Fujinon 55 1.8 EBC

Another lens I picked up on a fabled trip to Germany. I shot some film with the Fujica ST601 it came with, and really liked the lens, but never found time to use it for a longer period. The times I did want to use it, I had given it to friends who wanted to try shooting film. It's one of my most preserved kits, and the light meter works fine.

Solid metal build. I can't really comment on the focus ring of this one. My copy has a very stiff focus ring, something that warrants a change of lube. Mechanically the lens is superb, so I don't want to take it apart. One big thing to note: this lens has a tiny tab near the mount, which is used to communicate with the Fujica camera. When I used it with an adapter on my Sony, I couldn't turn the aperture ring at all. To change the aperture I had to:

1. Unscrew the lens slightly
2. Change the aperture
3. Screw the lens back on

The first few days I found this extremely annoying, but I got used to it in the end. I figured I'd rather keep the lens like that than modify it and file the tab off.

Surprisingly good performance when wide open, with adequate sharpness. A great performer when stopped down, although some might argue this is to be expected of a lens in the 50mm 1.8 category. Colors are pleasing and well saturated, with a nice level of contrast. This works wonders if you have something really nice and colorful in the frame. It really stands out. Bring a lens hood. I had more than one occasion where I had to shield the lens with my hand because it flared.

You can get throwing-star bokeh balls if you leave the lens at f2.8.

This is as good as any 50mm 1.8 lens you can get. You can get superb results with it. I don't recommend getting it unless you want to modify it, or shoot it on a Fujica film body. A lot of other lenses work well without having to file a tab off, be it a Nikon, Canon, Takumar, or Zeiss.