Zenzanon-PG 80mm f/3.5
Zenza Bronica · Bronica GS · 1997
Also known as: Zenzanon-PG 80mm f/3.5 · Zenzanon PG 80mm F3.5 · Zenzanon-PG 80/3.5 · Bronica PG 80mm f3.5 · Zenza Bronica Zenzanon-PG 80mm · Bronica GS-1 80mm f/3.5 · Bronica GS 80mm F3.5 · ゼンザノン PG 80mm F3.5 · ゼンザブロニカ PG 80mm · ゼンザノンPG 80mm · ブロニカ GS-1 80mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenzanon-PG 80mm f/3.5 (1997–2002) | Bronica GS | 1997–2002 | 8400001 — a lens with a white cover, possibly a one-off promotional piece (camera-wiki) | About 500 (camera-wiki) |
- Construction (8 elements in 6 groups), 0.55m, 72mm, 71.5 × 87mm are camera-wiki's figures, which match Tamron USA's 2004 product page. The lens is not in Tamron Japan's PG table of c.2001 or in Japanese Wikipedia's list, so neither Japanese source confirms them.
- Weight: camera-wiki gives 765g, Tamron USA's 2004 page 755g. No third figure is known.
- Introduction: 1997 in camera-wiki's lens section, 1996 in its body section; the lens is missing from Tamron USA's April 1996 list, which fits either year. The 1997 figure is used here as the one given where the lens is described.
- Minimum aperture is not given in any source read; the field is left empty. Price: only the 2004 US figure of $1,940 is known, the lowest of any PG lens on that page.
How to tell them apart
- ZENZANON-PG on the front ring: PG is the GS-1 designation, and the four-claw GS bayonet fits no other Bronica body (camera-wiki)
- No shutter-speed ring: the Seiko #0 shutter inside is set from the dial on the body (Tamron Japan)
- 72mm filter on the 87mm PG barrel, 71.5mm long; the only PG lens between the 65 and the 100, and the one most often missing from kits (camera-wiki's ~500 against ~15,000 for the 100mm)
- Zenzanon-PG 80mm f/3.5 (1997–2002): The last lens added to the system and the scarcest regular one. camera-wiki gives 1997 in its lens section and 1996 in its body section, where it ties a white-covered example, serial 8400001, to the lens's launch; it does not reconcile the two. The lens is absent from Tamron USA's April 1996 price list, from Tamron Japan's PG table and from Japanese Wikipedia's list, which draws on the 1984 yearbook.
Specifications
- Construction
- 8 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/3.5
- Shutter
- Seiko #0 electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 16s–1/500 plus T and B, timed from the GS-1 body; mechanical fallback of about 1/500 without a battery (Tamron Japan)
- Min. focus
- 0.55 m
- Dimensions
- 87 × 71.5 mm
- Weight
- 765 g
- Filter
- 72 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1997–2002
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- $1,940 (Tamron USA, 2004) (today $3,220)
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 last Zenzanon-PG, added in 1997 by camera-wiki’s lens list (1996 by the same page’s account of the body), fourteen years after the system appeared and five before Tamron stopped making it. It fills the gap between the 65mm and the 100mm with a slightly wide normal, 8 elements in 6 groups focusing to 0.55m, on the same 87mm barrel and 72mm filter as its neighbours and at much the same weight, 765g by camera-wiki or 755g by Tamron’s American page. Its 2004 list price of $1,940 was the lowest of any PG lens.
About 500 were made, against roughly 15,000 of the 100mm, and that figure is the whole of its reputation: it is the PG lens that kits do not have. It does not appear in Tamron Japan’s own specification table or in the Japanese Wikipedia list, both of which stop at the lenses of the 1980s, and camera-wiki records a single curiosity, a lens numbered 8400001 with a white cover that may have been a one-off for promotion. Laidric Stevenson names it with the 500mm as the two PG lenses that cost more than the usual $70 to $300 second-hand, and revdocjim simply calls it rare.
No review of the lens has been found, and nobody among the GS-1 reviewers read for this page owned one.
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-PG 80mm f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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