Distagon 50mm f/4 (SL66)
Carl Zeiss · Rollei SL66 · 1966
Also known as: Distagon 50mm f/4 · Distagon 50mm F4 · Distagon HFT 4/50 · Carl Zeiss Distagon 50mm SL66 · Rollei HFT Distagon 50mm · Rolleiflex SL66 Distagon 50mm · Rollei SL66 50mm Distagon · Zeiss Distagon 50/4 Rollei SL66 · ディスタゴン 50mm F4 SL66 · ディスタゴン 50mm ローライ SL66 · ローライ SL66 ディスタゴン 50mm · ローライ HFT ディスタゴン 50mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distagon 4/50, Zeiss, pre-HFT, chrome ring (1966–c.1972) | Rollei SL66 | 1966–1972 | — | — |
| Distagon HFT 4/50, Zeiss then 'Made by Rollei', chrome ring (c.1972–c.1982) | Rollei SL66 | 1972–1982 | — | — |
| Distagon HFT 4/50, black ring, open-aperture-metering mount (c.1982–) | Rollei SL66 | 1982 | — | — |
- Dates: rolleigraphy.eu, 10/1966 to '>1994' (still listed when its table ends), from Prochnow's Rollei Report 2; the boundaries between variants (1972 HFT, 1974 Rollei manufacture, c.1982 black ring and metering mount) are rolleigraphy.eu's general chronology for the SL66 lenses, not dates published for this lens alone.
- Elements and groups: 7/7 in rolleigraphy.eu, Wikipedia's SL66 table (May 1983 Rollei lens sheet) and Japanese Wikipedia; the same 7/7 is published for the Hasselblad C Distagon 50mm f/4 of 1964.
- Weight, dimensions, f/32 and the 0.5 m closest focus are Wikipedia's, from the 1983 lens sheet. Closest focus on an SL66 lens is set by the body's 50 mm of bellows, and the lens can be reverse-mounted on its Bay VI for closer work.
- Rollei built HFT lenses under licence from Zeiss from 1974, marked 'Made by Rollei', the 50 among them (rolleigraphy.eu); camera-wiki says the Rollei-branded lenses are generally identical to the Zeiss ones with occasional minor build differences.
- No leaf-shutter version of the 50 exists in any source read; the only SL66 leaf-shutter lenses are the Distagon 80mm f/4 and Sonnar 150mm f/4 of 1970.
How to tell them apart
- Engraved Distagon 4/50; Bay VI front; SL66 bayonet at the rear with no helicoid and no shutter, which distinguishes it from the Hasselblad C/CF 50 (Synchro-Compur or Prontor, Bay 60) and from the shuttered Rollei 6000 version
- 75° diagonal, 57° horizontal (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Chrome aperture ring before about 1982, black after; HFT engraving from 1972; 'Made by Rollei' from 1974 (rolleigraphy.eu)
Distagon 4/50, Zeiss, pre-HFT, chrome ring (1966–c.1972):
- Carl Zeiss engraving, no HFT; chrome aperture ring (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Single- or double-coated glass with pale reflections (rolleigraphy.eu on the early Zeiss lenses)
- Bay VI front, 94 mm across, 79 mm long, 555 g (Wikipedia's table, from the May 1983 Rollei lens sheet)
Distagon HFT 4/50, Zeiss then 'Made by Rollei', chrome ring (c.1972–c.1982):
- HFT on the front ring; chrome aperture ring (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Zeiss-made at first; from 1974 Rollei built the 50 under licence, marked 'Made by Rollei' (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Stop-down mount without the open-aperture-metering coupling, unless converted by Rollei service (rolleigraphy.eu)
Distagon HFT 4/50, black ring, open-aperture-metering mount (c.1982–):
- Black aperture ring, which rolleigraphy.eu dates from about 1982
- Coupling for open-aperture metering at the bayonet, as introduced with the SL66E in October 1982; earlier lenses could be upgraded by Rollei service, so a chrome-ring lens with the coupling is a conversion (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Distagon 4/50, Zeiss, pre-HFT, chrome ring (1966–c.1972): From October 1966, one of the launch lenses (rolleigraphy.eu). The end year is the arrival of HFT coating at Zeiss in 1972; rolleigraphy.eu gives no date for the last single-coated 50.
- Distagon HFT 4/50, Zeiss then 'Made by Rollei', chrome ring (c.1972–c.1982): rolleigraphy.eu dates HFT coating from 1972 and Rollei's takeover of the 50, 80, 150 and 250 from 1974; chrome aperture rings persisted until about 1982.
- Distagon HFT 4/50, black ring, open-aperture-metering mount (c.1982–): Still listed when rolleigraphy.eu's table ends in 1994. The three variants share one optical formula; coating, maker, ring colour and mount coupling are what change.
Specifications
- Formula
- Distagon (retrofocus) — 7 elements in 7 groups, the same count as the Hasselblad C Distagon 50 of 1964
- Construction
- 7 elements / 7 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4–f/32
- Min. focus
- 0.5 m
- Dimensions
- 94 × 79 mm
- Weight
- 555 g
- Filter
- Bayonet VI, the common SL66 size, which also serves as the reverse mount (rolleigraphy.eu; Wikipedia)
- Years manufactured
- 1966
- Country
- West Germany
- Coating
- Single- or double-coated 1966–72; HFT multicoating from 1972 at Zeiss, and on the Rollei-built lenses from 1974 (rolleigraphy.eu)
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 50mm f/4 was in the Rolleiflex SL66 range from the launch in October 1966 and stayed in it to the end: a 75° wide angle in seven elements and seven groups, the construction Zeiss had introduced for the Hasselblad C Distagon 50 in 1964, in a barrel for the SL66 that has neither focusing helicoid nor shutter because the body’s bellows and focal-plane shutter supply both. That makes it compact for a medium-format wide angle, 94 mm across and 79 mm long at 555 g, with a Bay VI front that takes the system’s filters and hoods and lets the lens be mounted backwards on the body for close-up work (rolleigraphy.eu; Wikipedia’s table from the May 1983 Rollei lens sheet). It stops down to f/32, and on the bellows focuses to 0.5 m. rolleigraphy.eu’s note on it, from Prochnow, is “compact wide angle, remarkably good correction”.
The optics never changed; the barrel did, three times. The 1966 lens is Zeiss-made with single or double coating and a chrome aperture ring. From 1972 Zeiss applied its HFT multicoating, and from 1974 Rollei built the 50, with the 80, 150 and 250, under licence from Zeiss, engraved “Made by Rollei”; camera-wiki finds the Rollei-built lenses generally identical to Zeiss’s bar minor build differences. Around 1982 the aperture ring turned black, and with the SL66E of October 1982 the mount gained a coupling for open-aperture metering, which Rollei service also fitted to earlier lenses on request. A chrome-ring lens with the coupling is therefore a conversion, and a lens without it still fits every body, metering stopped down on the E and SE. It was still listed when rolleigraphy.eu’s table ends in 1994.
No review of the SL66 lens has been found; the design is reviewed in its Hasselblad form. Dealers’ listings describe haze as a common fault in used copies, which is worth checking on a lens whose front group sits close to the Bay VI ring.
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 50mm f/4 (SL66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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