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

Fujinon 55mm f/1.8

Fuji Photo Film · Fujica ST · 1970

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Fujinon 55mm f/1.8 · EBC Fujinon 55mm f/1.8 · EBC FUJINON 1:1.8 f=55mm · EBC FUJINON 1:1.8/55 · FUJINON 1:1.8/55 · Fujinon 55mm F1.8 M42 · Fuji EBC Fujinon 55mm f1.8 · Fujica 55mm f1.8 · フジノン 55mm F1.8 · EBC フジノン 55mm F1.8 · EBCフジノン 55/1.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Fujinon 55mm f/1.8, single-coated, no coupling tab (ST701 era, japb type I) Fujica ST 1970–1972 — —
EBC Fujinon 55mm f/1.8, multicoated, with coupling tab (ST801 era onward, japb types III and IIIb) Fujica ST 1972 — —
  1. Weight. 195 g in the ST801 manual's table (Wikipedia's reading, matching the figure legible in the Pacific Rim scan); japb weighed 189 g, bkspicture and Radojuva 205 g, Nojy 206 g. 195 g is entered from the manual. Length 42.9 mm and diameter 61.4 mm are Wikipedia's reading of the same table; japb measured 42.6 mm and 59.2 mm.
  2. Blades. Six straight on japb, six on bkspicture, Nojy and Radojuva (who calls them rounded). Fuji's manuals do not count them.
  3. Versions. japb's four types (I: silver ring, metal focus ring, single-coated; II: black ring, rubberised ring, single-coated; III: EBC, "1:1.8 f=55mm"; IIIb: EBC, ribbed ring, "1:1.8/55") are the only published typology. They are grouped into two variants here by coating and tab. japb gives ≈1970–80 for all versions together and no dates per type; 1972 for the EBC lens is the ST801's date.
  4. An X-mount 55mm f/1.8. camera-wiki's Fujica X list carries both a plain and an EBC 55mm f/1.8, but Fuji's AX brochure of 1979–80 lists the X-mount standard lenses as 50/1.6, 55/1.6 and 55/2.2 only, Wikipedia's X-Fujinon table has no 55/1.8, and none has been seen for sale. No X variant is entered.
  5. Price. Fuji's manuals and history pages give no lens price. The ST801 sold in Japan from April 1973 at ¥40,300 body only and ¥56,800 with this lens (National Museum of Nature and Science); Mike Eckman gives $545 for the ST901 with the f/1.8 in 1974. The difference between body and kit is not a lens price and is not entered.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 42 mm screw thread; 49 mm filter; 0.45 m close focus; f/16 minimum; six elements in four groups on every version
  • Silver aperture ring and no tab: the 1970–72 lens. Black ring with a tab and no EBC: the transitional single-coated lens. EBC on the ring: 1972 onward
  • Full-stop clicks only on the aperture ring (Bob Janes, Nojy)

Fujinon 55mm f/1.8, single-coated, no coupling tab (ST701 era, japb type I):

  • Name ring: FUJI PHOTO FILM CO [serial] LENS-JAPAN FUJINON 1:1.8/55 (japb); no EBC prefix
  • Silver aperture ring, knurled all-metal focusing ring, plain M42 thread with no aperture-indexing tab (japb type I; camera-wiki)
  • Single-coated; Nojy's non-EBC example had a plastic name ring and a rubber focus grip, which is japb's type II

EBC Fujinon 55mm f/1.8, multicoated, with coupling tab (ST801 era onward, japb types III and IIIb):

  • Name ring reads EBC FUJINON 1:1.8 f=55mm on the first multicoated lens and EBC FUJINON 1:1.8/55 on the later one (japb types III and IIIb)
  • Black aperture ring; the tab on its rear edge for open-aperture metering on the ST801, ST901, ST705 and AZ-1; rubberised focusing ring, diamond pattern then ribbed
  • The last lenses have a plastic name plate (Camera no Naniwa: 最終型は爪あり、銘板がプラスチック)
  • 195 g, 61.4 mm across, 42.9 mm long by the ST801 manual's table

Specifications

Formula
6 elements in 4 groups (Fuji's ST701 and ST801 manuals); an asymmetrical double-Gauss / Planar layout by japb's and Nojy's reading
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/1.8–f/16
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.45 m
Dimensions
61.4 × 42.9 mm
Weight
195 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
1970
Country
Japan
Coating
single-coated Fujinon; EBC multicoating from 1972

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
purple fringing
Spherical aberration
soft edges wide-open
Flare & ghosting
backlight-sensitive

History

The 55mm f/1.8 is the lens most Fujica ST bodies left the shop with. Fuji listed it beside the 50mm f/1.4 as a standard lens for the ST701 in July 1970, made it the standard lens of the ST801 in 1972, and was still offering it with the AZ-1 in 1978. Six elements in four groups, a 49mm filter, 0.45m close focus and f/16 minimum on every version; the ST801 manual’s table puts it at 195g. It is an M42 screw-thread lens and works on any M42 body, but from 1972 it carries the Fujica tab on the rear of the aperture ring for open-aperture metering on the ST801, ST901, ST705 and AZ-1, and that tab can foul non-Fujica bodies and adapters whose flange is wider than about 54mm.

japb’s typology is the only one published and runs to four barrels. Type I is the ST701 lens: FUJINON 1:1.8/55 on a silver aperture ring, a knurled metal focusing ring, no tab, single coating. Type II keeps the single coating but has the black aperture ring, the rubberised focusing ring and the tab. Type III reads EBC FUJINON 1:1.8 f=55mm, the multicoated lens introduced with the ST801; type IIIb reads EBC FUJINON 1:1.8/55 with a ribbed grip, and by Camera no Naniwa’s account the last of them have a plastic name plate. Fuji’s manuals give the same six-in-four construction throughout, so the coating and the barrel are what changed. camera-wiki lists an X-mount 55mm f/1.8, but Fuji’s own AX brochure names only the 50/1.6, 55/1.6 and 55/2.2 as X-mount normal lenses, so none is entered here.

The reviewers are unusually consistent. Wide open it is a little soft at the edges with some purple fringing; by f/2.8 it is sharp and by f/5.6 sharp across the frame. Nojy and Camera no Naniwa both single out the bokeh, which is quieter than the 50mm f/1.4’s, and Radojuva says the same of the non-EBC lens while warning that it falls apart into backlight, which is why he tells readers to buy the EBC one. Bob Janes calls it perfectly decent and a little long, and prefers the feel of an SMC Takumar. digitalcamaralens, reviewing the 50mm f/1.4, says this cheaper lens does better on a digital sensor.

Buying one: the tab is the first thing to look at. It is what makes the lens meter properly on a Fujica, and it is what previous owners filed off to fit a Praktica or a cheap adapter; a filed lens is worth less to a Fujica user and there is no putting it back. Oily or sticky blades and a stiff helicoid are the common faults; the recessed front element keeps the glass fairly safe. There is no manual stop-down switch on any M42 Fujinon, so an adapter for a mirrorless body must hold the pin in. On an AX-series bayonet body it mounts through Fuji’s Mount Adapter X-S with stopped-down automatic exposure. No list price for the lens alone has been found; the ST801 sold for ¥56,800 with it in Japan in 1973.

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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 55mm f/1.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $75 across 42 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-20 (middle half $50–$100). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 92 more 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 2026-09-20. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: EBC Fujinon 50mm f/1.4 · Fujinon 55mm f/2.2 · Fujinon 35mm f/2.8 · EBC Fujinon-T 100mm f/2.8 · EBC Fujinon-T 135mm f/3.5 · Fujinon 28mm f/3.5 · EBC Fujinon Macro 55mm f/3.5 · X-Fujinon 50mm f/1.9

Sources (20)

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.