Zenzanon 40mm f/4 (SQ)
Zenza Bronica · Bronica SQ · 1980
Also known as: Zenzanon-S 40mm f/4 · Zenzanon-PS 40mm f/4 · Zenzanon PS 40mm F4 · Zenzanon S 40mm F4 · Bronica SQ 40mm f/4 · Zenza Bronica Zenzanon-PS 40mm 4 · Bronica Zenzanon 40/4 SQ · ZENZANON-PS 1:4 f=40mm · ゼンザノン PS 40mm F4 · ゼンザノン S 40mm F4 · ゼンザブロニカ SQ 40mm F4 · ブロニカ SQ 40mm F4
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenzanon-S 40mm f/4 (1980–) | Bronica SQ | 1980 | — | — |
| Zenzanon-PS 40mm f/4 (–2003) | Bronica SQ | 1996–2003 | — | — |
- Eleven elements in eight groups for both the S and the PS: Japanese Wikipedia gives 8群11枚 for each, and camera-wiki's table agrees. The two are variants of one design; what changed is the barrel, 83 mm long on the S (camera-wiki) and 67.5 mm on the PS (Tamron Japan).
- Weight, filter and close focus: S 660 g (camera-wiki), PS 650 g, 95 mm, 0.4 m, 98 mm across (Tamron Japan's SQ-Ai table; camera-wiki agrees on 650 g and 67.5 mm). The 87° angle of view is Tamron's figure for the PS. The family dimensions above are the PS lens's; the S lens's maximum diameter is not recorded.
- Dates. 1980 is the SQ launch (camera-wiki: it replaced the EC from August 1980), and the S 40 is in the 1982 Camera Nenkan list. The PS 40's first year, 1996, is the April 1996 US price list, the earliest dated document naming it; when the PS replaced the S is not established. Production of the SQ-Ai and its lenses ended at the end of September 2003 (Tamron notice via camera-wiki).
- Prices are Tamron US list prices for the PS: $2,399 in April 1996 and $2,718 in 2004, above the 50 and the 65 in both lists. No price for the S version and no yen price have been found.
How to tell them apart
- Bronica SQ four-claw bayonet with the Seiko #0 leaf shutter inside the lens and no shutter-speed ring; aperture and focus rings and a T setting only
- The 95 mm filter thread marks it among the SQ primes: the 50 takes 67 or 77 mm and everything from 65 to 250 mm takes 67 mm; only the 500 mm S and the 50-100 zoom share 95 mm (camera-wiki table)
- ZENZANON-S against ZENZANON-PS on the front ring, and 83 mm against 67.5 mm in length, separate the two versions
- Not the Zenzanon MC 40mm f/4 for the focal-plane Bronica S2/EC or the Zenzanon MC/E/PE 40mm f/4 for the ETR, which do not fit an SQ and are marked with their own suffixes; not the Nikkor-D 40mm f/4 of the early Bronicas
Zenzanon-S 40mm f/4 (1980–):
- Engraved ZENZANON-S; the longer barrel of the two, 83 mm against 67.5 mm for the PS, and 660 g (camera-wiki)
Zenzanon-PS 40mm f/4 (–2003):
- Engraved ZENZANON-PS; 67.5 mm long, 98 mm across, 650 g (Tamron Japan SQ-Ai table)
- Zenzanon-S 40mm f/4 (1980–): The first version, in the 1982 Camera Nenkan's SQ lens list. Eleven elements in eight groups, 95 mm filter, 0.4 m closest focus. No list price has been found.
- Zenzanon-PS 40mm f/4 (–2003): The later barrel on the same 11-element, 8-group formula: 15 mm shorter and 10 g lighter, same 95 mm filter and 0.4 m close focus. $2,399 in Tamron's US list of April 1996, $2,718 in 2004. The first year given is the earliest dated listing found, not the launch of the PS version.
Specifications
- Construction
- 11 elements / 8 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4–f/22
- Shutter
- Seiko #0 electronic leaf shutter, timed by the body: 8 s–1/500 + T on the SQ, SQ-A and SQ-Am, 16 s–1/500 + T/B on the SQ-Ai, 8 s–1/500 on the SQ-B; mechanical 1/500 without a battery
- Min. focus
- 0.4 m
- Dimensions
- 98 mm diameter
- Weight
- 650 g
- Filter
- 95 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1980–2003
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- $2,399 (April 1996 US list, PS version); $2,718 (2004 US list) (today $4,800)
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 40mm f/4 is the widest rectilinear lens of the Bronica SQ system, with Tamron’s figure of 87° across the 6×6 frame, and one of the lenses that the SQ had from its launch in 1980: the Zenzanon-S 40mm f/4 is in the 1982 Camera Nenkan’s list for the system. It is an eleven-element, eight-group retrofocus design with a 95 mm filter thread, the largest on any SQ prime short of the 500 mm, focusing to 0.4 m, and like every SQ lens it holds a Seiko #0 leaf shutter that the body times electronically, 8 s to 1/500 on the early bodies and 16 s to 1/500 with T and B on the SQ-Ai, with a mechanical 1/500 without a battery.
The Zenzanon-PS 40mm f/4 that followed keeps the formula — eight groups and eleven elements on both Japanese Wikipedia’s lists and camera-wiki’s table — in a shorter barrel: 67.5 mm against the S lens’s 83 mm, 98 mm across, 650 g against 660 g. The two are one lens in two barrels, and both mount on every SQ body from the SQ to the SQ-B. When the PS replaced the S has not been dated; the PS is the version in Tamron’s US price list of April 1996, at $2,399, and in the 2004 list at $2,718, after SQ production had ended in September 2003. In both lists it was priced above the 50, the 65 and the 80.
No test of either version has been found in English or Japanese; Adrian Vila’s SQ-Ai review names the 40 among the system’s lenses without having used it. Left open: a price for the S version, a yen price, the blade count and the year of the change to PS.
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 40mm f/4 (SQ)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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