Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 HFT / W-Apogon (Rolleiflex 4.0FW)
Schneider-Kreuznach · Rolleiflex TLR · 2002
Also known as: Rolleiflex 4.0FW Super-Angulon · Rolleiflex 4.0 FW Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 · Rolleiflex 4,0 FW Super Angulon 50mm F4 HFT · Rolleiflex 4.0FW W-Apogon · Rollei 4.0FW 50mm f4 HFT · Rolleiflex FW Wide Super-Angulon · ローライフレックス 4.0FW スーパーアンギュロン · ローライフレックス 4.0FW スーパーアンギュロン 50mm F4 · ローライフレックス 4.0FW W-アポゴン
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super-Angulon 50/4 HFT on the Rolleiflex 4.0FW (2002–2014), later engraved W-Apogon | Rolleiflex TLR | 2002–2014 | — | — |
- Name: Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 HFT (ja.wikipedia, en.wikipedia's Wide section) and W-Apogon 50mm f/4 (B&H, for a late DHW-era set); en.wikipedia's list text drops the 'Super'. The lens is treated as one family under both names, with no evidence of an optical change.
- Formula: no source read for this page gives the element or group count, minimum focus, blade count or weight of the lens, so those fields are empty. A dealer's claim of strong colour correction and minimal field curvature (via search) is marketing copy.
- Years: 2002 for the 4.0FW from English Wikipedia's model table, against 2003 on Japanese Wikipedia; the family end of 2014 follows the end of DHW production as the body page gives it. The body weighs about 1,400 g (ja.wikipedia), a camera figure, not a lens one.
- Filter: Bay IV, which Japanese Wikipedia assigns to the 4.0FW and the 1961 Wide-Angle Rolleiflex. Shutter: the 4.0FW's shutter maker and speeds are not confirmed by a source read for this page; its sister 4.0FT of 2011 has a Copal, 1s–1/500 and B (DC Watch), so the `shutter` field is left empty rather than inferred.
How to tell them apart
- A fixed taking lens on the Rolleiflex 4.0FW only: Super-Angulon 4/50 HFT or W-Apogon 4/50 HFT on the front ring, Bay IV bayonet, multicoated (coloured reflections), under a Heidosmat 50 viewing lens, on a body with the 2.8GX/FX's built-in meter and LED display
- Not the Carl Zeiss Distagon 55mm f/4 of the 1961–67 Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, single-coated with a Synchro-Compur, nor the removable Super-Angulon 50mm f/2.8 and 40mm f/3.5 for the Rollei 6000 SLRs, nor Schneider's large-format Super-Angulons
Super-Angulon 50/4 HFT on the Rolleiflex 4.0FW (2002–2014), later engraved W-Apogon:
- Front ring reads Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 4/50 HFT (or, on late cameras, W-Apogon 4/50 HFT) inside a Bay IV bayonet, on a 4.0FW body — the 2.8GX/FX body with a wider front standard and a matching Heidosmat 50 viewing lens
- Super-Angulon 50/4 HFT on the Rolleiflex 4.0FW (2002–2014), later engraved W-Apogon: The only lens of the 4.0FW, the wide-angle twin-lens reflex Rollei (Franke & Heidecke GmbH, then DHW Fototechnik) built on the 2.8GX/FX body. Japanese Wikipedia gives the lens as Schneider-Kreuznach スーパアンギュロン50mm F4 and dates the camera 2003; English Wikipedia's Wide section calls it a Super-Angulon while its list text says 'Schneider Angulon'; B&H's listing of a late set calls it the W-Apogon 50mm f/4, the house name Rollei used once the Schneider name came off the ring. Nothing read suggests the glass changed with the name.
Specifications
- Formula
- Super-Angulon retrofocus wide-angle; the element and group count is not given by any source read for this page
- Aperture range
- f/4
- Filter
- Bay IV
- Years manufactured
- 2002–2014
- Country
- Germany
- Coating
- Rollei 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 Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 HFT is the taking lens of the Rolleiflex 4.0FW, the wide-angle twin-lens reflex that Rollei built from 2002 on the body of the 2.8GX and 2.8FX, and the modern successor to the Zeiss Distagon 55mm f/4 of the Wide-Angle Rolleiflex of 1961–67. Schneider-Kreuznach made it, with Rollei’s HFT multicoating, a matching Heidosmat 50 viewing lens above it, and a Bay IV bayonet, the same size the old Wide used; the body carries the GX/FX’s built-in centre-weighted meter with LED display. Japanese Wikipedia dates the camera 2003 and gives its weight as about 1,400 g; English Wikipedia’s table says 2002. On 6×6 the 50mm lens is a little wider than the Distagon 55 was, nearer a 26–27mm lens on 35mm film.
The lens has two names. Early cameras are engraved Super-Angulon 4/50 HFT with the Schneider name; late ones, from the DHW Fototechnik years that followed Franke & Heidecke’s 2009 insolvency, read W-Apogon 4/50 HFT, the house name that B&H’s listing of a late three-camera set uses, and that parallels the S-Apogon of the 2.8FX-N and the Tele-Apogon of the 4.0FT. Nothing read for this page says the optics changed with the name; English Wikipedia muddles things further by calling it a “Schneider Angulon” in its list and a Super-Angulon in its text. Its element and group count, minimum focus and shutter maker were not found in any source read here and are left open, the 4.0FT’s Copal of 2011 being the nearest documented shutter.
No review of the lens on film was found within the search done for this page, and the 4.0FW was always a low-volume, high-priced camera, so first-hand accounts are thin; a forum owner surfaced by search had no complaint about the Super-Angulon and complained only that the body’s leatherette scuffs. It was sold, like every Rolleiflex taking lens, only as part of the camera, so the price is the camera’s. The Distagon page covers the 1961 lens it replaced, and the Rollei 6000 pages the removable Super-Angulons Schneider made for the single-lens reflexes, which share the name and nothing else.
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 Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 HFT / W-Apogon (Rolleiflex 4.0FW)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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