Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 (Bronica)
Nippon Kogaku · Bronica S · 1972
single source, unconfirmedAlso known as: Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 Bronica · Nikkor-D 40mm F4 · Nikkor-D.C 40mm F4 · Nikkor D C 40mm f4 Bronica · Nikon Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 for Zenza Bronica S2 · Bronica Nikkor 40mm f4 · Zenza Bronica Nikkor-D 40mm · NIKKOR-D 40mm F4 ブロニカ · ニッコール D 40mm F4 · ニッコールD 40mm F4 ゼンザブロニカ · ブロニカ ニッコール 40mm F4 · NIKKOR-D.C 40mm F4 ブロニカ用
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 (single-coated) | Bronica S | 1972 | — | — |
| Nikkor-D·C 40mm f/4 (multicoated) | Bronica S | — | — | — |
- Element and group count (8 groups, 10 elements) and the φ90 mm screw-in attachment: Japanese Wikipedia, citing カメラ・レンズ白書 1979年版 p.380; the English Wikipedia lens table and Monaghan's page give the same 10e/8g, 90 mm and 430 g.
- Minimum focus: 27 cm on Monaghan's page, 0.28 m (11 in) in the English Wikipedia table, both measured from the film plane; Japanese Wikipedia's 15 cm is the distance from the front of the lens. 0.27 m is used. Angle of view: 90° (Japanese Wikipedia, shiura.com), 89° (English Wikipedia).
- Weight: 430 g (English Wikipedia, Monaghan). brianssparetime weighed his copy at 512 g with its lens cap, and 1,710 g as a kit on an S2 with helicoid and back.
- Year: no source gives a release date. shiura.com says the lens debuted around the EC, and the EC was introduced in April 1972 (English Wikipedia body table), so 1972 is the earliest year that can be documented; the single_source flag is for this date. Japanese Wikipedia gives no date for either version.
- Performance: shiura.com reports a 1979 Camera Mainichi annual test finding uniform, high resolution across the frame wide open, and measures straight lines bending by only about 0.1 mm; he recommends one or two stops down for satisfactory edges.
How to tell them apart
- The widest Nikkor for the focal-plane Bronica, engraved Nikkor-D 1:4 f=40mm or Nikkor-D·C; 90° across the 6×6 frame, about a 22 mm equivalent on 35 mm film
- A 90 mm filter thread, far larger than the 67 mm of most lenses in the system; listings often misreport it as 67 mm (brianssparetime, 35mmc)
- Volcano-shaped: at infinity the barrel stands about 50 mm proud of the focusing unit's front, against roughly 20 mm for the 75mm Nikkor-P (35mmc)
- Small (inner) bayonet, so it mounts through the common focusing unit on every focal-plane body from the D to the EC-TL II
- Not the Zenzanon MC 40mm f/4 pancake for the same mount, which is much smaller, takes 67 mm filters and sells for two to three times the Nikkor's price (35mmc)
Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 (single-coated):
- Engraved Nikkor-D 1:4 f=40mm with no ·C suffix
- Blue ghosting from very bright light sources in shiura.com's side-by-side test against the D·C; otherwise little difference on slide film
Nikkor-D·C 40mm f/4 (multicoated):
- Engraved Nikkor-D·C: the ·C marks Nikon's multicoating
- Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 (single-coated): The first form of the lens. shiura.com places its debut around the Bronica EC, which went on sale in April 1972; no source gives a release date of its own. Takes 90 mm filters and the square hood made for it, both hard to find today.
- Nikkor-D·C 40mm f/4 (multicoated): The same 10-element, 8-group optics with multicoating, as Japanese Wikipedia records from the Camera-Lens Hakusho of 1979. shiura.com found the two versions close on slides, the single-coated lens giving blue ghosts from point sources where the D·C did not, and no clear difference in colour cast. The year the ·C version replaced the D has not been found.
Specifications
- Formula
- Retrofocus wide-angle, 10 elements in 8 groups, with the convex front element of Nikon's wide-angles of the period; shiura.com reads it as a scaled relative of the Nikkor 20mm f/4 and PC-Nikkor 28mm f/4
- Construction
- 10 elements / 8 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4–f/22
- Min. focus
- 0.27 m
- Weight
- 430 g
- Filter
- 90 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1972
- Country
- Japan
- Coating
- Single-coated on the Nikkor-D; multicoated on the Nikkor-D·C
What reviewers say
- brianssparetime (35mmc), on a Bronica S2 (blog) — His favourite lens of the S2/EC system, used for more frames than all his other S2 lenses combined, and 'still plenty sharp' handheld at 1/15 s. He calls the kit the 'Super Wide and F-ing Fat' against the Hasselblad SWC: a similar view at a fraction of the price, bought with a bulky, awkwardly shaped lens and Bronica's fragile bayonet caps.
History
The Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 was the widest lens Nippon Kogaku made for the focal-plane Bronica, a 90° retrofocus design of ten elements in eight groups that shiura.com reads as a relative of the Nikkor 20mm f/4 and PC-Nikkor 28mm f/4 of the same years, with the bulging convex front element of Nikon’s wide-angles of the period. It arrived late in the system’s life: shiura.com places its debut around the EC, which went on sale in April 1972, more than twelve years after the first Bronica, and the 50mm f/3.5 and f/2.8 Nikkors had been the widest lenses available until then. Japanese Wikipedia, drawing on the Camera-Lens Hakusho of 1979, records the single-coated Nikkor-D and the multicoated Nikkor-D·C as the same optics; shiura.com, who tested both side by side on slide film, saw little between them beyond blue ghosts from point sources on the single-coated lens.
It is a large lens for the format, and its 90 mm filter thread is its most practical peculiarity: most lenses in the system take 67 mm, and the Zenzanon MC 40mm f/4 pancake for the same mount does too, so listings often print the wrong figure. The square hood made for it and 90 mm filters are both hard to come by. It mounts through the common focusing unit on the small bayonet, as every lens from 40 to 200 mm does, and so fits every focal-plane body from the D to the EC-TL II; on the helicoid it focuses to about 27 cm from the film, around 15 cm from the front of the lens, close enough for near-macro work with the SLR’s direct viewing. Monaghan and English Wikipedia give 430 g; brianssparetime’s copy weighed 512 g with its cap, and 1,710 g as a kit with an S2, helicoid and back.
The published judgements are good. shiura.com cites a 1979 Camera Mainichi annual test that found uniform, high resolution across the frame wide open, which he contrasts with corner fall-off in the contemporary Hasselblad Distagon 40mm f/4, and measures its distortion at about 0.1 mm of bend in a straight line, retracting an earlier claim of barrel distortion; one or two stops down give satisfactory edges. On 35mmc, brianssparetime calls it his favourite lens of the S2/EC system and the one he has shot most, sharp enough handheld at 1/15 s, and sets the kit against the Hasselblad SWC as a comparable field of view at a fraction of the price, bought with a lens of volcano shape that stands some 50 mm proud of the helicoid at infinity, packs awkwardly and relies on Bronica’s bayonet caps, whose thin lugs crack. He paid about half the usual price for a copy with a fungus spot, and puts a clean one at roughly the price of a working Bronica body in lesser condition.
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.
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