. It still mounts on the GX680 and GX680II, which simply show no counter. Fujifilm’s list of discontinued lenses ends its shipments in May 2007, together with the 300 and four years before the rest of the line went in March 2011. At ¥395,000 list it sat just below the 100–200 zoom’s ¥398,000 in the prices Wikipedia records from Fujifilm’s page.

Danny Burk is the one reviewer found who used it. In his 2002 account of the GX680III he singles the 500 out, calls it ‘amazingly light at only about 3.5 pounds/1.6kg’, explains the rail that ‘Fuji insists must be mounted under the camera body’ and the roller fitting that lets the lens roll along it in focusing, and accepts that this ‘eliminates the possibility of tilt or other movements’. Shooting from Clingman’s Dome with the rail in place, ‘every frame was razor sharp, even at slow speeds’. He also notes that the long lenses are the slow ones in the line, f/8 here against the f/5.6 of most of the primes.

When buying, make sure the rail and the ring-and-roller come with the lens, since the lens is supplied with them and is meant to be used on them. Test the shutter on a body, because it is electronic and fires only with the camera’s power, and check the contacts on the board and the glass for haze. Left open: the blade count, a dated price list, a second source for the 1999 date, and why Fujifilm ended the 300 and 500 in 2007 ahead of the rest.

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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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