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

Zenzanon-E 500mm f/8 (ETR)

Zenza Bronica · Bronica ETR · 1982

Also known as: Zenzanon-E 500mm f/8 · Zenzanon E 500mm F8 · Zenzanon-E II 500mm f/8 · Zenzanon EII 500mm F8 · Bronica ETR 500mm f/8 Zenzanon E · Bronica ETRS 500mm F8 EII · Bronica ETRSi 500mm f8 E-II · Zenza Bronica Zenzanon EII 500mm f/8 ETR · ゼンザブロニカ ゼンザノン E 500mm F8 · ゼンザノン EII 500mm F8 · ブロニカ ETR 500mm F8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Zenzanon-E 500mm f/8 Bronica ETR 1982 — —
Zenzanon-E II 500mm f/8 Bronica ETR 1984–2004 — —
  1. Family figures (7 elements, 6 groups, 8°, f/8–45, 8.5 m, 95 mm, 100 × 273 mm, 1,880 g, floating elements) are the E lens's, from Bronica's brochure E810588 as transcribed on the medfmt.8k.com ETR page; Japanese Wikipedia, citing Camera Yearbook '82 p.222, gives the same 6 groups / 7 elements, close-range correction and 8.5 m. The E II's 267 × 102 mm and 1,890 g, with the same counts, are from Tamron's ETRSi table and Tamron USA's 2004 page, which agree; Camera Yearbook '84 p.253 (via Japanese Wikipedia) gives the E II the same 6/7, 8.5 m and 95 mm.
  2. E and E II are one optical design on every figure published: the same counts, the same 8.5 m, the same 95 mm thread, and 10 g and 6 mm apart. No source says what the II revised; by analogy with the 75mm E II it was a mechanical or coating revision. The PE 500 is a different lens entirely, 11 elements in 10 groups with two low-dispersion elements at 3,760 g, and has its own page.
  3. Years. The E lens first appears in Camera Yearbook '82 and the E II in Camera Yearbook '84, the earliest dated listings found; neither is a launch date, and the ETR's 1976 manual has no 500. Tamron USA still sold the E II in 2004 alongside the PE 500, so the E-formula lens outlived the rest of the pre-PE line.
  4. Tamron USA's 2004 page prints '6 groups 7 elements' in the PE column as well as the E-II column while calling the PE 'a completely different optical design'; Tamron Japan and Japanese Wikipedia give the PE 10 groups / 11 elements. The 6/7 count belongs to the E and E II.
  5. Blades and a yen list price were not found; the fields are left empty. The 2004 dollar price is the E II's.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A 500 mm lens in the four-claw ETR bayonet with a 95 mm front thread and a barrel about 100 mm across: the PE 500 takes 122 mm filters on a 139 mm barrel and weighs twice as much
  • ZENZANON-E or ZENZANON-E II on the name ring; full-stop aperture clicks to f/45 (the PE clicks in half stops to f/64); the E II has a built-in hood
  • Its own Seiko #0 leaf shutter, timed by the body; the lens mounts only with the shutter cocked, and a T slide on the barrel gives long exposures on pre-ETRSi bodies
  • Not the Zenzanon-S 500mm f/8 for the SQ or the Zenzanon-PG 500mm f/8 for the GS-1, which carry those suffixes and other bayonets

Zenzanon-E 500mm f/8:

  • Engraved ZENZANON-E 1:8 f=500mm; 100 mm across and 273 mm long at 1,880 g (brochure E810588)
  • Floating elements for close-range correction; closest focus 8.5 m (28 ft)

Zenzanon-E II 500mm f/8:

  • Engraved ZENZANON-E II (dealers write EII or E-II); built-in sliding hood; 102 mm across and 267 mm long at 1,890 g (Tamron)
  • Full-stop aperture detents f/8–45, unlike the half-stop clicks of the PE 500 that was sold beside it

Specifications

Construction
7 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/8–f/45
Shutter
Seiko #0 electronically controlled between-lens leaf shutter, 8s–1/500 + T; B only on an ETRSi body; mechanical 1/500 without battery; the speed is set on the body
Min. focus
8.5 m
Dimensions
100 × 273 mm
Weight
1880 g
Filter
95 mm
Years manufactured
1982–2004
Country
Japan
Original price
US$4,380 list for the E-II (Tamron USA, 2004) (today $7,270)

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The 500mm f/8 was the long end of Bronica’s 6×4.5 ETR system, a 300 mm equivalent that the ETR’s 1976 manual does not yet list and that first appears in Camera Yearbook ‘82 as a lens “equivalent to the new” E series: seven elements in six groups with close-range correction by floating elements, focusing to 8.5 m, with a 95 mm filter thread. Bronica’s brochure E810588 gives the full card, 8° angle of view, f/8 to f/45 on a fully automatic diaphragm, 100 mm across, 273 mm long and 1,880 g, and sells it for sports, wildlife and distant subjects, “well-balanced for hand-held use”, doubling to 1000 mm with the Tele-Converter E. No MC-engraved 500 has been found; the lens seems to have joined the line as a Zenzanon-E.

Camera Yearbook ‘84 lists it as the Zenzanon-E II, and in that form it stayed on sale to the end: Tamron’s ETRSi tables of the 1990s and 2000s carry the E II 500 at six groups, seven elements, 8°, f/8–45 with full-stop detents, 8.5 m, 95 mm filters, a built-in hood, 267 by 102 mm and 1,890 g. On every published figure the E and E II are the same optical design, ten grams and six millimetres apart; what the II revised is not recorded, and by analogy with the 75mm E II it was a barrel or coating change. The shutter is the system’s Seiko #0 in the lens, electronically timed from 8 s to 1/500 by the body, with T on the barrel, B from the ETRSi of 1988, and a mechanical 1/500 without a battery.

What makes this lens unusual is that it was never replaced by its PE successor. When Bronica brought out the Zenzanon-PE 500mm f/8, an eleven-element lens with two low-dispersion elements weighing 3,760 g, the E II stayed in the list beside it, and Tamron USA was still quoting both in 2004: $4,380 for the E II against $15,107 for the PE, with the copy admitting the PE was “a completely different optical design”. The E II was the affordable 500, a third of the PE’s weight and under a third of its price, and that is how it reads on the used market, where it sells for hundreds rather than thousands of dollars.

No review of either 500 has been found, and the user opinion on the medfmt page concerns the shorter lenses. Tamron’s own line, that it blurs the background wide open and gives excellent depth of field stopped down, is all the maker said of its drawing. For a buyer the checks are the same as for every ETR lens, shutter cocking, slow speeds, T, diaphragm, with one addition: at 1.9 kg on a body with a leaf shutter the lens is tripod work in practice whatever the brochure says, and the built-in hood of the E II should slide freely. The 95 mm thread is shared with the E-series Variogon zooms and the PE zooms, so filters are easier to find than the 122 mm of the PE 500.

Expand Collapse

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Zenzanon-E 500mm f/8 (ETR)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Zenzanon-PE 500mm f/8 (ETR) · Zenzanon-E 250mm f/5.6 (ETR) · Zoom Zenzanon-E Variogon 125–250mm f/5.6 (ETR)

Sources (6)

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.