Bronica PE 40mm f/4.0

Review Date
January 8, 2010

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
ETRSiPE , Professional

Price Paid
$225.00 at Ebay

Photography Experience
21+ years , Fine Art

Summary
This Lens with the 30mm Fisheye PE & 50mm PE are the only lenses I own for Landscape Photography in Panoramic Format with the Bronica 135mm W Panoramic Backs. Between the 3 Lenses, this one is my favorite due to it's size & perspective or angle of view, My best Photography was created with this Lens mounted on my ETRSi Body. Sharpness, color rendition & the contrast is excellent. I found the contrast overwhelming with a Polarizing Filter attached with any PE Lens. I never photograph wide open (or at F4 in this case), although between F8 & F16
the sharpness is there from the center to the edges of my 35mm frame which is 24mm x 54mm. My advice is to pick up this Lens when it is available you will not be disappointed.

Strengths
Compact
Sharp
Color Rendition Excellent
Contrast Excellent
Reasonable Price (when available)

Weaknesses
Not easily found

Similar Products Used
Nikon Nikkor 24mm Ais Manual Focus Lens

Customer Service
None available since 2004

Review Date
August 21, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
john photo , Professional , from phototown

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
2-5 years , Other

Summary
I thought I would update my previous review since I have recieved several emails of inquiry about this lens.

This lens is a typical retrofocus wide angle lens. It is as sharp as any wide angle from any medium format manufacture to the best of my knowledge. Read the reviews on pentax, mamiya and even contax retrofocus wides and you will see that many of these exhibit soft corners at infinitiy ( though this lens does in fact distort and maybe the contax 35mm doesnt from reading the reviews in this forum )

It is impossible to calibrate a retrofocus design like this to be absolutely sharp edge to edge at ALL DISTANCES. This according to
wildi in his medium format book. The distance to the film plane is to great.
Therefore slight softness at infinity.
Medium format rangefinders are more appropriate for this type lens. Why do you think Hasselblad has the 903swc? no mirror! I hardly think they would go to the trouble of marketing a 38mm biogen when the 40mm is available for the slr unless there in fact were OBVIOUS performance differences.

However, this is a sharp medium format lens for the most part ( not quite as good as some of my other PE's but this is to be expected ).

Looking at a 20 by 24 lightjet on my wall taken with the bronica 40mmPE and its quite nice. Blows away ANYTHING 35mm. Someone wrote asking whether my nikon 24mm f2 wide angle produces sharper prints. Hell no. Its still medium format and serves that purpose well.


Upon further using of this lens I will go ahead with a 4 star. Probably as good as your going to get at this focal length from any MF manufacturer in an SLR designed superwide. Bronica PE glass is very sharp and gives professional results.

Hope this helps.

Review Date
August 10, 2001

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5, 4 votes

Reviewed by
Trevor Wilson , Professional , from Scotland

Photography Experience
2-5 years , People

Summary
An excellent wideangle lens that is useful for specific jobs. Be careful of the distortion though or you'll end up with lots of stretched heads!

Strengths
Very good coverage for wide panoramas and large group shots. Takes the same 62mm filters as the standard 75mm lens

Weaknesses
Hard to focus, although huge depth of field compensates for this. Some distortion is evident around the edges, this is quite severe at wider apertures although not noticeable expet at the very edges.

Similar Products Used
None

Customer Service
Never Used