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

Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Bronica)

Nippon Kogaku · Bronica S · 1959

Also known as: Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 Bronica · Nikkor-P 75mm F2.8 · Nikkor-P 7.5cm F2.8 · Nikkor-P.C 75mm F2.8 · Nikkor P C 75mm f2.8 Bronica · Nikon Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 for Zenza Bronica S2 EC · Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-P 7.5cm f2.8 Bronica · Bronica Nikkor 75mm f2.8 · Zenza Bronica Nikkor-P 75mm · NIKKOR-P 75mm F2.8 ブロニカ · ニッコール P 75mm F2.8 · ニッコールP 7.5cm F2.8 ゼンザブロニカ · ブロニカ ニッコール 75mm F2.8 · NIKKOR-P.C 75mm F2.8 ブロニカ用

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nikkor-P 1:2.8 f=7.5cm (Nippon Kogaku, launch version) Bronica S 1959 — —
Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Nippon Kogaku, mm-marked) Bronica S — — —
Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Nikon-marked) Bronica S — — —
Nikkor-P·C 75mm f/2.8 (multicoated) Bronica S — — —
  1. Construction (4 groups, 5 elements) and the release date of 8 December 1959 with the D: Japanese Wikipedia, which gives no attachment size for this lens. Monaghan and the English Wikipedia lens table give 5e/4g, 67 mm and 230 g; Seiden, on Monaghan's page, confirms five in four and rejects a 'five in five' description that has circulated.
  2. Minimum focus: 60 cm on Monaghan's page, 0.58 m (23 in) in the English Wikipedia table. Monaghan's figure is used.
  3. Price: ¥39,500 is the figure in the EC-TL catalogue as reproduced by shiura.com, who lists the standard lenses of that catalogue together: Nikkor 75mm f/2.8 ¥39,500, Nikkor 75mm f/2.8 DX ¥53,500, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 ¥39,500, Zenzanon 80mm f/2.4 ¥43,000, Zenzanon 100mm f/2.8 ¥43,000. The catalogue is undated; the EC-TL was introduced in June 1975 (English Wikipedia body table), so the price is assigned to 1975. No price for the 1959 launch has been found.
  4. Asahi Camera's test, on a Bronica EC (reported by shiura.com): spherical aberration nearly unmeasurable; field curvature about 0.3 mm towards the lens at roughly 18° with almost no astigmatism out to that angle, which shiura.com observes offsets the cosine error so that off-centre subjects at 1 m remain in focus.
  5. Design: shiura.com describes the Xenotar type as Tronnier's at Schneider, the same layout Zeiss Jena calls Biometar and used for the Pentacon Six standard lens and the Jena-made Zenzanon 80mm f/2.8 for this mount; he believes the Nikkor-P a dedicated design, there being no f/2.8 Nikkor of this layout for 35 mm.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Nikkor-P 1:2.8 f=7.5cm or f=75mm, or Nikkor-P·C on the multicoated lens; the P denotes five elements
  • The glass sits deep inside a conical barrel that acts as its own hood, exploiting the short optical back the Bronica's drop-and-split mirror allows (shiura.com); at infinity the lens stands only about 20 mm proud of the focusing unit (35mmc)
  • 67 mm filter thread, the standard size of the system; Series VIII filters also fit (English Wikipedia)
  • Small (inner) bayonet, mounting through the common focusing unit on every focal-plane body from the D to the EC-TL II
  • Not the six-element Nikkor-H·C 75mm f/2.8 sold beside it as the 'DX', which is engraved Nikkor-H·C and weighs 290 g; not the Nikkor-P 10.5cm f/2.5 or Nikkor-P Auto 105mm f/2.5 for the Nikon F, which share the engraving style but not the mount
  • Not the Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 or the Carl Zeiss Jena-built Zenzanon 80mm f/2.8 for the same mount, both of which carry the Zenzanon name

Nikkor-P 1:2.8 f=7.5cm (Nippon Kogaku, launch version):

  • Focal length engraved in centimetres, f=7.5cm, with the Nippon Kogaku name
  • A chrome band at the filter ring (Seiden, via Monaghan) and tick marks on the aperture ring of early examples (shiura.com)

Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Nippon Kogaku, mm-marked):

  • Focal length in millimetres with the Nippon Kogaku name still on the front ring

Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Nikon-marked):

  • Front ring reads Nikon rather than Nippon Kogaku (shiura.com)

Nikkor-P·C 75mm f/2.8 (multicoated):

  • Engraved Nikkor-P·C, the ·C for Nikon's multicoating
  • Nameplate moved to a disc beside the filter ring (shiura.com)

Specifications

Formula
Xenotar/Biometar type, 5 elements in 4 groups; shiura.com believes it a dedicated Bronica design rather than a scaled 35 mm lens, and English Wikipedia calls it Xenotar-derived
Construction
5 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Min. focus
0.6 m
Weight
230 g
Filter
67 mm, 67 mm screw-in; also takes Series VIII filters (English Wikipedia)
Years manufactured
1959
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated on the Nikkor-P; multicoated on the Nikkor-P·C
Original price
¥39,500 in the EC-TL catalogue of the mid-1970s, against ¥53,500 for the six-element Nikkor-H·C 75mm 'DX' and ¥39,500 for the Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 (shiura.com) (today ¥81,000)

What reviewers say

History

The Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 is the lens the Zenza Bronica was sold with from 8 December 1959, and it stayed the standard lens of the focal-plane line through the S, C, S2 and EC generations to the EC-TL II. It is a five-element, four-group lens of the Xenotar type, the layout Tronnier drew at Schneider and Zeiss Jena calls Biometar; shiura.com believes it a design made for the Bronica rather than a scaled 35 mm lens, since Nippon Kogaku had no f/2.8 Nikkor of this form for its own cameras, and Seiden, on Monaghan’s page, confirms five in four against a five-in-five description that has circulated. What marks it out physically is the barrel: the glass sits deep in a conical tube that acts as its own hood, because the Bronica’s mirror drops and splits rather than swinging up and lets the rear of the lens come close to the film. shiura.com uses this to reject the notion that the Bronica’s long flange distance handicapped its lenses, and brianssparetime measured the lens as standing only about 20 mm proud of the focusing unit at infinity.

The versions differ in engraving and coating, not in optics. The launch lens reads Nippon Kogaku with the focal length as f=7.5cm, a chrome band at the filter ring and tick marks on the aperture ring; millimetre marking followed, then the Nikon name, then the multicoated Nikkor-P·C with its nameplate moved to a disc beside the filter ring. Monaghan’s page notes minor mount changes along the way and a progression of hoods, from the square hood shared with the 13.5 cm Nikkor-Q to round metal and then rubber ones. It takes 67 mm filters, the size most of the system uses, and Series VIII filters as well; it weighs 230 g and focuses to about 0.6 m on the common helicoid. In the EC-TL catalogue of the mid-1970s it was listed at ¥39,500, the same as the Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 and ¥14,000 below the six-element Nikkor-H·C ‘DX’ that Bronica offered as the premium alternative.

Its character is well documented in Japanese sources. Asahi Camera’s test on a Bronica EC, reported by shiura.com, found spherical aberration nearly unmeasurable, field curvature of about 0.3 mm towards the lens at some 18° off axis and almost no astigmatism to that angle, a combination that happens to cancel the cosine error so that off-centre subjects at 1 m stay in focus. shiura.com calls it centre-priority: very sharp in the middle wide open, with corners that can go soft at infinity until the field curvature is stopped through, noticeable fall-off, and a tendency to double-line rendering in backgrounds, which is what the H·C was built to smooth. He suggests one or two stops down for crisp monochrome landscapes. The English-language reviews are simpler and warmer: Mark Herse on 35mmc calls the lens the S2A’s best feature, sharp and fast enough for indoor work, and Ed Worthington on Emulsive finds it beautifully sharp in a range he sums up as brilliant.

When buying, the lens is the commonest Nikkor of the system and comes with most bodies; check the aperture ring, the deep front for haze, and whether the bayonet lugs of the rear cap are intact, since Bronica’s thin cap lugs crack. The engraving tells the version at a glance, and the P·C is the one to look for if multicoating matters.

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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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor-P 75mm f/2.8 (Bronica)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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

Related: Nikkor-H 5cm/50mm f/3.5 (Bronica) · Nikkor-H·C 75mm f/2.8 'DX' (Bronica) · Nikkor-O 50mm f/2.8 (Bronica) · Nikkor-Q 105mm f/3.5 LS (leaf shutter, Bronica) · Nikkor-Q 13.5cm/135mm f/3.5 (Bronica) · Zenzanon MC 75mm f/2.8 · Zenzanon MC 80mm f/2.4 · Zenzanon MC 80mm f/2.8 by Carl Zeiss Jena (Biometar)

Sources (7)

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.