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

Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 (M42)

Ricoh · M42 · 1975 · Retrofocus, eleven elements in ten groups

Also known as: Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 · Ricoh Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 · Rikenon Auto 17mm f/4 · Ricoh Rikenon 17mm f/4 · Rikenon 17mm f/4 · Rikenon 17mm 1:4 · Rikenon 1:4 17mm · Rikenon 1:4 f=17mm · Rikenon 4/17 · Ricoh 17mm f/4 M42 · Ricoh 17mm f4 · Rikenon 17 mm f/4 · リコー オートリケノン 17mm F4 · リケノン 17mm F4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 M42 — — —
  1. Every figure on this page except the smallest aperture is printed in Ricoh's own Auto TLS EE and SLX 500 instruction books. The f/16 minimum aperture is from Dr. Ricoh's Rikenon table alone. Neither Ricoh book gives dimensions or a blade count.
  2. No source gives a launch or end date. The lens is in the SLX 500 book, and Ricoh's model list dates the SLX 500 to 1975, so 1975 is the earliest dated year this page can support. The book's edition date is not printed. The lens is also in the Auto TLS EE book. Ricoh dates that camera to 1976, but camera-wiki cites a US magazine advertisement of July 1973 for it, so the lens may be older than 1975. The accessory-lens lists in the Singlex TLS (1967) and TLS 401 (1970) instruction books start at the 21mm f/3.8 and do not include it.
  3. Maker. Ricoh did not make it. A Japanese collector's blog (sunone, 2021) says Norita Kōgaku built this 17mm f/4 for only a few years, around the 1970s, and that it was sold as the Noritar, the Soligor and the Rikenon. Camera-wiki lists a Noritar 17mm f/4 for Canon FD, Nikon F, M42 and T-mount. A 1972 Photo Argus advertorial on Norita, translated on collection-appareils.fr, says Norita was then making 35 mm lenses including a '17 mm f/4' with mounts for Canon, Minolta, Nikon, 42 mm and Leicaflex. The blog's Soligor box gives 10 groups / 11 elements, which matches Ricoh's figures, and Japanese Wikipedia gives the Noritar a 72 mm filter, also a match. No Ricoh or Norita document found states the link. On MFlenses in 2011 the owner of a Rikenon copy thought it looked more like the Soligor 17mm f/4 than anything else he found; other members suggested Tokina, one reasoning that Tokina's later 17mm f/3.5 might have had an f/4 predecessor, but no evidence was offered for that.
  4. The six-blade diaphragm with no half-stop clicks is reported on the sunone blog from Noritar- and Soligor-badged copies, not from a Rikenon, so it is left out of the specification above.
  5. No Sears-badged 17 mm is on record, in the Sears Auto TLS book or elsewhere, so no Sears variant is listed.
  6. No original price is on record, in yen, in dollars or in any Ricoh or Sears list.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A rectilinear ultra-wide, not a fisheye: Ricoh gives 102° for it, against 180° for the separate Rikenon Fisheye (6 groups / 9 elements) in the same table
  • Not the Asahi Fish-eye-Takumar 17mm f/4, the other common M42 17/4, which is a full-frame fisheye
  • Not a K-mount lens. Dr. Ricoh's K-mount Rikenon table has no 17 mm; its nearest rectilinear lens is an 18mm f/2.8 of 1982, with a 67 mm filter

Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4:

  • Ricoh's tables list it as the only 17 mm in the M42 range: f/4.0, automatic diaphragm, 102° angle of view, 72 mm filter, 450 g (0.99 lb)
  • A non-EE lens. It has no EE setting on the aperture ring, so it is not one of the four Auto Rikenon EE lenses (28, 35, 135 and 200 mm) in the same Ricoh table
  • A 72 mm front thread and 450 g. The Auto Rikenon 21mm f/3.8 also takes 72 mm filters but weighs 290 g

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, eleven elements in ten groups
Construction
11 elements / 10 groups
Aperture range
f/4–f/16
Min. focus
0.3 m
Weight
450 g
Filter
72 mm
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

History

The Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 was the widest rectilinear lens in Ricoh’s M42 range. It is a retrofocus design of eleven elements in ten groups with a 102° angle of view, an automatic diaphragm and a 72 mm front thread, and it weighs 450 g. Ricoh printed those figures in the lens tables of its Auto TLS EE and SLX 500 instruction books. Neither book gives a launch date, and no Ricoh price list has been found. The SLX 500 dates from 1975, so the lens was in the range by then, and it may be older. In the same tables the only wider Rikenon is the 180° Fisheye. The 21mm f/3.8 is the next lens up.

Ricoh did not make the lens itself. A Japanese collector’s blog says Norita Kōgaku built this 17mm f/4 for only a few years, around the 1970s, and that it was sold as the Noritar, the Soligor and the Rikenon. The documents line up with that: camera-wiki lists a Noritar 17mm f/4 in M42 and other mounts, Japanese Wikipedia gives the Noritar a 72 mm filter, and a 1972 Photo Argus advertorial on Norita, translated on a French collectors’ site, mentions a “17 mm f/4” among its 35 mm lenses. The blog’s Soligor box gives the same ten groups and eleven elements that Ricoh prints. However, no Ricoh or Norita document found connects the badges directly. The blogger also owns no Rikenon. His description of it as the Noritar with a satin finish is an impression, and the six-blade, clickless diaphragm he reports comes from his Noritar and Soligor copies.

The lens fits all five of Ricoh’s M42 reflexes: the Singlex TLS, TLS 401, SLX 500, Singlex II and Auto TLS EE. It is an ordinary Auto lens, not an EE lens, so on the Auto TLS EE it gives no shutter-priority automation. The Sears Auto TLS book, written for Sears’s version of the camera, says any screw-mount lens that opens to f/5.6 can be metered at full aperture with the lens-selection dial set, then the aperture is set by hand. It also says stopped-down metering works with any screw-mount lens. Ricoh lists the Singlex TLS and TLS 401 as stop-down metering cameras, and the lens meters on them like any auto-diaphragm M42 lens. Ricoh’s model list calls the SLX 500 and Singlex II open-aperture (開放測光), but the SLX 500’s own book has the meter read with the preview lever pressed, which stops the lens down.

The lens is scarce. MFlenses members in 2011 and 2012 found nothing published about it, and in 2012 one member reported finding a copy in very good condition for €120, an asking price rather than a recorded sale. Check the listing name carefully, because two other lenses get mixed up with it. The Asahi Fish-eye-Takumar 17mm f/4 is also an M42 17/4, but it is a full-frame fisheye. Ricoh’s later K-mount range had no 17 mm; Dr. Ricoh’s table gives its nearest rectilinear lens as an 18mm f/2.8 of 1982, which does not fit these bodies. If the Norita attribution is right, the Noritar and Soligor versions are the same optic with different badges and finishes, and a buyer who wants the optic rather than the Ricoh name can look for those too. When buying, check the 72 mm front thread for dents and the front element for marks. Also check that the diaphragm closes cleanly when the pin is pressed.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Auto Rikenon 17mm f/4 (M42)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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Related: Auto Rikenon 21mm f/3.8 · Auto Rikenon 24mm f/2.8 (M42) · Auto Rikenon 28mm f/2.8 (incl. EE) · Auto Rikenon 35mm f/2.8 (M42, incl. EE)

Sources (17)

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.