Distagon 40mm f/4 (SL66, 1968 design)
Carl Zeiss · Rollei SL66 · 1968
Also known as: Distagon 40mm f/4 · Distagon 40mm F4 · Distagon HFT 4/40 · Carl Zeiss Distagon 40mm SL66 · Rolleiflex SL66 Distagon 40mm · Rollei SL66 40mm Distagon · Zeiss Distagon 40/4 Rollei SL66 · ディスタゴン 40mm F4 SL66 · ディスタゴン 40mm ローライ SL66 · ローライ SL66 ディスタゴン 40mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distagon 4/40, chrome aperture ring, pre-HFT (1968–c.1972) | Rollei SL66 | 1968 | — | — |
| Distagon HFT 4/40 (c.1972–1986) | Rollei SL66 | 1972–1986 | — | — |
- Dates: rolleigraphy.eu, 08/1968–1986, from Prochnow's Rollei Report 2; the successor with floating elements followed in April 1986.
- Elements and groups: 9 groups/10 elements in rolleigraphy.eu, Wikipedia's SL66 table (May 1983 Rollei lens sheet) and Japanese Wikipedia (9群10枚). The same 10/9 is published for the Hasselblad C Distagon 40mm f/4 of 1967.
- Weight, dimensions, f/32 and the 0.5 m closest focus are Wikipedia's, from the 1983 lens sheet; 1,218 g against 1,450 g for the same optic in the shuttered SLX/6000 mount, the difference being shutter and helicoid.
- The split into pre-HFT and HFT variants follows camera-wiki's two rows; no source dates the change for this focal length. Rollei built HFT lenses under licence from Zeiss from 1974, marked 'Made by Rollei' (rolleigraphy.eu), but names only the 50, 80, 150 and 250 as Rollei-built.
How to tell them apart
- Engraved Distagon 4/40; Bay VIII front; an SL66 bayonet at the rear with no helicoid and no shutter, which separates it from the Hasselblad C 40 (Synchro-Compur, Bay 104) and the shuttered Rollei 6000 version
- 88° diagonal, 69° horizontal (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Ten elements in nine groups; the 1986 successor has eleven in ten and a floating-element ring (rolleigraphy.eu)
Distagon 4/40, chrome aperture ring, pre-HFT (1968–c.1972):
- Chrome aperture ring, as on every SL66 lens before 1982 (rolleigraphy.eu)
- No HFT engraving; single- or double-coated glass (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Bay VIII front for filters and hood, 125 mm across and 104 mm long, 1,218 g (Wikipedia's table, from the May 1983 Rollei lens sheet)
Distagon HFT 4/40 (c.1972–1986):
- HFT on the front ring; chrome aperture ring until about 1982, black after (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Copies converted by Rollei service, or sold after 1982, carry the open-aperture-metering coupling of the SL66E mount (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Distagon 4/40, chrome aperture ring, pre-HFT (1968–c.1972): From August 1968 (rolleigraphy.eu). The changeover to HFT is not dated for this lens by any source read; rolleigraphy.eu says only that HFT coating began in 1972.
- Distagon HFT 4/40 (c.1972–1986): The first year is rolleigraphy.eu's date for HFT coating in general, not a date for this lens. Replaced in April 1986 by the floating-element Distagon 4/40 of a new 11-element formula, which has its own page.
Specifications
- Formula
- Distagon (retrofocus) — 10 elements in 9 groups, the same count as the Hasselblad C/CF Distagon 40 of 1967
- Construction
- 10 elements / 9 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4–f/32
- Min. focus
- 0.5 m
- Dimensions
- 125 × 104 mm
- Weight
- 1218 g
- Filter
- Bayonet VIII (rolleigraphy.eu; Wikipedia)
- Years manufactured
- 1968–1986
- Country
- West Germany
- Coating
- Single- or double-coated at first; HFT multicoating after 1972, when Zeiss introduced it (rolleigraphy.eu). camera-wiki lists a '40mm Distagon' and a '40mm Distagon HFT' as separate rows
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 40mm f/4 was the widest rectilinear lens of the Rolleiflex SL66 system from August 1968 until 1986: 88° across the diagonal in ten elements and nine groups, the construction Zeiss had published for the Hasselblad C Distagon 40 the year before (rolleigraphy.eu; Wikipedia). On the SL66 the design lost its shutter and its focusing mount, since the body’s bellows and focal-plane shutter do both jobs, and what remains is a short, fat barrel 125 mm across and 104 mm long, 1,218 g with a Bay VIII front for filters and hood, closing to f/32 and focusing, on the bellows, to 0.5 m (Wikipedia’s table from the 1983 Rollei lens sheet). The same optic in the shuttered SLX mount weighs 1,450 g.
Two forms exist. The early lens has a chrome aperture ring and Zeiss’s single or double coating; from 1972 Zeiss’s HFT multicoating became available, and camera-wiki lists the HFT 40 as a separate row, though no source read dates the change for this focal length (rolleigraphy.eu). Chrome rings gave way to black around 1982, and lenses sold or converted after October 1982 carry the coupling of the SL66E’s open-aperture-metering mount. Rollei built HFT lenses under licence from Zeiss from 1974, marked “Made by Rollei”, but rolleigraphy.eu names only the 50, 80, 150 and 250 as taken over, so the 40 may have stayed a Zeiss Oberkochen product. In April 1986 it was replaced by a Distagon 4/40 with floating elements and a new eleven-element formula, a different lens with its own page.
No review of the SL66 lens has been found; what is written about the design concerns the Hasselblad version.
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 (SL66, 1968 design)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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