Nikkor-Q 400mm f/4.5 (lens head + Bronica focusing unit)
Nippon Kogaku · Bronica S · 1964
Also known as: Nikkor-Q 400mm f/4.5 Bronica · Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm F4.5 Bronica focusing unit · Nikon Nikkor-Q 400mm f4.5 for Bronica S2 · Tele-Nikkor 400mm f4.5 Bronica · Bronica Nikkor 400mm F4.5 · Bronica 400mm f4.5 Nikkor-Q lens head · Bronica focusing unit Nikkor 400mm · ゼンザブロニカ ニッコール Q 400mm F4.5 · ブロニカ ニッコール 400mm F4.5 · Bニッコール 400mm F4.5 · ブロニカ フォーカシングユニット 400mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm f/4.5 head on the Bronica focusing unit | Bronica S | 1964 | — | — |
- Construction, 11° angle of view, f/22, 5 m, 122 mm and 3.3 kg are from the Bronica specification list reproduced on Monaghan's page ('400 mm Tele-Nikkor with focusing mount'); Seiden repeats 4 elements in 4 groups, 122 mm and the built-in hood, and Japanese Wikipedia gives 4群4枚 and φ122. Nikon's history adds the Ernostar layout. The English table gives 4.9 m and 3,300 g. Whether the 3.3 kg includes the focusing unit is not stated.
- Date: Nikon released the 400, 600, 800 and 1200 mm heads with their focusing unit in 1964, for the Tokyo Olympics; shiura.com dates the Nikon F version the same way. Monaghan's history lists the '400mm autonikkor' among the Nikkors Bronica added in 1961–65, a bracket the 1964 date falls inside. No end date is published; Nikon's history has the 600–1200 heads going to ED glass in 1975 and the 400 succeeded by the 400mm f/3.5 ED IF of 1976–77.
- Diaphragm: Japanese Wikipedia, 'the aperture is the focusing unit's automatic diaphragm'; the EC-TL data sheet gives fully automatic diaphragm on every lens but the 800 and 1200. On the EC-TL and EC-TL II the instant stop-down metering gives aperture-priority automation with it (shiura.com).
How to tell them apart
- Two pieces: a head that screws into the front of the focusing unit, and the unit that carries the helicoid, the diaphragm and the large bayonet. The same head on Nikon's own unit is a Nikon F lens; the Bronica product is the head with the Bronica unit (Nikon; Seiden)
- Nikkor-Q Auto 1:4.5 f=400mm on the name ring; the Q counts four elements. Big for its focal length, with a pull-out hood and a 122 mm front (shiura.com)
- Not the Nikkor ED heads of 1975, which Bronica never sold although they fit the older focusing unit (Seiden), and not the Komura 400mm f/6.3 for the Unihelicoid
Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm f/4.5 head on the Bronica focusing unit:
- A bare lens head with no focusing ring: the helicoid and the automatic diaphragm are in the Bronica focusing unit, which mounts on the new large bayonet after the body's own helicoid is removed (Japanese Wikipedia; Seiden; camera-wiki)
- The head is the Nikon F Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm f/4.5 itself, identical to the one sold with Nikon's focusing unit (shiura.com; Japanese Wikipedia)
- Built-in extending hood: the front element sits about 5 cm back and the hood pulls out about 10 cm; 122 mm filter thread (shiura.com; Seiden)
- The focusing unit's aperture scale runs f/4.5–22, matched to this head (shiura.com)
- Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm f/4.5 head on the Bronica focusing unit: The lightest and the only one of the four heads with the full automatic diaphragm on every body. Two Bronica focusing units exist: the first fits the D and S and was later supplied with an adapter for the C and later, the second fits only the C and later; either takes any of the four heads once its distance scale is swapped to match (Seiden). Bronica sold a rifle-style 'Tele grip' for the 400 and 600 (accessory list on Monaghan's page).
Specifications
- Formula
- Ernostar-type telephoto, 4 elements in 4 groups, convex–convex–concave–convex, with the diaphragm behind the glass on the image side (Nikon; Seiden; Japanese Wikipedia)
- Designed by
- Shimizu Yoshiyuki — optical design of the 400, 600, 800 and 1200 mm heads (Nikon, The Thousand and One Nights No. 50)
- Construction
- 4 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4.5–f/22
- Min. focus
- 5 m
- Weight
- 3300 g
- Filter
- 122 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1964
- Country
- Japan
What reviewers say
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History
Nippon Kogaku’s long telephotos of the 1960s were not lenses but lens heads: an optical block with a tripod foot and a rear thread, which screwed into a separate focusing unit holding the helicoid and the automatic diaphragm. Nikon released four of them in 1964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics, all to designs by Yoshiyuki Shimizu: the 400mm f/4.5, 600mm f/5.6, 800mm f/8 and 1200mm f/11. Because everything that moves lives in the unit, the same heads could be used on any camera for which a unit was made, and Bronica made one. It mounts on the new large bayonet of the C and later bodies once the standard helicoid is removed, and the head in front of it is the Nikon F lens itself, the Nikkor-Q Auto 400mm f/4.5 with its name ring unchanged. Japanese Wikipedia, shiura.com and Nikon’s own history all describe the arrangement the same way; Bronica’s specification list calls it the “400 mm Tele-Nikkor with focusing mount”.
The 400 is the lightest of the four and the one that works most simply. Four elements in four groups in an Ernostar arrangement, convex–convex–concave–convex, with the diaphragm behind the glass; f/4.5 to f/22, 11°, 5 m minimum focus, a 122 mm filter thread and a built-in hood that pulls out about 10 cm over a front element recessed by about 5 cm. Bronica’s list gives 3.3 kg without saying whether the unit is included. The unit’s aperture scale runs f/4.5–22 to match this head, and the diaphragm is fully automatic; on the EC-TL and EC-TL II the instant stop-down metering makes aperture-priority automation possible with it. Two Bronica focusing units were made, the first for the D and S cameras, later supplied with an adapter for the C and later, and a second that fits only the C and later; either takes any of the four heads, provided the distance scale is changed to match the head in use. Bronica also sold a rifle-style grip for the 400 and 600.
shiura.com’s handling note is that the lens is very large and heavy for a 400 mm, and that its speed is the point: only a third of a stop slower than the 200 at twice the focal length. Nikon never gave this head ED glass; the 600, 800 and 1200 went to ED in 1975 and the 400 was replaced in 1976–77 by the much shorter 400mm f/3.5 ED IF, a lens with a Nikon F mount that does not fit the Bronica unit. Monaghan’s history lists the Bronica 400 among the Nikkors added between 1961 and 1965, which agrees with Nikon’s 1964; no end date or price has been found, and no review of the head on a Bronica exists. A buyer needs both halves. A head alone is a Nikon F lens without a Nikon unit; a Bronica unit alone is a helicoid without glass; and a unit scaled for another head will focus this one but read the wrong distances.
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-Q 400mm f/4.5 (lens head + Bronica focusing unit)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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