Distagon 40mm f/4 FLE (Rollei 6000)

Carl Zeiss · Rollei 6000 · 1993

Also known as: Rollei Distagon 40mm f/4 FLE HFT PQ · Rollei 40mm f4 Zeiss Distagon FLE PQ · Carl Zeiss Distagon 40mm f/4 FLE Rolleiflex 6000 · Distagon 4/40 FLE HFT PQ Rollei · Rollei 40mm F4 Distagon HFT PQ floating · Rolleiflex 6008 Distagon 40mm FLE · Zeiss Distagon 40mm f/4 PQ Rollei 6008 · ローライディスタゴン 40mm F4 FLE PQ · ディスタゴン PQ 40mm F4 ローライ 6000 · ローライフレックス 6008 ディスタゴン 40mm

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Distagon 4/40 HFT with floating elements, O generation (Rolleigraphy only) · Electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 30 s–1/500 s; shutter-priority and manual exposure only	Rollei 6000	—	—	—
Distagon 4/40 HFT PQ with floating elements (item no. 86814)	Rollei 6000	1993	—	—
Distagon 4/40 HFT FLE PQ	Rollei 6000	—	—	—

Elements and groups (11/10) are given by the 1993 Rolleiflex 6008 brochure, Rolleigraphy, the Wikipedia lens list and Japanese Wikipedia (10群11枚). Closest focus 0.5 m, 83 × 90 mm, 1,040 g and the 95 mm filter are from the Wikipedia lens list, which draws on Rollei's own tables; the 2003 Rollei brochure consulted no longer lists the lens. Rolleigraphy gives the filter fitting as an M95 × 1 adaptor on the PQ lens and an adaptor ring for 93 mm push-in filters on the FLE-marked lens; the 1993 brochure gives the field as 88° diagonal and 69° horizontal.
Year. No source dates the Rollei-mount floating-element 40. The SL66 Distagon 40 FLE is dated April 1986 and Rolleigraphy lists the Rollei 6000 lens in the O generation as well as PQ, both of which point to the mid-1980s; the earliest dated document showing it is the January 1993 Rolleiflex 6008 brochure, whose date is used here as a floor.
Price. Greenspun, writing of B&H's July 1995 prices, says the Zeiss 40 cost US$2,000 more in Rollei mount than in Hasselblad mount; he gives no figure for the Rollei lens itself. The retail price is left empty.
Hasselblad relative. Zeiss's Distagon CF 4/40 FLE for Hasselblad (1982) is also an eleven-element, ten-group lens with a floating front group and a 915 g barrel; whether the Rollei lens is the identical computation is not stated by any source consulted.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Three rings: aperture, focus and a separate floating-element ring to be set to the subject distance — the Schneider Super-Angulon 40 has two rings and moves its floating group with focus
M95 filter adaptor or the dedicated hood with 93 mm drop-in filters, in place of the bayonet VIII of the ten-element Distagon 40; about 1,040 g against 1,450 g
Engraved Distagon 4/40 HFT, with or without FLE, and 'PQ lens' beside the aperture figures on the PQ versions; ten gold contacts and no mechanical coupling
Not the Hasselblad Distagon CF 4/40 FLE, which has a Prontor shutter, a bayonet 93 filter mount and no contacts

Distagon 4/40 HFT with floating elements, O generation (Rolleigraphy only):

Three rings — aperture, focus and the floating-element ring — but no 'PQ lens' mark beside the aperture figures (inferred from Rolleigraphy's generation table; no example described)

Distagon 4/40 HFT PQ with floating elements (item no. 86814):

'PQ lens' beside the aperture figures and an 'A' setting on the aperture ring; three rings, the third setting the floating elements to the subject distance
Engraved Distagon 4/40 HFT without 'FLE' — the engraving came later, with no optical change (Rolleigraphy)

Distagon 4/40 HFT FLE PQ:

'FLE' added to the name on the barrel; otherwise as the PQ lens above — 'change of name only' (Rolleigraphy)
Dedicated hood cat. no. 55 097 taking 93 mm drop-in filters (Rollei 2003 brochure)

Distagon 4/40 HFT with floating elements, O generation (Rolleigraphy only): Rolleigraphy lists the eleven-element floating-element Distagon 4/40 as made in both the 'O' and PQ generations, which would place its introduction before the PQ line of 1988 and beside the SL66 Distagon 40 FLE of 1986. No other source mentions an O-generation floating-element 40, no dated document shows one, and the 1984 Berkey sheet still lists the ten-element lens; the existence of this version rests on Rolleigraphy's table alone.
Distagon 4/40 HFT PQ with floating elements (item no. 86814): The lens in the January 1993 Rolleiflex 6008 brochure: '40 mm Zeiss Distagon PQ f/4 HFT', item no. 86814, 'floating elements optimise the correction in the close-up range, too', with eleven elements in ten groups in the brochure's data table. Full exposure modes on the 6008, 6003 and 6001; limited modes on the SLX, 6006 and 6002; manual focus on the Hy6.
Distagon 4/40 HFT FLE PQ: The same lens with 'FLE' in its engraving. Rolleigraphy lists it as PQ only and calls the change one of name alone; the 2003 'Lenses and Dedicated Accessories' brochure, which lists its hood 'for Distagon 40 mm f/4 FLE', no longer carries the lens itself in its tables. No EL, PQS or autofocus version was made; the Wikipedia list gives the FLE lens 83×90 mm and 1,040 g with a 95 mm filter.

Specifications

Formula: Distagon (retrofocus) with manually set floating elements, 11 elements in 10 groups
Construction: 11 elements / 10 groups
Aperture range: f/4–f/32
Shutter: Electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 30 s–1/500 s, diaphragm and shutter driven by two linear motors (PQ)
Min. focus: 0.5 m
Dimensions: 83 × 90 mm
Weight: 1040 g
Filter: 95 mm (0.75 mm pitch), M95 adaptor ring; the dedicated hood (cat. no. 55 097) takes 93 mm drop-in filters
Years manufactured: 1993
Country: Germany
Coating: HFT multicoating

What reviewers say

Volker Muth (35mmc) (blog) — In a long review of the whole 6000 system on his 6008 professional, Muth calls the Distagon 40 FLE the widest non-fisheye lens of the range, about a 26 mm equivalent, and says it 'has no distortion and provides exceptional image quality'; the FLE ring improves close-focus results, and the lens needs its dedicated shade because it has no filter thread of its own.

History

The Distagon 4/40 with floating elements replaced the ten-element Distagon 40 of the SLX range with a new eleven-element, ten-group computation, the same counts as Zeiss’s Distagon CF 4/40 FLE for Hasselblad of 1982 and the SL66 Distagon 40 FLE of 1986. A third ring on the barrel sets the floating group to the subject distance; Rollei’s 1993 brochure says the floating elements ‘optimise the correction in the close-up range, too’, and the lens was aimed at architecture, interiors and broad landscapes. It is a good deal lighter and shorter than its predecessor — the Wikipedia lens list, drawing on Rollei’s tables, gives 83 × 90 mm and 1,040 g against 102 × 126 mm and 1,450 g — and the bayonet VIII filter mount gave way to an M95 adaptor and a dedicated hood that takes 93 mm drop-in filters. Like every lens of the system it carries its own leaf shutter and diaphragm, driven by linear motors under the body’s control through ten gold-plated contacts, with a top speed of 1/500 s; no PQS version with the 1/1000 s shutter was made.

When it arrived is not settled. Rolleigraphy lists the floating-element lens in the ‘O’ generation as well as PQ, which would put it before the 6008 professional of 1988 and alongside the SL66 FLE of 1986, but no dated document shows an O-generation example and the 1984 Berkey sheet still lists the ten-element lens; the January 1993 Rolleiflex 6008 brochure, where it appears as a PQ lens under item number 86814, is the earliest dated listing and supplies the year used here. Later the engraving gained ‘FLE’, which Rolleigraphy calls a change of name only. By the time of Rollei’s ‘Lenses and Dedicated Accessories’ brochure of 2003 the lens had dropped out of the tables, though its hood was still listed. As a PQ lens it gives all four exposure modes on the 6008, 6003 and 6001, limited modes on the SLX, 6006 and 6002, and manual focus on the Hy6.

It was expensive: Greenspun noted that in July 1995 B&H asked US$2,000 more for the Zeiss 40 in Rollei mount than for the Hasselblad lens, and still put the ‘Zeiss 40’ in the kit he would buy if forced to choose a medium-format SLR. Volker Muth, who owns one, finds it free of distortion and of exceptional image quality, with the FLE ring earning its keep at close range, and names Schneider’s Super-Angulon 3,5/40, whose floating group follows the focusing ring, as the lighter alternative. Left open: the launch year, whether the Rollei and Hasselblad FLE computations are identical, production and serial data, and a list price.

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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.

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