I have a Fujinon 90mm f:8.0 lens, serial number 603XXX. I bought it around 1990. It does not say multicoated on it. The top layer coating is a tannish color, other layers underneath look bright green and/or purple. Is this a multicoated lens? Thanks if you know.

-- Kevin Crisp (KRCrisp@aol.com), April 07, 2001

Answers

You didn't say if you bought the lens new or used in 1990. If new, it's most likely multicoated (unless it had been sitting on a dealer's shelf for eight years before you bought it). Fuji began multicoating their lenses with the SWD series in the 1976. By July, 1982, all Fujinon lenses with the exception of the soft focus SF series came with the Fujinon EBC coatings. At this time that the f8 SW series was redesigned and EBC coated. EBC is Fuji's acronymn for Electron Beam Coating - their proprietary multicoating process.

Based on your description of the reflections, it also sounds multicoated. Other than the very early EBC coated SWD series, Fuji has never labeled their lenses as multicoated (like Schnedier and Rodenstock). In addition to the colors of the reflections, there are some other ways to determine if your Fujinon lens is multicoated. First, if you bought the lens new and still have the box, look for gold and white sticker on the box that identifies the lens type and serial number. If the lens is multicoated, this label will say "EBC Fujinon". Next, look at the location of the labeling and serial number on the lens barrel. If the lettering and serial number are on the retaining ring that holds the front element in the barrel (inner lettering), then it is single coated. If the labeling is in white paint around the outside of the front barrel (outer lettering) and the serial numer is in white paint around the rear barrel, then it is multicoated. I have some pictures of these various lettering types (Figures 2 and 3), as well as multicoated vs. single coated reflections (Figures 5 and 6) on my Fujinon pages at:

http://largeformat.terrashare.com/fujinon.htm

Sounds multicoated to me, but check the web page to make sure.

Kerry

-- Kerry Thalmann (largeformat@thalmann.com), April 07, 2001.

Just a clarification for anyone else reading this...

I wrote:

"If the lettering and serial number are on the retaining ring that holds the front element in the barrel (inner lettering), then it is single coated."

I was referring specifically to Kevin's Fujinon 90mm f8 SW. In general, this statement holds true for all other Fujinon lenses EXCEPT the early SWD series. The SWD series was multicoated from the time of its introduction. However, early samples still used "inner lettering", but were also clealy labeled as EBC. So, all SWD series Fujinons, regardless of lettering location are EBC multicoated. All other Fujinons with inner lettering are single coated and all Fujinons with outer lettering are EBC multicoated.

Kerry

-- Kerry Thalmann (largeformat@thalmann.com), April 07, 2001.

Thanks Kerry. Once again, this is the place to go for answers.

-- Kevin Crisp (KRCrisp@aol.com), April 07, 2001.