Close up use of Fujinon 240/f9

[rolf_g._katzenstein]

I have a Fujinon 240/f9. Is this lens useful for close up flower

photography or is a macro lens more appropriate?

[michael_pry]

Rolf,

I did some tulips last year @ f/90 and they were absolutely stunning with this lens. Look at some of Westons still lifes and the lens he used and then ask yourself if you need a macro lens?

 

Best,

Mike

[eugene_singer]

Rolf, the Fujinon f9 240 A is designed for flat field copy work. It has an apochromatic design. I use mine for portrature, usually in combination with the Tiffen Soft FX filter. I also have the Fuji f9 180 A that I use for close-up work, because it allows for 1:1 close-ups. I only have 400mm of bellows extension to work with. The Fuji 240 A would be a fine lens to use for close-up flower photography, providing that you have the bellows extension to work with. It may even cover 8X10 at extreme close range, since it has a 336mm image circle at infinity.

[bruce watson]

The very first picture I took with my 240A was of a branch of dogwood in full bloom. The branch had ten blooms and was nearly as flat as a board. I pulled it in from maybe half a meter, and shot at f/11. My depth of field was probably less than 10cm - the branch itself is just a little out of focus. The ground was less than a meter behind the blooms, and was *way* out of focus, as planned.

 

I made a test print that turned out well and I hung it in the dining room at my wife's insistence just before her book club met at the house. Weirdly, all the ladies headed for that picture (past photographs by much more famous and better photographers than I), and the universal comment was on how sharp it was.

 

So yes, I would say you can use it for close up flower photography. I would not hesitate to shoot close to wide open with it either - my sample, at least, is as sharp as any lens I've used, seen, or heard stories about. An awesome lens it is.

[c_p_goerz]

The Fuji A is a close up lens design, it ought to work perfectly.

 

 

CP Goerz

[ken_lee11]

Since a picture can be worth a thousand words, here is a sample taken with this lens. The first image is full frame, the second is from the lower right hand corner. (I posted this a while back, sorry for the repeat.)<div></div>

[ken_lee11]

Here's the detail shot.<div></div>

[rolf_g._katzenstein]

Thanks for the help. It seems that my macro needs are met. Rolf

[ken_lee11]

I have read that the eye sees around 8 lines per milimeter as sharp detail. A good lens delivers around 50 to 100 lines - let's say 80 is very fine. That means we can enlarge it around 10x. For 35mm film, that's around an 8x10. For 4x5, that's 40 x 50.

 

<p>If a 4x5 lens is crummy, it might give 20 lines - but we could still get a tack-sharp 8x10 out of it. As far as I can tell, all modern 4x5 lenses deliver better than 20 lines, even at the corners. For smaller format, this is problematic, but not for 4x5 and beyond.

 

<p>In the words of Ken Rockwell, <i>"This $300 used 4x5 is sharper than a new $3,000 Hasselblad and worlds beyond a $5,000 Leica, Contax, Canon or Nikon".</i>