Yikes! They must be made of GOLD!!! [Fuji 360A]

Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

This is $200US more than another recent 360mm Fujinon A sold for. Ouch!
For $1700+ a person could get a whole stack of fun mint used LF optics
of similar focal length... :-)

This just cured me of any desire for the Fuji 360A. But if my travels
should ever lead me to Japan...

Chris,
I have a contact in Japan that buys large format lenses. I bought a very
fine used Fuji 250 F 6,7 lens for $300 which is a good buy since the is the
much sought after (bigger image circle) lens. If interested I'll give you
his email address. He is an honest seller/reseller!
Let me know as he told me he could acquire about anything you wish
Fuji-wise!
Joseph Burke

"Christopher Perez" wrote in message
. ..
Check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

This is $200US more than another recent 360mm Fujinon A sold for. Ouch!
For $1700+ a person could get a whole stack of fun mint used LF optics
of similar focal length... :-)

This just cured me of any desire for the Fuji 360A. But if my travels
should ever lead me to Japan...

Christopher Perez wrote in message ...
Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

This is $200US more than another recent 360mm Fujinon A sold for. Ouch!
For $1700+ a person could get a whole stack of fun mint used LF optics
of similar focal length... :-)

This just cured me of any desire for the Fuji 360A. But if my travels
should ever lead me to Japan...

Chris,

I've watched these too. However, I don't think the prices in Japan are
any better. I know a dealer who makes regular pilgrammges to Japan,
and they're not to be had there either from the results. It's a unique
low production lens that was pricey to begin with.

I've spoken with Barbara Lowery of Cooke about reproducing some of the
classic lenses like the Dagors (correcting the focus shift issue of
course) and a lightweight 360, all of these you could sell all day.
Even if you didn't correct the Dagor. A Cooke "360 f/10" with
multicoating would be a natural.

Steve

Steve,

This is a very interesting idea of your's. I notice that Cooke's new
rendition of the soft focus lens costs quite a bit. Perhaps that's a
specialty optic and Dagor derivatives could be made more cost effectively?

This leads me to wonder what it might take to re-formulate the
Angulon/WideAngle Dagor designs using the newer glass-types?

In any event, I think it'd be interesting to see longer lenses mounted
in #1 Copal shutters. Fuji's 450C is a wonderful optic. But there's so
little in the 360mm range that mount in that small a shutter.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

Regards - Chris


Steve Hamley wrote:
Christopher Perez wrote in message ...

Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

This is $200US more than another recent 360mm Fujinon A sold for. Ouch!
For $1700+ a person could get a whole stack of fun mint used LF optics
of similar focal length... :-)

This just cured me of any desire for the Fuji 360A. But if my travels
should ever lead me to Japan...


Chris,

I've watched these too. However, I don't think the prices in Japan are
any better. I know a dealer who makes regular pilgrammges to Japan,
and they're not to be had there either from the results. It's a unique
low production lens that was pricey to begin with.

I've spoken with Barbara Lowery of Cooke about reproducing some of the
classic lenses like the Dagors (correcting the focus shift issue of
course) and a lightweight 360, all of these you could sell all day.
Even if you didn't correct the Dagor. A Cooke "360 f/10" with
multicoating would be a natural.

Steve

I would really appreciate that contact. I have a very nice 180mm soft
focus Fuji in perfect condition. It is missing both of the diffusion
plates. I've beeen unable to find them anywhere.

Tom Ferguson



In article , Jos. Burke
wrote:

Chris,
I have a contact in Japan that buys large format lenses. I bought a very
fine used Fuji 250 F 6,7 lens for $300 which is a good buy since the is the
much sought after (bigger image circle) lens. If interested I'll give you
his email address. He is an honest seller/reseller!
Let me know as he told me he could acquire about anything you wish
Fuji-wise!
Joseph Burke

I would really appreciate that contact. I have a very nice 180mm soft
focus Fuji in perfect condition. It is missing both of the diffusion
plates. I've beeen unable to find them anywhere.

Tom Ferguson



In article , Jos. Burke
wrote:

Chris,
I have a contact in Japan that buys large format lenses. I bought a very
fine used Fuji 250 F 6,7 lens for $300 which is a good buy since the is the
much sought after (bigger image circle) lens. If interested I'll give you
his email address. He is an honest seller/reseller!
Let me know as he told me he could acquire about anything you wish
Fuji-wise!
Joseph Burke

"Christopher Perez" wrote in
message . ..
Steve,

This is a very interesting idea of your's. I notice that
Cooke's new rendition of the soft focus lens costs quite a
bit. Perhaps that's a specialty optic and Dagor
derivatives could be made more cost effectively?

This leads me to wonder what it might take to re-formulate
the Angulon/WideAngle Dagor designs using the newer
glass-types?

In any event, I think it'd be interesting to see longer
lenses mounted in #1 Copal shutters. Fuji's 450C is a
wonderful optic. But there's so little in the 360mm range
that mount in that small a shutter.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

Regards - Chris


Snipping...

Some lenses seem to become cult designs with prices way
out of line for their performance. The Cooke lens is
expensive because it is made in very small numbers so
production efficiency is probably not high.
I don't know how much improvement could be gotten from
the Dagor design. I think the Kern Optical _Gold Dot_ Dagor
is probably a re-design with high index glass but I've never
seen any definite information about that. In a Dagor its
desirable to have a large ratio of index between the
positive and negative elements. That ratio could be made
high with modern glass types. Also, suitable high-index
glass would reduce the overall curvature of the elements
thus reducing the residual zonal spherical aberration, which
is the main fault of the Dagor type. However, the Plasmat,
which is derived from the Dagor by air spacing the inner
elements, has inherently much lower zonal spherical with
only some reduction in coverage as the price. High index
glass has been applied to the Plasmat type to increase its
coverage. Almost all modern large format lenses and many
enlarging lenses are of the Plasmat type. Dagors are
expensive to make because they have four cemented surfaces,
meaning eight glass surfaces that have to be individually
ground to match, plus the hand work in precision centering
and the work of cementing. The center element of the Dagor
is also quite thin, which is always a problem in
manufacture. I don't think the design has enough virtues to
overcome its vices.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

"Christopher Perez" wrote in
message . ..
Steve,

This is a very interesting idea of your's. I notice that
Cooke's new rendition of the soft focus lens costs quite a
bit. Perhaps that's a specialty optic and Dagor
derivatives could be made more cost effectively?

This leads me to wonder what it might take to re-formulate
the Angulon/WideAngle Dagor designs using the newer
glass-types?

In any event, I think it'd be interesting to see longer
lenses mounted in #1 Copal shutters. Fuji's 450C is a
wonderful optic. But there's so little in the 360mm range
that mount in that small a shutter.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

Regards - Chris


Snipping...

Some lenses seem to become cult designs with prices way
out of line for their performance. The Cooke lens is
expensive because it is made in very small numbers so
production efficiency is probably not high.
I don't know how much improvement could be gotten from
the Dagor design. I think the Kern Optical _Gold Dot_ Dagor
is probably a re-design with high index glass but I've never
seen any definite information about that. In a Dagor its
desirable to have a large ratio of index between the
positive and negative elements. That ratio could be made
high with modern glass types. Also, suitable high-index
glass would reduce the overall curvature of the elements
thus reducing the residual zonal spherical aberration, which
is the main fault of the Dagor type. However, the Plasmat,
which is derived from the Dagor by air spacing the inner
elements, has inherently much lower zonal spherical with
only some reduction in coverage as the price. High index
glass has been applied to the Plasmat type to increase its
coverage. Almost all modern large format lenses and many
enlarging lenses are of the Plasmat type. Dagors are
expensive to make because they have four cemented surfaces,
meaning eight glass surfaces that have to be individually
ground to match, plus the hand work in precision centering
and the work of cementing. The center element of the Dagor
is also quite thin, which is always a problem in
manufacture. I don't think the design has enough virtues to
overcome its vices.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA