Distagon 40mm f/4 (Rollei 6000, 1976 design)
Carl Zeiss · Rollei 6000 · 1976
Also known as: Rollei Distagon 40mm f/4 HFT · Rollei 40mm f4 Distagon HFT SLX · Carl Zeiss Distagon 40mm f/4 HFT Rolleiflex 6000 · Distagon HFT 4/40 Rollei SLX 6006 · Rolleiflex SLX Distagon 40mm · Rollei 40mm F4 Distagon 6000 · Zeiss Distagon 1:4 f=40mm Rollei · ローライ ディスタゴン 40mm F4 HFT · ローライフレックス SLX ディスタゴン 40mm · ディスタゴン 40mm F4 ローライ 6000
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distagon 4/40 HFT, SLX generation (cat. no. 201-301 in the 1984 US sheet) | Rollei 6000 | 1976 | — | — |
- Elements and groups (10/9), 88° field, 0.50 m closest focus, 102 mm diameter, 126 mm length, 1,450 g and the bayonet VIII mount are from Berkey Marketing's 'Lenses for 6006/SLX' sheet of 1984 (cat. no. 201-301), and agree with the Wikipedia lens list and Rolleigraphy. Japanese Wikipedia gives 9 groups, 10 elements, close-range correction, 0.5 m and a series VIII attachment.
- Year. The SLX was introduced in 1976 (Rolleigraphy, English Wikipedia); Japanese Wikipedia dates its release to 1974, the year it was shown. The 40 is taken as a launch lens because the 1984 sheet lists it among the original Zeiss-designed range and Rolleigraphy puts it in the first generation; no document consulted dates the lens itself.
- Which PQ 40 exists. Rolleigraphy lists the ten-element lens as 'O' only and gives 'O, PQ' to the eleven-element floating-element lens that replaced it, adding that the later 'FLE' engraving was a change of name only. The January 1993 Rolleiflex 6008 brochure's PQ 40 is the floating-element lens. No document consulted shows a ten-element lens marked PQ; a PQ example with this optic would need the elements counted to be sure.
- Where it was made. Berkey's 1984 sheet says the 40, 120 and 350 mm lenses were 'of original Carl Zeiss construction' and assembled at Rollei's Braunschweig plant with their electronics, the rest being made by Rollei under Zeiss licence. Rolleigraphy adds that Rollei-built Zeiss designs carry the lens name but not the Carl Zeiss name.
How to tell them apart
- Rollei bayonet in a heavy barrel with ten gold contacts and no generation mark beside the aperture scale; bayonet VIII (104 mm) filters at the front — the FLE lens that replaced it takes M95 or 93 mm drop-in filters and weighs 400 g less
- Two rings, aperture and focus; no floating-element ring
- Not the Hasselblad Distagon C 4/40 of the same optic, which has a Synchro-Compur shutter and bayonet 104 filters but no electrical contacts, and not the SL66 Distagon 40, which has no shutter
Distagon 4/40 HFT, SLX generation (cat. no. 201-301 in the 1984 US sheet):
- No PQ, EL or PQS marking beside the aperture figures: the original SLX-generation lenses carry no generation mark at all (Rolleigraphy); red HFT on the front ring
- Bayonet VIII (104 mm) filter mount at the front, the largest of the Rollei bayonets; 102 mm across, 126 mm long and 1,450 g (Berkey sheet of 1984)
- Engraved Distagon HFT 1:4 f=40mm without the Carl Zeiss name when assembled by Rollei; the 1984 sheet says the 40 mm was 'of original Carl Zeiss construction' assembled at Braunschweig together with its electronics
- Distagon 4/40 HFT, SLX generation (cat. no. 201-301 in the 1984 US sheet): The first 40 for the SLX bayonet, listed in Berkey's 1984 'Lenses for 6006/SLX' sheet with ten elements in nine groups, 88° field, closest focus 0.50 m, 126 mm length, 1,450 g and a bayonet VIII filter mount. Rolleigraphy lists this ten-element lens in the 'O' (original) generation only; the lens that followed it in the same name, with floating elements and eleven elements, is catalogued separately. Supports shutter-priority and manual exposure; on the 6008 and later bodies it limits the camera to those modes.
Specifications
- Formula
- Distagon (retrofocus), 10 elements in 9 groups — the 1968 SL66 and 1967 Hasselblad computation
- Construction
- 10 elements / 9 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4–f/32
- Shutter
- Electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 30 s–1/500 s, diaphragm and shutter driven by linear motors; shutter-priority and manual exposure only
- Min. focus
- 0.5 m
- Dimensions
- 102 × 126 mm
- Weight
- 1450 g
- Filter
- Rollei bayonet VIII (104 mm); bayonet VIII hood
- Years manufactured
- 1976
- Country
- Germany
- Coating
- HFT multicoating
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 Distagon 4/40 was the widest lens of the original Rolleiflex SLX range, the electronic 6×6 reflex Rollei introduced in 1976, and optically it is the ten-element, nine-group Distagon that Zeiss had computed in the 1960s for the Hasselblad (1967) and the Rolleiflex SL66 (1968). What is new is the barrel: a leaf shutter and diaphragm inside the lens, each driven by a linear motor under the camera’s control through ten gold-plated contacts, with flash synchronisation at every speed from 30 s to 1/500 s. Berkey’s US lens sheet of 1984 gives f/4–32, an 88° field, closest focus 0.5 m, 102 mm across, 126 mm long and 1,450 g — the heaviest lens in the range short of the 350 — with Rollei’s bayonet VIII filter mount of 104 mm, and notes that the 40, unlike most of the range, was ‘of original Carl Zeiss construction’ and assembled at Rollei’s Braunschweig plant with its electronics rather than built there under licence.
Rolleigraphy places this lens in the ‘O’ generation alone: the original SLX lenses carry no PQ, EL or PQS mark beside the aperture figures and support only shutter-priority and manual exposure. On the 6008 professional of 1988 and its successors an O lens still works but holds the camera to those two modes, and Greenspun, who used 6006-era lenses on a 6008, found the metering modes and finder displays incomplete and the loud click of the lens stopping down before each exposure enough to make portrait subjects blink. The Hy6 does not take it at all. Its successor in the same name kept the f/4 and 40 mm but was a new eleven-element computation with floating elements, 400 g lighter and with a 95 mm filter thread; Rolleigraphy lists that lens as both O and PQ before the FLE engraving was added, so the ten-element lens was probably gone before the PQ line arrived in 1988. No ten-element lens marked PQ appears in any document consulted.
The Rollei version has drawn no published review; the optic itself is the one on the Hasselblad Distagon C 40, catalogued separately. Left open: the year the ten-element lens gave way to the floating-element design, production figures, serial data and a list price.
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 Distagon 40mm f/4 (Rollei 6000, 1976 design)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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