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

Zenzanon-PS 150mm f/4 (SQ)

Zenza Bronica · Bronica SQ · 1996

Also known as: Zenzanon-PS 150mm f/4 · Zenzanon PS 150mm F4 · Bronica SQ 150mm f/4 · Bronica Zenzanon-PS 150mm F4 · Zenza Bronica Zenzanon-PS 150mm f4 · Bronica SQ-A 150mm f4 · Bronica SQ-Ai 150mm F4.0 · ZENZANON-PS 1:4 f=150mm · ゼンザノン PS 150mm F4 · ゼンザブロニカ ゼンザノンPS 150mm F4 · ブロニカ SQ 150mm F4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Zenzanon-PS 150mm f/4 Bronica SQ 1996–2003 — —
  1. Six elements in four groups: Tamron USA's 2004 page and Japanese Wikipedia (4群6枚, citing プロフェッショナル中判カメラ p.113), matched by camera-wiki. Closest focus 1.5 m, f/4–32, 67 mm filter, 74 × 83 mm and 750 g: Tamron Japan (2001), Tamron USA (2004) and camera-wiki agree. Tamron USA adds a 29.5° angle of view and calls it an 85 mm equivalent on 35 mm. No source read gives the blade count.
  2. Years. The lens is listed from 1996, the date of Tamron USA's SQ-Ai price list of 15 April 1996, the earliest document read that names it; the PS line is older, but no source gives the year it or this lens appeared. One SQ-A user review dates the PS lenses to 1986–89 without a source. Production ended with the SQ-Ai in September 2003 (camera-wiki).
  3. Prices: $2,093 on Tamron USA's list of 15 April 1996, the same as the PS 50 and the PS 110 macro; $2,372 on Tamron USA's 2004 page. No yen price was found.
  4. Shutter and aperture ring are system values from Tamron Japan's SQ-Basic specification (Seiko #0 electronically controlled, 8 s–1/500, mechanical about 1/500, half-stop clicks) and camera-wiki (T on every lens; 16 s and bulb on the SQ-Ai).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • An SQ lens, with the four-claw SQ bayonet and its own Seiko #0 leaf shutter (Tamron Japan); the Zenzanon-PG 150mm f/4 for the 6×7 GS-1 and the Zenzanon MC/E/PE 150mm lenses for the 6×4.5 ETR bodies are different lenses on mounts that do not interchange
  • Against the Zenzanon-S 150mm f/3.5: PS on the ring, f/4 not f/3.5, 13 mm longer and 160 g heavier; the same 1.5 m close focus and 67 mm thread

Zenzanon-PS 150mm f/4:

  • Engraved ZENZANON-PS with f/4 on the ring; 74 mm long, 83 mm across, 750 g, 67 mm thread (Tamron Japan; Tamron USA) — the Zenzanon-S 150mm f/3.5 it replaced is 61 mm and 590 g
  • Product code BQ1267 on Tamron USA's 1996 list; hood BQ1403 shared with the PS 110 macro (1996), later 'lens hood S for PS 150/PE 105' (2004); hard case BQ1431 'for PS 50–150mm'

Specifications

Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/4–f/32
Shutter
Seiko #0 electronic leaf in the lens, 8 s–1/500 and T (16 s and B with the SQ-Ai body), mechanical 1/500 without power; f/4–32 with half-stop detents
Min. focus
1.5 m
Dimensions
83 × 74 mm
Weight
750 g
Filter
67 mm
Years manufactured
1996–2003
Country
Japan
Original price
$2,093 (Tamron USA SQ-Ai list, 15 April 1996); $2,372 (Tamron USA list, 2004) (today $4,180)

What reviewers say

History

The Zenzanon-PS 150mm f/4 was the portrait telephoto of Bronica’s second SQ lens line and, with the 50 and the 80, one of the three lenses most SQ kits were built around. Six elements in four groups, it focuses to 1.5 m, stops down to f/32 in half-stop clicks, and is 74 mm long and 750 g on the 67 mm thread that the 80 and most of the range share. Tamron USA, Bronica’s American seller, called it “the standard telephoto lens for many photographers”, put its angle of view at 29.5° and its 35 mm equivalent at 85 mm, and listed it at $2,093 in April 1996 and $2,372 in 2004.

It replaced the Zenzanon-S 150mm f/3.5 of the 1980 line with a different lens: a third of a stop slower, a six-in-four formula in place of five air-spaced elements, 13 mm longer and 160 g heavier, at the same closest focus. When the change happened is not fixed by any source read here. The earliest document naming the PS 150 is Tamron USA’s price list of April 1996, by which time the S 150 was gone; an SQ-A owner writing in 2013 put the PS lenses at 1986–89 without a source, and in fact they were sold until SQ production ended in September 2003, Tamron USA’s page staying up into 2004. Every SQ lens carries its own Seiko #0 electronic leaf shutter, 8 seconds to 1/500 with a mechanical 1/500 without power and a T setting, and the four-claw bayonet fits every SQ body, the manual-only SQ-B included.

What is written about it comes from users rather than testers. Cameron Breze, who bought an SQ-A with the 50, 80 and 150, found the 150 his favourite for portraits and reached for an S-18 extension tube to get closer than 1.5 m; Ted Harmon shot a set of Idaho landscapes on it and on HP5 Plus found it resolving the pores of a canyon wall; Adrian Vila counts it among the lenses everyone has and praises the shared 67 mm thread and the lens’s T mode, which held his shutter open for a three-hour exposure without draining the body’s batteries. The trade view that the PS lenses are better coated than the S is repeated by all of them and tested by none. Bronica’s hood for it in 1996 was the screw-in BQ1403, shared with the 110 macro, and its hard case BQ1431 covered the PS 50 to 150.

Expand Collapse

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-PS 150mm f/4 (SQ)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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

Related: Zenzanon-PG 150mm f/4 · Zenzanon-PS 135mm f/4 (SQ) · Zenzanon-PS 180mm f/4.5 (SQ) · Zenzanon-PS 200mm f/4.5 (SQ) · Zenzanon-S 150mm f/3.5 (SQ)

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.