Canon 400mm f/4.5
Canon · LTM · 1956 · Telephoto, 5e/4g
Also known as: Canon 400mm f/4.5 · Canon 400mm f4.5 · Canon 400/4.5
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 400mm f/4.5 (I), Mirror Box | Mirror Box (external two-prong bayonet) | 1956 | — | No figure published |
| Canon 400mm f/4.5 (II) | Mirror Box 2 via bellows, or Canonflex | 1960 | — | No figure published |
- The Mirror Box (1957) screws into the body's 39 mm thread and holds a mirror that flips up on a double cable release; its lenses focus by their own helicoid or by a bellows. The Mirror Box 2 (1958 per lens-db and the museum's M-lens dates; 1961 per Leica Copies Japan) clips onto the Canon 7's outer bayonet and takes its own three-lug lenses — the M135 and M200 — and the 400 to 1000 mm heads through an intermediate tube and Bellows R. The two boxes' lens mounts do not interchange (Leica Copies Japan).
- Dates disagree: the museum has September 1956 for the first version; Leica Copies Japan and camera-wiki place the 400 and 600 on sale in August 1958. The museum's is used above.
How to tell them apart
Canon 400mm f/4.5 (I), Mirror Box:
- Marketed September 1956, ¥139,000 · 4000 g · 36.5 mm filter · stops to f/22
- 4,000 g; 36.5 mm filter (rear); focuses to 8 m; ¥139,000
Canon 400mm f/4.5 (II):
- Marketed January 1960, ¥130,000 · 1700 g · 48 mm filter · stops to f/22
- 1,700 g head; 48 mm filter; focuses to 3.1 m on the bellows
Specifications
- Formula
- Telephoto, 5e/4g
- Construction
- 5 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4.5–f/22
- Min. focus
- 8 m
- Weight
- 4000 g
- Filter
- 36.5 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1956
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- ¥139,000 (September 1956, Canon Camera Museum) (today ¥893,000)
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
A five-element 400mm marketed in September 1956 at ¥139,000 — camera-wiki and Leica Copies Japan have it reaching the market in 1958 with the 600 — four kilograms on the Mirror Box’s external bayonet; then a 1,700-gram head of January 1960 for the Mirror Box 2’s bellows and the new Canonflex. The 1960 batch (400, 600, 800, 1000) is the same set of heads sold to both systems.
These are the lenses of the sports pages of 1958–60, and they are bought now by the few who own a working Mirror Box.
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 Canon 400mm f/4.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Listings updated 2026-09-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.